001I heard that. All right, it's 6:00. We want to welcome everybody here. We will call the October 27th school board meeting to order. We'll stand and we'll recite the pledge. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Trevor will ask you to call roll callina Michelman Kurt >> here. >> I'm here. David Kaufman >> here. >> Don Layman >> here. >> John Payne [clears throat] >> here. >> Brian Tommy >> here. >> Jess McFarland >> here. >> Gretchen Thomas >> here. >> And Scott Bruner >> here. >> Okay. At this time, the board of trustees will hold a public hearing regarding the tenative contractual agreement between the Wani Community School Board of
002Trustees and the Wani Education Association. The purpose of this hearing is to provide public notice that the parties have reached a tenative agreement covering the period from July 1st, 2025 through June 30th of 2027. During this meeting, the board will receive comments from the public regarding the tenative agreement. This is an opportunity for members of the public to express either support for or objections to the proposed agreement. At this time, we will open the public floor for public comment. Nobody's on. >> Okay. Hearing no further comments, I now declare the public hearing closed. Please let the record reflect that the public hearing on the tenative contractual agreement has been held. And we will move on to um we will now consider the approval of the ratification of the 2025 2027 contractual agreement between the board
003of school trustees of Wani Community Schools and the Wani Education Association. Make a motion to approve as presented. >> Second. >> Motion by Kurt, second by Brian. Any discussion? Hearing none, I will call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carried 6. All right, we have a special board recognition. Yes, >> all right. Members of the board, Dr. Coner, thank you very much for having us here. Um this is this was the 25 or 2020 uh4 2025 math team. Um last year they they put in a whole bunch of work and we were able to make our way to state. That was our fifth consecutive trip there and we we were able to earn a victory at state and not just earn a victory but they
004they got a perfect score. Um which is something that I've not yet seen done within a math team before. Um and to be able to celebrate them here we have their state championship rings. um on that state championship ring along with all the normal stuff that it has for a state championship ring. It also says perfect score on it um to kind of commemorate that um and all of the time and the dedication that they put in. Uh when we look at teams that are very much so led by the players, led by the members of it. Uh I really think of this group and how much they came together, how much work they put in, how much joy they found in each other through it. um and and to see something like that cuz
005it doesn't always guarantee that it's going to come to fruition, but to see something like that come to fruition and happen for them is phenomenal. So, I'm really really proud of them here. Uh I do not have this in any specific order. Um so, I'm just going to grab these out. If you all you come up here, I don't know if there any great spot for them to go to. >> So, you want to come up at the front here? >> Perfect. So, just go to the front there. Wait till everyone has theirs. Then we'll all uh kind of open up at the same time. All right. Jack Walter >> was a senior last year. Jack, where are you at right now? >> I'm at Purdue University. >> Very good. Landon Hub >> was a
006sophomore last year. Landon, where are you at right now? >> North of High School. >> Perfect. Myself, >> Zer Town, >> right now. Perfect. I'm also really happy about that for Matthew. [laughter] Luke >> was a senior last year. Where you at right now? >> Indiana University South. Very good. >> Matt Garner, where you at right now? >> Very good. Also fantastic in math. And last but not least, Julian was a senior last year. Where you at right now? >> Very good. >> It's an you guy. We do have a lot of Purdue guys here. >> All right. Can open on three. One. Oh, you got them all up. >> One, two, three. [applause] Pull it up. >> We're going to get a picture. Looks like parents. I'll stay out of the way while you
007guys get pictures. >> On behalf of the board, we would like to congratulate you guys and thank you for representing Northwood and W Community Schools very well. So, congratulations again. >> Congratulations, guys. >> All right. Thanks for doing that here. You don't get to see that. >> Yeah, it's awesome to be able to come and brag about these kiddos here and what what they've accomplished and all the time and effort and hard work that they put in. [clears throat] >> Job well done. >> You want one more picture there? >> I just want to make sure the board's not You guys aren't talking to them long. >> And coach, you've got a lot of returning math athletes coming back, so expect some big things now. >> For sure. >> Awesome. Perfect. Fantastic. We actually we
008start up our first practice is next month. So we get rolling with the next season and new team celebrate these guys. The big question is they got a perfect score. Could the coach get a perfect score? >> Have to order. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> I like their trust. >> We actually did this all year. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Yeah, I know. >> Yeah, I got jump in. I'm sure >> congratulations. >> Thank you. >> [laughter] >> The rehab was surgery. Summer I'm not going to give Wait, you guys know what you're doing. Number four. Wait guys. Okay, we're we're going to break down for the final time. This is always We always have hands on break down. So, we're breaking down Hamilton, which is what we studied throughout the year. So, okay, ready? Hamilton on
009three. 1 2 3 [applause] William Rowan here with >> you. Do >> you know when that term completed? >> March I believe. >> Is that right? March conflict with prom. >> Prom. Yes. So then >> was down there. So Jack told me they didn't miss a question on your >> really really really >> on that heard coach say I just let you take over. [laughter] >> Good coaching right there. those guys. >> All right, we'll get back to the agenda. And at this time, we will recognize any visitors or public input. And I don't think anybody is signed up. So, we'll move to the amendments to the agenda. >> There's a consent item and an action item. Sorry. >> Second. Motion by Kurt, >> second by John. >> All those in favor signify by saying
010I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion carries. 6. We'll move on to the consent items. Approval of the consent items which consists of the minutes from the October 13th meeting, claims and personnel items and [clears throat] donations. I'll make a motion that we approve the consent items. >> Second motion by David, second by Trevor. Any [clears throat] comments? Hey, quick question. What's the donation for the student section for football sections? What they do? >> They came in today um when I spoke with Sharon about it. Um we had an anonymous donor came and made sure our student section did not have to purchase section. Awesome. >> Pretty awesome. Very generous. >> Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I >> opposed. Motion carriage 6. Move on to action items. First action item is to
011consider the approval of the administrator speech language pathologists mental health counselors and director of athletic performance contract. And we recommend approval as presented. >> [clears throat] >> Make a motion to approve those contracts. >> Second. >> Motion by John. Second by Kurt. Any questions? Did those increase by like the same percentage as the teacher? Same as teacher. Y >> hearing. No further comments. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. 6. We also have an additional action item that we approved earlier. That would be the renewal of the liability insurance with USI. And we would recommend approval as presented. This was something I sent to you I think on Friday. I know there were several questions that both Jessica and I had um on some of those those breaks
012that we got. Um they answer them what we would I guess have expected. Um any questions you guys would have certainly recommend approval as presented? >> Motion to approve the renewal of the liability insurance with us. >> Second motion by Trevor, seconded by John. Any questions, concerns, comments? So what did what did it end up being? An increase from last year [clears throat] 414US 367. What was that? >> 47,000. >> I was curious, is that a bigger quite a bit bigger jump than like previous years? It felt pretty big jump, but >> yeah, last year it was just at 275. I expected the increase last year compared to what other school corporations were experiencing. So, this was really no surprise. The good news is, and I think I don't know if you guys read the
013email that I forwarded along to you from our um it's not really stuff that one schools is doing. It's just more um environment right now around um providing insurance to to school corporations. So that was good to hear that things that we can control we're doing well. Um but just another example in which things are getting more expensive um and funding is going in the opposite direction. So expecting a bigger difference in the cyber liability insurance. >> Uh credit to although I don't want to say this publicly, he's probably watching right now, but uh credit to Ryan Matter on that. He has done um a lot of work within our technology department to make sure that we're as secure as you can be. um all the guidance that our liability insurers require of us, we
014follow it to a tea. It's too much for granted, I think, to a lot of our staff members when you're two-factor authenticating um multiple times and things are shutting down multiple times throughout the course of the day, but it is an unfortunate reality in this this day environment with cyber. So, you know, it we were pleased to see that rate not get much higher than what it was previously. >> Yeah, one mistake can cost a lot of money. Well, there's several districts that have had some and uh it is not pleasant. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Any other comments? >> Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. Motion carries 61. Okay, we'll turn it over to discussion and information. >> Okay. Uh
015financial report for [clears throat] October. Um really not a lot um to talk about which is a good thing. Um you're looking right now at the education fund and as you can see the balance as you can see the balance has remained pretty well flat. Um just a reminder, our state tuition is based on an estimate which was 2800. [snorts] We came in, I believe, at 2812. So we will see um a bit of an increase um in our basic tuition when the state um ts that up before the end of the calendar year, which is a good thing because you just approved increases across the board for teachers. And so we will see that as an additional expense um between now and the end of the calendar year. um the operating referendum and debt
016service. Again, not a lot to speak of there. Um again, just like we'll move on to the operations fund. Those are all tax supported funds. So, we're not going to we're going to see declining balances, which we're we expect that until December when we get our property tax settlement. One thing I did want to look at um is if you study these, you'll see in um line 61,000 a pretty big $266,000 expense. Um and I think I've brought this up before. For whatever reason, NIPCO has one of our meters changed to quarterly. And so, and it's our biggest meter at the high school. And so that is a quarterly billing for the high school, which was about 215,000 of that 266. Um, so that is really the only thing that sticks out in the operations
017fund. I did do a quick just summary of our electric expenses only. Again, NIPCO is gas as well, but um, for this I just pulled out um, what our electric has done over the last five years. Um, and you can see we've just been on a steady increase, which just like property insurance is another thing that's hitting our operations fund. Um, so you can since 2020 through 2025 the average um per kilowatt has increased to um just um over 20 cents. So this um again our usage has increased um because we had added the baseball complex and the transportation building. will be um that to see the increase we would expect. Um however, if we annualize this um number from 2025, which is just through October, if we annualize that, that's going to be estimated
018right right around $830,000, which obviously is the highest yet. So, just another reason why we need um to save as much money as we can in the operations fund. Um I'm going to go back school lunch fund. The this balance has been declining. As you'll notice, there's been no reimbursement from um the state for our um lunches. Those reimbursements have been filed. It's just a timing issue. And so, um we will probably see most of those hit in October and November. And then as far as our self- insurance fund, um balance is very strong. [clears throat] We did um renew our health insurance um and we really didn't see any increase except for our stop loss which the stop loss kicks in when one person hits $125,000 in claims for the year. So unfortunately we
019did have that for a handful of people and so our reinsurance um company um did up our premiums for Southwest by about 9%. So we will see that in the coming that's it. >> Has have we ever considered or any thought because with those NIPCO rates I just because of a personal project I'm doing um as they keep going up. Any thoughts of any solar panels or to offset our electric usage? I know we've had some conversation as a board in the past. I know the board's not been open. [clears throat] Um I think because of the location, we're the best best spot for it. Um but certainly open to any thoughts and feedback you would have on that. >> Just a thought as because that is only going to continue to rise and NIPCO
020their rate increases are not going to slow down. So, I just hate seeing seeing an increased amount. I'm sure there's upfront cost and I guess the bad news is the federal government after this year is phasing out the tax credits which wouldn't really apply to school corporation anyway, but there may be other grants or something. I don't know. Just trying to think of a way to get [clears throat] get some of those costs down again so we're not paying out of that budget. the project you're most familiar with. Where where have you guys been able to locate your your panels? >> Well, so I'm doing it on my house just on the roof. >> On the roof. >> Yeah. >> We had some discussion because I think that would be something from the community. One,
021it's protected up there. That that's part of the challenge because you can see some damage if it's just kind of out in a field from time to time. >> Um but putting one on your roof does appeal to me. The problem is they do not suggest it on the flat top roofs. That's actually a great location to get it, but every time you put holes in a roof and it's a flat roof, water's going to find the lowest possible spot. And so, um, I don't know what the appearance would look on the side of the high school. >> I doubt that'd be something that, you know, we as a community would would find, um, preferably preferable. Um, and I don't know, you know, about the other schools. We do have slanders at our at our
022at Woodview and Walker, so that could possibly be a be an option. But again, I'm open to feedback from the board if that's something you guys wants to dive into and and further explore. Um there are a lot of companies that even though some of the credits are phasing now, they'll they'll still come up with a way to to make it competitive. [clears throat] >> Be interesting to see what they come back with. I mean especially when we look at just the increase in that liability insurance was a teacher salary for the year. Other thoughts, other questions? >> Wind. >> I'm sorry. >> Wind. >> Um, we've not explored much wind. Um, >> we certainly have really powerful wind out here, right, AJ? >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Oh, yeah. Um, >> I think we explored
023that several several years ago and turbines. But >> yeah, the cost the cost of it, the maintenance of it, the life expectancy of replacing them >> didn't didn't work out. Math wasn't there. Either those options just take up if you put them on ground level to make it >> [clears throat] >> out, but you got to take up some space. >> I like it on a roof. Um, but again, I want to make sure it's a I say our community has a pretty high standard of the way they want their buildings to look and and we do well as a district. So um you know if we were to venture down on that be the right situation and at the right cost and certainly we need to show a return on on that investment start
024talk about roof replacements and what is the additional cost when you get a roof replacement panels on so is that you just spend all the extra what you just gained >> in roof replacement then Yeah. >> I know part of it like they set it up so it's almost a lease like you don't pay for the panels and you you're [snorts] probably much >> You can do it that way. Okay. Yeah, you can do it that way. But like with my project, sure there's some upfront costs, but I got tired of my electric bill just going higher and higher and higher. [clears throat] Used a lot because my children don't listen. Turn things off. Um, but it's it's going to equal out about a sevenyear seven-year payoff um for my project and negotiated with the
025solar company. They'll come out and remove the panels if I need the roof replaced. So, they'll they kind of include that in their contract like they'll take them off, hang on to them, new roof when I have to have one, and then they'll reinstall them. So, >> as long as they're still in business, >> hopefully they're not going anywhere. They're they're a pretty good company. They're south and [clears throat] >> we should get sponsorship for these uh these board meetings. >> Right. [laughter] If Claire's wearing a patch on her [laughter] baseball, >> thank you, Jessica. Um, last item is just a teacher appreciation grant update in your board packet. We we gave you everything um that we submitted to our teachers and presented to our teachers. Uh, we spent the last month, Gretchen and I,
026um, doing check-ins or monthly check-ins with staff, kind of giving them an idea of the direction [cough and clears throat] of this, as you'll recall, teacher appreciation grant. I really wish it wasn't that name. It shouldn't be called teacher appreciation grant um because it doesn't feel anything like appreciation for all of our teachers. Um, since the big changes now is solely um going to be awarded to only 20% of our teachers. Um, as we shared with our teachers, you know, we had to uh um when we unveiled our plan, we didn't expect any of our teachers to say, "Wow, I love the WNE plan. It's fantastic." Why? Because only one in five teachers are going to get it. No one's going to say that. And so, what we really tried to um help them wrap
027their minds around is that, you know, this new stipend opportunity that we're um going to be unveiling, we want you to look at the process and say it's fair. you know, maybe you don't love it, but at least the process is a fair process. It's transparent. Um, and uh it's there's a system to it and you know, we're going to be very purposeful in the way we go about it as least subjective as we possibly can be. And so, you know, our vision for it was being a high performing district having a lot of outstanding teachers, far more than just 20% of our teachers are outstanding. um we didn't think we could really objectively say these teachers are hands down the best in the classroom whereas these teachers are amazing in the classroom but they're
028not our top 20%. And so really where we focused in was on that leadership aspect. You know which teachers through their leadership responsibilities often time that they take on without pay. They do it voluntarily. those teachers that do so much of the outside of the job um leadership responsibilities, the work that they do not only impacts the learning of their kids but also impacts learning of other teachers kids as a respon as a result of their their lead their additional action. So that's really where we honed in on this grant process. Um it's been out to teachers. I'd say the first few days we got a lot of questions about um possibly adding some additional leadership responsibilities and it was there was some good feedback. we missed like a in-class where we piloted some group
029of teachers that piloted in class for the first time last year and now it is our formative assessment at the grades K through two level. So um just some great suggestions that we got back from teachers and we slowly started adding some additional leadership responsibilities so that you know again those folks that did that work could could be recognized. And now we're at the application stage. um they have until the Tuesday before we go on Thanksgiving break to hand in their applications and then we're going to spend the next few weeks as an admin team each one of the building principles Gretchen and myself um making the final selection. Big question we get asked every time is is it 20% across the district or is it 20% for a building? We decided to go 20%
030for each building. So there wasn't that feeling of competitiveness in and amongst schools. Um and again we wanted each building to have a good representation of the leadership within their buildings. Um, another piece that this really kind of fell in line with it was, you know, every year we do that end of year survey and one of the areas that we don't score as well as we would like to score. It's one of our weaknesses is opportunities for growth and development. And we really thought if we could leverage this as again um giving ownership, giving capacity, pouring into our people, giving them some additional leadership type responsibilities so again we can continue to grow our own people. um maybe you're still in that classroom setting, but you aspire for other leadership opportunities down the road.
031And so, you know, it's our hope that folks that are taking on all these voluntary responsibilities, this kind of formalizes it and gives them a title that uh goes along and recognizes the work that they do. What I miss, >> we've done a lot of talk the last uh the last month. Um but again I think the big takeaway this is the funding source that used to be old TAG but as we really um and teachers have said this I I just wish he didn't call it TAG and I think that when you say TAG teacher appreciation grant you know you kind of see the old lens and um it really it's to us it's the leadership siphon you know it's a the building leadership siphon positions funded through TAG and so um hopefully as
032we continue to to massage massage and polish off this process. I think it'll be better as we move forward, but certainly it's um it's been some work getting it off the ground this year, but I do feel really really good about where we landed. Again, not that I love the system. I would prefer the old system. Um but I've had several conversations with Dr. Jenner and David Boozie who's the Department of Education. We have shared our plan with them. We've gotten really, really good positive responses from the DOE. the DOE doesn't really have a great sense of how this is going to play out in every single district. And so they're looking for models that they then can share out and say, "Hey, this is this is one school's approach. It meets all of our
033criteria, you know, and so um a lot of the feedback we've gotten from them has been just that can once we approve your plan, can can we then share out with with other school districts around the state?" Certainly, we've done that with a lot of our colleagues, but um I'd also say we're just ahead of the game right now because we we've spent a lot of time kind of thinking and working on this knowing it was going to be a big challenge coming this year. So, questions? >> No question. I had I had a conversation with a high school teacher just this afternoon who shared with me. He said, "Well, rumor has it that at Fairfield they just put everybody's name in a hat." I said, "Well, I don't think that's exactly how it this
034can be done." So, uh, I said probably want to maybe circle back and verify some information because it's it's not that easy and can't really be done that way. So to that point, um the DOE is going to ask for a lot of reporting on this because they want to get down and find out how schools were um rewarding the funds. And uh again, I won't name any any names, but I think uh and again, I understand it. I mean, it's hard. It is really really hard. And there's no there's no model for this. And so you have you're creating it as you're as you're going along. Um but yeah, I I would not suggest that that approach. there's some other approach that >> yeah that works well. >> So we had a talk about
035it and I just shared all of our discussion and how I thought we had come up with the the best possible plan given the guidance and circumstances. So >> yeah, I just [clears throat] wanted to say I appreciate I know you guys have put so much work into this and especially on the feedback piece of it, you know, because that's what we all the all the educators want to feel heard and so I think for them to listen to them and put the best kind of taking lemons and trying to make lemonade out of it. So really appreciate all the work you guys have put into it. >> I was going to sort of echo those same comments just thanks for putting a model together that we feel as fair as fair can be. >>
036So, have you ever gotten a feel from the state why this shift, why this change? >> Um, yeah. Where it came from, what I mean, like how did this even >> I would say, um, folks in our state legislature, um, they don't necessarily think the model of education that we have in place is working. Um, they see the private sector model. um and they want to they believe that schools need to move more in that direction. Um no one has flat out said this to me, but I know the author um that authored this this piece of legislation who definitely feels very much I think in that camp. And so my intuition is this is kind of that testing that marker. Let's see how schools respond to this um to see if down the road
037all compensation can venture down that pathway. Um I mean you just look at uh you know um changes that have happened, evolutions that have happened with collective bargaining um evaluation. And again I'm not saying these things are all bad. I'm saying some of the changes I think have been really really good. And I'm not going to argue one way or the other that you know um our model needs to evolve in in some way shape or form. But I I I truly do believe this is uh a pilot program to see if more widescale differentiation of pay based upon performance, based upon area of lensure is um applicable in the public education setting. >> Any questions? >> No. Thanks again. You guys were putting a tough situation and I think you [clears throat] did the
038best that you could do. >> Thank you. There are no other questions. That's all we have this evening. >> Okay, that brings us to a German like to make a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. Trevor David. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Motion carries. Sarah Madison.