001foreign let's start tonight with the pledge I pledge to the flag of the United States of America for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all um okay welcome everyone we're going to start our meeting tonight with several recognitions Dr McCall thank you very much uh tonight we have three distinct recognitions and celebrations uh the first one uh is for uh one of our maintenance workers Roberto Campos Roberto if you wouldn't mind stepping up uh Julie Bennett approach the podium uh Roberto is actually being recognized for being publicly recognized first uh uh first day of school uh he was captured uh in a moment um brushing off the uh cute sign that was put out celebrating the first day of school he had just mowed to grass grass clippings
002went up onto the sign and he was taking the time to brush all of the grass off to make sure it looked pristine once again for the kids on the first day of school one of our parents noticed took a picture posted online uh and really just recognized him and so um you know it's good new stuff and it's so typical uh it's killing them right now to to be recognized because uh uh he's very unassuming um but uh Julie would you mind saying a few words about sure when I was asked if I wanted to say a few words about Roberto um but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to recognize such a great person Roberto is um a hundred percent gives 100 every day he loves to give he loves to
003help anybody he can help out so when this Facebook post came out I saw it in the morning and it was like that's our Roberto just didn't surprise me in the least but throughout the day I watched the Facebook posts and all the wonderful things people were saying about him and all the like 632 or something like that likes on this so um I kind of watch it through the day and it just it just formed my heart because people got to see what we get to see every single day so um he has the most giving heart I've ever seen this is a man that comes into work on his spare time he makes cutting boards he's a he does Woodworking and he makes these beautiful cutting boards and um he engraves he engraved
004the Viking head into him that we're visiting Burns he burns it into and I have one on my counter and nobody's allowed to use you don't wear a kind of vegetable on that that's a Roberto Ford but he comes into work and he brought two big boxes of these one day and I'm like what are you doing and he said I want people to have these I just want to give them to people I want to give so people all across this district has a cutting board that Roberto has made he's made um games like The Connect Four the yard games and the Viking bad game he just made one of those the other day and he does this on the weekend he brings it in and he said will you please call the school
005and see if somebody would like to have this and the first school is going to take whatever it is we have and sure enough they have a Roberto game at their at their school and the students all know Roberto makes it and he's just the most giving heart I've ever seen Roberto and I've had a lot of conversations about work work ethic goals in life just everything we we talked all the time and one of the things that stood out that he told me one time was he always just wanted to have a job that he could help people and give to people that fulfills him it's not about the money it's not about the recognition it's about fulfilling his need to be able to give so this is such a well-deserved recognition and you're
006so proud of you thank you yes I'll hold you up Roberto congrats that's great stand right here we go thank you yep we can stay right here um [Music] would be mine uh taking the Podium there we've got one of our students here if you don't mind talking about the award that Anaya uh won that is recognized by the College Board yes so um Dr McCall and members of the board thank you for having me here tonight so that we could recognize we have six students the College Board has four recognition programs where it Awards academic honors to underrepresented students these programs are as follows it's the national African American recognition program National Hispanic recognition program National indigenous recognition program and the national Rural and small town recognition program students to take the eligible administrations
007for the PSAT nmsqt PSAT 10 and two AP exams are considered for the awards and it's not just taking those exams it is also having a 3.5 GPA or higher living in the U.S and identifying as African-American Hispanic indigenous or attending a high school in a rural area or a small town these Vikings meet these requirements and have earned this recognition because of their academic achievements in school and outstanding performance on the PSAT nmsqt and or PS I'm sorry AP exams it's a lot of letters in there AP exams they have accomplished these Milestones during a high highly demanding period in their High School career please join me recognizing our students I do have one student with us tonight and that is Anaya Edwards I will ask you to just say a few words about
008um what do you like studying what are you thinking about After High School um okay so after high school I really want to go into a vet program I like working with animals and I just I like animals a lot more than people anything like that I mean so wonderful recognition of your selection as a college board of national recognition program Authority so congratulations come on down for a picture you know you guys are animals there you go okay thank you congratulations thank you [Applause] and although um although um we have another student's parent that was that is here to join us tonight Brianna heard's mother is here to join us and accept her recognition you don't have to so thank you okay thank you even better all right um other students that received this
009award are Autumn Beville Sophia Cox Nicolas Diaz and Caleb Ortiz so thank you a little Applause we will be setting the other services to the other students um this week uh finally thank you finally um your team would you mind approaching the podium there we have exciting news concerning Central Elementary they were recently named 2022 National Blue Ribbon School which is a incredible accomplishment 297 schools in the Nationwide were named and Central Elementary was a few of my introducing your team and also talking about the award and what went into it I'm principal circusian at Central Elementary School and this is Mrs durian also one of the most valuable Vikings from last year she's our third grade teacher and then we have Mrs Higgins whereas our title and frog teacher and Mrs Ben Dixon who
010is on our school social worker so we found out about this award they were kind of stringing us along the past few months and if we got it or if we didn't um and so we finally got the good news and we're just Overjoyed with the this accomplishment um because we've worked so hard I think these last two years of building a team and a family at Central of Educators who are just all in for every kid um no matter what class or what grade level they're in we all chip in all hands in for the success of all our students and it's great to see that that teamwork has paid off so we're all so proud of our team at Central and also the kids because they worked so hard so thank you would
011anyone else like to speak well congratulations we're very proud uh and all the work that you've done I know with many hands that make life work uh tremendous support from Central families and other students working hard and you know the staff that you've built uh what you call small But Mighty small But Mighty yeah Central Elementary congratulations if you don't mind joining us up here yeah foreign [Applause] foreign all right um Miss frankus thank you no one's signed okay uh so no sign up public comment for agenda action items okay so um we'll move on to the next item which is the consent agenda and this does require approval are there any questions regarding items on the consent agenda okay do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda to approve and a second
012a second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed that item is approved our next item is the financial reports Mr hollifield thank you madam president each month we present our financial report comparing the year-to-date Revenue to the year-to-date expenditures for our tax supported funds our year-to-date performance of funds report as of August 31st 2022 shows us that the education fund had revenue of 31 million five twenty six forty four and a year-to-date expenditures of 29 million 381 and 45. revenue has exceeded expenditures by 7.3 percent in The Debt Service fund uh year-to-date revenue is 2 million 198 828 and expenditures are just a shade over 4 million expenditures have exceeded Revenue by 82.1 percent however all of our debt payments have been made for fiscal year 2022 and the year-to-date revenue does not
013reflect the upcoming December property tax draw the pension debt fund year-to-date Revenue one million 263 656 year-to-date expenditures 1 million 410 823 expenditures have exceeded Revenue by 11.6 percent but again all pension debt payments have been made for the fiscal year and revenue does not reflect the upcoming December tax draw operations fund year-to-date Revenue 10 million 561.75 year-to-date expenditures 11 million eight sixty five eleven expenditures have exceeded Revenue by 12.3 percent and again revenue does not include the upcoming December tax draw the operating referendum Revenue year to date is 3 million 155.033 year-to-date expenditures 3 million 523 334 expenditures having exceeded Revenue by 11.7 percent and once again revenue does not reflect the upcoming December tax draw the capital referendum year-to-date Revenue six million three hundred eighty thousand five sixty five year-to-date expenditures 5 million
014683 500 Revenue has exceeded expenditures by 10.9 percent uh we will have payment coming up in December but that'll be after we receive the December tax draw uh the ready day fund has no change from previous months no year-to-date expenditures I'm sorry there was a 450 000 uh temporary loan to the uh pension fund for cash balance purposes which would be repaid in December we believe a review of the fund shows a positive financial position if there are no questions we ask for approval of the financial reports for August of 2022. any questions from Mr hollifield okay if not can I have a motion for approval uh emotion that we approve the financials that have been presented by a second all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed that is passed our next
015item is contract considerations Dr McCall thank you madam President we have several contracts for your consideration uh Cook's Corners with Interstate studio for student portrait and ID cards uh Valparaiso High School Ivy Tech Community College for the Dual credit coursework agreement in various classes Lakeshore Bone and Joint Institute for athletic trainer services this is an annual contract that we signed with lbji and also girls who code in order to gain site access to the girls who code program for 12 months as a district entering into an agreement with Indiana University for placement of teacher candidates practicum students and participants for a period of four years happy to answer any questions but recommend approval any questions for Dr McCall okay do I have a motion to approve the contracts and will we approve the contracts presented
016second last second all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed okay those contracts are passed the next item is Grants with Mrs milasto good evening we have four grants for your consideration this evening board the first one is the title One D uh delinquent Grant with a total allocation of twenty thousand eighty one dollars and twenty seven cents BCS serves as the local Education Agency for the Porter County Juvenile Detention Center we assist them with proper follow-through and use of Title 1 funds they use their funds to support academic needs of students that have been placed within the juvenile detention system we also have the nesp grant with the total allocation of forty four thousand six hundred seventy eight dollars and fifty five cents this grant is a state funded Grant used to
017provide English language development instruction to kindergarten through 12th grade English Learners to increase their proficiency and academic achievements we also use this to prove to improve Literacy for Arcata 2 students we also have the high ability grant for your consideration this evening with an allocation of fifty one thousand twelve dollars the high ability program Grant is also state funded and is used for identification of high ability students and their curriculum BCS uses this grant to provide High ability screening curricular materials IB and AP testing and also for professional development we also have the secured school safety Grant with a total allocation of fifty thousand 32 cents it is a matching contribution Grant and this is used to help supplement the VCS portion of salary and benefits for our school resource officers happy to answer any
018questions if there are none I ask for your approval okay any questions from Mrs milasto okay can I have a motion to approve these grants a motion to approve the grants and a second my second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed okay the grants are approved thank you Lord the next item is donations and Gifts Dr McCall thank you madam president I have quite an extensive list this evening uh so please bear with me as I give honor where honor is due for our generous donors as I list them off and recommend approval uh toward Central Elementary St Andrews Episcopal Church donated 12 backpacks with school supplies for students in need Haviland Elementary's PTO donated 230 dollars for the fourth grade field trip and 356 dollars and 10 cents for the third
019grade field trip Valparaiso High School received twelve hundred dollars from Mr Mrs Stewart Summers that should be divided for operating expenses and bus fees for band choir orchestra drama club at 300 each the organ tool and molding donate a thousand dollars for VHS spirit wear for the winning Pride Point boys football team and players and then this next section uh is quite heartwarming um Richard stombaugh passed away uh August 13th uh of this year a former custodian at VHS and in lieu of flowers he asked that donations be made to the Valparaiso High School athletic fund um and so uh 645 dollars were donated in his honor uh Shirley Costello and Kim Bowser 75 okay actually fifty dollars Jennifer ringer 25 dollars Diane and Keith Lawrence fifty dollars Leland and Barbara Wrangler twenty dollars Robert
020and Vicky Rhoda fifty dollars Wendy Hammond 25 and the norm normalizing it and family three hundred fifty dollars we really appreciate the donations but also the memory pcct e uh received 127.50 from United Way of Northwest Indiana for funds for their staff meetings uh this next section was uh items donated uh by a generous business Community for our new teacher orientation luncheon August 4th and 5th Judy Rooney Davis who is a Dynamo and organizes uh the businesses and and supports the uh donations including uh lunch um donated that lunch with teacher desk supplies Doreen Martinson First Trust Credit Union um also contributed toward the catered lunch and teacher gift bags Lori Bush of Maplewood manufactured homes donated 300 in teacher gifts Bengals Unique Boutique leather crossover bag six Cypress Boutique a 50 gift certificate Blue
021Point Oyster Bar two 25 gift certificates Wings Etc donate to 10 and two five dollar gift certificates Sandy's tanning and Nails 25 gift certificate Burger House two 25 gift certificates Deb Dean Mary Kay dot Cosmetics 25 gift certificates for all Gelsosomo's Pizza in Valparaiso with 30 percent discount on the cost of the catered lunch crozers DQ chill and Grill uh free Blizzard coupons we sincerely appreciate their generosity in helping inculcate our new teachers into the Valpo way still going uh backpacks and snacks program uh received 425 dollars three hundred dollars coming from the DeJesus family uh 25 from uh John and Vicki Lubeck of the Lubeck living trust a hundred dollars uh from Leah granceras and from the Valparaiso Sunrise Kiwanis uh oatmeal Ramen and soup the Lubeck living trust also donated 25 to the
022school nutrition services uh f-45 training donated school supplies 12 individual hand sanitizers and 24 disinfectant wipes for student use and Robert Cotton donated six school supply kits for student use Judy Johnson donated eight copies of the book Cowboys big dream uh by Haley schweibel uh one copy for each Elementary School The Operators of events donated 200 Chick-fil-A gift cards for the winners of their popcorn Festival coloring contest page three Central Elementary received from Department of Child Services 10 backpacks with school supplies and Devin Zimmer donated shoes for student use cooked Corners PTO donated fifty five hundred dollars for grade level field trips for the 22-23 school year and five thousand dollars for PTO sponsored Courtyard upkeep and additional features for their Courtyard Northview Elementary Mike and Debbie Miller 300 for school lunches or take-home food
023for needy students at Thomas Jefferson Elementary Brian Williams donated 200 and two cents for field trips and Student Activities and Valparaiso High School uh Julia vamos peanut butter for backpacks and snacks a tremendous list by a tremendous community and happy to recommend accepting these donations well thank you very much Dr McCall and thank you very much to our community who is um very generous and we're very grateful okay can I have a motion to approve the donations and gifts a second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed right those are accepted okay our next item is old business um second reading of policies 6325 Mr hollifield you may remember from last month's meeting uh policy 6325 when it was updated and there was a change in the limit for micro purchases uh from
0243 500 to 10 000 it was changed in one portion of the policy but it was overlooked in another portion of the policy just that that it be amended okay are there any questions for Mr hollifield okay I'll ask for a motion to approve the policy change a second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed okay that is approved um moving on to new business um we have a new um two new policies that we are reviewing Dr McCall uh thank you very much uh these two readings uh or two policies for the first reading no action is required uh their policy is 30 10 and 30 11. uh updating the policy to reflect uh best practices and aligned to um changes recent changes in the law so they're on personal background checks
025mandatory reporting as well as criminal history checks of School Employees so uh welcome you to uh review them any questions concerns suggestions please let me know okay thank you all right our next item is the teacher compensation and collective bargaining Dr McCall thank you uh as per state statute on the matter um the administration co-hosted a public meeting alongside the VTA president to collect any public comment on teacher compensation and collective bargaining there were no comments submitted and so we are submitting the minutes as a matter of record to the board for approval and uh concurrence with best practice and state statute okay so it does require action okay so the motion would be to accept the public meeting minutes of which Dr McCall says there were no public comments um regarding the teacher compensation
026and collective bargaining hearing so I have a motion still moved and a second a second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed okay that is approved the next item is to award the contract for the TJ Middle School Chiller replacement and other work Mr Bank Apple good evening board and Dr McCall I come before you tonight concerning the bid results for the Thomas Jefferson Middle School Chiller project we've received six bids in this last bid tabulation and award recommendation letters in your board packets uh the Skillman group has reviewed the bids and is recommending that the low base bid and Alternate number one be accepted from acms group the procurement of the chiller is critical and currently the manufacturing and delivery time is around 52 weeks Chiller is being redesigned so it is
027essential that we move forward to lock in this pricing on the few units that are still not spoken for once these units are gone the newly designed units will certainly cost more and new unit design issues might make these units more difficult to maintain troubleshoot and resolve problems this project is on the 2022 cpf plan and the money will be encumbered to pay for the completed projects in 2023 as long as we get the equipment I'd be happy to answer any questions from the board or Dr McCall at this time was this one of the parts that were broken out from earlier yeah sign that this process was much more competitive than it was the previous time yes it worked out much better uh contractors were more comfortable with the timelines given as well as
028um it allowed them not to use their bonding capacity to its limits so I think the last time well I know the last time we received one bid this time we received six so I think that the decision was correct in doing what we did okay great a year out that is thank you for planning but that is a long time it is and that's 910 000 as the bid that is correct yeah do we have to motion to award that bid to that person or do we motion we to award the bid to the winning company Mr van keppel yes can you I know we did the same thing over at um Flint Lake a couple years ago can you kind of compare the cost difference over the you remember what the price was
029for that um it was substantially different um the Flint Lake Chiller is a different size unit it's a smaller unit so we're not really comparing Apples to Apples uh that project I believe came in the 200 to 250 000 range um but and and that wasn't a project that I act that I actually handled so I'm kind of speaking from right before Julie Bennett Dr Barron's asking you know is this does this represent you know a 40 increase of 50 increase over what we would have expected a couple of years ago or a unit this size a couple years ago yes it's at least 50 percent nice it's material costs and whatnot have just gone through the roof haven't they they have procurement of equipment has become almost impossible um the components the Manpower uh
030everything that covet didn't take away from us health-wise has really impacted uh the costs and has impacted the inflationary rates that were having to deal with now so yes it it is substantial I hear this a lot from a lot of my contractor friends like roofs and things like that it used to be very isolated areas in in Contracting it was the metal and roofs uh now it seems like it's it's evening out and everybody's kind of jumped on board with this and hopefully what happens is we're able to you know ride this wave until everybody can get a foothold on their uh Workforce as well as their raw materials and and equipment that and components that go into these units um otherwise is it's just going to be a rocky ride for a little
031while well I think it just speaks to the Serendipity that we had in having all of our projects completed when we did uh I couldn't imagine starting uh now we thought we thought it lasted a long time back then you know it's been a long time now I would absolutely agree some of my cohorts and other school systems uh Crown Point and doomland are really I mean it's it's very difficult because when you you go out for your referendum you're expecting to get so much out of it by comparison our referendum in today's dollars would probably have been 50 percent more I mean the value of that is probably 50 more than what we actually saw come in so thanks again to Valparaiso for doing it and you know being one of the first to
032get out there and take care of that because by doing it and at the time we time frame we did we we probably uh doubled the value we got out of that referendum project I agree yeah everything was different two years ago absolutely and everything was different seven years ago when doctor took this whole thing on holy cow thank you to him and thank you to the community once again I mean yeah yeah boy it just looks that's maybe the single best thing I can imagine we've done in the last 30 years around here getting that done I mean unbelievable absolutely and then our bond rate everything was just yeah yeah I keep saying Valparaiso is an impressive community or any other questions from Mr van keppel you know okay so I will need a
033motion to award the contract um for the chiller replacement I moved that we award the contract in a second oh second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed all right that item is approved okay the next item is the corporation auction Mr van couple on a lighter note I come before you for your approval to proceed with the 20 22 BCS personal property auction which is normally conducted every two years due to all the covid trials and tribulations the last auction was canceled we have a significant amount of equipment that we would love to find a new home for the I would like to use craft Auction Services LLC to sell all the VCS property that is no longer used unable to be repurposed and has in most cases surpassed its life expectancy
034the contract is in your packet for your review in addition the major items that will be sold at the auction are listed on inventory forms that are also included in your packets if you're willing um to give your approval to this auction potential bidders can inspect the items to be sold on October 10th 2022 from 10 a.m to 2 P.M the auction will be online and which means once uh the auction company puts together their catalog and is able to go online with it the auction will begin so I'm anticipating within the next week or two that will open up the auction will then close the evening of October 10th with October 11th being the primary pickup date for anybody purchasing any of these items and hopefully the majority of the people do pick up
035their items on the 11th um smart move doing it on fall break I think it'll be helpful um I'd be happy to answer additional questions that any of you might have at this time any questions it's important to note that you had several staff members and Audra Peterson who's the CTE director for the Porter County our local go over and we're going to be redistributing several items to both our internal programs as well as with the CTE programs so it's it's been washed over several times before considering the pieces for auction foreign okay there's no other questions then um could I please have an approval a motion for approval for the corporation auction so moved in a second a sec all those in favor say aye aye any opposed okay that item is approved thank
036you very much okay the next item is the to purchase buses that were approved in the 2022 bus replacement plan Mr hollifield thank you madam president uh first I'd like to thank uh Transportation director Rich Spicer for all of his hard work on getting this bid put together and the numbers he uh he was very successful in getting uh he worked with the Central Indiana Education Service Center to get prices on the five buses that we need for our plan uh the low bid was from Midwest Transit equipment and it was for 645 252 dollars and that includes a trade-in value of eleven thousand two hundred dollars on our buses uh the budget for that was approved for the bus replacement was seven hundred fourteen thousand so the actual cost came in quite a bit
037less than what was budgeted so uh with that being said request we we request uh approval to purchase the five buses from Midwest Transit equipment for 645 252 dollars okay um so you're saying that what um what the actual bid came in was a little bit less than anticipated or or um budgeted it was about uh I believe seventy thousand dollars less than what was budgeted yes okay any other comments or questions okay can I have a motion to approve the purchase of buses a motion to approve the purchase of the buses and the second second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed that item is passed thank you okay um resolution for pension Bond neutrality Mr hollifield thank you madam president uh by law our pension Bond payments must be tax neutral
038payments on the bond must be offset by a reduction in another tax supported uh fund Levy and we are requesting that the board approved that the 2023 Levy for the operations fund be reduced by the amount of the levy for the school pension debt fund any questions about that okay can I have a motion to approve the resolution for pension Bond neutrality so moved in a second a second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed okay that item is approved our next item is revise the middle school and high school textbook rental Mr hollifield thank you uh we are requesting approval of the revised middle school and high school book rental consumables and fees as presented for the 2022-2023 school year for the Middle School uh changes are name changes and course changes
039but the fees are that remain unchanged with the high school there are some changes there and most of those relate to the increase in the AP exam fee for the school year okay any questions about those charges okay this is another action item so can I have a motion to approve the revised textbook rental fees for middle school and high school and a second a second all those in favor say aye aye okay our next item is a public hearing for the 2023 bus replacement plan thank you each year the board must approve the bus replacement plan for the next fiscal year in order to take place or it must be a public hearing prior to that approval the process for the bus replacement plan is to First advertise the plan which has been advertised
040in Gateway and also on our website the plan details uh which buses are due for replacement in the next five years and the estimated replacement cost for those buses and those expenditures do come out of our operations fund looking at the next five years for 2023 we're looking at replacing four buses for a total of 584 564. for 2024 through 2027 uh we're looking at replacing five buses each year and you can see that they each year the amounts vary uh that variation is due to one a slight increase figured in each year for inflation and also um there may be some variation in what what types of buses are purchased each year so the timeline for the 2023 bus replacement plan is today we have the public hearing and then I'll come back in
041October and request that you approve the 2023 bus replacement plan so we'll go ahead and open public comments for the the specifically regarding the 2023 bus replacement plan is there anyone who would like to speak on that topic okay say no one the public hearing is closed all right the next item is regarding the 2023 capital projects fund Mr hollifield thank you madam president uh just as we had to do with the bus replacement plan there must be a hearing before the adoption of the capital project plan for fiscal year 2023 the process is very similar in that we have excuse me we have to advertise and it has been posted on the VCS website there are two parts to the plan the first part is the capital acquisition plan which is stuff and the
042project capital in nature which is the projects that we would have to do for repair and maintenance and upgrades uh the expenditures are part of the operations fund but there are also some projects on there that are part that would be paid for with Esther funds and also through the referendum construction fund the expenditures on the capital projects fund are for a three-year plan and you can see I have listed there a number of different items that uh fall in that plan and we'll go on to some specific gears for the first year for 2023 for the capital acquisition plan these are for items that cost more than ten thousand dollars individually we're looking at some maintenance equipment Vehicles generators a water softener scoreboards and a shelving system and the complete plan as I said
043is posted on our website for the next year for 2024 Capital Acquisitions include very similar items Vehicles maintenance equipment bleachers and scoreboards and for 2025 uh two items we have include vehicles and scoreboards moving on to the capital projects list for 2023 uh we have partial list of projects as far as uh asphalt projects building improvements HVAC uh roof replacement the food service servery at the high school lighting upgrades playground upgrades and network switch upgrade which you'll see in all three years of the plan for 2024 again asphalt project building improvements more HVAC more roof replacement playground upgrades lighting upgrades and the network switch upgrade and for 2025 more asphalt projects building improvements HVAC improvements roof replacement storage building and network switch upgrades the timeline for the Kappa project plan for fiscal year 2023 is
044to hold the hearing today and then I'll come back in October to ask for approval of the plan for next year thank you okay so this evening again we'll need to open a public hearing for public for Comet specifically on the 2023 capital projects plan so is there anyone who would like to speak on that topic okay see none we will close the public hearing thank you very much Mr hollifield thank you okay our next item is public comment for non-agenda or informational items Dr McCall thank you madam President we have five people signed up to speak tonight uh any order in which they will speak it'll be Kathy Watts Victoria Thanos uh Melissa is it or bam Anna Hearn and Jennifer hora so Kathy Watts can you go ahead and go ahead just give
045me one moment maybe before you go ahead and speak um thank you everyone for signing up this evening um we um are in our public policy we ask that everyone we speak respectfully um at the podium and also in response to people who make comments um we will not um listen to comments regarding Personnel issues or legal issues and you've got three minutes to speak so please go ahead and share your thoughts or your questions okay great thank you um do I need to give my name and address yes okay my name is Kathleen Watts my address is 2518 Eisenhower Avenue I have three daughters that attended Valparaiso Community Schools and one of them Dr McCall still claims that you're her favorite teacher [Laughter] so one of them has her master's in higher education and
046two of them have obtained Doctorate Degrees I stand here tonight reminded of what one of my daughters said to me about her education she said No Doubt Valparaiso Community Schools taught me the skills I needed to excel in my education but Valparaiso as a community did not teach me how to appreciate and grow to admire diversity in the real world I have always remembered that conversation and so when most recently Casey Smith's our city council members most recent letter criticizing Valparaiso Community School Board appointment of Erica Watkins was released I was taken aback I was thrilled when Erica was appointed not because of the color of her skin but because of her exceptional qualifications so it makes you wonder why would anyone challenge her appointment she has represented this school board and herself eloquently in
047every single situation I've seen her in so I hope that each of you along with many of us here this evening agree with Jesse Harper and the Center township Ford on Erica's outstanding appointment to the Valparaiso Community School Board thank you uh Victoria hi everyone thank you for your time my name is Victoria Thanos I live at 507 Glade place I'm at Valparaiso resident and a retired educator and I like many of the other dedicated teachers who were here earlier were spent years working with kids to help them grow not only academically but socially and emotionally as well part of this included having conversations about how fortunate we are to live in a country that allows us to work together with people from different backgrounds be that race religion or other differing beliefs we as
048teachers remind our children that different views are a part of life and that is absolutely okay to disagree as long as the disagreement is handled respectfully it's perplexing to me that while children are able to express their differences in to each other using polite respectful words the Valparaiso city council president Casey Schmidt believes the best way to communicate is through the use of derogatory and disparaging comments against a sitting School Board member Erica Watkins Mr Schmidt's inflammatory language towards an experienced educator exhibits a disrespect that wouldn't be permitted in a school setting and I just was wondering if the school board condones his comments I would hope that the school board which is in place to assist teachers and students to work together to do what's best for kids would not stay silent when faced
049with bullying behavior and after all that's what we model for our kids thank you for your time thank you and Melissa sorry if I butchered your last name could you say it once for the record please I am Melissa Milam one zero zero four Institute Street I have a daughter that is a sophomore at VHS 2021 the first person of color was invoted onto this board until 2021. I believe that says a lot about Valpo the city council president Casey Schmitz disparaging comments about the board that board member also says a lot about Valpo do you condone those comments Casey Schmidt referenced valpo's character and values in his letter what are those do they include diversity equality inclusion and representation or are they what Casey Schmidt referenced in his letter our kids see all of
050this and they go to school and they treat their peers the same way thank you Anna Hearn 17 Woodruff Drive Valparaiso Indiana I have now two high schoolers us freshmen and a junior and they're both on the swim team there are my oldest is a varsity swimmer my youngest most likely will be we shall see um this past June uh coach Sattler stepped down from a position he's had since in the 90s I don't want to put his age out there but in the 90s then the search began it was placed on indeed indeed.com where they hire people from Aldi's they hire but it was not placed on the coaching websites for swimming swimming has specific search engines from usaswimming.com swim swim Indiana swimming you one could also contact Indiana University Ray Lewis and ask
051if he has any swimmers graduating we have an amazing asset an amazing Club coach Chris Peroni who has his sons Blake brownie who's a gold medal two-time gold medal Olympian and he just retired by the way with a human biology degree but not sure he'd take the job but giving you guys just some hints this wasn't done so we are now a month from the beginning of girls swim season October 24th Allison Walker was given the position or initially offered it back in August then it was retracted or beginning of September it was retracted and the reason why it was retracted now they're thinking about reorganizing and making one head coach and getting assistant coaches Boomer is an amazing coach he's phenomenal I saw him on rafter on scaffolding cleaning the lights he bust his
052behind as well it's not fair to him it's not fair to Allison Walker who was an assistant who the girls love it's not a fair to that swim program a swim program that an 18 million dollar pool was built you guys would not do this to the football team you would not do it to the basketball team because I saw the huge package that was given and it's frustrating because now the girls have gone to the A.D people have asked what what's going on it takes time to hire assistants if you're going to do one head coach then it's going to take time to hire assistants to keep that program going I just received a text from someone from Chesterton they have one head coach and six assistants with a hat with a diving coach
053coach kennel even came back and he was just hit by a semi and please finish your thoughts oh I'm sorry but I I pray that if you guys do want the one head coach system maybe you put it you put it to the end of the season since you did offer it to Allison Walker give it to her let her start building a program and then you could see who you like better I do have if I could just thank you Anna you can email me the rest of your comments Deborah hard in the dress I just came from a cross-country meet representing um my name is Jennifer Horan 1953 grass for Port I have two children in the Valparaiso Community District technically we live in the township part of the district when I moved
054here 15 years ago and I did not have children had never lived in the state of Indiana um I certainly did not realize the strange nature of Valpo schools and that VCS was one of the few appointed boards not something I had grown up with in other states I've lived in and even though I have a PhD in the United States government public administration and public policy I also did not realize that I would not even get to vote for a majority of the people doing the appointing to the board studying government I know that one of the that there are some positives to having an appointed government body supposedly one of those is to keep politics out of the board sadly that is not happening right now I was a member of the support
055committee when the district was distilling their wants and needs for a new superintendent the greatest call and you have my numbers in the minutes from back back when it was for a superintendent and a board to be more diversity equity and inclusion focused appearances make it seem as if we have really one board member that's focused on that better than none and that member right now Erica Watkins is being unfairly attacked as a quote bad decision I'm really deeply offended that a member of the city council a person I do not get to vote for yet appoints four-fifths of the VCS board seats that my children attend to is pulling politics in as a fundraising gimmick it's a person that studies and teaches campaigns it pains me to see this this is clearly a political
056dog whistle this is the definition of a coded political message a member of the board and our only visible minority member is being attacked as an example of a poor decision of the people doing the appointing she is literally given as one of the two examples of quote poor decision making in a now public fundraising letter a district website does not list any info of board members other than an email an email address I've used often I only get any type of acknowledgment public acknowledgment um or of any sort from Erica when she at the from I'm a frequent Watcher at home of of meetings um and she always has a line at the end where she thinks us um and welcomes our messages um there's no resume there's no Vita no there's no experience
057there's no qualifications the only thing that's listed is is the comment is the email from what I've researched Erica's qualifications for that seat are impeccable certainly I'm fully support the First Amendment and the freedom of speech in fact I spent the afternoon teaching about it um to a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds I'm using mine right now I'm calling I'm Valparaiso Community School Board to use their first amendment rights two and let it be known that racist dog whistles against fellow board members is not welcome in our community thank you thank you thank you that concludes public comment um Dr McCall you have some comments to make um sure absolutely uh just let the board know that uh ADM day was last week there's some arm wrestling that occurs uh in a cleanup
058period um but we're up about 20 students um and that'll also signify that that we'll be beginning the process of our demographic study of forecasting and evaluating our current attendance zones and building capacities uh should the analysis warrant uh consideration of changes to the current zones then we will engage our families in those discussions uh via town halls and PTO meetings as we've done with other changes in the past this process may take several months and we would expect a full report to the board after the new year with any uh if any suggestions for changes in the future so but again we're off to a tremendous start the momentum we had we continue to keep it rolling um and we're seeing a lot of great things in the classrooms teachers teaching their brains out
059students learning um and really engaged in their learning so uh it's very validating as we walk through the walk through the classrooms and see all the good stuff going on so thank you [Music] okay board comments I guess I would like to say this evening thank you to those of you who came to speak in support of Erica um she I value her our board values her um we value what she stands for as a person we value her comments and she is a vital part of our board um we are an a political board I think that's a benefit of being appointed we act in an apolitical manner um even though sometimes we get pulled into politics and that has happened quite a bit in the last couple of years but we work as
060a group and we work together um I'm very grateful that the Valpo board does so we don't have infighting we don't have um people taking priorities over others we all work together and all five of us support each other in our opinions and we we support Erica and I'm very sorry that she has gotten pulled into a political situation because that is not what the school board should be about and it's not what we are about so we're Valpo and we are going to continue to be strong any other comments I will say I haven't taken back today I need to read more um she's a fantastic board member she's thoughtful she's thought out she's graceful but she's also challenging it's exactly what you want in a board Network so I enjoy working with that
061I think Erica does a fantastic job I consider a friend she's a fantastic board member she's very well qualified but I had Echo Jen's comments about being a political board I mean I think the last two or three years you know I was sitting in her seat during some of that and I think we did a pretty good job of upsetting both sides I think it's fair to say it kind of seems like our job I and I really do believe in my heart that uh the best decision since I've been on the board is the guy sitting at the end of this table right here and that does include diversity and inclusion and everything else because I know that's what his DNA is all about and I really feel strongly about that especially from
062the background I come from and I really appreciate having Dr McCall at the at the helm here because he listens to both sides of everything thinks about it and then makes a decision he doesn't just fly off the handle and I'm telling you I am extremely excited that we have him for many years to come um I we just got tremendous leadership going on about those schools right now and you know there's going to be bumps along the road there always is but um I think Erica adds a lot to our board and I think uh uh the decision by the board at the time to pick Dr McCall was a fantastic decision I think that moves us forward as a community and I'm I think anybody that has kids in school would probably agree
063with me on that um right now I hope you do at least because this guy busts his butt for the school system foreign do know that my tears don't uh mean that I feel defeated in any way um I think my tears are more so because I'm Overjoyed to know that there is representation besides someone who looks like me um who is different from me but who understands the walk that I've walked um not just in this community but as a woman of color being black um I'm proud but it is not always the easiest thing there's often times that you may be the only one in the room um but I've learned to embrace that I've learned to be present I've learned to connect with the people of this community and it has been
064um quite resounding that I get to do that and I get to be in the presence of people who genuinely care and I can look in your faces and know that you care that's what makes me cry that is what this Joy is there are joyful tears and there are sad tears and these are really joyful ones because it's not often that you get to hear people speak about your character and who you are my grandfather were often uh joke and say people always say good things at funerals and it's always the things that people never get to hear but in this life I've been able to hear what people think of me on both sides and that is okay with me but until you get to know me until you have walked my walk
065until you have talked my talk until you have worn my shoes you will never understand fully of who I am but I am grateful for the foundation in which I stand my family did an exceptional job with me and I do not come from a silver platter I come from work I come from a mom who's used drugs I come from a community that people will often not care to ride through but it is the community that I will always stand for along with Valpo As I Grew as I bleed read from being an EC Central Cardinal I now bleed green and oftentimes you see me wearing green it's because I take this position quite proudly when I represent this school system when I speak about how well we do how we move that is
066the character of Valpo and if it's not it should be it is time to make changes either you embrace me because there'll be more of me I am not the end of what Valpo will become we are here and we are here to be representations for this community we are intelligent we have done the work and we deserve to sit at the table and I am happy to be sitting at this table and I will continue to stand for what I have believed that will to stand for I have been a proud citizen of this community for 11 years and I don't plan on going anywhere so I'm thankful for those who have embraced me and who will continue to embrace me if not the school board I don't know where I'll go next I
067know where I am now and I'm learning to be present and I expect to have my seat at this board like every board member has being able to serve at every capacity possible so thank you all so much for speaking on my behalf I mean you didn't have to do it but I'm glad that you did because it speaks of what and who really lives in this community and what really matters so thank you foreign I think with that um our evening has come to a close so do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting all those in favor say aye the meeting is adjourned thank you [Music]