001Please put your address for me. I'm so sorry. No problem. Thank you so much. So I can say, what was your name? Oh, no, I'm so sorry. Sorry. Police Commissioner. My name is Jackie Decker, and I'm the president of the school board. To my left is Matt Higgins, vice president. To his left, Heather Stagg, secretary. On her left is Dean Conway, board member. And at the far end is Luke Jackson, board member. To my right is Mr. Eric Bowden, our superintendent. And to his right is Mrs. Susie Lipps, the assistant to the superintendent. On behalf of the school board administration, we thank you for coming out this evening. As you can see, we did leave our venue this evening, so we want to thank the high school and everyone that helped make that happen. We
002want to thank you for coming out this evening. Whether you're here, whether you're joining us virtually, we appreciate you coming out this evening. As I say, this is a school board meeting. The purpose of this meeting is for the school board to conduct their business. There we go. Thank you, Mr. Bell. Appreciate that. We do want to thank the high school, Mr. Bell here from the music department for getting the microphone set up and everything taken care of here. So thank you very much for all of your help. Okay, obviously there are quite a few people here, and we want to make a statement on behalf of the school board and the district here. So we'll read that statement to everybody here this evening before we get started. The Metropolitan School District of Martinsville develops
003its curriculum based on the Indiana Department of Education standards and does not allow or condone the instruction of radical principles such as critical race theory, also known as CRT. We are disturbed with the video recording that recently aired on Mainstream Media. It appears to be a highly edited and skewed version of a longer recording of a conversation with one of the district's administrators, but the MSD of Martinsville is investigating this matter to determine the full context of the conversation. The MSD of Martinsville School Board is pursuing legal action to obtain the entire conversation. or to the entire video as determining the full context of the conversation and the complete reporting of the conversation is important to the school board and our school community. Additionally, the USD of Martinsville will form a textbook committee composed of
004parents, staff, administrators, and community members to ensure that curriculum materials used are appropriate and aligned with the district's mission. vision, and beliefs. This committee goes above and beyond the state's requirements to simply mandate textbooks be made available for viewing by the public, although few participate. As we navigate this issue, it is a priority that the district's curriculum cultivates a strong learning environment for students and faculty by meeting high standards of integrity and academic excellence. We look forward to continuing this conversation with our community as we proceed forward. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Mr. Bowling, for that. We have reached our portion of the agenda for public comments on agenda items. Courtney, do we have anyone signed up for agenda items? Yes, we have Rosalynn Grenner. I apologize. Yes, if you would please state your
005name and the item that you wish to speak on. My name is Rosalynn Browner, and I have a deep investment in this city. I went to school here. I went to school when some of you on the stage were kids, and I sent my children here. My grandchildren went to school here. I'm very concerned about some of the things I am hearing. I'm going to stop you for just a moment. Can you tell me the item that you're wishing to speak upon? Well, it's a form of SEL. Well, that is not on our agenda, so it has to be an agenda item. You can speak at the end, Mrs. Franker, if you wish to do that. We have two minutes to speak at the end on a non-agenda item. Okay, because I am concerned, my
006word, for what's happening with our kids. Courtney, if you could put Mrs. Franker's name possibly on the list at the end, we'll see if time allows for that. We'll sign that, but thank you. We will move on to our consent agenda. Our consent agenda does include minutes from previous meetings. That includes executive sessions, payroll claims, report check claims, budgetary claims. If you pick up an agenda, you will see all the items that is involved in that. I would wish to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Do I have a second? I'll second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor of passing the consent agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed say sign. Motion carries. The portion of
007student field trips and professional travel. The MSD of Martinsville administrators overnight at the IASBBO conference. That's going to be May 10th through the 12th in Fort Wayne. That would be the first. So that is the MSD Martinsville Administrators Overnight IASBO Conference in Fort Wayne. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the MSD Martinsville Admin Overnight signify by stating aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. And just for you in the audience and here in virtual, Mr. Luke Jackson does not have a voice this evening, so he will be signifying by holding up his... He wasn't waiting. He wasn't waiting. Okay, the next field trip is Food Service Department Overnight School Nutrition Association National Conference July 9th through the 12th in Denver, Colorado. And that has not come out of the
008education fund. That is out of food service. I recommend approval. I'll make a motion to approve the food service convention. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Good evening, everyone. Martinsville High School's open enrollment for the 2023-2024 school year began January 9th. Open enrollment is the time period that parents in our district and from other districts can enroll their children of any grade level in Martinsville schools for the next school year. Families can enroll by clicking on the enrollment icon on the district website. The MSD of Martinsville will continue to celebrate our student successes as part of the 2023 marketing campaign. Well Wednesdays. At the March 2023 school board meeting, the board voted unanimously to allow the district to begin the state's application process for including professional development within the school schedule for the
0092023-2024 school year. As an update, the general application has been submitted. by the district requesting that Martinsville schools include professional learning community work for teachers. Once the state approves or denies that request, the specifics of our district's proposal can be solidified. Also, if the state approves the initial request, the district will seek parent and staff input by issuing a survey to all parents and to all staff once again. Communication. Maintaining a sense of community by providing important information and celebrating students in programming has been a goal again this year. We are using Artie Stories newsletters, social media, weekly spoof messages via Skyward email, weekly recap and other feature video clips, and our website to share school news. Graduation for the class of 2023. The pinnacle event for the Martinsville school year is graduation, which is
010scheduled for Friday, May 26th at 7 p.m. at Martinsville High School. District staff members have been invited to participate in the graduation ceremony by cheering on the graduates by forming a line from the auditorium where the graduates line up. to the gymnasium where the graduation ceremony will take place. Testing season. All grades three through eight students are currently participating in state mandated iLearn testing which began on Monday, April 17th. Summer classes for Martinsville students. During June, Martinsville will offer credit recovery courses for grades 9 through 12 students and will offer band and orchestra classes. Summer school applications are available at the schools and if transportation is needed, service can be provided. Student shout outs tonight. We have a shout out to Martinsville High School's Haley Hoosier for being selected as honorable mention to Governor Holcomb's
011STEM engineering team. Governor Holcomb said about his team. I continue to be impressed by the students selected for my STEM team, not only for their commitment to academic success, but also their eagerness to make a positive impact on fellow Hoosiers, communities, and our state. As opportunities for STEM education continue to grow, I want to commend our students for seizing these opportunities to improve their future, as well as our passionate educators for their work to prepare students for all that lies ahead. Again, congratulations to Haley. Shout out to all of our district students who have competed this school year in academic competitions. And a special shout out for South Elementary's team, Math Bowl team, for winning the first round competition in its Math Bowl division. Shout out to all elementary school staff members for inviting families
012to participate in your school's Ruth Rusi Family Literacy Nights. Tonight concludes those events and the legacy of Ruth Rusi continues. Shout out to the Martinsville High School's administration, also to Ken Bell, Bob Kern, and all of their teams, also the drama group for their help to prepare for tonight's meeting. We appreciate it. Upcoming calendar events, you can mark these on your calendar as save the date. Brooklyn and Green Township, your fourth grade parent night at Bell Intermediate Academy is May 9th. Paragon and Poston Road, your parent fourth grade night at Bell Intermediate Academy is May 9th. Later in the evening, 630 to 7th, Green Township in Brooklyn will be there from 530 to 6th. Centerton and South Parent fourth grade night at Bell Intermediate Academy is May 15th from 530 to 6th. And the Smith
013Parent 4th Grader Night at Bell Intermediate Academy is May 15th, 630 to 7. If you cannot attend your designated night, you can attend any one of those that are presented. We have an All-Aid Honor Breakfast for our middle schoolers at John R. Wood Middle School on May 16th at 830 in the morning. And we have a Martinsville High School Senior Scholarship Award Program on May 21st. The Class of 2023 graduation, as I mentioned, concludes the school year on May 26th. Thank you everyone for attending this evening. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to contact me, not only tonight after the meeting, but via phone or email. Thank you very much. And just so everyone knows, you may not be aware, we do get our board packet before the board meeting. So we
014are aware as board members and administrators as to what this prepayment account procedure is. And you should have the information. It's all made public as well on our website. I'd like to ask for a motion to, or actually give a report. Report item. Go ahead. Go ahead and give the report, Mr. Bordell. Yes, the next one is also a first reading. It's the investment policy for the district. We have certain protocols, parameters, and procedures in place for investment of public money. So this is the first reading, no action taken tonight. But if you have any changes or something you want to question, you can do it. I know we'll address that. Very informative for the community. Yes, absolutely. As everybody knows, we had the storms that came through several weeks ago, and it was devastating
015for our community. And a lot of people were impacted. A lot of people were without power, houses, roofs, and things like that, trees down everywhere. And we took the opportunity on that Monday following the Friday storms to have a community service day for our district. And we really didn't know how it was going to play out, but I'm telling you, the students and staff were absolutely amazing with what they did. And I just want to read one email that I received from one of our staff members. And here's what she wrote, because it tells a lot about our students. And that's what we're here for, is our students. So it'll take a minute to read it, but it's important to us. It says, Eric, BIA student, and we did get permission to use student names.
016Aubrey Ledford and Smith FAA students Leland Ledford, Lillian Presley, and Jeff Hall really took seriously their commitment to the MSD Day of Service on 4-3-2023. When they learned of the service assignment on Sunday evening, they knocked on doors to let their neighbors know that they would be working in their yards the next morning. They spent all day picking up sticks in several yards and were hesitant to take breaks because they, quote unquote, were not finished with the job yet. I thought that was priceless. Because they were going to get the job done. Several of the neighbors, we'll get there. I mean, that's a good thing. I apologize for pausing. Several of the neighbors were elderly and would have had a difficult time cleaning their yards. These kids really went the extra mile. But as you
017can see in the pics below, and I think we've got some pictures running here on the screens of that day that we took off of various social media platforms. to put up of our kids and our staff members. It says here, these kids really went the extra mile, but as you can see by the pics below, they managed to have a bit of fun while working. Late in the evening, after getting their parents' permission, I gave them a ride around the neighborhood and the lake in our 66 Mustang convertible as a thank you for their hard work. We had to circle the lake more than once. I think we all need that drive. Maybe later tonight. But I really appreciate the CIPLA sending this note to us. I appreciate people for posting. And I think
018we'd be remiss if we didn't give our students and our staff a round of applause right now to thank you for an outstanding effort. And doing that, we are looking into having a community service day built into our calendar as we move forward. It was so impactful. Hearing from the staff, hearing from the parents, hearing from the students, that was a great, great day. And it is really important for our students to learn that they need to be part of something bigger than themselves. And we were so blessed with their efforts. So I just wanted to share that with the board. Thank you. Thank you. We had so many adults and staff showing up. We had a lot of trees down on several of our properties. And we didn't have to hire a single crew
019to come out and take care of the downed lands and trees. We did have to hire some crews to take down some trees that were in precarious spots or near power lines and stuff like that. But all those trees that were laying down, they chopped them up, cut them up, and hauled them off. And the county and the city did a great job of providing a place for us to take the debris, take the brush, to be able to take care of that. So kudos to the city and to the county for partnering with us and a great job for the MSD of Martin. Now as we move on to the action items, I'm very excited about the first action item. Dedication of the Martinsville High School track and field to be named after coach
020John Kuntz. And it is my honor to recommend to the board that they pass this motion to rename the track and field after legendary Hall of Fame coach John Kuntz. And he's in two separate Hall of Fames. That's rare. He's in the Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Track and Field Hall of Fame. And we have the Cougs Relays coming up on May 5th, and we're working on a ceremony that just passes tonight to honor Coach Cougs and his family at that event. So I recommend the passage of renaming the track after Coach John Cougs. I make a motion that we rename the track and field for the John Cougs. The next item is giving me the authorization to sign agreements for alternative services and private residential school placement. And I'll be working with Mr.
021Billy on that. So I recommend approval for that authorization. Motion carries. The next action item is resolution number 456, which gives us authorization to invest public funds. As our CDs mature, we need to be able to have authorization to reinvest those CDs as that takes place. So I recommend approval of resolution 456. Resolution 456. I'll make a motion to approve. In a second, all those in favor of passing Resolution 456, signify by stating aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. The next one is Resolution 457, and I'm going to invite to the podium Mr. Jay Staley from Bayback Tilly to speak to the board and to the community about this resolution. It's a reimbursement resolution, and if you have any questions... Thank you for being here, Mr. Staley. Absolutely. Thank you for the
022opportunity. So as the board is aware, you guys have been working on discussing a facility and some maintenance plans for the future. And before you, as a resolution, I would allow the board to reimburse the school district, should you take out bonds in the future, to tackle some of those projects. The reason why it's important is that summer is quickly approaching and your buildings will be empty, so it gives you the opportunity to be able to go ahead and do some work this summer. and should you issue bonds later this fall or even next year, rely on you. There's also some lead time that we need for materials, so does Kyle. Secure the vendors for labor as well as for materials. Not issuing any type of debt with this, it's simply just giving you some
023flexibility to reimburse yourself should you decide to issue. Okay, for the community here in the audience and virtually, that some of the projects that we are looking at as a district deal with safety. School safety we're looking at new camera systems state-of-the-art camera systems. We're looking at new communication system We're looking at new door closure Hardware and systems as well. So this is going to be a very important priority for us moving forward and I recommend passage of this resolution just for that Motion to approve resolution 457. Thank you, Mr. Staley. Thank you, Mr. Staley. The next one we have is East Central Natural Gas Co-op. So what this is is a buying co-op for natural gas. And if we would have been in this co-op last year, our district would have saved approximately $45,000.
024So we are going to be entering into this in this upcoming year. As everybody knows, energy costs keep skyrocketing, and it's good to be involved in the cooperative that will allow us to save money as that takes place. So I recommend approval of entering into this squad. This next one we are really excited about. We are the recipient of an education readiness grant in the amount of $100,000, and it comes from the Indiana Office of Career and Technology Education. This is an exciting grant because it will allow us to expand our automation and robotics programs here at Martinsville High School. So I'm obviously excited to recommend approval of this grant. And Mr. Boland, how many schools in our state received it? No, I did not know. I think three in my mind for the $100,000.
025There were about 12, 14 that received grants, but we got the top. And I think with the announcement for Haley, for example, earlier being, we've made a real big push over the last several years and to see one of our students excel. We have other students sitting in our classrooms today that we hope to be able to take advantage of this opportunity. Aye. The next action item is the Real Men Read program, a grant from South Central RUMC and Duke Energy in the amount of $5,250. This will be for next year, the 23-24 school year. We just completed the Real Men Read program this past year. Very successful. We're excited to receive the grant from South Central RUMC and Duke Energy. I recommend approval of this grant. The next one is the approval of... Thank
026you. Donation from Tom and Kelly Reed to the MHS baseball team in the amount of $500. Donation from Juana's Club of Martinsville to the Martinsville High School academic decathlon team in the amount of $600. Donation from Delta Theta Tall Lambda Chapter to the MHS academic decathlon team in the amount of $600. Donation from Bob and Valerie Lindsey to John R. Woodman Middle School. in the amount of $1,000, and that is in honor of their son who passed away this year. And we are so, so tickled with that donation. So thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay. I thought I saw them in the audience. Donation from Staff Sergeant Nickerson, U.S. Air Force to Martinsville Dance Marathon in the amount of $1,000. Donation from Green Township ATO to Green Township Robotics Club in the amount of $1,523.51.
027I recommend approval of all these donations. To approve all the donations, that is all the action items I have. Thank you. We have reached a portion of our agenda for public speaking. Visitors who wish to speak will be required to state their name. They will be given the opportunity to speak, not to exceed two minutes. Board members will listen to the speakers, but we will not engage back and forth in conversations. It shall not be permissible to orally present or discuss complaints against individual employees of the district. That includes stating names. It's not allowed. Such charges or complaints shall be presented to the Board of School Trustees in writing and shall be signed by the person making the charge or complaint. Voiceless conduct shall not be permitted, nor will any defamatory or abusive remarks be
028tolerated. We do appreciate all views. Thank you. According to the cap, anyone signed up to speak? Yes. Jared Turner. Thank you very much. All right. My name is Jared Turner. I wanted to make a public comment that was actually addressed misinformation. Brad Shields. I was asked to speak tonight on the 18 employability skills that the Department of Workforce Development has deemed our students need in our school systems. I'm more than happy to do this because I cannot make an argument against any of these 18 skills listed, and as an employer, I wish every young person applying possessed most of all those skills. What excites me is the effort that the state and our schools to recognize that at times we've not done enough to give our students a tool bag full of the universal skills
029needed for successful employment. Now, not every student desires, nor cares, nor needs a post-high school degree. A degree without the 18 skills listed, in my opinion, is simply a learned person that is unemployable. In the past, I have worked closely with our school system, corrections, and alternative schools to help foster the mentality that the mindset and work ethic are the most important skills needed to achieve satisfaction as an employee and a positive contributor to our society. With that in mind, we have made the investment in our employees to train them to better understand themselves and develop skills to improve. With the help of Ivy Tech, we believe that time spent in our employees learning how to apply new skills outweigh the time and costs to stop production or the training. We often hear today, and
030I'm guilty of saying this, that today's youth seem to only want immediate gratification of minimal efforts. While I do think there is some validity to that statement, I think we are all blind. Thank you. Thank you. Sherry Walker. As a career educator and a retired teacher of 38 years, I served on textbook committees lots of times, both as a teacher and then later as a parent. We want as much input as possible. We try to get as many parents involved, as many community members involved, and other teachers involved. Those books have things in them that we don't like. And we always had to pick one that we felt best met the standards of the state of Indiana. And by choosing that book, many times there were things in it that we did not teach. Many
031times there were things in there that we had to supplement because our standards covered things that were not in the books. And so it's a difficult thing to do. And so I just want to say about textbooks. The other thing is, as Mrs. Greiner said, I have a lot invested in this community. I attended schools here. My kids attended and graduated here, very successful adults. My grandkids right now are in the school system. And SEL, whether we like it or not, or whatever your opinion is, it's the law in Indiana. And until the law changes, we have to have SEL in the schools. Now, with that, we just got a readiness grant. That is SEL. Preparedness. Career readiness. Mr. Shields needs students prepared and ready. All of that falls under that guideline along with bullying,
032providing a classroom that's non-threatening, welcoming for all students. And the teachers that I've worked with do a good job at it. Thank you. This kind of action by a few misguided people who have an agenda of their own will not be followed. As you guys speak, make sure you're really close to the mic. That labels can be dangerous is something I've known since the fall of 1981 during my student teaching at Crawfordville High when Wayne W., a victim of the label Thug, came to me after school dismissal one day. When the nurse reached under his jacket, I became the nervous one, cussing myself inwardly for not trusting the labels. Had I somehow actually upset him this much? Then, instead of pulling out a weapon, He pulled out some papers and asked if I would read
033his poetry. That confirms something that I have known since fifth grade. I was going to teach. I was going to make a difference. I was already realizing what the great John Koontz would say to me a few years later here at Martinsville. They don't care how much you know, coach, until they know how much you care. And I do care so much so that if your child could walk across the graduation stage with their future plans, or even worse, their names unknown to me, it would eat at me. That's who I know I am. I'm not the awful person, evil influencer whose label has been affixed on our teaching community by outsiders who would attempt to embolden harshly critical special interest groups that purport to know our souls, souls where they somehow discern the devil
034himself. It troubles me that in lesser communities than ours, I might have come under attack once for teaching to kill a locking bird, knife, death of a salesman, of mice and men, and I could go on and on, but I'm more troubled now that those attacks have come home to roost here. I reach tonight to my former students who loved and were enriched by those books, sitting in my class knowing that I cared, perhaps taking for granted that we could act out the crucible and have it with the best of them. I want you to know this. Among those who understandably want to choose what their kids, their own kids get to read are also those who try to choose what your kids get to read. And it will happen with our tacit approval and
035our sadness interest and peel it off the evil labels put upon our teachers. Tim Serber. Good evening. My name is Tim Serber. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. A couple of hard ads to follow right there. But I want to make sure that this video that everybody is very concerned about is looked at the right way. I'm not really concerned about what the subject is, is CRT and SEL. What I'm more concerned about is that we have a teacher speaking about deceiving parents. And that's the part that needs to be investigated. That's the part the community is worried about. I believe, Eric, when you were talking Tuesday, we don't have a big issue with the letters that we're talking about. But I think when you have a teacher speaking for anybody in the administration wanting
036to deceive parents, that needs to be looked at very seriously. I have no problem with you supporting that person, backing them, but I hope the investigation looks at it fairer and looks at the real... Really, I think, why would anybody in your administration deceive parents? What purpose in teaching could there be to deceive parents? And I think that needs to be looked at. And that's really all I have to say. Thank you. Lisa Serber. Melanie Wright. And an education. And so, with every state representative, we were placing so many demands on so many things. insecurity and then all of the many, many, many. And so this day that I speak, I too had concerns about the threats that were going on. And I think that the perspective inside a school building is far different from
037the perspective that's radically changed in the last five years. Quite honestly, I've faced many things that we have to try to overcome. I come to you as a community leader because I just think that when we step aside morally, we allow those around us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. I also want to thank all the speakers this evening and all the people who have turned out here tonight. It shows that our community cares. And that's one reason I live here in Marcusville and have done so since 1997. So thank you for putting that on display. Also, right behind us is a red curtain, and behind that red curtain is a stage that is under construction for the thespian performance of The Curious Savage, which is going to take place April 27th, 28th,
038and the 30th. The 27th and 28th will be at 7 p.m. in here, and the 30th will be at 3 p.m. They always do an unbelievable job with their performances. So if you have an opportunity to come and watch these students perform on stage doing something that I would never be able to do, come out and support them. They deserve our support. They deserve your support. So put that on your calendars if you would. And then we wanted to put a big shout out to one of our... athletes who's one of the hardest working young men I've ever been around in 28 years of education. His name is Martin Barco. Martin runs cross country, he plays soccer, and he runs track for us. And last Friday, Martin finished first in the very prestigious Franklin Central
039Distance Showcase. And he actually... with winning this event, beat the national champion in this race. And I just know how much Martin goes at and how hard he works. Somebody shared a story with me the other day, and they were talking about the inclement weather. And they were talking about it raining. It was almost like we had a two-day summer, and then we had winter hit again. And one person said to me, well, you do realize this is just Martin's weather. Because he was going to be out running. And it's like, that's the reason he excels and is so successful. So one more time, let's congratulate Martin for his performance. And we should go ahead and continue to go ahead, believe it or not. That was short. You guys took me on one minute there.
040First of all, I teach school at school, at Monrovia High School. So I visited several schools on my spring break. I was supposed to go somewhere. My wife was sick, so I stayed home. I just wanted to say it was very, I enjoyed going. I went to South Poston, Bell Intermediate Academy, Marksville High School, and also Smith Elementary. And I was welcomed by all the faculty, the staff, the... Thank you. That family get a hold of South Element. I just wanted to say two things, and then I'll be quiet. But the math bowl was kind of neat. I was at Grand Valley. I take care of a lady there. And one of the nurses was so proud of her. I think it's her grandson or son. I don't know if Eric mentioned that tonight. And
041then also, I'd like to say, you know, the donation. He said, best of luck to all the students continuing their honor. If you are still awake, go to bed and eat a good breakfast in the morning. We have wonderful kids, parents, teachers, staff, and community. My gratitude to Mr. Boland and fellow board members navigating to always seek the best for our kids. I do find today's meeting inspiring as many shared their thoughts, emotions, and frustration, which I find are necessary for a better future for our kids. Thank you for that. You have some work to do. I wrote something down today I'd like to read. What is a broken window? It's a window with a small, I'm sorry, it's a window with a small crack and it's broken. Is it broken if it's shattered but
042keeps the weather out? Is it broken with chunks missing with the weather coming in? Is it broken with all the glass missing where you can't use the room? Is it broken where the latch isn't working, where it isn't secure to keep your family safe? All of these are broken to some degree. How you look at it is important. It's all a perception. So when you look at different things, our school has opportunities. We're working on an opportunity here that should concern everybody. What is said does matter. What could be twisted does matter. Those words of hiding anything from anyone in this room or up on top of this stage is critical. So to find that out, I'm all in. We're going to figure this out. We're going to work together. We're going to be transparent.
043That should be a concern for everybody here. Trying to define CRT and SEL, I call hitting the mat with a dart. It's very tough to do. Many parts of SEL are in the school. Like we mentioned before, there's a few documents talking about the 18. skills and come from the leadership world a lot of this stuff looks really really good and i agree with a lot of it i've got 350 people i've had up to 2500 people directly report to me so i get professionalism and holding yourself accountable and all these things are really really good but it is a little bit of a slippery slope that we have to be aware of and protect I always look at social media. Society is kind of destroying our children. These phones drive us all nuts, and
044we all know that. But how can we do a better job giving our teachers the ammunition to do better things in a positive way with positive messaging? Recently, I was talking to Eric just a little bit ago about the tone of some of the curriculum that we do have, and I feel bad for some of the teachers that have to even try to promote some of the depressing stuff that I see. As an adult, you know, we go to church, we get our messaging from church, we get our messaging from the community, we get our messaging from hobbies we do, and if it was all naked, how would you act? You know, negative in, negative out, misery in, misery out. I think that's something that we have to understand. I mentioned here one day I'm
045a big Rudy fan and Hoosier fan, even though I'm from Iowa. Both of those Indiana stories are about overcoming obstacles. They're about doing things to accomplish greatness. And that's the message that I think we need to continue to try to find for our teachers at every level to have a positive message. When I look at some of this stuff, it's frustrating. And I hope you find a little bit of my concern with that. You may not agree with all of it. I understand that. I'm not here to sell everybody in this room on this. I'm trying to make sure my two children and everybody else's child in this community is protected. And we give him a positive message. I want to talk about my grandpa for a second. He was in Normandy on D-Day on
046Utah Beach, wounded many times. My dad's in Vietnam, bearing a lot of scars from that still today. So it's frustrating to see some of the messaging where we're taking down some of our history as, you know, they're warmongers, they're bad people. These were 18-year-old kids, 25-year-old kids sent to war. So there are some readings out there that I do have a little bit of concern with, and you may disagree with some of that, but it's still about what's important and what's the messaging for our kids about the past is more important because, like Eric is an ex-history teacher, we know it repeats itself to some degree if we don't talk about it and embrace it. So I think that's one of the things that, you know, I'm tired of passivity, and I wrote down the
047definition of passivity, and I just got a couple of seconds here, and I'll wrap up. Acceptance of what happens without active response or resistance. It allows others to do things without you complaining or pushback. And I just want people's opinion to be important. It isn't about I have to see or defend somebody. Let's investigate that. Let's look at the books, and I agree with a lot of the folks that have concerns, and the teachers, again, I want to support you as we do that and we work through that. But I got into this to try to help fix the window, and I think the window is cracked. It could be shattered. It could be missing. It could be... a completely at-risk scenario that I feel we can make a difference at, and that's what my
048focus is, is to try to keep the messaging positive, prepare our kids for the challenges coming their way, promote the freedom, family, and faith with a passion and purpose. We need more people involved. A lot of these folks aren't here at any other meeting. I never hear from a lot of the folks in this room. Let us know how we're doing. Give us some feedback. And share your opinions. I mean, I don't hear enough. Maybe that's my fault. I'm new to your board. I'm here to make it better. I want to promote the family. I want to make sure people understand that faith is important. Don't sacrifice those parts. If you believe in it, we need to stand up as a group and say, this is who we are. I don't want 17 counselors in
049our high schools, in our schools. I want people building stronger societies as we move forward and working together to make it better. So that's all I'm after. I just want to make sure, you know, we're here to do the right things for the right reasons, and we've got the right people in those seats doing that. So I support the teachers. I want to support the parents and everybody that's out here to do the best they can. And some days it ain't good enough. We get up tomorrow to do better, not worse. and not rub each other's faces in different things. We've got to do better than we are today, and that's my commitment. So I appreciate the support. So I would just ask that I'm also proud of this school district. I did work here
050for 15 years. I may work in a different school district now, but this is my community. This is my home. I am married to a teacher who has been in this district for many, many years, and I'm proud of that. I'm proud to say that. I'm proud of the teachers here, proud of the leadership team here. I have two grandchildren here, and I have eight nieces and nephews that attend here among many friends. I'm proud to sit up here, and I'm proud that my grandkids and my family will. So, as Mr. Zola spoke earlier, this is what learning is all about. I was sitting Sunday at my home like many of you did, and I'll be honest, I was feeling mad, feeling sorry for myself. And I got up to stand at the door, and
051at the door was... Thank you. I know she doesn't live here anymore, but she will always be a special to me and hopefully to some of you as well. Some of you may or may not know, she was drafted in the WNBA draft just about two weeks ago to Chicago. So I can't wait to watch her play. I know she may not be watching this, but I'm proud of her, proud of her accomplishments, and I can't wait to watch her play. I'll make a motion to adjourn.