001ourselves to order. Thank you for coming this evening. Um, at this point, if you'll rise and join me in a moment of silence. Thank you very much. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisibley for all. Thank you. We'll call roll at this time. I'm present. Dr. O'Neal, present. Mr. Heater, present. Mrs. Barnes, Griffin, present. Mr. Irvin, present. Mr. Love, present. Dr. Washer, present. I mixed it up again. Um, Dr. Reynolds, your report. Yeah, I I will um I'll be brief. All right. Um but um have some exciting news. We uh um are are getting ready to launch our advertisement for the freshman academy at um at Central High School. We're very excited about the work that Chris and his team
002and and Carrie and Eric have put into um building an outstanding model which we think will be um will be u a gamecher for my Central High School. So, we're we're getting ready to launch a a campaign that features uh uh Mr. Walker and his team and maybe a a video featuring some cartoons and um just some outstanding script. It's a pretty exciting adventure that that we're um we're ready to get out there to start talking about the next school year. I think we feature Mr. Walker and our latest uh our latest um uh media blitz on Wolfboom radio to talk about a freshman academy and how we believe that building that community as freshman their freshman year will will make a tremendous impact in their um high school career. Um like to congratulate North
003Side Middle School choir department. They've won the all music award from the Indiana State School Music Association. That's from receiving the the highest rating in the um most advanced categories, competition categories in the coral department, including concert choir, jazz, and solo and ensemble. Wanted to remind folks that enrollment is still going on across the district. Um while all the forms do roll over for next year, if you're currently here, we do ask that you that all of our families um enroll or um um log back into the system through the enrollment portal. en enrollment portal to ensure that um forms and contacts and numbers are sorry and contacts are still uh are still up to date and um accurate. Again, this I I think I mentioned last time this just my favorite time of the
004year um aside from marching band season that um that we're just wrapping up just the year of activities where um you get to see the showcase of of a year's worth of work in school where kids are performing on the athletic fields and on stages and and even assessments. I think we we are able to showcase the progress that we're making. So again, get out, enjoy some of the um to see the the real work of of what that you folks do every day as our as our school board. So um uh want to want to thank um thank all of our teachers for their hard work and and everything they do. And then finally, I'd like to uh like to introduce Jeff Holloway, our athletic director at Muny Central, who will also be our
005new boys basketball coach. um as recommended as an internal candidate. Um it is uh it's a little different than we're going to meet somebody else this evening, but our internal candidate like like our new volleyball coach where it's an appointment um a building level appointment. So that won't necessarily come in front of the board for a formal um approval. But certainly want to thank Jeff for for um stepping up and and excited for him to to to lead the Bearcat basketball team along with our athletic department. Thank you, Mr. Holloway. I'm looking forward to it. I appreciate it. Yeah. Do Do you want to be heard? Would you like to be heard? So, we had Mr. Holloway come up and speak during the state of the schools and he's like, "Hey, listen. I don't I
006didn't want to come up here and they made me come up here and speak. I'll just keep it brief. And I think 30 minutes later, we pulled him off the stage. So, that's my cue to to keep it brief. I wasn't going to come up here until you kind of gave me that look. So, I came I I just want to say thank you to to all you you guys. I um I take a kind of kid- centered approach to everything that I do. And so, I said I'll do whatever is best for kids. Um and I appreciate the opportunity to do this because I I think um like it never leaves. I think, you know, basketball, I love it and um even though I stepped away from it, uh still close to my heart.
007So, I'm excited. Kids are excited and I think I'm ready to move forward. Actually, just came from the gym, the open gym today and workouts and came straight over here. So, I just want to thank you guys and let you know that I'll do my best and um you know, get these kids excited to be Bearcats again. Well, we're excited about uh you leading the Bearcats and boys basketball. And if there's anything that we can do uh for you uh as that process unfolds, understanding that you're uh going to be wearing a couple hats and I've talked to Dr. Reynolds, right, about uh giving you anything you want. I appreciate it. Not anything, but I appreciate that. Um thank you. Yeah, within reason. Uh but you know you you have you're one person. Yeah. And
008so um you know reach out and let's figure a way to I will to make sure um you don't get run ragged and you don't get people uh chewing on you like a sled dog in the Yukon. You know how it is. I know how it is. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate it. No. No. So uh again, thank you. Uh we're looking forward to it and uh we wish you the very best. Thanks. Thank you. Dr. Reynolds, how was that on time today? That's pretty good, Jeff. You must be tired. Yeah. Um I I do want to go back uh on the advertising of the Freshman Academy. You caught my attention and cartoons. Yeah. Yep. So, we're working um Andy is working with uh with a media production group, public or a publicity organization to um
009make caricatures of of uh maybe a principal that looks similar to Mr. Walker and our buildings. Um then the kids are going to tour the building and and um it is it is really outstanding. Okay. Well, well, we will stay tuned and we'll look forward to that. Um, any additional questions for Dr. Reynolds? Okay, thank you for your report. Um, this is a great time of year at my schools and there is a lot going on that's that's really very interesting and and enriching. Um, so on public comments, Mr. Yenser, you had signed up, but it's my understanding the bulk of your comments regard the public hearing that's set for later in the in the session. So, we're willing to let you go at that time. Yeah, that Yeah, I just wanted to remind the
010public here that they're watching about the 19 million dollar project with the fieldhouse and how it will impact the community. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um, we'll go on to the consent agenda and I believe we have some individuals here uh who have been hired. Is um Mr. Um, brush brush. Brush. So, did you have some brothers that went to Wabash College? Okay, come on up. Yeah. Um, Kyle, right? Yes. And, uh, my understanding is you are going to take over the the the reigns of the football program. Is that correct? That is correct. Well, we're just tickled to have you. So tell us about yourself. Yeah, just truly humbled and honored to uh be given this opportunity to lead Bearcat football and be a part of my schools and teach PE as well.
011Um I'm convicted in who I am and and our process for our football program to to take it to new heights. And you know, I believe the foundation is there and just really excited to bring a buzz and to hold our kids accountable, have them do the right things, uh, and see the success and the fruits of the labor that that come with that. So, I'm just truly honored, um, on behalf of me and and my family of being able to live in the community, work in the community, um, and make a difference and an impact in these kids' lives. Well, we we are just so excited for you. Um, and you went to Franklin, correct? Yes, sir. Okay. And so the public address announcer at Wabash I think pronounced your brother's name last name
012a little differently. Yeah. Um but did he make a did he force a fumble in a game against North Central? No. That actually there is actually I was probably coaching against Wabash College during that time. My oldest brother played soccer at Wash. So those three there's actually no relation but I coached against them when I was at Wheaten College. At Wheaton. Okay. Okay. Well, uh, we're not going to hold that against you. Um, and you want to introduce your family for us? Yeah, absolutely. My wife back here, Cynthia. Um, the little stinker is Bo. He is three. Um, Aniston is 11 years old. Avery is a 11-year-old. They're twins if you cannot tell. Um, and so just just extremely excited for the family. This is like old home week for me. Uh, Cynthia's maiden name
013was Schwagman. Yes. and her dad was a fantastic basketball player for the Union County Patriots back in the mid70s. [Laughter] So, you just made you just made his life. Yeah. I can't wait to tell him. Yeah. You You tell Tom. You tell Tom. and specifically this. They played Rushville in the 1976 regional in the first game and we went up four to zero and I remember Tom jumping off the bench and he got a lot of air. He was not playing. He jumped off the bench. So, um, no, I I've known the Swagman's for a long long time and um the the whole family. So, you are certainly uh with friends here and uh we look forward to having you u this coming season. Again, same thing I told Coach Holloway, if there's something the
014board can do for you, let us know. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you guys for this opportunity. Thank you very much. Okay. You didn't expect that, did you? Well, I'm I'm embarrassed that I didn't expect it. I should have You should know. Okay. Uh the consent agenda. Uh any additional Oh, one more. Who else? Tara Bon, come on up. I apologize. Come on up, Tara. Maybe I know some of your family. I don't think you do. You're the new master teacher. I am new master teacher at Southside Middle School. Southside Middle School. Yes. Congratulations. I heard about Thank you. your interview when it happened and people were blown away. Great. So, I don't know if they told you that, but that made it up to me. So, wonderful. And I think that's the first time that's happened.
015So, great. Which doesn't say anything about anybody else. Uh, tell us I'm very excited. Tell us about yourself. Um, I have been in education for about 20 years now. I feel like my background and my experiences are very well suited for this position. And I feel like I've been just building straight to this position. I've been in middle school. I have been working through student centered coaching and I feel like I can really contribute and support the students at Southside. Well, this year, where were you just prior to this position? This year I've been working as a training support specialist at the Indiana Literacy Cadre through cell and IDOE. Great. Great. Well, we are pleased to have you and Southside meets people like you and we're looking forward to to seeing great things in the
016years to come. Uh so, thank you very much and uh welcome to Muny Community Schools. Thank you. We ready to go to the Okay, that's okay. No, no, please correct me anytime. Uh the consent agenda. Any additional questions or concerns regarding the matters in the consent agenda? We have a motion from Mr. Heater. Do I hear a second? Second. Second from Mr. Barnes Griffin. All those in favor signify by I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Okay. We have the financial report. Mr. Derome. Yes. Thank you. Including your board packet is our financial information for the month of April. Uh just a couple items to note. Obviously, we're only 4 months into the 12-month calendar year. Uh I'll I'll make a note about the state basic grant revenue now listed about 47.9 million. Uh that now includes
017the textbook rental, the TBR, and normally that came to us separately. So, it makes it look like, oh wow, we're getting an extra 700,000. Really, that's TBR. Uh so, we'll see how that plays out. Uh I attended the business manager conference last week in Fort Wayne. There are still the DOE and the U DLGF down there in Indianapolis are still trying to unpack all the ramifications of the most recent legislature legislature that ended. Um they'll have a an actual funding formula for 2000 um the next uh year. They'll have that for us at the end of June. So in any event, that's a brief update on that. Um there's just a lot of uncertainty yet as they unpack all the legislation about how that's actually going to impact schools. Um we did finish the month
018of April total checkbook balance was over uh $33 million. Um obviously that's not all in the uh education fund. That's split among several different types of funds. Our enrollment um most recent count was $4,872. Payroll is running behind last year just because of of a slightly reduced employee count. Um still expect to have a cash balance in the education fund at the end of December of a little over $15 million and we now have uh paying back our state loan. That's now down to 7.2 million. Uh we're still paying that back $180,000 a month and that ramps up in July. It goes to 185,000 a month. So all your charts and graphs you have in the normal uh board packet I normally distribute still shows the trend where our cash balance has continued to grow
019over these last uh several years and that's always a positive trend. Our our spending on appropriations. We know we're still uh tight on appropriations in in the operation fund as we have known that uh debt service fund. We've really paid no long-term debt until the months of June and December. And so that's still going on target. And that really kind of completes my report for uh the month of April. Any questions for Mr. Derome? At this point, does anyone have a sense of clarity? And I'm guessing the answer is no. A sense of clarity as to the impact on schools uh of SB1. um in a in a room of about 500 people last week, uh the folks from the state that you would expect to give you some clarity just were not able to
020yet. It's just still so early because everything that was given to us during the legislative session was still based upon a lot of simulation and models. Um but um so I I can't give you an absolute clarity on that yet. uh just in talking to some folks before the meeting uh you know a lot of assessed valuations hasn't gone up in various counties even in a lot of communities. So uh if AV goes up uh more people will qualify for the tax caps which in theory should reduce their actual property taxes. So as far as that impact on us at schools um we still have to wait a bit longer. Okay. So thank you. Any additional questions? What's odd about that? Typically, don't they have to do a fiscal impact? They they do. Maybe there's
021variables in there. They're talking about there's a lot of variables. They know what the formula looks like, but the variables haven't been okay. Right. I mean, I my understanding from what we received was that was a very very rough estimate of impact. Right. And it was an extraordinarily complex bill. Yeah. Um so I I think again there are there are unknowns related to assessments. Um and then there are some pieces in that bill that I think are hard. It's hard to understand for me as to how some of those calculations are going to be run. So I think some of it depends on some interpretation of language. It's going to be it'll be a while and probably by the time uh we're here together for the permission to advertise on our budget for 2026, that'll
022be uh the second week of August, we'll have a lot more we'll have more clarity at least on what the next year will look like in terms of the AV and the the funding formula for sure. Okay. So, well, if that's the case, maybe we can get a pizza. Yeah, maybe. So, I'll buy Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um, okay. Um, would entertain a motion to approve the financial report. Have a motion. Do I hear a second? Second. All those in favor signify by I. I. Post. Same sign. Okay. Uh, food service contract. We have Chartwells here. Yes. I believe we do. Thank you. Yes. I'll presented in front of the school board tonight is our permission to approve the contract for the food service management company for our 2526 school year. Um we're and this whole
023process uh had to be watched over um followed by the the DOE had to approve the whole process up front. Uh they were on board. They watched our bid opening. Um, they also had to approve uh our actual recommendation and they had to review all of the uh source documents that made up the uh the proposals and the submitted bids from the four interested vendors. Um, we had a committee of three administrators who reviewed the packet of information and went on the tours uh with the vendors and we followed that process and it was approved by the DOE. Our recommendation was Chartwells and that's what we're presenting in front of you tonight. and uh asking you to approve that recommendation for Chartwells for this next school year. And uh I've attached uh in your packet
024was the attached contract which then I will execute all those documents that uh there's multiple documents that I'll execute uh along with with Chartwells to be ready for the 2526 school year. So every five years we have to do a formal bid process. This is what the DOE tells us because it is federal funds. So, so that that's our recommendation to the school board tonight. Do any board members have questions for Mr. Verome regarding Brad? You may have said how many bids did you receive? We received four actual bids from four different companies and we had I distributed the packet to 17 different uh companies. Um that's you just I had no idea. that that those legal ads we did them for 6 weeks. Um so you it's hard to get a gauge. The previous
025time we did it was 5 years ago right during the right at the beginning of the pandemic 2020. So March of 2020, March and April. So a little different process this time. So we could actually see and talk to people a little bit more. So okay. Thank you. Any additional questions? There are no additional questions. would entertain a motion as to the food service contract. Move to approve. Hear a motion to approve. Do I hear a second? Second. Hear a second. All those in favor signify by I. I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Okay. Uh we'll look forward to working with you um in the coming year and thank you for what you've done up to now with our our students and families. We appreciate all that you do and your flexibility and and uh your
026services that have been um good through the years. So, thank you. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Oh, you're welcome. Um we're on to the family and student handbook. Is this Mr. Grim? Yeah, it is. Good evening, President Williams of board. Dr. Reynolds. Uh tonight I would like to uh bring for you the uh 202526 student and family handbook and support guide um for adoption for next year. Uh this document took a major overhaul about five or six years ago. I've been part of this committee as a building principal and uh also as secondary director over the last several years. We've worked on really bringing forth some big changes um when it went to uh the committee this year to review. Didn't have a whole lot of changes to make. It's in pretty good shape. I
027believe this year um for what we uh have done in the past didn't see a lot of legislative changes that would affect affect lots of other things as we mentioned tonight, but not necessarily the the student and family handbook guidelines uh this year. So, we just had three major uh changes and they were more language changes. Uh we have added the Sandy Hook Promise uh to our handbook which will eventually kind of roll out and replace our school safety tip line. Uh we still have our safety tip line on our website. Uh but as time passes on, the Sandy Hook promise system will replace that. We actually had one Sandy Hook uh kind of threat come through the system. So, it definitely works in letting us know what is out there. So, uh so that
028change is in there. It's on page two of the handbook. It's right at the very beginning of the handbook, the language in for that. We added language for the new weapons detection system under the safety aspect of our handbook on page 36. um looking hopefully in the future to grow that outside of central and maybe to our middle schools next. Um, and then lastly, we added some uh language uh in the technology section on page 38 uh that allows our students to continue to use the Google Workspace for Education and some Google services that if they they don't choose uh to accept in the handbook, then they would lose access to some of those because we would not be able to grant them access to those services without the parents saying that kids could access
029it. An example of that would be like YouTube. So YouTube falls underneath that uh group and uh students would not be able to use YouTube unless they're that's in our handbook saying that they approve that kids are able to go to some of those Google educational sites. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Grim? Thank you for your work on this, your committee members. Um any additional questions? That committee was I mean there were you said in there um was made up of teachers, administrators, school psychologists. So different people throughout the corporation I think had somebody from each different building on there. Okay. One of their jobs throughout the process was to take back when we met that information to the building, gather input and then bring it back to the committee. So great. Thank you. And
030then on the middle schools with the the safety detection system, would you be willing to have the middle schools work with you all to get an estimate for the board to begin looking at that and finding funding sources? Okay. Um Okay. Any additional questions regarding that? If not, we'll entertain a motion. So move. Okay, second. Moved and seconded. All in favor signify by I. I oppose. Same sign. Okay. Thank you. Um Dr. Bell, good evening, President Williams, board members, Dr. Reynolds. Tonight we are asking that you approve the proposed changes for our employee handbook, updating it from the last edition of 20 24, January of 2024. And the um suggestion changes are in red identifying the date of today legislation be added nimble. We're doing the nimble recruiting the life insurance from 60,000 to 50,000.
031Do you want Brad will explain that? I can I can explain that. That's a very unpopular one when people have to have a non a let me say that right. We have to tax people for that. If the IRS rule if you have life insurance a non-cash benefit over 50,000 you're taxed. So it's like that complaint we've received it for many years that I have been here and the only way you collect well you have to pass away. Yeah. So uh the one way to handle that is drop it back down to 50 uh 50,000. you don't have to tax anyone uh over that benefit. And if you need additional life insurance information or life insurance policies, you can get it obviously through the variety of sources we have in house with um not in
032house but the the companies that come in and and talk to us with American Fidelity that talks to all the employees or your own private uh life insurance companies. So that's why we made that change really from an administrative standpoint and just to make it easier for employees not to have to take away money from do they tax on the increment between 50 and 60 or or Right. Okay. Right. So so effectively they're at their marginal tax rate. Right. Being taxed on a $10,000 annual benefit. Is that right? You're Yes, that's correct. So it's just not having to do that anymore. Well, that's absurd. It's age dependent, too. Correct. It's age dependent, right? If you're young, if you're a younger teacher, you don't really notice the impact as much, but as you age, it as
033you're older, it is a bigger impact. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I understand. So, yeah. Okay. So, that's why that was one of the things we worked out with the life insurance company and they're going to roll that out. Um, that makes sense. Anything else that's significant, Dr. Bell? The other main difference is maybe number nine where it is changing that from termination to retirement at least age 55 with a max of 185 days um for support staff that's hired after July 1. Okay. Of 2018 of Okay. Yes. Um any additional questions? Yeah, it is. Yeah, very good. Anything else? Would entertain a motion to approve the changes to uh the employee handbook. So approved. I hear a second. All those in favor signify by I. I. Thank you, Dr. Bell. Thank you for your continuing
034work on this and keeping it up to date. These are things that I think occasionally slip between the cracks in a lot of organizations and I do appreciate you and your team getting that up to us every year. Thank you. It's one of those things that I would very easily look past later. And if I may point out the special note are for our custodial staff that'll start July 1. want to make sure that they're covered under that umbrella because they're starting July one. After this one time on boarding of July one, it'll we'll do what's in the handbook currently. Okay. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh we'll show that passed. We'll proceed to uh the public hearing uh on the uh prospective bond issue. Uh we are welcoming uh everyone to this hearing uh
035this evening to hold a project and preliminary determination on the proposed project. If you're interested in speaking of this hearing, please make sure you've signed in the sign-in sheet in the back of the room which should include your name and address. After presentation by the administration and its adviserss, there will be an opportunity for the public to make comments about the project. at the hearing with each person limit their comments to three minutes and the topic be limited to the pros project under consideration. This notice of preliminary determination hearing was legally uh published as legally required and the first preliminary determination hearing was held on April 22nd, 2025. At this time, I will turn it over to Mr. Jerome as the chief financial officer of Muny Community Schools. Thank you. Um, pursuant to Indiana code,
036before a school corporation may spend more than a million dollars to build, repair, or alter a school building that will be financed by a lease or bonds, it it must hold a public hearing at which explanations of the potential value of the project uh to the school corporation and the community are given. Similarly, also pursuant to current Indiana code, a school corporation must hold two public hearings and adopt a resolution to preliminarily determine to issue bonds or enter a lease for a project which has a total project cost in excess of a non-controlled project or if the school corporation has a debt service fund tax rate above a certain amount. These public hearings and the adoption of the resolutions are the very beginning of the legal process. The resolutions presented at this meeting establish the
037maximum financial terms for the proposed project. Okay. We will hear further now from Mr. Derome about the process of determining and communicating the project. Okay. And the need therefore. Okay. Thank you. Um what I'll do now is discuss some of the uh the history and the process of how we got here. uh through this um really over the last few years uh we have issued uh short-term bonds uh to do projects in the district to improve things that we were not able to take and spend out of our operation fund that just simply did not have enough funding for that. And with that process in place, uh that is how we are still proposing this particular project. And uh what that includes are items such as uh making improvements in our district for such things
038as the boiler uh and HVAC which would be uh air conditioning at the fieldhouse. That's a big big improvement. Uh we have been using a for the last two winter seasons uh rented boiler. We just it just didn't last long enough. Uh didn't you know 50 years on the boiler we needed it to go about 52 years. uh it didn't make it. Uh we have some other uh chiller needs uh at North Side Middle School is in need of replacement. We also have some additional bleacher replacements also at that school. Uh in also in the Muny Fieldhouse, uh the lower arena bleachers are over 40 years old and they present some issues for us in bleacher inspection for us each year. We have multiple door sets at Muny Central High School. Uh the 16 exterior
039door sets represent probably over 50 doors that need to be replaced. Once again, I believe those are also uh original doors from perhaps 19707 or 72. Um those are also really just needed to be replaced. That helps with security. Uh we have over 50,000 square feet of roofing sections throughout the district that need to be uh addressed by replacing those roof sections. and those are scattered through almost every uh almost every uh school has some roof sections that need replaced. And we've also included uh some additional items for really resurfacing of uh the Southside Middle School track that's in dire need of that. Uh and yes, we still do we still do track there. We still do events there, still have a gym class there. It's just time. It's time for that. Also there at
040Southside Middle School is also uh addressing tennis courts there. it needs to be resurfaced and redone. And the same thing goes for Muny Central High School as well. Uh this is the majority of those items uh that we have on this particular list. I'm not saying that's an all-inclusive list, but this would be the majority of it because we have not uh spent money on design or specs with architects or construction manager, but these are the bulk of the items that we would like to do um for this particular bond project that we discussed tonight. uh and it does those original estimates uh not to exceed $19.8 million. Uh that is the um the threshold we will stay under. Uh right now we have particular uh current tax rate of 0.4192 is what our current
041tax rate is for debt service and we're expecting that to still stay that amount for the next two years when it really then falls uh down to point the estimate is it would fall to.16. So we're trying to do this project and be tax neutral where the taxpayers would not notice any impact because of this project. Uh it is expected that we would do this particular project uh by selling bonds and we would sell bonds uh in the the fashion that was recommended to us from our uh bond consultants and attorneys was we'd sell it in two types of two pieces. Part of it would be general obligation bonds and part of it would be as lease rental bonds. And that's to simply give us some flexibility a couple years down the road perhaps in
042case we ever had to do other other projects. Um, so let me let me make sure I understand. So it's contemplated that the tax would that there would be tax neutrality on this bond issue meaning the tax rate would not go up. That is that is correct based on our current current rules and regs we have in place now. And this uh one of the short-term bonds would be paid off uh within a couple years and at that point the tax rate uh would go down to.16. Is that accurate? That is that is correct statement because we expect we expect the tax rate to be at 4192 uh for the next two years of 26 and 27 and even with this project uh we would expect the tax rate in 28 to go to.16 and
043that tax rate of 4.12 is actually less than it was a couple years ago. Is that correct? That is that's correct. And what we have been doing with these previous projects we have done like the the most recent um 6.1 million we did for the the football uh field enhancement that was paid off uh it's you know like a one-year mortgage and the previous bond project was a two-year two-year. So we have paid off those bonds. We have paid off the 2014 geo bond. Correct. That is correct. Okay. And we've paid off both of the bonds with regard to the enhancements on Walnut Street. that is at the end of this year. This current project will be paid at the end of December and that was a $6 million project that we paid off twice
044uh we paid off with two payments here in 2025. So okay, uh certainly these future bonds were structured to also uh uh take advantage of the fact that our assessed valuation uh potentially uh could go up, but it also we because of the current tax rules uh uh that's where you guys have talked about what's what's going to happen to SP1. Uh we expect uh AV to reduce somewhat. Um but for this particular project, we're still saying and there our financial consultants are saying we'll still see significant drop uh because of we have so much debt falling off. Okay. Uh thank you. Um any additional commentary at this point before we turn to public comment? I I think we're ready now for the uh the public comment section. Okay. Uh we'll open this for public
045hearing if you would like to speak. I believe we have one person here to speak. Uh, at this point, Mr. Yinser, Rick Yenser, newsman and author. I've been here before on other uh, projects where you borrowed money, paid it back. On this one, though, it uh, I don't think this is a short-term bond, and you didn't say that this is going to be short-term. Is this the 20-year? Part of it short term and part of it is oh it's gonna be split between the obligation and yeah that's why in part why the tax rate goes down in two years. Yeah. I would hope that it's short term because as you've said before tonight you don't know what's going to happen. The state's already cut spending for public education. Federal government wants to get rid of
046public education. And again, it's all going to fall back on the uh hands of taxpayers uh here locally that are still going to have to pay for public education. Uh I also know that this hasn't been very widely talked about. I talked to some labor people today, talked to contractors. Nobody seems to know that you want to spend $1 million on your schools, let alone do a a major rehab of your HBAC work on the uh fieldhouse. And given the age of that fieldhouse too, I'm uh I'd like a little bit more detail because that's what some of the people I talked with both plumbing and electrical workers unions today and they want to know just the uh impact of it, whether you're going to use uh a construction manager, how it's going to be
047done, and whether local labor is going to participate. Because I've noticed lately with a lot of these projects, a lot of these school corporations have adopted what others have like Ball State and they shut out union labor and we all know here who built this country. It wasn't people that have just come in and done some of the work for you. In the meantime, as far as the tax rate, I I'm still perplexed about what you said that this is going to be tax neutral given the amount of uh spending and amount of money that you're going to have to raise in property taxes. Uh you know, too, which nobody ever talks about, is this five-year bump in assessed value. And that five-year bump in assessed value raises uh the taxes for a lot of
048people. We've already seen wild jumps in assessment around here. Anywhere from 20 to 40% that nobody seems to be able to explain. A lot of property owners are still upset. And given that we are kind of in a recession now, at least that's what Mike Hicks wrote the other day with prices going up, I'd be very careful to live within your means and try to not spend too much money at the outset until we know how the economy is going, who's going to be left here in this community because we've seen trends too of people leaving. Uh, and if there's not new growth, whether it's business or industry, uh, it it's time to wait and see. But thank you for your time and thanks for upholding free speech and free press. Thank you, Mr. Yenser.
049We appreci we appreciate you. Um, the boiler um, at the fieldhouse that went out a couple years ago was 50 plus years old. Uh so we are looking to uh address that issue. Uh the cost of HVAC and adding air conditioning is still being determined as to whether or not that's even possible, but we will need a boiler and to replace the the rented boiler that's currently sitting in a semi-trail um on the premises. It is gone. I'm sorry. Thank you. Um the tax rate is staying tax neutral because we've continued to retire debt um off of uh what was we inherited uh from 2014 and what we have then rolled and paid with relative um promptness. In terms of uh the project at hand, you will hear the vast majority of those expenses are
050addressing fundamental infrastructure of the corporation, roofing, uh doors for safety, um basic u necessities for heat and ventilation in those buildings. uh and those are uh being done to ensure that uh one of the things that you uh did discuss was nobody knows what the future holds. One of the things that has occurred and has and will continue to occur as a result of SB1 is a fundamental squeezing of the operational funds available to school school corporations throughout the state. And schools like Muny Community Schools um are um my Richmond, Marian, uh Cooko, Beach Grove uh are particularly vulnerable. Uh and so in order to uh preserve uh fundamental infrastructure that would ordinarily come out of annual operations funds, replacing things like roofs and deferred maintenance throughout the uh corporation has been an an essential
051strategic uh decision by um our folks uh advising us, Baker Tilly uh and this board in an effort to reduce the pressure on the operations fund in the coming uh decade to two decades as we deal with things that that keep our students safe and dry within their buildings uh warm um and safe within uh structures that don't have uh fundamental degradation. uh so that's uh the basis for uh where we are uh right now and we are looking at SB1 particularly and that has informed uh the scope of of this consideration and this project uh at every step. Um, so any additional public comment from anyone else? Anything hearing? No additional um comment. Mr. Derome, could you uh describe the project resolution? Yes, thank you. Um, what we have in front of us now,
052we will uh we have to take this separately uh for the attorneys. uh we have to do it separate. Can't do it all at once. This project resolution is required when the school is planning to spend more than $1 million on a given facility or type of work. It contains the estimated hard and soft construction costs and the cost of issuance and establishes the total project costs. It also contains the estimated tax impact and that is your preface then for your first resolution considered the project resolution. Okay. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the project resolution? Are there any questions or concerns regarding the project resolution? Do we need to take a roll call vote on this? No. Okay. Thank you. Um if not, would entertain a motion to approve the project resolution? Approved.
053Mr. Lo move to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dr. Washburn. All in favor signify by I. I post. Same sign. Okay. Okay, we'll show the project resolution passes. Preliminary determination resolution. Thank you. The preliminary determination resolution is required when a school is planned to finance more than a certain amount for a given facility. It contains the total project cost, the maximum annual payment and the lease term and other financial terms such as the estimated principal amount and tax impact. Okay. Uh does any board member have any question regarding the preliminary determination resolution? There are no questions. Uh would entertain a motion to approve. So moved. Been moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Been seconded. All those in favor signify by I. I. Post. Same sign. Okay. Um Mr. Dome would
054go through the U reimburse reimbursement resolution. Yes. This next resolution is the reimbursement resolution relates to the financing of the construction project. This resolution permits the school corporation to reimburse itself from bond proceeds for any cash what might be spent on the project prior to the closing on the bonds. It is required by federal tax law in order to preserve the school corporation's ability to reimburse itself. In other words, you could incur costs before you actually get to that point of selling the bonds. And this allows you to to use those bond proceeds uh for that project. Okay, understood. Uh any questions uh for Mr. Derome regarding the reimbursement resolution? Not would entertain a motion to approve it. Second. All those in favor signify by I. I oppose. Same sign. Okay. At this point, I
055believe that concludes our resolutions. That's correct. Yes. Absolutely. U would entertain a motion to adjurnn. Jim, can I can I just make a couple comments? Uh, I want to commend Brad and and and uh having participated in some of most of the meetings um with our bond council, um there's a couple there's a lot of things going on that Brad's managed, I think, really really well. And and Rick, I hope this speaks to to some of your comments. um you know in an everinccreasing cost you know uh to to run a school corporation uh with with limited revenue that we have and and uh we talked about um the assessed value and talked about property caps but we lose 57% of our assessed value um u um what am I what what word am I
056thinking of uh the AV the property tax yeah I mean we lose 57 or 47% of our property tax levy because of property tax caps which which affects our school corporation a lot. But Brad through he and his team uh you know we've we've we're bringing maintenance inside. Um it's going to save money. We have good partners with Chartwells and thank you for your service uh to our students because it's all about them. Um um but to do all of that um we're borrowing on a short-term basis which reduces the cost for us because we pay a lot less interest to the tune of a million dollars less estimated. Um uh that's that's a lot of money that we're trying very hard to save and still maintain the capacity even though our tax rate could
057go to 16 cents. What that does is allows us to have um um room u to maintain a tax rate neutral and still be able to do the things we may need to do. We can't operate the schools that we do uh without putting money back into them. And and right now legislative landscape is very difficult for us to have money to do those things. So, I just want to make sure that that we recognize Brad for the hard work that he's done because this is not an easy thing. Again, I think Chartwells, you're in enough school corporations, you're here in the same issues with every school corporation and and we're in a lot better place because of Brad. So, I just want to say good job. Thank you, Brad. Thank you very much. We
058have um we don't have a motion yet on the adjournment. So, move a motion to adjurnn. Do I have a second? Second. Been moved and second and all those in favor signify by I. I post same sign. Okay, we'll show ourselves adjourned. Anybody have any dialogue or recommendations? Anything graduation coming up June 2nd? You got your robes? Those of you need robes. Um, okay. Uh, media questions. Oh, okay. graduation rates. Do you have any estimate of the percentage of kids that will graduate? Uh I don't know that we have any estimates for this year. Last year we closed out at just shy of 90%. 90 um after um we we continue to accumulate graduates through September 30th. Y so we ended up close to 90% last year which was an improvement. Uh we're going to
059see improved uh literacy scores at the third grade level um due to a lot of hard work by a lot of people. Um in terms of this year's graduation rate, I don't think we have a any any clue as to what that's going to be. They're watching still a few weeks left. Yeah. Yeah. There there was another issue on public education didn't quite make the the muster. Although we saw in one case of wiping out a small school district here east of here. Uh do you anti what what's your anticipation if the state mandate school consolidation again for smaller communities because that was in the budget but it didn't get a pass. But with um union, it looks like some of the larger school districts may see a flood of people depending on whether the
060state passes another mandatory consolidation like back in the 60s when the township system Yeah. It's hard to say. I think Union had what 1,800 virtual students was 16. They had over six They had over 6,000. Yeah. Uh so I mean those are all over, right? I mean they're not just 300 and 300 in person. So I it's anybody's guess the statute itself um as to union I believe the students who are in Henry County are going to Blue River and or at least that's the the contemplated by the legislative language and then the students who went to Union who live in Randolph County were contemplated go to Monroe Central but with open um enrollment I assume they could uh go anywhere. I think we're we're certainly prepared and would welcome welcome students. Um we've got
061some elementary schools that are are at capacity. So it would be an interesting process. I I don't know, Rick. I I frankly I think the school is going to continue to look at that in terms of um Randolph County has what five high schools. Um, and you know, both Henry and and Randolph would be affected by the amendment that I think it called for counties of 50,000 people or less. So that would provide an exodus back here when the exodus was out there when Southside closed. I I think that's potential. I think there's also some potential for the state to take over virtual education maybe. Um, but it's anybody's guess at this point. It is it is um it's an interesting landscape. Good luck. Thank you. Okay. We have anything additional? Okay. Uh we will
062entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Hater. Anybody want to second? Second it. Second. Uh all those in favor signify by I. I post. Same sign. Thank you all very much. Have a nice time. [Music]