001Good afternoon. Today is Monday, July 14th, and welcome to a meeting of the Concords Board of School TR meeting is a meeting in public for the purpose of conducting school corporations business and is not considered a public meeting. There will be time for public participation about agenda items as indicated on the agenda. If you'd like to address the board, please card on the table by the door and get that to Mrs. Good before you speak. Okay. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hey, I didn't see anybody make a mad sprint over to the yellow cards. Good. Do we have any yellow? We do not. Okay. Okay. Let's see. Consent agenda
0023.1 minutes 3.2 executive minutes from June 16th 3.3 executive minutes from July 8th 3.4 accounts payable claims 3.5 payroll claims and distribution summary report 3.6 human resources report 3.7 conference requests 3.8 agreements motion to approve second motion by Mrs. Tanner, second by Mr. Maloney. All those in favor of the motion say I. I. Same. Okay. We also have an employment action item 4.1. Motion to approve as presented. Second. Motion by Mr. Yoder. Second by Mrs. Tower. All those in favor of the motion say I. I. The same. We'll say for the human resource report, I'm abstaining my daughter's apprentice and so I'm just not voting for that. Okay. Can I Can I pause? Have you guys had I haven't had anything. Nothing's popped up. Okay. This is their way of telling me I'm done. Did
003you all get signed in? Yeah. Okay. in. Sometimes that happens. Oh, I lied. I signed I must have signed in too early because now I'm signed in. Go back to the meetings and then it said I had to join the meeting again. So that's our bad. You good? And I was in but it's okay. Okay. Okay. again. She got it. No, we mine's not popping up. Okay. I was going to say 5.1 Dr. Kendall. All right. So, oh, here we go. Feedback. Is that my fault? Okay. Maybe you shouldn't talk so loud. Any Do you want me to Okay. Okay. Okay. So anyh who, I'm here to present to you the student climate um update on our results from May. And um you will note, you should see it in your board packet, the link
004um to get logged in um to get logged in in order to see the full gamut of the results. Not only you know there's student safety, there's blogging, but there's also expectations, there's also um instructional related questions. So I just want you to know you have access to all of it. But today for the sake of our focus we're going to be on safety and belonging. The reason being because obviously our um mission statement being uh students will succeed in a safe and connected learning environment. So that is our focus here today. So here is the plan. We are going to um discuss some research that we have been um delving into as a leadership team. We're going to look at some comparisons between the two school years and then look at some key drivers
005that allow some schools to make some movement and then we will look at next year. All right. So, um first and foremost, when you hear me talk today about student belonging, we have done quite a bit of research and what some of it starts with this opportunity makers uh research study by TNTP. And so what they did is they looked at thousands of schools to look at what are they doing to help students that are below grade level get to grade level and then progress to um above grade level and finding those um common commonalities that allow students to succeed over a number of years. And those are trajectory changing schools that we've been studying. And so what will ultimately come from this is as we talk about the student um safety and belonging work
006that we're going to be doing, we're going to refine some of the practices that we've done in the past. And I share that just because we're going to see more intentional growth, I believe, with some of these changes. So what you see up here are the three categories. And I know that Mr. Myers and Mr. Constan will dive into um this in more detail when it comes to consistency and coherence, but I'm here to talk about belonging. And you'll notice like students can't learn if they don't feel like they belong within their classroom. So the work that we have been doing and we will continue to do will help um our students be more successful in the classroom because they are in a place where they can emotionally excel and be primed for learning. So
007what you see up here first is our results from this past school year. So on the right hand side are a combination of several different questions that feed these results. So we did see an increase from um last school year to this school year. But one um deficit that I was alluding to a little bit here when we were talking about opportunity makers is all of those questions feed that belonging score. And so if we really want to get scientific and intentional about our focus areas, if we're really going to focus on belonging, that we need to just measure that exclusively and not necessarily pour all of those in. Um, for example, last school year, um, many schools focused on ways that they want to enhance respect within their buildings. So when you talk about
008belonging, respect is a part of that. But if you want to look at it in isolation, the number then um you need to look at that question individually and what goes into that. So with all that being said, our safety and belonging did increase. Go ahead, Mr. Stevens. Um however, when you isolate the belonging question, one of the goals that we made at the start of last school year is that 75% of our students would feel um as if they belong in their schools. So some schools um did improve in that but like I said I think from some of the research we've been doing we will see um improved results in that. Next slide please. So then when you compare um this past May to the previous May we went up in all of
009the red areas. And if you when you have access or time to dive into the results, I would encourage you to look at um one of the schools with CIS in particular, they spent quite a bit of time focusing on respect. So when you look at the individual classrooms, like I could go through all the schools with you today, but we'd be here all night. We don't want to necessarily sleep here, but you will see a marked improvement where the schools did um where their focus areas were. Next slide, please. So, um, I wanted to talk just a little bit in detail because when you look at these schools, and I know it's hard to see, it's easier to see when you're in the program within Qualric, but the intermediate, junior high, and Oxbow saw
010an increase in these areas, and the other buildings stayed the same, but I did want to give them props. So you have um the links to their um actual 90-day challenges from second semester. But for example, the intermediate had a protocol in which students learned how to address disrespect and how to advocate for themselves and they also spent weekly time weekly within their um morning meeting time focused on how to improve um respect within their school. So that was a place of growth. junior high, they um were intentional about when you think talk about belonging, intentional about um pulling out subsets of students and doing weekly check-ins with them to be intentional about supporting students belonging in schools. And then Oxbow also saw an increase. They did this cute little thing called the Mighty Minute
011Man moment. The students were so proud when they came to the office with their little positive referral and then they were honored at assemblies as well as um their grade levels were honored as well. So again there's lots of functions within this but we do want to get to a point go ahead Tyler where there is more specificity and that's what I'm going to talk about and preview what we have for next year. Okay. So our focus then in doing this research is that if we want students to feel like they belong, there needs to be an individual knowledge of students. So not only do we need to know students as learners, but also them as a per as a person, not just what they are academically. Another facet that the research tells us is
012that students um need we need to document their growth goals. You know, what are their goals academically and how are we going to help support them get there? And then lastly, um, knowing the students individual needs. So if they they don't meet those growth goals, what are we going to do to get them there? So as Oh, not yet. So fast. So as a district and we I talked about this just in June with all the um principles and assistants is the schools are able to make a um building goal based on that based on what's appropriate for their building when it comes to moving the belonging needle. But then as a district, it would be my expectation to set um what they're going to I want to see what they're going to do to
013um acknowledge the individual student, document that and take action on it on a routine basis. Okay. So within individual knowledge then um here are means in which the schools can create um lead measures or create goals that allow them to learn students. So staff know each student's personal interests and individual strengths and characteristics. So they might create some student profile tracking sheet and then weekly you know they teachers are responsible for checking in with students about that and then making sure there's some action step tied to that where it's not just hey how are you doing? You're actually diving in to that student as a person. They also students have clear understanding of students goals and academic strengths and growth areas. Not only that can this be done by the teachers but also one important
014facet within our strategic plan is getting to the point where students then um are knowing their academic strengths and making um growth goals for the future. And then um also involving parents. That's one thing when you talk about these trajectory changing schools is that the parents um have a part an active part within the school community that it's not just merely that they're there and you call them when something negative happens that um they're looped in in positive situations. So again, just letting you know that the focus for next year will be on where do buildings want to zero in on, but as a district, us having that expectation that they know that individual knowledge. And then when it comes to actually measuring those, you'll notice um we're going to be tweaking a little bit
015of the survey and switching out questions that are going to be more have more correlation to student belonging as opposed to the other questions. again trying to get more scientific as to what research size we should be measuring as what's important to the students. All right, questions. Um, first of all, can we go back to that last slide? So, am I So, the the questions on the left side are ones that are going and these are the ones coming in. So we have a team of administrators. So these are the ones that the research says we should be asking. So how do we um because we want to we don't want to just add questions without eliminating questions. I don't know from a school perspective. We have a group of administrators that are going to
016be working on what do we eliminate? What do we keep because some of them do use this to inform other aspects of their daily life in school. So yeah, some will go but some will stay. Okay. Um, I see we added a kind of a new set of questions in May about some of the things that, you know, what what makes our school unsafe and they list, you know, specific behaviors and also kind of I guess uh what the other one one goes into just like places where we're most uh where we feel most at. And we have some results on there. Have those been reviewed and kind of what are we looking at as far as kind of if I'm seeing like hallways where it's just what's our plan with that? So specifically um
017the buildings asked those buildings I'm pretty sure it was junior high and CIS had asked for that data to inform protocols within a school. So what they did is um back in the winter we developed um student advisory groups and used that data to inform okay tell us you said the hallway your appears that the hallway what about the hallway so that they can make changes for this year. So yes certainly that data is has been looked at and action plans have been established. Beautiful. I will say one of the things um that we did as part of those advisory groups is that we had student activity where they did submit more inedible information and you would be surprised that things that you learn like pockets of the building especially in elementary the cafeteria line
018is like a hot spot. So just the things you learn that you don't necessarily know are an issue. Um it was telling so they can make action steps. questions. Thank you for making that accessible for me. If you haven't dug deeper into the survey, I'd encourage you to there's interesting information there about our kids. And just reiterate what Lisa said that um belonging is all about creating an environment where learning can happen. Um and um so that's why it's an emphasis for us and good time. Okay. The next item on the agenda is for the board to hold a preliminary hearing on the proposed bond projects. Um if you're interested in speaking at the hearing, please make sure you sign the signin sheet which we include your name and address. That would be also on
019the table over by the door. Um after a presentation by the administration it and its adviserss there will be an opportunity for the public to make comments about the project. At the hearing we ask that each person limit their comments to three minutes and the topic be limited to the proposed project under construction. The notice of this preliminary determination hearing was published as legally required. And I'm going to ask Mr. Hesser explain the purpose of our hearing. Thank you, Madam President. Um, pursuant to Indiana to section 6-1.1-20-3.5 of the Indiana code, a school corporation must hold two public hearings to adopt and adopt a resolution to preliminary determining issue bonds or enter into a lease for a project that has a total project cost in excess certain certain thresholds. These public hearings and the future
020consideration of the resolutions are the very beginning of the process. I note that no board action is legally required at this hearing. Rather, if this hearing is solely to hear information and public comments regarding the project. Okay. Now we'll hear from Mr. Funston about the process of determining and communicating the project to community and the need of the project. Yep. So, a lot of this is repeat. Am I able to um screen share now? Okay. Sorry, the Apple TV was doing an update on this. Um, I'll talk while he goes and does that. Um, so right, I I'm not going to show every slide here. A lot of it's uh repeat, but um we have five goals as a district with our uh master facility planning. Um first goal is to ensure safe and healthy
021learning environments. Um maintain and ensure the functionality of our current facilities. um we we lose money to the circuit breaker. So another goal of ours is to improve our operating efficiencies as much as we can. So when we go in doing LED um making sure that we have mechanical units that are operating efficiently um that'll help us with utility cost. Um another goal we have is to update our facilities to accommodate um our extracurricular programming and promote a sense of community pride and then um update our facilities to accommodate any new programming opportunities that that may be there. So, um, over the course of, um, you know, it's been a long time that the district did a facility study with an architect back in 2017 or 18. Um, and then, you know, COVID hit. Um,
022you got a new superintendent. Uh, we did another facility study um, around 21 or 22. Um, we engaged our community um, in three different community engagement sessions as part of that um, as well. and thank you for uh putting that up. And um and so that's and from that uh we collected a lot of survey data um and information from our community on um what they hope to see um what which projects they feel um most met the goals of the district as well. Um and so yeah, that's basically how we've determined the needs. tonight. Um, this hearing also includes um some general obligation bonds over the course of the next several years that um would help pay for technology uh potentially would help pay for transportation. Um so when I say transportation it would
023be the purchase of buses um the purchase of technology equipment and then other uh general maintenance sort of things that Mr. Phillips uses to update the buildings like carpeting, um ceiling tiles, um some painting, um things like that. So, those are those are all things that are difficult for us to do um with um within our operations fund again because um we lose close to $2 million to the circuit breaker each year. So, that's how the needs have been determined. Okay. Anybody else? I'm gonna go next. Oh, you're next. Okay. How we're going to meet those needs. Yep. So, uh Tyler, go to this that slide right there. Yeah. Blow that up just a little bit. Um so, from that um we have a uh potential list of uh projects in our long-term planning um
024that we've discussed and and made sure that those align to our goals. Um the district uh already uh has sought permission gone through the legal steps for the first two phases of this and so um we're promoting a three-phase plan um the high school cafeteria office um classroom updates student parking lot uh I'm going to skip the music department right now go to MUN um activity center Jake um Southside um and then Oxbow are things that we are tackling in this first hoping to tackle um uh in this first um two phases. Um and then what you're considering tonight would be phase three um as well as some general obligation bonds for technology um and transportation. But phase three would u potentially include um some of those things listed there, probably most of those things
025listed there that are not in the first two phases. Um, yeah. So, again, I've given this presentation before, so I won't go into any more detail unless you have questions. Okay. Now, we will hear from our municipal advisor, Lisa Huntington, about how we're going to finance these projects and the and as well as the effect it will have on a typical property taxpayer. Okay. Yes. I'm Lisa Huntington with Baker Tilly. Thank you for having us. Um, so I'm just going to review a summary of the proposed financing information that this is information that we saw last month while we were here. So we are seeking approval for a maximum borrowing amount of $38.5 million. We anticipate that we'll issue that in uh more than one series of bonds using a combination of general obligation and
026lease bonds. The maximum repayment term per series is 20 years. Um and the maximum debt service uh of all series of funds that we issue will be 7.5 million. That gives you flexibility uh for us you know as we issue each separate series. Um we estimate total interest expense to be about 33.1 million. This is using a conservative interest rate of 6%. Currently we're selling bonds between four and a quarter and four and a half. So hopefully that uh market rate at least stays at that level and maybe goes down by the time we go to market for these. Um and we also estimate uh proceeds for the projects that you have in mind of about 32.5 million. This takes into consideration issuance costs um underwriter fees and um also some capitalized interest uh which
027is our our kind of uh tax loving management strategy. As we go to issue the bonds though we will look for ways to reduce that capitalized interest number giving you additional dollars for the project. um the maximum debt service tax rate would be um 78.5 cents. We are basing that number on the uh 2025 net assessed value. So we know that this uh tax rate could fluctuate up or down depending on the net assessed value. However, the key thing here to keep in mind is that we can structure this debt so that the total debt service levy will not exceed your current levy. um right now is at uh 13.1 million and you know we've been looking at the numbers and we uh can structure the debt to keep it at that same level. Okay,
028that's all I have. I just reemphasized that we, you know, we're shifting from a rate perspective to a levy perspective because of Senate uh and ruled act one. Um, and so we're still asking to to Lisa's point, same dollars, um, but the rate um, unexpectedly will change because of that legislation. So, thank you. Okay, we will now open the public hearing. This is good. Do we have anybody? Okay, so I don't need to go through that. Okay. Well, board members, anybody? Okay. So, okay. I guess we'll close the hearings and we'll move on to the next item. [Music] You're just trying to throw me off. Okay. So, consider Baker Tilly engagement letter. Thank you, Mr. Davis. We uh would like for the board to to consider um entering into an engagement letter with Mega Tony
029for doing the things some of the things that uh that Lisa has done here this evening uh municipal advisory uh which is all the analysis of here's what it's going to take to do your projects here's how you're going to pay for it all those kinds of things and then making sure that that they work with us to keep that debt service levy the amount of taxes that people actually pay keep that levy over the course of the uh of the bond uh term. They also do the securities issuance. They they actually sell the bonds and um and then assist with a number of other things. everything from budget to what's called continued disclosure, which means that every year we have to report to the uh to the federal government if there are any things
030that that would uh be concerns to to bond holders uh and things like that. So uh ask for the uh for the board to consider um engagement letter with maker motion approve as presented. Second motion by Mr. Co by Mr. Mali. Questions for Mr. Evans. All those in favor of the motion say I. I. Those oppose the same. Okay. And Mr. Evans for the next item. Supervisor with Head Start. Yes. There's been um as you as you know the preschool project has uh had some weaves as we have you know been in the process of setting that up. One of the things that's a good weave uh in this in this particular instance is that if you remember when the original plan uh for the the director position was uh that we would hire a
031director to be a halftime director and halftime teacher. Um since that um was basically decided uh the Head Start group contacted us and said we would or ask us would you be interested in working with us and making your director not only director of your preschool but a site supervisor for the Head Start programs in our buildings as well. Uh we felt like that was a win for everybody involved. And uh as part of that agreement, Head Start has agreed to pay basically half of the uh salary and benefits total compensation for the director. So the director is no longer halftime director and halftime teacher but full-time director director of both the Concord mini men preschool and the Head Start program. Uh so would ask the board consideration of uh this memor memorandum of understanding
032which allows us to enter into the transaction and then they can pay us for for that time. Motion to approve. Second motion by Mr. Mully, second by Mrs. Tanner. We get any questions for Mr. Evans on this item? It sounds great. Sounds like it's actually probably more efficient to have one person from I'm not intricately involved, but um but from what what I can tell, I think, as I said, I think it's a win for us. I think it's a win for Head Start. I think it's a win for students. Um and so I think I think it's I would recommend it. Okay. All those in favor of the motion say I. I. Those oppose the same. Thank you, Mr. Phillips. Okay. Permission to advertise. Yes, permission to advertise. Got another project coming up. So,
033um just seeking board's permission tonight to advertise for um the renovation of 15 classrooms at the high school. It'll be phase one of maybe many. Um but we would advertise first on July 30th. The second advertisement would be the 6th and then we would open bids on August 20th at 2 pm. So, uh the project's very similar. Do east side west side all of them. So um new lighting, new floor, carpet, HVAC, technology, furniture. Same old motion to approve. Second motion, second by Mrs. Towner. Any questions, concerns? Okay. All those in favor of the motion say I. I. post the same. Okay. Administrator contract. Yeah. So, every year uh actually I think the last couple years it came in June, so I'm a little bit late on this, but um we uh we typically roll
034over um administrator contracts. This is not um anything to do with their pay um at all. Um we uh will negotiate with our teachers association um and then we decide what increases will take place. um with administrators after we're done bargaining with our teachers and so would come back for that probably in October or November. Um so this is simply just uh rolling over the list of principles that you have in your list there and would ask for your consideration of that. I would note um that um uh assistant superintendent are allowed to um be on three-year contracts. Um, so you'll notice that recommendation. Um, and then principles are not they can't be on longer than two-year contracts. And so those are two years. Make a motion to approve. Second. Motion by Mr. Mali, second
035by Mr. K. Any comments, questions? Okay. All those in favor of the motion say I. I oppose the same. Okay. Sharing the superintendent. I don't uh for the sake of uh getting along here, I'll say it's 4:30 and uh so appreciate you guys having these meetings at 4. My my staff appreciates it. But uh no, I'll save it for the quick exec session uh after this meeting. So Okay. Okay. Short guys have anything? I just say welcome. Sorry we're going to tear up your building right away when you b when you start, but it's okay. When I first if you haven't met, sorry. This is Carolyn Lebrance. Um, yeah, Carolyn is our new associate principal at Concord High School and we're excited to have her and um she was in her first meeting uh with
036us today. So, yeah. Do you have a 20 minute speech or Good good to start off here. Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Let's go over upcoming meetings. Uh well, we have one right after this. Um and then we'll be back here um August 4th for a regular meeting at 4 and then uh the 18th at 4 kind of before we get back on the the normal cycle of things. Anybody like this? Okay. meeting a journal 4:39. Do it. There we go.