001of the school board of trustees. Right before the meeting I sent everybody the updated version of C 200 which we've received back from council and the request we made was that she take everyone's input keep what's legal and what's recommended for that policy and enfold everyone's suggestions into one policy that hopefully everyone can agree upon. So that is in your email as of Half an hour ago or so, and I understand that's not enough time to review it. Uh, however, I'm hopeful that we can vote on that 1 next month since we've 1st reading and 2nd reading and 4th reading it. And if anyone has any questions in the meantime, please send those to me so that we can get that 1 finalized. Does anyone have any questions. Great. Okay. The second thing I wanted
002to accomplish since The discussion last month indicated that there was a lot of interest in a policy committee. I have ideas about how that would work and what would be most efficient, but I would like to hear from the rest of you what you think that should look like and what would work for the people who are ultimately going to be on it. So would anyone like to start that conversation? Rachel worked in the past if that's at all helpful what we did in the past two iterations of the policies is that we had two board members the superintendent and executive assistant in a room together and we went one policy at a time through them we redlined took selections Made notes. And also at that time made a decision if there was somebody better
003suited to review it. So for example, medical ones went to the nursing staff and we got their input on them. Food related ones, athletics related ones, they all went out to specialists in our schools to kind of have those be reviewed and get feedback. And they came back with a proposal of policy that went through legal review then and came back to us. So from that, Point in time, we took that marked up policy and it went out to the full board in their packet. They had time to review that. We did a 1st reading and offer feedback. They did a 1st, we did a 1st reading 1 month. We would do a 2nd reading where appropriate the 2nd month and then vote to pass. So, or not. That process of having somebody with kind
004of the administrative. Placeholder to keep track of what was there and kind of the piece I left off of that whole process is after we got through the. All of that process Karen Springer will go down and read each 1 of those policies beginning to end and make sure that all the eyes were dotted and T's were crossed. So she was like a final set of eyes on them. That process worked very effectively. We met 2 mornings. month and we're able to complete the process in about two years. A little under two years from beginning to end. And then the other piece of that is that quarterly reviews would come through and we would have to kind of bump any revisions, recommended revisions ahead in that policy committee. But there was no omission of information.
005So what I mean is we didn't rewrite the policy and send it to the board and say, this is what we're doing. This is what we're voting on. We took what was recommended by Neola, let all of our edits or recommendations be public to everyone and reviewing, and then people made a decision based on those. So that was the process that worked very successfully previously. Okay, super. That was also what I had in mind, but I knew that it was because that was what I had done before. Does anyone else have any suggestions for how a policy committee ought to or could function? Since we have seven board members, so next year we have another. seven board members. Anyway, and always there are seven board members. I wonder whether people can rotate and all people
006take care, have several subgroups and to work on it rather than just having one. And another thing is how systematically incorporate the input from families, parents, students, and the relevant group for example when we discuss policy related to special education who should be involved the director teacher paraprofessional representative and you know family and so I feel it needs to kind of change for different policies and we need to have a systematic way to do it to make sure all the major stakeholders are involved and all the board members are involved and let's kind of take care of different parts of it in but that's just my suggestion you know next very soon we will have a new group of board members i feel it's very important to hear what are the new board members prefer
007and so i will say We can surely discuss it but the major work actually will be left to the new group of team new team Whoever that it will be well And that was one of my ideas was to just suspend this conversation entirely until March or April so that our new board members would have time to because regardless there will at least be two and They'll need time to get their bearings with everything before undertaking to do the policy review because that's that's pretty that's a large job so I agree with you that that's not a bad idea but I also think that having a structure in place prior to those new board members coming on would allow them to step into an existing structure rather than having to invent a new structure so
008perhaps if we were to come up with how it would look and Give it a try for a couple of months before the new board members arrive that might be efficient in terms of I Don't know. I've never made a policy committee before we have two months left and only three Members will stay for sure under the rest It's uncertain. So I personally don't feel comfortable making plans for others. Okay. If not, the one who will implement the plan. That's a valid point. Should we just suspend altogether and finish up with C-200 in November and then take December off and let the new board decide how the policies are going to be handled? Unless there's any urgent policy that we have to... Work on it. Otherwise, I feel there's no one to table it. Okay,
009Rachel Tabling it I just want everybody to be aware of what's a likely time frame for that so new members are gonna come on and I would suggest to you that you wouldn't be able to really pull a Policy committee together until at least April you really need to give them a quarter I would say to come up to speed on everything. It's just a lot of content. So, unless they're going to make this their full time job for that 1st month, this is going to be something that has to sit. So, I think we have to look at it and understand. So, if you start a 2 month reading in April, the earliest that you would be passing any new policy would be next June. Okay, and we did check with and. Correct me
010if I'm wrong, but it didn't sound like there was anything so urgent that it needed to be addressed right away. There were a couple of things that were out of compliance in terms of the policy with the new laws, but as long as the practice is compliant with the law, she wasn't worried about it being a vulnerability. Correct. Correct? Okay. So I'm I'm perfectly comfortable with that. The other option is that we do have three members who are going to be continuing into next year. And if the three of you were interested or some combination of you were interested in becoming the policy committee, that that continuity would still exist. And perhaps taking a swing at some of the ones we still have before us would allow. the transition of new board members into the
011process to be less um contentious like if we had a couple months of practice at doing it then they wouldn't be coming into a um unpleasant situation let's put it that way my concern was serving on a committee with mrs mumford is her editorializing the conversation that we have and so i would be cautious or hesitant to serve on a policy committee with her knowing that's a likely outcome. Do you have a response to that? The general way that they followed it, I hope that the policy committee will follow it in the future. The only difference is prior, it wasn't following open door policy, open door law. And so I would like, I mean, our policy committee needs to follow open door law. And so I would propose that we have a public meeting, but
012I don't view it needs to be televised and in a big... setting, it's a committee meeting, but it needs to be announced to the public when we'll be having it. And if we were to list what policies we would be discussing at that committee meeting. then community members who have interest in those particular policies could come and have an opportunity to share. And so this would allow kind of, you know, like Mrs. Witt shared, getting input from administrators on the topics, but also allowing the community to be involved. But yes, I would like to serve on the policy committee, but I do, if I served on it, I would want to follow open door law. So, if I may follow up on that, there's a difference of opinion. There was never an intent to not
013follow open door policy. We were preparing materials and Mrs. Mumford and I have a different interpretation of that. Regardless, her public writing and commentary, sharing her personal opinions in addition to what actually transpired is why I'm not willing. To serve it's not an opinion piece. So I'm not willing to participate in anything there that so it's That's a shame, but that's what it is What about you Lawrence would you be willing to serve with Rachel on the policy committee? Yeah, I'm willing to serve in case You know, we have some these kind of opportunities so people need that but I'm open either way So I'm not strong ratings if people need and then I'm willing to serve But if we have enough people, they're fine. But I mean, regarding the second issue, I mean, the
014separate issue regarding these policies, I'm just thinking, I mean, that's the ratio side. Historically, we spent, say, two meetings per. per month, right? Two meetings per month, so it took two years. So this is a significant effort. So now I'm thinking maybe it's time for us to pause and rethink whether or not we should, I mean, switch, totally switch the policy. I mean, the original policy, from my understanding, serves our service purpose pretty well. And I mean, every two years is pretty... Long time. So I think our board have more other, more important things we should concentrate on. So I'm thinking during the next couple of months, I agree, you know, probably pause a little bit and waiting for the new member came in. And during this time, probably we can think about whether or
015not we should, I mean, make the switch. Well, the problem with stopping is right now we have. Policies from and policies from and the whole point of the exercise to begin with was that the policies weren't consistent with practice and they've also become out of date as we've unsubscribed from. So, we haven't received the updates to those policies that might have been necessary in the interim. So I don't think we can stop Rachel. Well, to be clear, also Lawrence, the 2 years was because we were reviewing thousands of policies. 1 of the things that we're doing through this change to version is reducing the number of them. So I would not anticipate that it would take 2 years. That was 1 of the advantages to making the change. I. I think there'd be less to
016review. Okay. Yeah, that's a, that's another, uh, I think. Yeah, but anyway, that's just the. My my idea so we can think about that. I mean, we can just maybe switch whatever we already have and then Talk with them. They all see how much they were charged for us if we want just continue update for the last years or something Right, but Neil is inconsistent with CCH a practice So our our legal counsel is saying we need you to switch these because these don't match what we do So, I don't I don't know that Neil is still It's not inconsistent with practice. It's a different alignment. It's fewer policies that reach various parties, but they're following Indiana code. Right. But there's no interpretation in there. Indiana code. No. There's not. There's not interpretation. They're following
017the law and then you're adding as a board language that you think. Could be fitting for that policy. Okay. The difference in original interest in the board was that it's fewer words. Okay. So it's shorter. Easier to digest. Yeah, that's another thing. I mean, there are philosophers to just make that. I mean, as simple as possible, that's my understanding. I mean, there's nothing wrong, but I mean, these kind of, uh, I still want to. high quality, not the minimum requirement of loss. I mean, that's make a high quality policy pretty much our boss major duties. So again, I don't have strong willing with that, but I just think, I mean, if we want to use CCHA's policies, probably we need a lot of, add a lot of things into their policies. So that's my concern
018regarding that. Thank you. Well, it sounds to me like there is a lot of support for just taking a break. Um, and waiting until April to begin again. Um, there could very well be a new president between now and then and so it would be fitting for that president to assign these roles. So, if everyone is. Okay, with that, I'm fine with taking a break. It's been. No fun, so, uh, we'll vote on. Next month and the rest is there anything else that we need to address urgently or. Based on her, um, yeah, you've got to pull Jesse's email. I think that we can wait. Great. Okay sounds like a plan. Yes, station I shared back in February and then shared recently asking for it to be put on this agenda. We have policies, for
019example, the library materials policy that was passed last December that, um. Has concerns that doesn't address it says in the policy. If reference, sorry, excuse me. Old policy or the new policy, so the new policy that was passed in December, it was brought at the December school board meeting. I brought up the concern that in the new policy, it references a subsection that doesn't even exist in 1 of our policy. And we were told that the December meeting that this policy age. 250 would be 1 of the very 1st policies that we would address. And, like I said, as I brought, I brought it up in April, June, last week that this needs to be addressed. We were promised this would be addressed if we would pass it in December. And we also the naming
020rights, there's been discussion that the foundation is putting a memorandum together and wants to start fundraising. Yet we haven't discussed our policy on naming rights and then also the conflict of interest is another priority that I had brought up the 825 that we have not been requiring our employees and board members. To disclose conflicts of interest, which. In researching this, this policy come to find out, I think we're the only school district that does not require this. And then I had brought the other 1, the inappropriate policy that was put in place. About board staff communication, so all of those I had shared are not ones that we should be waiting until April. If you decide to postpone the policy committee to address. Okay, then how would you suggest we go about addressing those in
021the. In the time we have remaining, would you suggest that we have an ad hoc policy committee that is convened to deal with those between now and December? And so I'm happy, I mean, I have prepared. And shared with the board, my recommended revisions, I'm happy to sit down with the policy committee. Um, with a committee and discuss it and prep stuff to bring to the board in either November or December. But I do have concerns that these are continuing to be. Ignored would be presumptive ad hoc policy committee be willing to look at those Lawrence and Rachel. If over the next month or 2, and we can get them in December, in case. So, I would be happy to look at those my difficulty and. Mrs Mumford, even in her description of them now
022applied her feelings or her description of their value, saying they're inappropriate or describing them in a particular way. And that's not the work of a policy committee. The policy committee is charged with taking the content, right? The words and the laws and understanding how they would apply, not determining if they are something that we. like or not if that makes sense so um if we were going to engage in those my request and i think would be easiest for lawrence and i probably to process those if we were given the original text completely unmarked from the from legal and then we were allowed to side by side compare that with whatever mrs mumford wants to write out related to that but it's not um i i And of course, it would be, I'm happy to
023do that by posting that meeting. That doesn't offend me in any way. It never was part of our process previously, but there's nothing going on in those conversations as we've described in these meetings before. It's really just about preparing materials for the board to look at. Yep. Um, I think that's reasonable to start with the version from the. Um, legal team and run it through the process that you've proposed and then if. Um, there are revisions to the process that need to occur. You can let us know in December when we also vote on those with that work. Okay, do you want to make a list of the policies that you agree? You're going to create that process through it. Yeah, that's a good idea. I would like those to be clearly defined that that
024is the purpose of the ad hoc committee or certain. Identified policies. Yep. Um, would you like to give me the numbers? Yeah, that was the same as that. I emailed there. C, 200 and that 1's next month. Anti bullying needs to be discussed a, 125 nepotism and conflict of interest. D, 175 board staff communication. H, 250 library materials. And G, 450 and H, 200 naming rights. Those have not received a 1st reading. I had requested that we prioritize this. So, has sent them, but that has not been shared. They have not been even shared publicly yet. Unfortunately, this process has taken longer than anyone could have possibly imagined. So I agree that it's a shame that we have been delayed. However. It is what it is at this point. So I've got H200, H250, A125,
025D175, and G450. And then C200 we're voting on next month. Correct? So four policies? Five. Five policies? Yep. Yeah, we can just say we're working on these five policies and committee finish by the end of the year or something like that. Okay. Where would I do that if we're going to add that to the... Agenda later unfinished business unfinished business. Okay. All right. So I'll have to pull this. Well, we've done the 1st reading on. All but the last 2, I would, I would request that we just start over with them. Okay sounds good. They're new easier. Yep. I'll do the 1st reading tonight. We'll get them on the website. So the policy committee would meet 1st to review those things before they go on the website. Correct. Perfect. To determine what the markups should
026be. Yep. Cool. I like it. And then those would go to the. Full board for review with the markups and at that time they could go up on the website if anybody wanted to look at those. Perfect. And then, um, in terms of scheduling. How many days of notice is it for is it 3. To have a meeting, you have to post it with a certain amount of notice. Roberta, how much are you talking about a work session? Yeah, no, not a work session at committee meeting meeting meeting. Is there a requirement for length of posting? Okay, maybe we can just post it. 3 days ahead of time, if people plenty, would that be acceptable to Asia? Do you know if there's a law for committee meetings? So, I mean, all I have is the
027public access counselors as a comment, but he didn't give me a timeline. The public access counselors comments have been widely varying of late. So I don't know that he is a particularly. Resource particular thank you. Tom. Not a particularly good resource because his, his statements have been so inconsistent. Um, but I heard 72 hours. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. So we'll give a 72 hour notice. We'll post it. I'll let the 2 of you figure out when you're available and where we'll want to have. Well, I would like to request that Roberta and and either Dr. Rainer or. Mrs. Roth be available. Okay, so that we don't go off the. Off the rails in terms of what is appropriate for our schools, we need the. Educational resource and somebody there to help us make sure we
028get the paperwork done correctly. Okay. You do it like 9 in the morning, like we did in the past and this is rather than I both can be available to support like, we did. Okay. Do we need any, why the parents or some other community members? No. And I've emailed it's our job to sit down as board members with expertise. The community, everybody in the community have the opportunity to review. The marked up documents it is 72 hours. It is great. Or 1, 1 decision we could come up with in the process to say, hey, on this 1, we'd like to have feedback from these specialists and can pull in. but in the initial meeting where we would sit down and look at it it there wouldn't be any the community the community would still
029have 60 days worth to to comment on anything they want to comment on that acceptable to everyone are there any problems with this plan because it would be nice if we could start moving quickly. So I want to make sure. I have some pilot things. I'm sorry? I have some pilot, pilot, I mean, committees. We'll try that. See if that works. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. Are we going to have a motion on the formal meetings regarding these decisions? Yes. I wrote it down during unfinished business, so I'll pull the agenda and amend it. I think I'm allowed to do that. Maybe someone else should maybe someone else should pull the agenda out of the consent agenda and move to amend it because I don't think I'm supposed to I would be happy to
030do that. Thank you. I can second that. So we are going to add a motion basically a committee with Rachel and Dasha and no, not Dasha. No, you and Rachel. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Me and Rachel and we also Yep, I mean, persons, but okay. Okay. Super. Um. Along those same lines, does anyone have anything else we need to talk about as far as policy committee goes. No, okay. Super. I appreciate your willing. I'm sorry. Right any public comment. Nope. Okay. Super. I appreciate your willingness. To serve and we'll adjourn the work session at 528 and take a little break and see at 6. This meeting to order, welcome to the October 7th regular meeting of the West Lafayette Community School Corporation Board. I would like to go ahead and start with Willis and
031our special recognitions for the night so you guys can all get back to this beautiful weather. Good evening everyone. Oh, that's very loud. I didn't expect that. Excuse me. I'd like to first start by introducing Beth Stansberry, who's going to come up and do the introductions with me. So Beth, come on up. And if I can have all our students come forward, please. Okay, I'm going to have you guys stand right in front here, and we're going to brag on you. Well, thank you all for coming. We're excited to honor some great students this evening. This is a really great way to have my first board meeting here. We will start, your teachers wrote some very kind things about some awesome kids here. So we're gonna start with Duam Luth. Mrs. Castins wrote that Duam
032displays a remarkable dedication to his education, his attentiveness and eagerness to assist others positively influence his peers and the school community. His motivation and effort are inspiring and his positive attitude will benefit him in his future endeavors. So Duam, thank you so much for being such a great kid. Oh, stay up here. Stay up here. Yeah, good try. You can't leave me up here by myself. I'm going to have you guys all turn around because look behind you. All these amazing people have their cameras shooting right at you. So I want to make sure that they see the best side. James Johnson. James Johnson is a student in fifth grade in Miss Dooley's class and Miss Dooley says, James is an incredibly incredible student and kid. He is a hard worker and does things the
033right way. He is a leader in the classroom and always helps classmates and teachers. James takes care of business with his studies, music and sports and I want to add that he's got a mean kick out on the soccer field too. Next, we have Theo Kruzemark. Theo is the kind of kid that goes the extra mile in everything, is kind to everyone, is creative and articulate and bright, and is a helper. He never draws attention to himself, but he is pretty much always doing the right thing. His quiet, constant ways lead him to deserving recognition for his greatness and his goodness. That's what Mrs. Fernandez wrote about you, so thank you for being so kind. Iman Khan. From Mrs. Brown's class, our fourth grade student here is a very sweet girl who comes in and
034does the right thing every single day. Iman is always willing to participate in classroom discussions, help her classmates, and ensures that she is a role model in our classroom. She deserves recognition for her behavior and for her academics. She is a wonderful part of the classroom. We're proud of you. I was excited to have Beckett on my list. I've known Beckett since he was really little playing under a tree with my daughter at baseball games. Mrs. White wrote that Beckett has exemplified leadership, kindness, and empathy in our classroom since the beginning of the school year. I am so proud of the effort he puts into helping his peers and going above and beyond to be a good role model. Thank you, Beckett. Lawrence Q is a student in Mrs. Abrahamson's classroom. Lawrence is new to
035our school this year and has found his way to the top of the class academically. His strong work ethic, going beyond the minimum asked, and kind personality to everyone makes him an easy choice for this award. We're very proud of you. Mrs. Papano recommended Maddie Clampett Morales. Maddie has a positive attitude in everything she does. She is kind and respectful to every peer and adult that she interacts with. Recently, she won the sixth grade girls mile race. This is because she practiced and persevered. She is a joy to have in class. It was really fun to watch her run across the finish line. Isaac Gleick. Isaac is a kind and friendly student to all that he meets. He is a terrific role model in Mr. Rowe's classroom. He represents responsibility and has never had a
036late assignment. He is currently earning all As. Isaac mastered his multiplication facts early and met his reading goal very quickly. He is an avid learner and always asks for a good challenge. I love seeing how much of an avid reader he is every single day. Congratulations. Mrs. Pearson nominated Ivy Q. Ivy is high achieving in everything she does, including her beautiful artwork and writing. Everything she attempts, she attempts with great effort and high quality standards, regardless if there is a grade standard or grade attached. She is extremely modest and humble about her abilities, which include being very quiet and diligent all day long. I imagine she could fly under the radar easily, which is why she should be celebrated. Great job, Ivan. Mrs. Fouch nominated Summer Johnson. Summer always gives outstanding effort in everything she
037does. Her work is neat and she is always striving to do her personal best. Summer is kind to her peers and is respectful when communicating with adults. She is a quiet leader in the classroom. She does this by constantly modeling appropriate behavior. She deserves to be recognized for her constant efforts in doing the right thing. Congratulations. Next, we have Isaiah Blocky and Mrs. McLaughlin, who's only been with you for a little bit, nominated you because you're the co-leader of the Fourth Grade Trash Club. You advocate to get sustainable supplies to help clean up the playground area during morning recess. She said he's gotten others involved and works to make our school a cleaner place. Isaiah is a great helper and goes above and beyond what he's asked to do. He is always finding little ways
038to keep our classroom and school looking great. And I love how you smile coming into school every day. By the way, I do want to say that he also is the one who created the club and came to me with the proposal to start it. So that was all his idea, and I love it. Colton Nesbitt is in Mr. Harmon's classroom, and Mr. Harmon says that he is an incredibly thoughtful person. When someone needs something, he offers to help. Many students look out for their friends, but Colton looks out for everyone. When someone is caring too much, he offers to help. When it's someone's birthday, he offers to let them be in the front of the line. He is constantly the sample of a simple, kind act, and we should all be doing these things.
039So Colton, congratulations, and keep up the great work. Can someone take a picture for our group? Absolutely, I'd be happy to. Where is my phone? Yeah, I'll take it. Thank you. Okay, so boys and girls, you can take your grown-ups and go enjoy the rest of the evening if you'd like to. You're welcome to stay. but I'm sure you have good stuff to do. Congratulations, everybody. Okay, Mrs. Saros, if you'd like to give us the school spotlight, I'd love to hear what's going on. Yes, thank you. It was so nice to see our students here and several of our teachers that came to support them as well. All right. Great things are happening at West Lafayette Intermediate School, and I'm assuming I don't have a clicker. Are you my clicker? Oh, thank you. Thanks so
040much. All right. So West Lafayette Intermediate School is made up of roughly 535 students. We currently have in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. We also have four essential skills, wonderful students, and a fifth one coming right after fall break. So we're excited to meet another new friend. Our overall free and reduced population is 24.1% based on 2023 data, which is the most updated data that we have. Our overall special education in our building is made up of 8.4%. That makes 45 total special education students, 10 which receive speech and language services only, and 35 of those students are from a resource room, four of the 35 being from our essential skills classroom. Our overall total number of teachers currently is 38, and our support staff, which include lots of areas of our building, which make
041us complete as a building custodial kitchen office staff pair professionals lunchroom supervisors are all included in this number of 39 thank you We are creating memorable, educational, and enjoyable experiences for children featuring activities like math games, favorite book characters, and a love for recreational reading. While many highlights happen each and every day, such as Living History Day and Fifth Grade Camp, Literacy Parade that was today, which filled our halls with wonderful projects that our students created and families that came to see. We know that several of those are not shown in these images, but we know that those are long-standing traditions and fondly remembered by former students and now current students who are making memories in our halls. Our data currently we have for this is based on at or above proficiency for our Indiana
042state testing, which is the ILEARN testing for Willis. In 2022, our math data was at 66.4 and last year at 70.1. And you can see on the right, the Indiana. average was 42.7 in 2223 and 42.3 in 2324. Our language arts scores at the bottom there in 2223 we were at 58.2 and 63.6 last year. and then the state average was at 40.4 and 41.1 percent for English Language Arts and this report came directly from the Indiana Centralized Reporting System which is a secure site. We do have goals that we are working toward and So our, excuse me, two of our goals, one, the first one here is to increase ILEARN math proficiency from 70% to 75% for at or above proficiency. And that is one of our goals in our school improvement plan, which
043is a three-year school improvement plan. And this is our initial year for that. And then our other academic area is for the English language arts proficiency from a 64 to a 69%. Again, looking at at or above proficiency. Some of our things that we're working on this year and beyond we do have a new literacy adoption that just is started this year and our fourth and fifth grade teachers are using wonders with the students that is the program and our sixth grade is using my perspective and so with a new literacy textbook we are working constantly with aligning and also the fact that it is based on the science of reading. So aligning our checkpoints with the curriculum and the standards that we are teaching our students at the time. We also are working very
044heavily together as a group, as a grade level group, to be able to look at data this year. And so once we get those ILEARN checkpoint data pieces back, we will be able to look and see how our students performed and be able to differentiate their instructional needs based on how they perform and what they may need moving forward academically. Another thing that we're working on is professional development. And so again, focusing our attention on aligning the curriculum with the state standards and the checkpoints to make sure that our new curriculum goes along with the pacing and the expectations that we have to be able to match our assessment with what our students are learning at the time. Our teachers in our special area teachers as well are also pulling standards that they can teach
045through their own content to support students growth in those goals. We're also focusing on the data collection that we talked about and using that the ILEARN checkpoints. Our first ILEARN checkpoint will not be until the first week of November so we don't have that data yet but we're anxious to see what that looks like. So the collaboration among staff members such as all teachers, the mental health therapist, behavioral facilitator, paraprofessionals, counselors, our nurse, our SRO, our dean of students, and equity and engagement specialists is crucial in... addressing the diverse needs of our students. This holistic approach allows teachers to concentrate on academic, social, and emotional growth, ensuring that every child's well-being is prioritized. It's important to recognize and celebrate the efforts of all team members who contribute to creating a nurturing and supportive environment for
046our students. Together they make a significant difference in the students' educational experiences and overall development. One way this targeted focus is prioritized is seen through our library. Mrs. Workman has a new monthly library challenge for children. The September challenge was focused on reading books that have a variety of cultures celebrated. The October challenge is about understanding disabilities. She is highlighting the importance of children relating to the main characters in books while encouraging children to continue reading. This is only one example of how our teachers collaborate to benefit our students growth in a variety of ways. And new this year, we will have a cultural night that is an event designed to unite stakeholders by promoting understanding and appreciation of diverse backgrounds. It will feature a variety of traditions, cuisines, and performances showcasing our community's richness.
047Participants are encouraged to share their stories, fostering an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued. The event aims to celebrate individuals' cultures while reinforcing a sense of collective identity based on shared Willis values. Everyone is invited to participate. This gathering seeks to build a stronger, more cohesive community rooted in diversity and mutual respect. So mark your calendars for our celebration that is going to be on January 24th, 2025. Thank you. What questions might you have? Yes. their day are they able to find that time together as a grade level? So our grade level teams have actually been working together long before this year. They select the time that works best for them. Some of them choose to do lunches together. Some of them have chosen to do after school time together. And so our teachers are
048given some capabilities to kind of think about what works for their schedules the best. Any other questions? Yes. Thank you so much for sharing this. It's very very encouraging and impressive. And in particular I noticed that there's a big significant growth in students' academic performance and another is the effort taken in celebrating the culture, different culture and understanding differences. I think that's great. And one thing I remember several months ago, we talked about a summer Head Start program and for kids who need extra help. And I wonder whether you can... share a little update because i am yeah i feel this is quite amazing that we we made such a big improvement on there and both the english and the ela and the math i wonder what's the magic you played well i do think
049that um The Jump Start program was a two-week program right before school started, and it definitely allowed us to be able to give kids a little bit of a boost. But I do think that two weeks is never enough, and so we really need to focus as much as possible during the school year on what we can do with our students. And our teachers are working very closely together, which I think makes a big difference also, because if one teacher finds... a way to reach a group of students that can be benefited by other teachers sharing and they can collaborate and talk about that. And I know that's happening because I see that they have similar lessons that they are sharing with each other. And so if one teacher is working really hard to create
050something that works really well and can share it with a colleague, that colleague benefits and so do those students ultimately. And in return, that colleague will do something and share it with them. team too. So they are really really fantastic at that and I think the more we do that and the more we talk about our student data and taking that data now to the grade level I think is going to be an impactful piece. We were doing it as a building level and we had representatives from each grade level but now we're going to be taking the data discussions about their grade level to the data team so that the teachers are part of those discussions from the very very beginning. Thank you very much. Actually, I happened to go to one of the
051team meetings and it's the first time I went to a teacher-parent meeting. where we meet a group of teachers for the whole sixth grader teachers and which was very impressive it sounds like they have a very strong team and they work collaboratively and yeah that that's great and also i like to take the opportunity to welcome our sister principal and thank you so much for joining our district Thank you. And this was the first time we ever did our sixth grade as a grade level team for the parents because so many sixth graders are shared by many of the sixth grade teachers. So that worked out really, really well. That was their idea and I loved it. It was a great way to meet every parent at one time. Thanks. Yes. Quick question, not question,
052just comments. I think this presentation is very nice for me to understand the school. It is very informative. And also, I see your three years goals is kind of measurable. And also, I mean, it's very clear layout. You can measure that. And also, I think it's quite challenging because I see our school's score per efficiency rate. i checked their percentile most of them are already closed or past the 90 percent percentile so the the target we set up in three years is quite uh quite challenging but uh i really appreciate that i like that you're flying you know everything how details so i appreciate that thank you and i welcome our new assistant principals i my understanding she has a lot of experience and education in the school education so really welcome Thank you. She's
053been fantastic already. And I do want to acknowledge that we have a school improvement committee that helped with the goals. And so our teachers are dedicated to working hard on this. And we know that this is achievable, but we also know that we hope we can surpass that too. Oh, that's great. I like this challenge. Also, I see there are strategies. Most of the actions is kind of actionable strategies, plans, very detailed and actionable. So I appreciate that. Yes, I do think that we're learning a lot about the materials that we have this year with our literacy new materials. And so the more we gain, I think the better that will be, too. And so we're continuing to build on that. And that's where I think the collaboration this year has been really critical. Thank
054you appreciate it. Thank you all so much. Thank you very much. Next we will hear from Mr. Caldwell. Transportation good evening. Thanks for having me. I don't get around here much, but it's good to see everybody. What I have is just a small presentation. It's based on our 2324 school year. Just to give you folks an idea of what we're doing in the transportation department. Right now our staffing, we have 11 route drivers. I have a driver who's part-time drives, part-time in the office. I have a driver who drives. We've also been able to bring our training in-house. So before we had to farm that out to another school corporation, we actually had an individual about two years ago. I was able to get her to train the trainer so we can keep that in-house
055now. Two bus aides on our special needs buses. We're required to have an aide on there, so two of those gals. And then when they're off, I'm the bus aid. And then we have three outside sub drivers. So for transportation, that's our staff right there. That's not a big staff. We have 16 yellow buses, four white mini buses. Three of those you probably see at the high school a lot. They will use those for small groups going out throughout the day. We keep one with us at transportation. Per day, we run 63 routes per day, a.m. and p.m. And if you take that over 178 days school year, 11,214 routes, people say, well, they're small, but that's a lot of routes. The big thing is you see that 520 trips outside of our regular routes
056last year. So that driver could drive at schools, a.m. and p.m., and then outside of that 11,000, we have another 520 trips, be it field trips, athletic events, whatever that our drivers drive each year. Last year, just on our route, we drove 145,000 miles. We also have some additional transportation that we do, McKinney-Vento requirements. We have students who their programming is not within our corporation, and we have to transport them to Tippecanoe School Corporation, the Lafayette School Corporation. Or we have kids who fall under the McKinney-Vento Act. We also have to transport those children so they can finish the school year. We had three last year outside of district. So we had two that actually lived in Tippecanoe County and one in Clinton County. And those three kids alone accumulated 12,513 miles driven just to
057get those kids back to their home school for the school year. Locations we serve. A lot of people don't realize this. We serve our elementary, our intermediate, and our high school. But last year, we also had students at Durgan, Battleground, Greater Lafayette Career Academy. Linwood Preschool, we had a student went to grad's house, a student had time within community center. The alternative school located in this building, which would be great, the student didn't live here so we still had to get into this building. The Wellness Center program, our after-schools program, that's where we transport students from the intermediate school to the Wellness Center and the elementary school to the Wellness Center. We also, some of our special needs kids, there's a jobs program. So those folks will get possibly out of school half day and
058we'll transport those folks to their job. I think we had Purdue, Goodwill, and Taco Bell last year. So we'll pick those kids up midday, take them to their job, drop them off so they can work. I think part of the reason we're successful is you folks and the community. I have great support. I mean, I kind of consider myself a one-man show, but you all are in it with me. And the community is great, you folks regret it. I have great employees. I mean, that little group right there comes to work every day. Now granted, it's my call to stay today, so I have to drive today. But a majority of the time, they're great. I mean, they'll come to work when we need them. They drive extra, as I said, that group right there
059drove an extra 519 trips because I had to send my state to Michigan one trip. But they do a great job for me, great staff. I'm currently down one driver if anybody's interested. There's a lot in application. And that's kind of our school year in a nutshell for transportation. Any questions? Yes? First of all, thank you. I learned this summer because I happen to live on Salisbury that Mr. Caldwell drives the bus to where it needs to be and walks back to his office. That's not inconvenience anyone. So he's put a lot of miles on his feet to doing his job. If the weather's nice. If the weather's nice. Nice little eight mile walk. Yeah. Wow. I. I just had a question for you about the buses and the new setup. I've noticed you're parked
060down here all the time in an office space. Are you finding that helpful? And are the buses behaving as you expect them to behave? Do you have anything coming up that is surprising you with bus wear and tear? We have a couple of buses that are older in our fleet. And then you always have mechanical problems with those as they age. Being down here has personally been great for me. Because when I was initially up at the maintenance barn. The majority of my buses were here. So I would get a call, my bus is not starting. Hey, I have a headlight out. So the movement back and forth. I actually have a closet now where I can put tools, cones, extra coolant. Tippecanoe County, Tippecanoe School Corporation does all of our service and maintenance. For
061them to come across the river is an automatic $60 for a service call. And then they're $60 an hour. So if I have a bus low on coolant. I usually keep about four or five gallons of coolant on hand, diesel exhaust fluid on hand. I can do that and save the corporation money from the service calls, and I can do it a lot quicker than having to wait for them to get here. Have a headlight out. It's easy for me between routes. Go get the headlight at TSC. Come over and install the headlight. Everybody always asks, will you always wear jeans? Well, yes, my wife got tired of me ruining good clothes because I was up under the bus. It just saves the corporation quite a bit of money over the year for minor maintenance
062stuff that I can fill fluids, change a bulb, change a strobe light right here in the parking lot rather than the time to get the bus over there or the service fee for those folks to come over. Thank you. How's the safety, the bus signals, you know, the stop sign goes out? That's a continuous problem. I will say, our last new purchase, first light came out with a new stop arm system, where instead of just a red flashing light, the entire stop arm's illuminated. And you can see the visibility is 10 times greater than the normal stop arm. which when I spec buses Monday, we're going to put that on the new bus purchase also. That bus has had fewer stop-arm violations than our other ones. Whether it's that or not, I'm going to contribute
063to that because low visibility, those things are great. We have some situations that are tough for our drivers. We have students on campus, so we use Williams Street up the hill. Four lanes, no divided, you're required to stop. So we get a lot of stop-arm violations there. Yeager Road, the short chute, 52 to Northwestern, four lanes, no divider. Everybody's required to stop. So a lot of stop-arm violations there. The city police have been great to work for. They can, you know, I give them, hey, here's our hot spots and you'll you'll hear a driver call in. Hey, I just had a runner. Oh, they got him, you know, so they've been great working with transportation to try to nip some of that in the bus. Just as an update to the board and to you,
064Mr. Coldwell, the delegate assembly recently voted on their priorities, legislative priorities, and 1 of them is stop our violations and increasing the. penalty for that. So it's seen at a state level, not just here locally on Northwestern Avenue. There was a bill that the problem we run into is identifying the driver of the vehicle. They tried to get the bill that the vehicle owner was responsible for that. That didn't pass. That would have been great. It's coming back to life, this legislative session. Yes. Thank you so much for your service. And yeah, I feel we are quite lucky that we always have buses for kids to take. And I heard from many districts because of the bus issue and their schedules messed up. And in some of the districts, the parents actually have to carpool
065for kids to go to school because they don't have enough drivers or things like that. And really grateful for that. And I have... several questions first. So do you think we have enough mini buses given we have to serve so many the buses have to serve so many purposes and do you have a situation where you have to students go to many different places but you don't have enough? Would I always like more equipment? Yes. Could I justify that expense? Right now I don't think so. We're hoppy. We try to be as efficient as we can on the routes and on the trips and everything. But what we have right now, we're able to do with our equipment and our staff. So I don't see the need to grow equipment any other than our bus
066replacement plan as we're replacing old equipment as we go on. Now, if we ever hit that, then, of course, then we would sit down and have a talk. We need to add equipment. But when you add equipment, you also have to add people. So that's part of the tough part, getting somebody who wants to drive a bus also. Okay, great to know the students' needs are met so far. Another question I have is something I have been wondering. I know we, if I remember it correctly, we pay TSC 80,000 per year for their service and for parking and the maintenance. first of all, we pretty much don't need their parking. And for maintenance, it sounds like even if we ask them to change the coolant, they have to charge us every time. So I wonder,
067is that a good deal? Is there any alternative? Yes, because right now we don't have the ability to do that. I think if you look for what the service they provide, it's probably a pretty good price as a whole, not being able to complete it ourselves or keep that in-house. So, and those guys are great to work. I can call them 24-7. Unfortunately, I've had to call them in the middle of the night before too. So yeah, they provide a great service for us. And I think overall, if you look at the grand scheme of things, that's not a very bad price that we pay for maintenance on 20 vehicles and 24-hour service. Okay. So they are waiting to provide the service, but still every time we pay for that. And we pay every time
068when the service... The contract comes up every year for renewal. Okay, so to how to other districts do theirs if they don't have their own maintenance team they do the same thing Yeah, they contract with someone some of the smaller district. It could be a local mechanic in the pole barn There's another small school in our county that uses a mechanic in Rossville to maintain their buses everything The thing with the typical new school corporation all of those mechanics are certified There's a couple of those mechanics who have won national competitions on school bus service. So we're getting very good service. Rarely do we have to send a bus back with the same problem. Thank you very much. Yes. I mean you lead the whole team so we have the kids move kids around very
069safely so I appreciate that. Just quick question after you guys move to this new location our drivers pretty happy with you guys can have some meetings professional development or kind of a cup of coffee break or something like that? We have an area where we have a table set up and with the drivers I won't say a lounge but an area where they can come whereas before if we had meetings we did it in the football garage at the complex. or had to reserve the room at the central office, the meeting room at central office. I'll be honest with you, as you can see, I have an older group of folks, and they love the ability to come in before or after a route and go to the bathroom, where we didn't have that before.
070But we had, when we first moved in, we had a little open house with donuts and coffee and everything for them, and they'd come in. My office is always open. They come in and visit or get routes, get information or whatever. So it's nice we're all together in one spot. Kind of have a place. Yes. That's great. Thank you. And feel free to stop in over there sometime. We'll give you a quick tour. It looks a little bit different. Sure, sure. Thank you. Appreciate it. Really happy that's working out. That's super. I love it. Great. Great. I love it. Just the last one. And sorry, I just want to thank you again for so very many people don't know you are the one who remind people, give us the, what's it called? The weather alert.
071Sometimes there's two hour delay. You got up early to test the road to see. I'm the guy out of three in a moment. Yeah, what are we going to do for that day? And that's hard work, and you are the hero behind the scene. Really appreciate that. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you coming tonight. All right, next we have communication from the audience, and first up is John Hannigan. Welcome. Thank you. First of all, I'd like to say thank you for the opportunity to talk to you a little bit about pickleball. Could, by a show of hands, everybody who has played pickleball in the last month, raise your hand. Okay, thank you. It turns out that I've come at a point where I can say, way to go. I appreciate that you're considering working
072with the city. and lining pickleball courts over at the Cumberland Elementary. And I'm going to ask you to line all of them for pickleball. Each pickleball court takes about half the space of a tennis court. And the way that those courts are oriented, as I understand it from memory, is that they're oriented north and south, which is a real plus for us. And if you share the net, You don't have to bring separate pickleball courts out all the time. You don't gain anything more in terms of capacity. But if you bring out pickleball courts to be used, you can double your capacity by having a pickleball court on each side of the tennis net. The net then becomes a backstop. So pickleball was developed in 1965. which is a year that I remember, but some
073of you may not. And we're happy to have public outdoor pickleball courts in town. Pickleball's growing in lots of places, but mostly through younger participation. I understand also that pickleball is a unit in physical education, and we're happy to have that happen as well. So we have good parking. We have a good transition. There's a potential pickleball court by the hill, by this parking lot, but it would be much more expensive to renovate that facility. So we're happy you're making smart use of our money. Do you have any questions? Will you teach me how to play? Sure. Okay. I've got your email. Make a date. That'd be fun. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you very much. Next, we have Colin William. Hi, y'all. At the August meeting, the possibility was raised of student
074and parent feedback being included in teacher evaluations. I'd like to address the problems with such feedback. An article from Stanford University, Course Feedback as a Measure of Teaching Effectiveness, highlighted some of the important conclusions from the overall research literature. These conclusions included, and I'm quoting here, students are well-positioned to speak of their satisfaction with their experience in a course, but are much less capable of assessing an instructor's teaching quality and effectiveness. And, Research has identified a number of factors that affect evaluation scores that are out of an instructor's control. These include an instructor's gender, perceived attractiveness, ethnicity, and race. These issues are consistent with other research. A 2018 article, Gender Bias in Student Evaluations, concluded that, quote, the relationship between gender and teaching evaluations may indicate that the use of valuations in employment decisions is
075discriminatory against women. A 2020 article, Unbiased, Reliable, and Valid Student Evaluations Can Still Be Unfair, notes that even valid, unbiased student evaluation measures carry a, quote, unacceptably high error rate, which can lead to incorrect decisions because faculty with the very highest evaluations are often poor teachers, and those with the very lowest evaluations are often better than the typical instructor. A 2020 meta-analysis, student evaluations of teaching encourages poor teaching and contributes to great inflation, a theoretical and empirical analysis, made the case that student evaluations contribute to great inflation and declines in academic rigor. Needless to say, Feedback from parents would be even more problematic. Their judgments of teachers may be defined by secondhand information from their kids. Now, I don't know how many of you have teenagers, not the most reliable sources of information all the
076time. So those opinions may not be correct, or they may incorrectly attribute problems to the teacher that are actually problems on the part of their children. And that's before considering the ways in which social media outlets could be exploited by parents or students to weaponize such mechanisms. My experience within the district has been that there are plenty of channels via which parents may directly share concerns or praise about teachers within our schools. For that reason, and based on the research literature, I would strongly caution the district against formal use of student and parent feedback within teacher evaluations. Thank you. Next up is Ching-Kook Ko. I hope I did okay. Good evening. I'd like to comment on the board meeting. in the last board meeting, I believe that the board did not follow the bylaws. The
077agenda was properly removed from the consent agenda with two board members voting. That was the board member Wit who made the motion and board member Wang as a seconder. However, no votes were taken to add an agenda item. According to policy, 0166, the order of business may be altered and items added at any meeting by a majority vote of the members present. No votes were taken. Now, on the unvoted on agenda item, the board voted to initiate policy 0167 on board member Mumford. There was a great deal of confusion on what the motion was. After a statement from Board Member Witt, which I will talk about later, she made a request to initiate Policy 0167. Then President Austin made an offer to Board Member Mumford that she would meet with Mumford and the Board's attorney
078privately. When asked to clarify, the President disclosed that she already contacted the Board's attorney before the motion was made. and any votes were taken on initiating the policy. Then she said that the board was voting on whether or not, quote here, we need to have a meeting to explore what has happened, unquote. Now at this point, board member Witt clarified that her motion was to initiate the policy. Are we all confused now? Alright, in this confused state of affair, the President asked for a vote without a second. The minutes, incorrectly recorded that Board Member Wang seconded the motion to initiate the policy. Well, he seconded the motion to remove the agenda from the consent agenda. He could not have seconded the initiation of the policy without knowing the motion. So, the motion was voted on
079without a second. Now, With her disclosure that she contacted the board's attorney before the vote, it appears that the President and some board members, or perhaps some other people, had worked together on this initiation of Policy 167 prior to the meeting. Were there irregular meetings which were prohibited by Policy 0144.2? You're correct. I will say that you are correct. I did... You don't respond now. Okay. I'm just admitting you are correct. I messed up the order of the meeting because of the... Nervousness I felt with the item that was being discussed and I apologize for that. And when I said that I contacted the attorney, I meant that I did it as we were talking because I know how difficult my schedule is. And I wanted to make sure that I did that before I
080forgot or miss spoke. So you're correct. I did. That might have been inappropriate if that had not passed. I could have very easily said, never mind, it didn't pass. But I try to get things done quickly so I don't forget them. And it's very hard up here to listen and hear people and also run the meeting and keep track of everything. I make mistakes and I apologize for that. You don't have to apologize to me. The point is that things need to be taken in certain order. And I don't think we actually respected the bylaw. In any case, can I continue? Sure, of course. All right. Now, in the meeting, allegation was that the summaries from board member Mumford were just her personal speculation. Now, I have attended meetings and I have watched streamings of
081meetings. I respectfully disagree with that assessment. You could easily and objectively verify how factual the summaries were if you attend meetings or watch the streamings. They were not her fabrications. Now, were the summaries unnecessary, quote, mean-spirited and politically motivated without clear beneficial purpose to our students and schools, unquote. I can state emphatically that the summaries from Board Member Mumford informed me greatly about the school district. Thank you. They also made me aware of different and perhaps unpopular viewpoints and opinions, some of which I may not agree with. But we should accept these differences. I believe that the summaries were necessary and they have helped promote transparency. I hope that the Board understands that we all have different opinions and viewpoints. While some community members may not like the summaries, it is a stretch to claim
082that her summaries were quote unnecessary means-spirited and therefore she should be censured because of that. This, I hope, is not what we try to teach our students. If you do not like to hear opposing opinions, suppress them. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Laura Marie Williams. Hello. I am a West Lafayette alumni as well as my brother and sister. I have a current eighth grader within the school corporation. And West Lafayette is a community of great diversity. So we need to really ensure that there is equity and inclusion in what we do because we're a community, we're a melting pot, right? Lots of people coming from all over the world to live here, to try to thrive, to try to have a beautiful community that grows and comes together. So modeling equity and inclusion
083is of paramount importance. I really, the community in the last election voted Daisha Mumford in for a reason because she ran on the issue of transparency. And this was very important to the community. Not a few years back, there was a lot of confusion about a lot of money spent at the high school. And people didn't understand that we got into this, you know, kind of staggering debt situation. And people really wanted more accountability and to know the inner workings and what was happening. So that is why we voted for her. And the community really has the fully legitimate expectation that the board members they voted in work together peacefully, inclusively, to grow equity and inclusion within our community even more. So, censoring... Representative Mumford for something that the community really wants is like centering
084the community. And a lot of us are very upset about it. It really seems unfair, unjust, and really kind of an abuse of power in trying to silence the efforts towards transparency. I mean, all of you could write blogs. We'd probably read them all and appreciate it simply because we need opinions. We need understanding on all the issues. It's too much for us to wrap our heads around, however, or some of us, I should say. And we want to know where people are accountable if things are off. So we appreciate information. So let information not be suppressed. Let it be an open, inclusive board that you have. I'm going to wrap it up. Shoot, I meant to start my clock. I know you all will stop me. We really appreciate Daisha's summaries. That's why we
085voted her in. She campaigned on transparency. We wanted it. She's helping us have that. So censoring her is really censoring the community. It's very upsetting. And it feels like an abuse of power because it feels like silencing the community from, no, you don't need to know that. No, yes, we do need to know that because... you know, the community voted you all in to work together on issues. So I'm going to wrap it up and just say we want fair, appropriate public education for our children. We want equity and inclusion, and we need our board to model that. And, you know, yeah, I guess that's my main point, and I thank you. Thank you. Okay. And last we have Erin Moonwalker. I'm sure many of you recall the active shooter threat that was made at
086the junior high high school in recent memory. So many parents were outraged when the district didn't notify them quickly enough about the threat. So upset in fact that one of the candidates running with our board president is calling for you to hire a communications director. Parents needed that information to arrange alternate transportation for their kids or to know that their kids were safe. I get it. I've heard the superintendent got it too. So why should one child threatening to assault another take up to 48 hours to notify the parents? You are already aware that a child in your district was injured after administrators failed to notify their parents or afford the parents enough information to allow them to implement a safety plan or arrange alternate transportation if needed. Was my child's assault not enough for
087you? How many children have to be injured for this time frame to be reconsidered? I think your policy should align with your mental health professional's duty to warn of an imminent threat. I think your therapists and counselors may ethically have to follow a more stringent rule than you're saying your administrators do. Why does the district feel they are above this requirement? Keep in mind that you are planning to allow your administrators 48 hours to report threats against trans children, children of color, disabled children, and other protected classes despite all the barriers and delays you know their parents may face in efforts to keep them safe. You can't say that you value diversity, equity, and inclusion while you make it harder for us to keep them safe in school or draft policies that weaken their civil
088rights. Additionally, in the recent bullying policy discussion, not only did the board continue to prioritize administrative convenience over children's safety, in my opinion, your board president conducted the conversation with immaturity that spoke volumes to me about how unseriously she took these safety concerns. After the move towards censuring Mrs. Mumford, it appears the Board is wielding their idea of power to hold Mrs. Mumford to higher standards than those of which the Board holds for its leaders. Finally, after what was, in my opinion, the dreadful advice Church, Church, Hiddle, and Antrim gave the District as a taxpayer, I'm requesting that the Board not renew their contract. Recommending caregivers be charged with trespassing should have been a wake-up call for you to terminate their contract. Instead, some of you immediately embraced the policy. And I think everyone should
089be concerned about what is to come if this is the kind of representation our district will receive and how children and caregivers' rights will be regarded. Thank you. okay next up we have our consent agenda and we're going to work really hard to do this correctly is there a motion from the consent agenda thank you and mr marley seconds all in favor of i'm sorry the minutes from the the minutes of the regular meeting Okay, thanks for letting me know we got a vote on this one. Yep. And then don't let me go on. I don't think we have to vote on removing consent agenda items. Just so, you know, it's just a 1st and a 2nd in our school district. You're correct. Sorry. Thank you. God bless. Remove the what the minutes of the
090regular board meeting. Okay. Okay. And that was seconded by Dr. Okay, you are correct. That does not require a vote. So we are moving on with items two, four, five, no exhibit six and seven. And I need a motion on what remains of the consent agenda, please. So moved. All in favor of, of, Accepting the consent agenda, please show your raise your hand. Good grief. Okay. That's 7. Um, this is Julian. So now we will return to the agenda. And Mrs. Witt, you have the floor because you made the motion. Yes, as we discussed in this evening's work session, I would like to add an unfinished business, I'm sorry, this will be a new business item, to add an ad hoc policy committee filled by Mr. Wong and myself to review the five policies discussed
091in our work session that are partially open. Great. I need a second, please. Seconded by Mr. Wong. Any discussion? Cool. All those in favor. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I'm just wondering, can we have more members into these committees, administrators, teachers, parents, some... Uh, committee members, so we can have more input and more perspective when we work on this draft of, uh. Policies okay, this is what would you like to describe the process we've used in the past? Yes. So, as we discussed in work session, the process would be that there would be. Board members and administrator and administrative support in the form of Mrs. Julian who would sit down and review policies that are up. And then not removing any text, but they would, we would red line and highlight different recommendations. Those then would
092be submitted to the board for review. Those then would be put at that time in our. On the website for community review, and it would follow the normal to reading process. So community teacher input would be. Available during that public review period, which would be at least 60 days between meetings. So, the point of these meetings, and we've, we've kind of been doing this for many months and got installed on. A lot of cooks in the kitchen and not being able to move policies through to to have a reasonable review of that. And so this is basically just an early administrative meeting in which we would review the content and make sure it were prepared. Clearly, and that if there were any experts, so, for example, if there were a. A health related 1 that
093are are. Corporation physician and nurses were included in the preparation of that policy. That type of expert guidance. I don't actually think that's the case with any of these 5, but that would be something we would discuss when we meet. So, this process is proposed does not limit the community input. In fact, it might make it clear to our community what it is they're looking at. But it is the role of the board to set policy. So, I'm proposing this as a process as we discussed prior to this meeting. Okay, Mr. Wong, go ahead. I add a little bit on the motion. I think the motion is good. Maybe we can add something like this is kind of advisory committee and the committee will work on the five policies. Five policies. And your committee will
094be dissolved by the end of the year or something like that. So we should make that. That's the nature of an ad hoc committee is that it's formed just of specific people in a specific time for a specific purpose. But I want to make sure that's specifically this advisory. Yep, ad hoc temporary policy committee. In this advisory committee. Policy advisory. And the committee will hold the open door meetings. And it will be finished that file policies and the dissolved by then something like that. Okay, so I will call it the ad hoc temporary policy advisory committee. Yes. Okay. Sounds open door meeting with an open door. That's right. Open door. Okay. Anything else. Great. All those in favor of the ad hoc temporary policy advisory committee with an open door, please indicate with race. Sorry,
095I think we're voting on the agenda. Are we really? Yeah, we are. Okay. All those in favor of adding to the agenda, an ad hoc temporary policy advisory committee with an open door. That's everybody. Okay. Now we have to. Vote on the agenda with the addition. No, now I need a motion. Sorry. Okay. Where are we at? Have we we've approved the agenda with the addition. Cool. Now we're at back to the minutes. Mrs. Mumford. Yes, I would like to make a motion to table. the minutes the community member shared that there are currently inaccurate. I had caught that they had votes that didn't happen and had shared that ahead of time that got corrected, but I have not caught, none of us have caught that it actually is inaccurate. So I make a motion
096to table the minutes so they can be corrected and we'll vote on them next time. Okay. All those in favor of tabling the minutes, please indicate with a raised, oh no, we got to discuss it. Yue, did you have something to say? You're looking at me like the bull. First of all, I think the minutes has much more details than before, which is great. I really appreciate that. But I do think that for the discussion, as one of the audience commented, the discussion around the sensory issue was a... Kind of a little bit confusing and probably for that reason the minutes currently, I think is. Not a completely accurate. I will say, for example, and Mr. 1 and also appreciate him. Deja's effort in keeping the community well informed, but that information is not there.
097He's only said he appreciated that Mrs. Witt's concern. And another thing is Deja actually explained the whole procedure and she basically shared the public record that the... the election board shared with her. Then once she heard concerns about the address and birthday, and she blocked the information immediately. But that information was not there at all. And the current minister only said, oh, she apologized for... for what she did. It sounds like the information was still there or something and just I feel a little bit more details can be provided. And so besides this particular censoring thing, another thing is that you know at that time and I really feel the call for the vote is confusing because at least for me I My interpretation was, okay, Dasha wanted to meet with a lawyer rather than
098meeting with you only. And so you said, we are voting on that. I said, okay, Dasha wants to do that, then why don't we let her do? So that's what I voted for. And again, They just shared the public information that the election board shared with her. And then she corrected. I prefer not to recapitulate. Okay, so I will not repeat. Actually, I also called the election because I'm one of the candidates and my form was shared too. I called the election office. They actually told me that they will share the blame because they usually block, redact that information. And before they shared with anyone who asked for it, but this time they overlooked it. And so they shared something that they usually don't share. They said they will do better in the future. And
099I understand that, you know, everybody makes mistakes. Okay. Okay. So for that point of order, we're talking about voting on minutes. So that's the part of it. We should take a vote on the minutes rather than rehashing what's happened in prior meetings. I agree. This is not the forum for this. Okay. Besides. mean it's still mean it's another issue not related to the censoring it's a point of order okay that's an interruptible we need to take a vote listen what we'll do is we can all share our input on the minutes with mrs julian and get them to a point where we can vote on them next month is that acceptable sure great all those in favor of tabling the minutes for the regular meeting last month I'm sorry? Okay. We point of order. We
100need to vote now and move on. That's how that works. So all those in favor of tabling the minutes and having this conversation with Mrs. Julian privately and then voting next month, please raise your hand. Tabling the minutes. Okay. That's six to all those not in favor. or sorry five to two with mrs witt and mr schott um the nose okay all right thank you moving right along i don't even know where we are okay now we're on the part where we voted for the ad hoc committee so that's the addition we made i need a motion on the ad hoc temporary policy advisory committee with an open door that will work on these five Policies H 250, A 125, D 175, G 450, and H 200. Could I have a motion please? Yes. Lawrence
101moves and is there a second? Rachel, thank you. Is there any discussion of the committee? Great. All those in favor of the ad hoc, et cetera, committee, please raise your hands. That's seven, Mrs. Julian. Cool. Let's move to new business. Oh good, this part has lots of words. Dr. Greiner, how about the district priorities? I'm sorry. It's not as easy as I make it look. All right. So, the purpose of this presentation is simply to provide an update on our current position with regard to the strategic planning process and then to briefly recap what we've done in the past with the use of district priorities. This first slide outlines our progress in the strategic planning process. The surveys have been developed. We've discussed their administration. They're going to actually be administered the week of October
10221st. And surveys will remain open until October 28th. Further details are on this slide, and you all have access to this slide if you want to review. Feel free to reach out with any questions. Over the next few slides, we're going to review district priorities. Some have been completed. Others require significant funding and so they have not been touched upon yet. Our priorities, as you can see, are categorized into five areas. Academics, whole child approach, facilities, finance, and communications. And then under each one of those is a goal. And then under each goal are three strategies that we were focusing on. So, we used color coding throughout this presentation. If you see blue, that means that we've addressed the goal, but it will require ongoing work. If it's green, it means the goal is completed
103and yellow means we haven't yet worked on that strategy. Strategy one, we continue offering PD opportunities throughout the building. Level, but we also at the district level have the WVC PD consortium where we offer. Professional development opportunities to teachers. For strategy to each school has a team addressing student needs, but we are also working on consistency across the building. So we will continue to focus on this area as well. The pre gay pilot program is up and going as you're aware. So that 1 is marked green. This slide focuses on our whole child efforts, supporting students beyond academics. For this 1st strategy, the website's been updated and it was developed based on community feedback. 2nd strategy requires board evaluation. And the 3rd strategy, we've created a way for parents. And community to share positive news,
104we. Promote that in our newsletter, and then we have a dedicated email that we also promote when we promote this particular way of. Spreading good news or sharing good news within our newsletter. This next slide focuses on facilities and upkeep strategy. 1, we hope to address this through the upcoming geo bond as it hasn't been resolved yet. Strategy to the will stuff is willing to fundraise for the ground floor project. The 1st phase, particularly the board will vote on whether to allow use of the 1.6Million from will set funds for that 1st phase at some point. And then our third one you heard from our transportation director, Mr. Caldwell. We've moved him into our previous central office and that's also freed up space for him for bus parking and you heard that he appreciates his
105new home. Our finance goal, we've made progress on all strategies and they will continue though to develop. We continue to express gratitude for the community's support with regard to renewing the referendum in 2023. Our planning efforts to collaborate with the WSF and fundraise for the ground floor are underway. And we have aligned the state guidelines to no longer charge for textbook rental or resources while also remaining committed to quality resources for teachers and students. Our priority related to communications, we've made progress on all of those. You can see those are in green. Our preschool pilots up and running. We've even heard good news or appreciation at our board meetings. Strategy two, behavioral concerns, led us to hire both a behavior specialist teacher and an additional behavior facilitator. And then for strategy 3 job descriptions for
106equity and engagement position, and the mental health position now include quantifiable measures that we had talked about and updates will occur with these individuals report to the board on an annual basis. In conclusion, we're excited to continue with the strategic planning process, gather rather broader input and collaborate to ensure continuous improvement for our students. Thank you. all right thank you very much my pleasure the next item on the agenda is for the board to hold a project and preliminary hearing on the proposed construction project for a general obligation bond if you're interested in speaking during the hearing please make sure you've signed the sign-in sheet which i stole yes i'm sorry yes of course we can um five minute break uh we'll come back at 7 23. thanks Excited about the microphone. Forgot to it
107so that we can get out of here in this lifetime. So it's 7 23. Let's move on. Sorry about forgetting that. It's a lot right now. The next item on the agenda is for the board to hold a project in preliminary hearing on the proposed construction project for a general obligation bond. If you are interested in speaking during the hearing, nobody signed up. Is anybody interested? Great. After a presentation by administration and its advisors, there will be an opportunity for the public to make comment about the project. The notice of this preliminary determination hearing was published as legally required on September 5th and posted on the school corporation website. The first preliminary determination hearing was held on September 16th. At this time, I will ask that the representative from Ice Miller explain the purpose of
108this hearing. Whenever a school corporation wants to spend more than a 1M dollars on a building, it must 1st, hold a hearing in addition under another Indiana statute. Whenever a school corporation wants to spend above a certain threshold, they also have to hold a hearing these hearings set forth the maximum parameters of your borrowing as Lindsay will talk about. The adoption of these resolutions and the hearings are the very beginning of the legal process and again, only set forth the maximums. I do want to introduce Kristen McClellan from Ice Meller. She's worked with Jane Perkins for several, several years. And I think I've known you for several years, too. So we're happy that Kristen's here tonight to join us. Thank you, Michelle. We will now hear from Dr. Greiner and Mrs. Cronk about the process
109of determining and communicating the project to the community and the need for the project. Yeah, Mrs. will again speak to the list of potential priority projects. Before I turn it over to Mrs. I would like to state again that the projects are taken from the feasibility study that was conducted in 2022 by a fanning Howie. You're aware that the study is a working document while dates are aligned to each project. The necessity of the projects can be situational. An example would be the tennis courts. The tennis courts are actually scheduled a little later, but we know that they are in great need to be replaced. Now, we'd also like to confirm that the city has pledged through the redevelopment commission 750,000 dollars to support the tennis court project if we move forward with it. And
110at this time, Mrs practice speak more in detail about the potential projects. So as Dr. Granner indicated, we did use the feasibility study to guide the development of the potential project list. That list has been shared publicly once again for this meeting. It's the same document that was shared at the September 16th board meeting. We have various preventative maintenance projects and equipment needs across the district that can't necessarily be completed as our needs currently outweigh available funds in the operations fund. We currently only receive enough money in that operations fund to take care of annual maintenance contracts, utilities, and other operational expenditures that are required from that fund. Potential projects include district HVAC, lighting, roofing replacements, along with athletics upgrades, potential bus purchases, and other school building upgrades as funding allows. I would like to
111clarify that for the Happy Hollow item, we would be pursuing the partial demolition of that building if we were to move forward with that project, as there are still places, like this one, being used within this building. This list is a potential list as they are known needs, but this process allows us to use bond funding for other needs that might arise and fit the project definition. As always, any projects would come to the board for approval as they are needed. We will now hear from Baker Tilly about how the proposed project will be financed as well as information about the effect on the typical property taxpayer. Thank you. My name is Lindsay Simonetto with Baker Tilly. Hopefully you can hear me okay. This is the same presentation that we have presented at the September
11216th hearing and a meeting prior. So it might look familiar, but we are going to walk through the existing debt structure of the district and then the proposed financing again, walking through those maximum parameters and layering that in with your existing debt structure. And then we'll conclude by talking about the impact to a typical taxpayer. We, oh, I'm sorry, go ahead. On slide three here, this is a graph of all the bonds that you have outstanding. So the payments there total about six to seven million dollars annually. If you flip to the next slide, there is A schedule that is the detail behind that graph. So this is here for reference to show all of the bonds that are outstanding what their annual payments are. The other thing that is on this slide are what's
113known as call dates. So those are the dates that these bonds could be refinanced or refunded if interest rates were favorable. Slide five represents, this is a calculation of your general obligation bonding capacity. So every taxing unit in the state of Indiana has a limit to how much that they can issue that is general obligation, and it's tied to the net assessed valuation. So based off of your 2025 certified assessed value, the formula here that's outlined, it's 2% of one-third of your assessed value. So your general obligation capacity, your ability right now, what could be issued as general obligation is $8,521,000. However, with conversations with administration, and what the needs listing is the borrowing amount that is being proposed here as a maximum. Which is listed on slide 7 is. A maximum borrowing amount of
1146,200,000 dollars. So, again, as Kristen mentioned, part of the purpose of tonight's meeting is to set maximum parameters. So these are our maximums that you can come down from, but you cannot exceed. So, based on that borrowing amount. We are estimating that the proceeds that will then be available for hard and soft construction related costs is 6Million dollars. We've assumed that these bonds would be issued in December of this year and have a repayment term of just over six years. The interest expense over the full life of the bonds is estimated at just under $724,000, again, based upon maximum interest rates. And with this proposed financing folded in as well as utilizing some funds from a prior bond issue that had been designated to pay down debt service. The tax rate that we're anticipating would
115not exceed what it was in 2023 and what it has been for several years prior to that. But it is, if you compare back to what the tax rate is this year, it is an increase of 4.66 cents. And I think that shows a little bit better on the graph. So the gray bars, those represent all the bonds currently outstanding that we looked at in the earlier graph. And the gold bars represent this proposed financing. The solid. Part of the gold bars represent this proposed financing that would be funded through property tax levy. And the pattern bar is. You paying using that that. the old bond proceeds to pay down that first payment in 2025. So you can see that most of that payment in 2025 is that patterned bar and that will be the
116the plan is that that would be paid for with bond proceeds that have been designated for that purpose. The black line represents the debt service tax rate over this life of all the bonds outstanding. So in 2023, that tax rate was about 53 cents is down to about 49 cents in 2024. And you can see that beginning in 2025, this assumes that that tax rate goes back to where it was in 2023. And then the bottom line that is bluish dotted, that represents the estimated cash balance that can be held in your debt service fund. And that essentially is a working balance of an ability to carry some funds on hand over the life of the bonds to protect against if you had a shortfall in taxes or anything like that. So then on slide
117nine, we have the impact for different types of taxpayers. We've shown here Home values ranging from 150,000 dollars up to 600,000 dollars. These are assumed to be homestead properties, meaning it is a primary residence and therefore eligible for certain deductions, homestead deductions. So, for example, if we focus in on the home value listed of 308,100 dollars. That is the median home value in the district. After taking into account homestead deductions that that median home would be eligible for, that median home's net assessed value or its taxable value is the $169,000 figure. So based on that median home, the estimated impact for that median home is about $78 for the year or $6.57 per month. We've also included commercial and rental property here. And these types of properties are not eligible for those same homestead deductions.
118So this can be utilized as a multiplier. So we've shown it per $100,000. So, per 100,000 dollars for a commercial or rental property is about 46 dollars and 60 cents for the year. Or 3 dollars and 88 cents per month. The other thing that I will point out here is. These impacts assume that these taxpayers are not at their circuit breaker tax cap. So any property that is at their cap, they wouldn't see this additional impact because they've already hit their tax cap. So this is really for those properties that are below their cap, but it can vary depending upon where they fall in relation to their cap. So these are intended to be again those higher numbers for assuming nobody is at their cap and paying that full 4.6. 4.66 cent rate. Thank you.
119We will now open the public hearing since I grabbed the sheet early. Does anyone want to say anything? Super. Thank you to all who participated in the hearing. We appreciate your time and interest in the project and the future of our community. The board will continue to work with the administration and its professionals to look for efficiencies to conserve tax dollars while meeting our educational needs. If I could please have bond council summarize the first resolution we need to adopt this evening, the project resolution. The first resolution that you have for consideration tonight is the project resolution again. It's required any time the school wants to put more than a million dollars into a building as I mentioned it does Include the maximum borrowing amounts just to set our parameters Hey, I need a motion,
120please move by mrs. Witt seconded by mr. Marley any discussion Cool all those in favor of the project resolution, please indicate with your hands great. That's everybody mrs. Julian From the page Could you please also summarize the preliminary determination resolution? Sure. The preliminary determination resolution is the second part of that hearing. This is required when a school corporation proposes to spend above a certain threshold in a project. Again, it does, too, have maximum borrowing amounts. It also includes maximum tax rate and what the tax rate would look like over the next 10 years. Okay. I need a motion. Moved by Lawrence, seconded by Brad. Any discussion? Cool. All those in favor of the preliminary determination resolution. That's everybody. Could you please summarize the preliminary bond resolution? So the preliminary bond resolution that's included in your
121packet is really just to say that you are ready to move forward with the issuance of bond bonds again. It includes that maximum borrowing amount. No set terms. Okay, need a motion please. Moved by Rachel, I miss that. Seconded by Lawrence. Any discussion. Cool all those in favor, please raise your hands. That's everybody. Miss Julian. And 1 more time, could you please summarize the. The reimbursement resolution sure the reimbursement resolution is required under federal tax law. What it allows the school to do if you adopt it is, for example, if you have to order something and pay for it out of operations on a rainy day, this would allow Michelle to then reimburse operations or rainy day from the tax proceeds or from the bond proceeds. Okay, the emotions moved by Brad. 2nd, by Lawrence
122any discussion. Great all those in favor. That's everybody. Mrs. Julia. Thank you all and Next we go to the budget which is Okay, we repeat I could talk tonight great we reviewed the 2025 budget at the board meeting on September 16th and you were provided packets with related documents the public hearing for the 2025 budget also took place that evening to hear any public comment Tonight is the official adoption of the 2025 budget. You have several resolutions that will need to be approved this evening so that I can move forward and submit to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance for state approval prior to December 31st. You will first consider budget form 4, which covers the adoption of the school budget and the education, operations, referendum, rainy day, and debt service funds. This is
123the final approval of the total amounts for each fund as well as the maximum property tax rate levies. Tax levies will change if the state will apply official assessed values and other information to the requested budgets. Remember that we always advertise high, as I said during the budget workshop, to ensure that we get our desired rates and levies. The DLGF will only approve what is allowed. Please approve as submitted. Okay. I need a motion, please. Moved by Lawrence. Seconded by Rachel. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hands. That's everybody, Mrs. Julian. Next. Next will be the adoption of the 2025 Referendum Revenue Spending Plan. This document was created to mirror the original revenue spending plan for the referendum. Revenue was updated to this year's revenue, and the spending for each category remained
124the same percentage of the total. as last year. Please remember that we have budgeted to use some of the cash balance of the referendum fund in 2025 to take some pressure off of the operations fund. Please approve as submitted. Okay, I need a motion, please. Moved by Lawrence, seconded by Brad. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hands. That's everybody, Mrs. Julian. Keep going. We're doing great. Next will be the adoption of the capital expenditures plan. This plan outlines possible capital equipment and project expenditures over the next three years. The plan is not final, but can be amended over time. as we mentioned it has a lot to do with actual cash on hand and what we what we're able to finish with that cash on hand and if we're able to get
125more cash approval of this plan will be accomplished the resolution to adopt the 2025 capital expenditures fund plan please approve as submitted motion please moved by lawrence seconded by rachel any discussion great all those in favor please raise your hand that's everybody mrs julian let's see if we can make it a Straight on the first page. Go ahead. Okay. The third resolution is the resolution to adopt the 2025 bus replacement plan, which outlines the plan for bus replacement over the next five years. Please approve as submitted. Who's got a motion? Lawrence, seconded by Brad. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hands. That is seven again. Thank you. I will say it's a lot easier to do a bus replacement plan for 16 buses than it was for 60 buses. Next is the
126resolution of budget authority, which allows us to make necessary reductions of appropriations or 2025 appropriations in order to fund the budget once it's established. This might be done to more closely match actual cash balances or to decrease appropriations if it's not needed. Please approve as submitted. Motion, please. Rachel. Seconded by Brad. All those are discussion. No all those in favor, please. Oh, okay. You do have discussion. Go ahead. Asia I just wanted to share that I will not be going to approve this because I would like the board to Have the authority to review and approve financial decisions So as we discussed them in this came up last year I think that we make better financial decisions in the school district when administrators are required to present their justifications and approval to the board Instead
127of just a blanket approval Rachel, I would like to say, because I wouldn't want anybody observing this meeting to think otherwise that Dr. Greiner and Mrs. Cronk and Mrs. Roth have always been incredibly forthcoming with information and presenting that publicly into the board. And I think that their level of professionalism is well proven out. And this is a matter of administrative processing. Thank you. Thank you to both Dr. Greiner and Mrs. Cronk for your conscientious efforts to keep the board always involved. You're welcome. Lawrence? Yeah, I think I think our school balls duty and also our authorities To make budget and also we are school board pretty much hold accountable for the schools corporations sovereignty and also this is a I think is kind of Indiana code specifically We scored how big target to appropriate
128fun and that would dis disperse the money of our school corporation in accordance with applicable laws. So I think it's our school board's duty to make these budget decisions. I appreciate our school admins and also our CFO, Ms. Crunk. They did excellent work. I have no problem with them. But I think this kind of teamwork and our current procedure. And the procedure, I mean, what we're doing right now is the administration submit the recommendations and we scoop out the discussion and approve that. I think this teamwork is pretty good one. We can have a balanced efficiency and also... The accountability, so I think our current practice is good one too. So we can work together as a team to make decisions regarding how to use the public. And that's that's also our school boards and
129major responsibilities, which is overseeing the financial situation, how to use the public. So, I don't think this. This motion is necessary so so that's my opinion. Thank you. Okay, anyone else sure. Sorry, we need the. Okay, so as I mentioned, a reduction of appropriation might be if we were having cash flow issues at the end of the year, I could actually cut the appropriation so those appropriations would not be available to spend. And so that's what this resolution of budget authority would allow me to do. Also, for instance, we are cutting, we will be cutting appropriations and say the operations fund in order to fund the 2025 budget because we don't need all of those appropriations in 2025. So we're cutting those appropriations to fund the 2025 budget through the DLGF. So those are examples
130of when I would cut appropriations. And when you say cut appropriations, you mean if there's $50,000 in a pile for new chairs and we don't need the chairs? It would be in any particular account line. Right. If we don't need to spend that money, they need to move it back into an area where we need to spend the money. Spending more you're correct. I'm actually taking away the ability to spend it. Is that clear? Cool. And so how are we. Informed about the, if I ever needed to do that, I would definitely tell you because we would have some major issues if if I had to cut appropriations. Yes, we put it in credit notes for 1 thing and give you a heads up early on what we were thinking and allow for opportunity for
131discussion. But I will tell you one, like I said, is the operations fund. We planned when building the 2025 budget to cut some of the appropriations that we will not be using in the operations fund in 2024 to fund the 25 budget. So it's used for some urgent needs? I can't. Is it used for some urgent needs? This is to cut appropriations, not to add appropriations. If we did an additional appropriation, that is something I would bring and there's an additional appropriation hearing that has to happen for you to approve additional appropriations. Rachel Lawrence made reference to the fact that this might not be legal as my understanding. This is quite legal and I don't believe that they. Michelle or Sean would put something illegal in front of us. So is this authority resolution of
132budget authority in line with. Indiana code and is it something typically done inside of everything that I've always done? Yes, it is. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I don't I don't mean. What we are doing is illegal. I'm just saying. Uh, okay, marketing, make bodies, the authority of school board. We don't want to relinquish this authority and these also our, our. duties. It's part of our due diligence. We don't want to give up our works. It's part of our due diligence. We review the financial decisions and review that and approve them. So that's part of our job. Thank you. Okay, just want to make sure we all understand that an appropriation is like I'm gonna spend $6,000 on groceries this year That's what I'm budgeting and that $6,000 is the appropriation But let's say
133food costs go down and electricity costs go up. This is saying that Michelle can change the $6,000 to $5,000 and then spend that extra thousand dollars on electricity Yeah, I understand. Okay. Also, our, yes, our school policy, I think it's 6231, I think, regarding the administration's implementations of school budget. And they specifically talk about if there's, they want to reduce, if a school meeting think there's necessarily reduce the appropriations, they can submit a recommendation to the board. So I approve. Glad you understand. Yeah. All those in favor of the resolution, please raise your hands. That's five. All those not in favor, please raise your hands. That's Mrs. Mumford and Mr. Wong. So five to two, the motion passes. Okay, lastly, it's a transfer and loan resolution, which allows us to transfer or make loans between
134funds as needed for cash flow purposes. We have not done any transfers to date this year. If the GEO bond is approved, we will transfer the remaining amount in the 2017 lease to the Debt Service Fund to fund the Debt Payment 2025, as is currently budgeted and was discussed in Ms. Simonetto's presentation. Please approve as submitted. A motion, please. So moved. Moved by Rachel. Seconded by Brad any discussion? Aisha and for the same reason I'll be voting against this policy I think the board shouldn't be quick to give up their authority over financial decisions I do trust our administrators that has nothing to do with trust But there's value in requiring them to explain these financial moves to the board So, I understand from reading in Friday notes that some of the concerns is with
135the funds needing to do transfers from payroll to payroll to cover that. And so I would like to see a discussion or see how we can address that outside of the box. Because the intent is not to make more work on you, but trying to address that situation. I don't believe we need to do just a blanket. Without coming to the board, so. okay anybody else Lawrence yeah pretty much the same uh same Same reasonings for me to totally trust our administration and appreciate our works. I just think the risk of all though shouldn't diminish our authorities and also we should do our due diligence in terms of overseeing finance. Thank you, appreciate it. Rachel? I think it's important to allow our administrators to do the jobs we've hired them to do and not further
136complicate those matters. Anybody else? We really say that when that happens, we will be keep informed just we won't have a formal vote. And so we still have opportunity to provide feedback just like the Friday notes, things like that. Yes. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Anybody else? Cool. All those in favor, please show your hands. That's five, Mrs. Julian. All those opposed? That's Mr. Long and Mrs. Mumford once again. Okay. And Michelle, now let's talk about health insurance. Yeah. We met with our insurance consultant through Brown and Brown on September 30th to discuss the Anthem medical and dental insurance renewal for 2025. Rates for Vision Life and LTD are locked in for another year at this time. Our consultant discussed the insurance market as well as provided information from Anthem for the renewal. We discussed that
137the current market trend is seeing an 8% increase in medical claims and a 13% increase in pharmacy claims, leading to increases in insurance premiums across the market. Diane Tentionel did mention that she believes our clinic has had a positive effect on our medical claims. We're still under contract for another year with that clinic. It was agreed upon that we would institute only a 2% increase on medical insurance premiums for the 2025 plan year, which equates to, for a single PPO plan, So employee is only an increase of 60 cents per pay and for the single high deductible plan is 44 cents per pay. It was also discussed that since we have not had an increase in the Anthem dental premium since 2019, Anthem did call for a 12.5% increase for the 2025 plan year that
138will lock in for 2026 as well. I know that sounds like a lot, but this actually only amounts to an additional $1.60 per pay for a single employee dental plan. Please note that while the total premium costs would be increasing, the corporation does pay a percentage of the premium and therefore shares the large part of the increase. The total cost of the premium increases for the district will be approximately $60,000 for the 2025 plan year. Please approve the recommended changes to the medical and dental premiums for the 2025 plan year as well as the anthro renewal so that we can move forward with open enrollment planning. I need a motion, please. Moved by Rachel. Seconded by Lawrence any discussion Rachel. So, I wanted to thank you. I really appreciated the clear explanations inside of the
139review document on what the different things are. I know that. A lot of our experienced staff are familiar with some of that language, but we also have a lot of young staff. And so I really appreciate that you've included that. Insurance is just a complex thing, period. It is. So it's really nice. I really like the user-friendliness of this document. I just have a little bit of a philosophical question on this one. There's one theory, which is... hey, we're seeing 8%, we're seeing this, we're seeing this year after year, wait like we did in dental until you're hitting a 12% increase. And that can feel a little bit shocking, not in the case of dental, but in the case of health. Has there been any conversation or thought process behind kind of... understanding it's going
140up and offering staff a more gradual increase rather than a shocking one after a larger period of time. Well, we did do a larger increase in medical last year. And so the 2% is. I'm not going to say because we did a larger increase last year, but looking at everything going into our partially self-funded plan, we felt comfortable doing a 2% because we're working on that cash balance and that self-insurance fund. There's a lot of information in that packet about that. So we hope to never actually have to do a really large increase. Diane did talk about in a self-funded plan, it's always good to... have some sort of premium increase so that you don't have a big shock later on down the road. Believe me, I've had to deal with that before in a
141previous district. It's not fun. Well, that's the nature of my concern or question. And this advisory team, coupled with Diane, when they talk, they talk about that. So last year when we did the larger one, it was talked about. what is the right amount to balance that out the following year? And then in a year like this, you have that same dialogue so that when those increases unexpectedly come, it balances out. And I think dental very, I was surprised at the dental too, to be honest, because dental very rarely changes. But for whatever reason, Anthem for the past five years, they kept everything the same. And then for this year, they're like, nope, we want you to do a 12.5% increase. I'm not surprised to know that you have it in hand, but thank you
142for the explanation. I appreciate it. Great. Yuwei. This is directly related to the teachers and staff members and how we kind of solicited their input for this. Yeah, the teachers were actually in that meeting. Yes, a group of teachers. Yes. Okay. Thanks. So they are happy with this. Okay. Thank you. Actually, um, really made the decision. So. Thank you. Okay. All those in favor of the renewal, please raise your hands. That's everybody. Mrs. Julian. And last but not least, the business office update. million one hundred seventy five thousand eight hundred sixty three dollars the education fund balance was five million nine hundred seven thousand seven hundred four dollars and ninety nine cents preliminary fund report for September is also included in your board packet we have not yet finished reconciling month I do want to
143go ahead and address a question that was asked there was a claims docket for internal adjustments that's a little bit different than what you've seen before that actually had to do with a federal grant that We didn't charge directly to that federal grant throughout the year. So that was paying back the school corporation for expenses that should have come from the federal grant. And so I did that through an internal bank so you could still see what was done with that. But that's why it's a separate claims docket. Okay. Next up, we have info to the board from Sean. Can I ask a quick question? Sure. Yeah. Just regarding the financial thing. Last time we have we have a we were started meeting Miss Mufford and the waste our attorneys so for that meeting how
144much they were charged for us for that meeting Yeah, the our CCI tree the there hasn't been any information about an additional charge So that's just a bit in there. It's part of their regular service. Okay, and we're working on scheduling that We needed to get the draft resolution from Jesse initially, and Mrs. Mumford has reviewed that and we're working on. You have not shared. Okay. I emailed it to you. I can do it again. I can do it right now. Okay, thank you. They promise that it's a part of the retainer. We won't be charged for that. They haven't promised anything, but they did not mention a. Any additional charge, Rachel, our agreement was church church, chittle and Antrim that was negotiated at the time that Dr. Ian and Mr Marley and I made
145that initial review was that any time there would be a fee in addition to the retainer, they would announce that in advance. Okay, can you double check with them? Because I 1st of all, I don't think it's necessary, but if we have to do it, I hope they won't charge us because again, I think it's unnecessary. Rachel, it was necessary because the majority of the vote board voted and indicated that it was to happen. So that's a decision of the board that now has to process out. So it's become necessary because of a vote by the board. We can't not do it. Okay. Um, I feel that's what. They just said she used to meet with the attorney, but if it. Means a cost for the whole district. I would like to ask Dija again
146whether she thinks it's necessary I vote yes just to support her to meet with a lawyer because she was attacked online and in person at the meeting I feel the only way for her to get out of this attack is to meet with a lawyer to get a claim Okay, I am asking Jesse right now. Is there an additional cost for the meeting or is that under the retainer? I appreciate that. Sure. Yes, Rachel. It's a vote by the board. The decision made by the majority of the board. You can't change the decision or debate the decision after the decision has been made. So the meeting has to happen because the majority, six out of seven members, voted that that meeting should happen and that 167 would be enacted. That's all there is to it.
147It has to happen. At this point in time, there's not any changing of that. And the six of us who voted for that to happen are the majority of the board. Okay. I understand. And I thank you for getting the additional information about cost. But it doesn't change the decision and what has to happen Morris yeah, I'm just wondering maybe we need a little more time to study that world because that note doesn't have a second So I'm not sure if that's a valid or not. So maybe we need to double check and make sure That's the we follow the policy and that's the value the ready to vote. Yeah, it's my my my concern Certainly someone could make a motion if they wanted to to retake the vote I suppose but I think Rachel's
148correct that once the decision has been made you don't We didn't follow the policies. I mean, there is a procedure. So I'm not sure if that's my concerns. I mean, we, we, we scoop our and follow the, the, whatever the point of order. We're not discussing the subject matter at hand. Cool. But you didn't just the decision was based on the wrong point of order. It's time to move on. I'm going to go ahead and give my report and we're going to move on and we can. Discuss this at a later time Dr. Griner's evaluation. I we met we discussed. I would like to set a due date of October 21st. I know that's 2 weeks. I hope that you've been considering that and that we can move forward if there's any reason why that
149doesn't work for anyone. Please let me know. I attended the Hoosier Women Forward Luncheon as the guest of Chris Campbell and it was inspiring and I really appreciate her including me in that. I also attended the ISBA conference in Indianapolis and I've submitted my report to Roberta and our November meeting will be here instead of at our new office because of table delays. So we will continue to meet here until you hear otherwise. Tom, go ahead with your report. Is it about my report? It is October 21st. Yes. Thank you. So, I need you to help me understand you had said that boards will be censured if we ask questions about the evaluation process and I have questions about the process. I understand we don't discuss the evaluation itself, but you said we can't discuss
150the process publicly. So you can ask a question about the process. We can't discuss the evaluation itself. Okay. Correct. But that I'm glad to do it. So, my few questions are, when will the timeline and steps for the process be shared? Um, I. We are going to collect the information. It's going to take me some time to compile it. And then I'm going to meet with the board officers and we'll determine how to proceed. But it will be probably late November, early December before we complete the process, which is in line with when Dr. Greiner started in the beginning of January. Right. I just my experience last year was from the very beginning. We had a very clear timeline and steps in the process. of what points are only board leadership what points are an
151executive meeting so i just haven't seen anything i wondered when that would i honestly cannot predict um my own availability and i don't know how long it's going to take me to compile that information so as soon as i know i will make sure i give you plenty of warning that things have been completed but i honestly with The rest of my life can't ever predict how it's going to go. Yes, Rachel. I know 1 of the things along timeline that we had discussed is that it is not reasonable for any. New members of the board to come in and try and evaluate Dr. Greiner. And so the intent was that the hard stop on that would be the. the month of December. Correct. Is that in line with what you're saying as well? Yes,
152I intend to complete it by the end of December. But like I said, I have other obligations that do not allow me to predict how long it's going to, I've never done this before, so I don't know how long it's going to take me to compile all that information or anything else. So, okay. Anything else? Cool. Tom, go ahead. Over the last few weeks, WLASF has hosted two alumni reunions for the class of 1964 and 1974. Both classes took a tour of the junior and senior high school and loved seeing how the buildings evolved over the years. The fall round of teacher grant applications are due by October 25 and will be announced before Thanksgiving break. The next teacher grant cycle will open in January and will also include the opportunity for coaches to apply
153for grants to the John Taylor Endowment for Athletics. The foundation has its first renewable scholarship established by Gary and Michelle Lehman. Recipients will be known as Lehman Family Scholars and can receive the scholarship for up to four years of undergraduate education. The Lehman Scholarship brings the total to 26 scholarships offered through the foundation. Thank you to Gary and Michelle for supporting our graduates in this way. The foundation received a wonderful gift from one of our community partners, Summers Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. Representatives from summers delivered a check for 6,375 dollars. To benefit the West Lafayette backpack program, we appreciate their support for the backpack program during a time when volunteers are packing. And delivering to over 50 families in our schools. Businesses that are becoming a community partner. Could read more about the program on
154the W. L. S. C. F. website. Contact when the alert, thank you. Brad. Yes, the Redevelopment Commission met September 18th, 830 a.m. in City Council Chambers. Salisbury Corridor continues to move along. That is expected to be finished by the end of the year. Cason Park, you may have noticed if you've driven out on Cumberland, the play equipment is going up. The pond liner is in, fishing piers are going up, and the kayak launch is going in. It's supposed to be done May of 2025. Public safety building portal, I believe, is open now. So if you want to see some of the schematics and the design work that's going on, I think it's available. You'll be glad to know there was a little mistake that was made when... Cumberland and Salisbury streets connected was about a
155foot and a half too tight. Notice buses had trouble getting around the corner. That was not just a design flaw, but an engineering flaw and a construction flaw. So the city had a claim against the contractors and we got an $800,000 settlement on that. So that's a good thing for the taxpayer. Other than that, we had some bid opening. We're going to put solar panels at the Wellness Center. We're going to put some more over off the new trail that goes down Sagamore Parkway. And so we had some bid opening for that, and those were all taken under advisement. That's all I've got for you, and the next meeting is 10-16-24. Oh, they did tell us. This is interesting. The Wellness Center now has 8,000 members, which is phenomenal. That's a lot of people, so
156good stuff. Great, thank you. Yui, go ahead. The glass meeting will be tomorrow. So the public actually are welcome to make comments there. It's 2 o'clock. What's the school name? Durden? Yeah, sorry. So I attended the ISBA conference last week, and in particular I... yeah i went to several sessions in particular i found several uh very helpful for me and the the first is the legislation issues for capital projects it gives me a helpful background the knowledge about our ongoing discussion of the geo bond and then another second one is called Leveraging AI to Streamline Administration Tasks. And actually, Amy and Sean also, and Lawrence were also at that session. And in fact, one of our board of candidates, Bo Scott, was one of the presenters. The session was very inspiring and demonstrating how the,
157their... API software can help administrators to provide a constructive and specific feedback to instructors in a very efficient and personalized way. Another session I went to is called Leveraging P212 and the University Partnership. And I was very impressed that those schools actually partner with IU. IU has a multiple and so their students can take college classes actually for free. And that's very impressive given that our students, high schoolers, have to pay, I think, $1,700 for a three-credit course at Purdue. So I'm wondering whether we can talk to Purdue at least to... to get some discount for our students and that partnership sounds very attractive and to provide more opportunities and resources for our students to prepare them for the college. That's exciting. Thank you. Rachel. I also attended regional meeting and submitted my written report
158to the board packet as I know you and Mr. Wong did as well. I attended West Lafayette education association discussion on September the 19th as always a great conversation. We had some conversation about how the two contracted days are used at the three buildings. Also kind of had some recap conversation about open house, what worked and what was going to happen potentially next year. And in particular, what would be, what flexibility teachers would have for their evening work. And so really nice. collaborative conversation among teachers and administration. Next meeting is Thursday, October 17th. Great, thank you so much. Lawrence. With my four colleagues, we joined the SB annual conference. It was one half day's conference, so I learned a lot. I joined two general sessions and five clinical sessions. So I also have a summary
159report in the box in case anybody are interested in that. And regarding the park, I don't have any update. We don't have meetings. So thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. The public schools foundation hasn't met since our last meeting, but they did have their cupcake fund fundraiser, which was a huge success. And great support from students, teachers and others in our school district. And then I just had 1 question for Mrs. Austin about if you are legally allowed to continue to prevent. Dr. Greiner from sharing information that I have requested. I don't know what you're talking about. So last month, you sent an email to him directing him not to provide me with information until we get the issue of Dacia Doxing Constituent Resolved. You brought it up last month. You still have limited
160that information and not allowed it. I don't remember what the information was. Do you? Yes, it was about committees, individuals serving on committees. I remember. Well, we'll have to have a conversation about that and whether or not that information can be kept confidential. Okay. The next work session is at 5 o'clock here on November 11th. The next board meeting is also here on that same date. Fall break is the 10th to the 15th. Don't go to Florida. Bless them. School resumes on the 16th, and there are lots of other exciting dates coming up in the future. I need a motion, please. Moved by Lauren, seconded by Rachel. All in favor of adjournment. That's everything.