001[Music] Are you not very [Music] We'll call ourselves to order. Thank you. Uh please ride rise and join me a moment of silence 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. Thank you. Please be seated. We'll call our role. I'm present. Dr. O'Neal is out of town tonight. Mr. Heater, Dr. Washford, present. Mr. Irvin, Mr. L. And Mrs. Barnes Griffin, are you with us? Not yet. She may be joining us. We will make a note of it if that occurs. We are in for a real treat tonight. Uh we have uh MCHS percussion, award-winning percussion coming in and uh so state finals first place is the state champion. Is that right? Yes, state champions. Um
002yeah, second year out for competing and and they uh are state champions. Okay, that's just fantastic. Uh what are your ages? Uh so we have a couple eighth graders and uh freshman's all the way up through junior, I think, right? No seniors in here. Yeah, so eighth grade through 11th grade. Okay. Few more of them. Couldn't make it. Couldn't make it. Tell us about the show. Uh so it was based on a poem. Um, of course, you know, now I forget about the author's name. I do you remember the author's name? That's okay. Um, but it's based on a poem. Um, it was actually written during uh COVID shutdown. Um, just about how you started out feeling just so helpless and, you know, uncertain about what's going on and and things like that. And then
003over time the show sort of develops into a more positive message of of sort of acceptance and growth and just um being there for each other and and being very uh positive kind of a positive light for for other people. And do we get some more folks coming in? Are we still have some people out there? Okay. Uh so tell us about the trophies. Those are fantastic. Yeah. So, um this one is actually a trophy we get to keep um at Central. Um it is their their placard they get um every year based on what you place. Um obviously the the better you place, the bigger the plaque. Uh we placed 12th last year, so our plaque was about that big, but as you can see, much bigger now. The uh each kid also got
004a gold medal um for their accomplishments. And then um every year um the Indiana Percussion Association offers up a traveling trophy as well for each class division. And um throughout the years you'll see uh all the different years of people that that won the state championship for our class. And we just had ours engraved um a couple weeks ago to have my central on there for 2025. So, this will go back to uh the state percussion association at the end of the school year and then or I guess at the end of this season and then we'll uh hopefully see it again sometime soon. So, tell us about the show. What do you do you all play snare drums? Is there bass drums? Uh so, what we do actually is we have all the stationary
005equipment. So, it's um they all have like keyboard instruments uh kind of like xylophones and things like that. And we also have several uh drum type instruments that are also stationary. Um it is more of kind of a concert um approach to it as opposed to like the marching side of things. Um do you guys want to say what instruments you played? Oh, go ahead. I play the mara. It's like a bigger version of the Okay. I play the vibrophone. Say your names. Okay. Um I'm Gabby. I'm Maya. Um I'm David and I play the xylophone. David, we've met before, haven't we? I'm not sure. Haven't you been at some meetings? He is also the young man on the front of our handbook. Okay. Well, you're doing double duty. Thank you, David. I saw a
006model. Um, I'm Alexis. I played the synthesizer. Okay. I played congas. I gota I'm not a music guy. What's a conga? Bigger bongas. Oh, okay. I'm Isaac. I play the I'm Marcus. I play the toms, which are these four drums in front of you that you use sticks to hit. Okay. I'm Zoe and I also play. I'm Jaden. I play the snare drum and what's called a jambe, which is like a hand drum. I'm Amelia and I play vibrophone. What's a vibrophone? It's It's like kind of looks like a maroon book, but it's silver or in my my case is black and it's like it has a pedal. So, every time we play now, it rings. Okay. Do we not Do we have a triangle player? [Music] You thought there was an opening for you.
007I can do the triangle. Okay. Well, anybody have any questions for our awesome state champions here? I heard their pre-performance and you were amazing. So, thank you. Well, you guys should be very proud. There's not a whole lot of folks that can claim to be state champions. So, congratulations. And coach, what's your name? Tom Chris Tom Hurst and assistant govern Chris Chris. I'm Will West. Will Westbrook. Well, we'd love to have him play sometime. Absolutely. And you'll see us actually out this summer as well. We're with the marching band as well. So, you'll see them in the back of the uh back of the field performing on their percussion instruments as well. Okay. Well, best wishes to all of you. They're practicing last night when I was at the at the school for uh an
008award ceremony. They were practicing last night under the canopy. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for coming down and again congratulations. We're very very very proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. We would note that uh Mrs. Barnes Griffin has arrived. Can you hear us? Okay, that was an affirmative. Yep. Okay, we are up to our spot second spotlight. Um, and just to show you how communication can sometimes break down um, even among what I consider to be relatively capable adults, I expected them to come in playing the drums. I thought it was going to be like the USC band coming in. They're a bit big to travel. Yeah. No clue. Takes three trailers. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, I I was uh count me confused when I thought there was going to be a
009Yeah. Mick Fleetwood coming in playing the drums. So, uh thank you. Um Southside Middle School, Mr. Raiders, your team's with us, and I promise I'm not nearly as confused about this. I do have our administrative team here ready to sing for you. Oh. At any moment. And I uh speaking of breakdown in communication, I was not made aware that we'd be following state champions. So please don't expect a similar level performance uh with our presentation tonight. Uh thank you for having us. Dr. Washbourne, nice to meet you. Um you those of you who've heard me speak about our school before know that we've talked about that our school is uh in a spot of transition and one that does not turn around quickly. So, this is the uh cargo ship of the S SSMS Southside
010Middle School. Um, and uh it's not a zeroturn mower, but we have made every effort to get our school turned around. Uh, you'll notice at the bottom of the screen that the focus of tonight's remarks is really on how we believe we have improved our school uh in lots of different categories. So, uh, thank you for your patience and your efforts individually and collectively to expedite the speed with which we do turn around our underperforming school. Uh, per the improvements we have made and seen over the last three years, we feel we were or felt we were ready to go full steam using the metaphor again ahead at the be full steam ahead at the beginning of this school year. While we had some unexpected challenges throughout the first part of the first semester that
011stalled our ship's progress, uh we believe we've recovered and are again moving in a positive direction. Uh again, this presentation will focus on the improvements and culminate with some of our students sharing their thoughts on that with you. The Southside community is one of great pride and dedication to our students. uh from the Panther Pantry in our building uh and the and the den that supports it on the clothing side. Uh our parent and family support is outstanding. Uh and we're pleased to report tonight that we now have hungry or at least hungrier to succeed students who demonstrate their Panther pride uh daily. And like I said, you'll hear from some of them uh in a while. Uh sorry, I clicked ahead. Uh the great challenges that many of our families face outside of the
012school certainly impact our students success in it. Uh we have a great spirit though to work together to get ourselves beyond the rhetoric of what SMS has historically been. Uh and that uh spirit is evident and growing. Uh we have had historically low educational engagement over the summers which speaks to that uh in some ways to the challenges we face at the beginning of this school year. historically low educational engagement over the summers and high staff and family turnover, which is not a winning combination. Uh, nonetheless, we've had a great need, therefore, for high consistency on the leadership side of our school. Um, which I am so proud to say we have had with Mr. Craft, Mr. McCracken, and myself over the course of the last three years. Uh, as a team, I think we're
013tight. We're close-knit. We are very like-minded. Uh, we're hard workers, student centered, learning focused leaders who grind out our tough jobs every day in service to our kids. Uh, there's not a lot of flash with us, not a lot of glitz. Uh, just like the students in the community that we serve, uh, we put our heads down uh, and keep working forward uh, in service again to our kids. Um to prove that uh we guided our staff back to our roots by tracking student data. Notice that student not just students plural student individual singular data uh and progress making certain each and every student mattered to all our teachers and staff. Uh the data boards referenced on this slide were literally literally created by our handy dandy Mr. McCracken uh who's very good at constructing
014things um and provided a great visual for our teachers uh beginning of the second semester that allowed them to see and to track each each student's growth. Uh so for example uh last year's iLearn scores the the uh data boards began with that and then tracked each of the three checkpoints along the way and a couple of those checkpoints had opportunities to opportunities uh opportunity twos sorry um where we could see if our kids were getting better and and again the the most uh important piece with that was the visual element for our teachers to walk into the data room and see uh their students growth. Uh when that began uh as it says there in one of the bullet points, the red section which is so the the color scheme uh just to review
015uh with I learn testing is red is low uh uh yellow is uh nearing proficiency, green is proficient and blue is above proficiency. We could not Randy could not fit all of our students names and pictures on the red section when we began this at the beginning of the second semester. Uh we then took that group to the ILT. Uh and a lot of educational gurus think that the best way to get a school out of the spot that our school's been in is to really focus in on those yellow kids, bubble kids, nearing proficiency kids. And that's right. Uh but also when we've got the overwhelming majority of our students in the red, we need to focus on how do we improve those students. And then we also by tracking our data found that
016uh well not only our data but other schools data that some blues can remain blue but fall backwards a little bit. So you can start at above proficiency and be proficient which is still passing but it's going in the wrong direction. So these boards really helped us and and really helped our teachers to to get a sense and then they took that very well uh to our students. By the way, thank you for allowing us to have Mr. Hayes who joins us tonight uh as our dean of students which allowed Randy to jump into a role. Randy McCracken to jump into a role uh much like a master teacher. uh and he is paired with Monica Welchure, Randy with math and science, Monica with ELA and social studies to coach up our teachers in cluster.
017So our our teachers began to really own the data and again take this to the students. So what this graphic shows is this is a an individual teacher who by the way came up with this himself um and began to track his students through their mastery checks. And you'll notice that the first half of it on the left u you know a lot of blank so students not there to take the checks. Red uh not doing real well. uh yellow getting there but still not and this is per individual standard. Notice on the right side a lot of growth. So by see the kids seeing their data created in them some internal competitions some across the classroom competition classroom to classroom in our school team to team grade level to grade level. uh this really
018helped. We in last year's presentation we talked about our teaming and our need to develop a spirit of competition. Uh this illustrates that uh particularly finally in the second semester we got that going uh really well with individual students. So we've had uh you know a lot of growth. notice uh you know one of those two of those students blew all the way across so above proficiency on the standards all the way across and I can tell you one of those students was a red student coming into the school year so really has stepped it up Mr. Could you stay on that for a second? Sure. So first of all what is this that pre-alggebra is that right? Yeah. So I'm assuming the names have have been blocked out for the sake of furpa correct.
019Um, and then we're working our way the the what's the data on the left again? The I know the data on the right is the third quarter. Sure. Yeah. I'll I'll have Randy speak more to that, but yes. Each week the students take a mastery check and it's over some of the content they're they're teaching at that moment. There's also some spiraling that goes on. The blanks, if you look at that very top row, the blanks may not indicate that the student wasn't here for that test. That's actually means that they've already mastered that question, that type of question, so they no longer need to take it. So once a student scores a four on the left hand side on a test two times in a row or two times, they've mastered it. Then on
020the right side is the actual learning objectives that they're learning and they mark that. That's kind of an ongoing based on the information on the left, which is the weekly. Okay. So this particular student or this particular class shows a number of students who are demonstrating pretty significant statistically growth. Right? Is that am I reading that correctly? Correct. Okay. Mastery of content. Mastery of the content. Yes. Well, and how does that is that the same as growth or is that a different concept? It depends on your definition of growth. uh definition of growth in most uh analyses is going to be on iLearn pass rate only. This is on in our view the the path to get to that and we're I'll speak to that here in a second. Yeah, I was defining it more
021broadly. Yeah. Yeah. So, yes, we interchange that growth improvement. Um and I would say what what we found in fact a couple uh key points to this one um in the first semester when we weren't doing this to the level that we wanted done uh our math department uh particularly in grades six and seven fell behind by about four weeks worth of standards. Um Randy Dr. Gatsa from Ball State uh our math teachers in cluster came up with a strategy to utilize power rotation to be the catch-up period. So math class continued on the curriculum map from the point that we caught the how far we were behind from that point forward. Math class handled that power rotation and filled in the blank so that we would be to the through the the standards by
022actually literally tomorrow when we begin I learn math testing. So did all of your teachers create this sort of data check for their respective courses? We actually created it. All the math teachers are using it. Science to it. Theirs is a little bit different like the learning objectives on the right hand side are basically what's happening within a quarter. Sure. That's from Andrew Gasket. English wanted something similar and so they're all at least tracking data now. How are the students responding to seeing their progress? If they I'm assuming you're sharing it with them. We we are. Yeah. Um and they are uh I would say it this way. You can you could literally feel and not literally touch I guess but feel the spirit of competition in in the in the school. Um you know
023we had for example we had a a staff meeting one morning talking about uh you know this approach and take this back to the students and so on. Um, I had a teacher ask me afterwards, "That presentation you made, was that being piped out to the students in the front of the school as they gathered to come in the building?" I'm like, "No, why?" He said, "I had four students come in and say, hey, tell me how I'm doing on yesterday's check." Like, that never happened before. Uh, and he thought it was because they were listening to my presentation. Had nothing to do with it. Had to do with that they had had uh the proper buttons pushed to compete, to want to do well. Uh, you know, our students are frustrated right now having
024taken e the ELA I learn uh last week. They're frustrated they don't have their scores right now. There's that kind of want and and I'm just telling you that's a change in our building. Please don't ever ch share our scores was uh was more the mindset. Yeah. No, I I I like this. So, thank you. Yeah. Thank thanks for clarifying asking the questions. Um what we found then as we we were nearing iLearn was that uh our students particularly those who were really back to the the uh bubble students really in a place where they might be able to really pass i learn uh let's give them an extra boost. So our teachers came up with this was a voluntary basis uh a boot camp. So, um, uh, see, Monday nights and Wednesday nights after
025school for an hour, uh, one night was ELA night, one night was math night. Uh, with students to come in on their own. We invited them, uh, didn't make them to have a focused u address to the standards. What we found was that teachers and students teachers and students really liked the environment. No distractions. Gosh, I can finally really focus in on learning says the teacher and says of course the student. So we'll see obviously if that paid off. Uh but I I would say that for us this was kind of the 25 2025 innovation um that matches with uh some of the developments in our in our work together like teameing power rotation our ACE program behavior coaches stop drop and read and other initiatives. So we uh you know have to report to
026the IDOE obviously and there's a federal accountability subgroup report card. Uh Amy Parker from the state is our IDOE school specialist. Uh she had has advised us early and often in our work that the key to overcoming failing school status is not to dwell on the Fgrade but to focus on improvement. So to demonstrate that, and this is literally how I demonstrated this with our students. I'm going to put you on the spot, Mr. Williams, for a second. Uh, do you believe there is a difference between an F that is a 35% and an F that is a 55%. Is there a difference in those two grades? Yes, there is. And what is that difference? The 55% is much closer to passing than the 35%. Very good. Anyone disagree with that? Okay. Well, I would
027to be a counterarguer. An F is an F. So, a 55 says F in the grade book. A 35 says F in the grade book. An F is an F. And I say that because when you look at our test scores, you're not passing. You're not passing. You're not passing. Okay. And Amy Parker said, "Right, but you got to have your staff and your students look at it as you just did, Mr. Williams, there's a difference between a 35% F and a 55%. That difference is 20 points and the 55% F. If you focus on, especially if that student went from 35 to 55 and you focus on that improvement, hey, you gain that next 20 points, you can be in seal land. Same concept, different numbers as it relates to red to yellow to
028green. when we put it into the gradebook terms, the it clicked for our students and they got it. So Amy's point is a focus on improvement. Secondly, uh this data indicates that over the course of 22 to 23 to 23 24 uh we had growth in every subgroup. Um I was like okay. She's like no that's that's commendable. That doesn't happen. you don't have growth. Too many schools again focus in we're going to really focus in on this subgroup or that subgroup or again the bubble students versus what you've done is you your team is you're focusing on lifting every single student that you possibly can and it's showing up in their overall growth. So I'm going to stop you there for a second. I want to just take a moment and recognize this. You're
029talking about again really significant improvements across each of those subgroups according to the IDOE accountability report card. Correct. over the course of that year. And I think it's too easy uh for your students, for our families, for perhaps your faculty, for perhaps your team at times to get down. Um and you need to take a we need to take a moment and celebrate uh this level of growth that's real. Uh we all understand not just the challenges at Southside Middle School but uh in some levels across the country as we came out of CO and that is a significant uh improvement uh that should be we we should take a moment and recognize that. So and I hope you have with your folks. We have it. It is a uh it is a difficult cell
030at times because um you know again the usual uh benchmark is I learn pass rate sort of period and we have not had improvement there sort of yet. We'll we'll see how tomorrow goes and how last week went. Uh and this this takes into account uh you know many factors beyond the act beyond academics and we're going to take a quick look at at some of those right now. But I I appreciate you recognizing that that you're right that is a tough hill to to climb when it's it's mostly negative. Have you ever I assume most everybody in the room has heard of learned helplessness? You know the the Yep. experiments that were done 50 60 70 years ago. um with continued um stimuli uh that is negative in nature, learned helplessness sets in and
031it sets in regardless of age, regardless of gender, um students, teachers. And so if you're consistently receiving messages of failure and that's if that message is without context, uh you will quit. I don't care who you are. I mean eventually it will beat you down. So, and that's always that's been my complaint about the assessments consistently because we have this very rigid structure as you point out. Um, and I you know I understand uh the need for that at c a certain level but we also have to be smart enough to characterize that in a nuanced way not just for our own benefit but most most importantly for our students benefit. Absolutely. Because they've they've got to feel that's why I like that visual on the graph. That's exactly right. That you asked the question,
032how did our students react to that? That's why I said you could again, you can't literally feel, but you could feel the positivity and the energy. Uh again, absolutely. I mean, I would go to these guys and say and and the students too. Is it just me or is there like positivity in the air? And then we'd go into the classrooms and see this is this is why you have to be able to see that you are passing the mile markers. Correct. You can't do right. Quick question. Are these sixth and seventh and eighth graders? Yes. Now let me let me let me quickly clarify. So the growth there is last year's sixth and seventh and eighth graders because it's the 23 24 enrollment. So the current freshman now eighth graders and seventh graders we
033do. Okay. Yeah. Yep. Correct. And and and along those lines, Jim, I I will also say that um there is historically and Mr. Williams has said this as well. Historically, nationally, certainly in our school, uh, you know, a dip in the sixth grade for lots of reasons, a dip in the sixth grade. So, we've tried to do some things to combat that. Uh, some with success, some some without. Uh, but you're right, and I've met with the sixth graders actually before they came when they were fifth graders. We're excited to have you coming because I hear that that you are more prepared for our school than before. uh they've struggled on the behavioral side, they've struggled on the relationship side with each other. Uh- which is not we haven't had the growth with them that
034we've that we would hope. Uh but again, we haven't thrown in the towel. We're strategizing to try to fix it. You're welcome. Um let me go through some of these other slides pretty quickly. Uh the these are uh like Mr. Heater's golf score. These are where the lower score the better. So that's so where you see the numbers have gone down. That's a good thing when we're talking about the number of discipline referrals. That's a good thing when you see the number of out of school uh suspensions, you know, the upper chart showing we we've made progress in lowering that to some extent, not to the level we'd like, but again, let's focus on the improvement, not, you know, a uh a makeshift goal. Um same thing, monthly attendance. Uh Mr. Costco is here tonight.
035uh he and Mrs. Haynes have worked together uh on sort of the heaviest hitters to our uh attendance rate, those who are habitually chronically absent. Um and one of the pieces back to this, it's not reflected in here, but that Amy would point out uh has pointed out to us is our attendance rate for those who come to school and are engaged. that is a very high level. Um so we have more and more kids who have uh commendable percentages. Uh we still haven't blasted those out with that are the anchors to our overall rate but our kids like coming to school and and I'll talk about why here in a second. Yes sir. I see both ways from start school. Yep. Because and I say this you see that as well that our students
036are running out of energy when they get to March April time. I I think it's partly that. I think it's also uh you know just go by sheer percentages uh in January of this year January 2025 you'd say you could easily say about 15% of our students are really struggling academically and are not engaged in the life of the school outside of the classroom. Uh so again those kids who are are holding the number up pretty well for those who aren't. So there there's a separation of who's who's coming to school and who's not along those lines. Uh getting students engaged in the life of the school is really really important. Uh and we've focused in on that as a school uh athletics wise. Again Mr. Costa is here as our uh athletics director. uh
037he has kind of taken it upon himself to run breakfast and run uh as many lunch periods as his uh energy will allow him to do. Uh and he's done that not just because he loves the discipline of the cafeteria. He's done that because he's really able to engage and develop positive relationships with kids and recruit them to sports. You're going to see a graphic here in a minute that shows sportto sport. In regard to attendance, those students who are involved in athletics have high attendance 90.9%. Uh these numbers are very consistent as you're going to see. After school clubs, 89.8 about 90% co-curricular attendance 89%. So those kids who are involved uh they do well. We had a a a challenge with that as in I I challenged the student body. I called it
038the Panera Pick Two Challenge U and gave uh breakfast bagels to the classroom that had the most students in the class first period that had two activities. Uh because those who have two tend to do to do better. Mr. Dean's class won that. If you're interested, uh some of this is uh again quite remarkable. you know, our track and field number has almost doubled. Girls basketball has more than tripled. Uh, and that doesn't just happen because we've got more kids to your point, Mr. Low, on the coming up from the fifth grade wanting to play. It's very intentional work on Danny's part and others uh to uh get kids involved. And again, all that's going to do is help them come to school more, help them have better academics, a better experience, uh, and so
039on. Uh when I got to Southside, uh actually the summer after uh I started there, we hired Jaylen H. In fact, quick shout out to Gary Moore who uh who had already hired Jaylen and allowed us to take her because she really wanted to develop a choir. Uh and so uh you can see picture of the kids on the left. Uh our goal was to double that in five years. We've more than doubled it in three years uh with room to grow there. And then the most recent development of again interest in and energy to have kids involved is gear up. Um we had uh lost my place here. Sorry. Um uh former Southside High School ad Tom Lion uh is the local leader of that organization. He's partnered with Miss Williams from our building.
040Uh we had uh 40 students. He was astounded at that. We had 40 students at the first meeting. Uh he got a little upset with Mr. Craft when Mr. Craft saw 40 and challenged the kids, hey, bring a friend next week. Uh Tom feeds these kids. So it was hurting him in the pocketbook. Uh and uh lo and behold, we had 56 kids at at the next one. So uh and that's just I think what five, six weeks old, that organization. Uh so again, a lot of positive energy to get involved in school. Uh we said early on that we can't kind of consequence our way through our challenges. We've got to improve via incentives. Uh JD developed this uh acronym, you know, behavior, attendance, and grades, bag. Uh we've got this in the bag.
041Uh and so we have in a lot of incentives that are based on those three elements of of school. I've got a list here and that picture is of those kids who last year uh were passing five subjects at 90% attendance and zero referrals. Uh and we took all of them to Kings Island. Again, thank you to several of you in the room uh who contributed to that effort. I think I said 90% 94%. All that said, don't take my word for it. got some students that are here to uh share with you their thoughts. Uh come on up students who are here to share your thoughts. Come on up. And we're gonna go uh we'll go ladies first. So Crystal, tell them who you are and what you do. And they've got a little
042bit of a script that some of them I think have brought or memorized and then they they know that you are ready to fire questions at them. So have at it. Hello, my name is Crystal Flores. Nice to meet you guys. Nice to meet you, Crystal. Um, so I was part of the girls basketball team in sixth and seventh grade and part of the girls volleyball team this year in eighth grade. And my favorite part about being a Panther is all the support that I'm getting from all the principles to get my grades up, better test scores, uh, better grades in general, just so I can have a better future in Central and beyond. Awesome. That's fantastic, Crystal. So, how are you doing in school? Good. Good. Yeah. And are you an eighth grader? Yes.
043And will you go to Central next year? Yes. Okay. You going to stay involved? Yes, I will. So, you did volleyball uh your eighth grade year. What do you What are your plans for Central? I'm thinking of doing volleyball. Okay. What about clubs? Maybe choir. Choir. Okay. I was part of choir this year and since seventh grade. Okay. So, you've been part of the choir? Yeah. Well, I would encourage you to stay in the choir. Music program is fantastic. And what's your favorite subject at school? [Music] I think science. Science. Yes. Okay. Well, that's fantastic. Who'd you bring with you? Bailey. Hello. Hi. My name is uh Dalen Curtis. I'm an eighth grader at Southside. Um and uh I'm in the drama club. Uh so far, or not so far, by the end at by
044by the end of my time at SMS, I should do six plays. Yeah. And my favorite memories from SMS has probably been the times after the plays if I've if I did it well. And also the fact that I got to go to school with my twin sister. Okay. Well, that's fantastic. What's your twin sister's name? It's Raya Curtis. Okay. And what's your favorite play that you've been in? That's a hard one. I think I think uh I think I think the first one just because just because of the memories. It's what was that play? It was it was 28 plays in and 28 minutes. Okay. It was like a play per minute. Okay. So, um will you stay involved in drama? I think I will. Yes. Okay. Well, and you're in eighth grade, right?
045Yeah. And what's your favorite subject? Mine's probably biology. Okay. And have you done anything with civic theater in the in town? Uh, no I haven't. Maybe I will though. Yeah, I think you you ought to look into that. You know, uh, Dr. Washburn's very active in civic theater and she could um get you information if you wanted to. All right. All right. So, thank you. And who who's next? This is my name is Cameron Dabney. I am a member of the football, wrestling, and track team, and I'm also president of the principal's advisory council. I transferred in from Cowan this year, and I've enjoyed my short time as a Panther because of the many opportunities that I've had at Southside. On behalf of my fellow classmates and student body overall, we thank you for your
046support of our school, especially the efforts and incentives made to help us improve in the ways we explained tonight. Well, you just did a fantastic job. Did you write that? That was perfect. You've got a future in the world of politics. Thank you. Along those lines, I will say that uh all of you go to the inauguration. Our students went to the inauguration of Governor Braun. Okay. I asked our students, "So, who do you think you might be attending their inauguration as in the classmate somewhere down the road?" And they unanimously said they Okay, maybe Cameron could be a running mate to David. Or maybe they can run against each other. They can get one of them in opposite. Well, is there anything that you've had at Southview that you didn't like particular or not
047South? South Southside Middle School that you didn't like? Um, not really. I think everything that goes on is helping us a lot. You know, there's sometimes when there's a lot of disruptions, but other than that, it's really good at Southside. Well, that disruptions or students who are maybe not behaving the way they need to. Yeah. Okay. What about you, Mr. Curtis? Anything that you would like to see changed? Um, maybe add a few more like I don't I don't really know what you would call them. Elective classes like woodworking maybe or something like that. Okay. Well, we had woodworking when I was a a student. One of my classmates cut his finger off. So, maybe not woodworking. Crystal, what about you? Uh, I think the same thing like a lot of kids. Yeah. And I'm
048sorry. Um, so are you all you and you're going to be at Central next year also? Yes, sir. We're not going to lose you back to Cow, right? No. Okay. Well, we're excited about that. Um, well, thank you all for coming uh tonight and for telling us a little bit about Southside Middle School. We appreciate it. You've been very brave. I'll just quickly add that uh one of the things we're proud proudest of regarding Cam in regard to just his over or in addition to his overall being Cam's dad was a security officer at our school uh when we started together. Uh and I don't think it's a coincidence that Cam went to Kalen early and now he's back with us. So, he's kind of a maybe a shining example of a parent who's noticed
049the improvements we've talked about tonight. So, any questions for me? Yeah. Any questions for Mr. or my or preferably or my staff? Um, Mr. Hayes, I talk to you for a second. You're new, right? How long have you been at the school? Uh, since January. Okay. So, we're just now getting to it, right? Is it It's on the Yeah. Okay. So, uh, you enjoying it? I am. Okay. Well, we feel very fortunate to have you. I I've heard that things you're things are going pretty well. And I appreciate it. It's a total team effort. Like Mr. Rager says, we're likeminded, so there's not a lot of in our armor. Kind of dress it the same way. So, there's no wiggle room to go to this one to that one to get what they want. So,
050we're we're pretty good united front. Good old line. Yeah, I I heard it something the other day. You know, the offensive line is the only position in any sport that plays with its back to the ball all the time. So, it takes really smart people to do that. Um, so I just for the the benefit of you all, your your team and and the leadership, uh, this board um, started in July of 2018, and there have been challenges at Southside Middle School. We certainly have seen improvements over the last 3 years and I know that at times uh you and your team um want things to move more quickly. We would love to see them move more quickly. Uh but we also understand the challenges that that you all uh are working with and to
051overcome uh for the sake of our students. Um so thank you for your efforts. Uh the consistency uh that has occurred during that period of time has been critically important to some a greater degree of stability. Um and we we just hope we can keep moving in in the right direction. Uh and I we are no one is under the illusion that any of this is easy any place. Um but it is so essential and we just thank you for for your efforts. Um any additional questions? Anything? Okay. Well, thank you very much. [Applause] Okay. Um Dr. Reynolds. Yeah, sure. just uh um you know, Southside I thanks again guys for coming in and presenting. We appreciate it. It's a very special place, special place to me and and important work being done there. So,
052thank you. Uh got a bunch of oneliners tonight, Mr. Williams. Um information, celebrations, and thank yous. We um had open enrollment began this week, excuse me, last week and and had great attendance at our kindergarten kickoffs. We had um nearly 40 more students uh and families show up to enroll than over the last two years. Um uh so we're excited about getting new families and and families enrolled, engaged with schools early. Um enrollment is still open. Let me let me re-emphasize that. So if you've not um clicked on those forms and updated the forms uh for your return to the Muny schools next year, please do so just to help us prepare um for the for the next school year. as as uh Mr. Raiders mentioned, testing is underway. So that is a high stress
053time for students and parents and um faculty and staff. So um continue to to encourage all of those folks to to do their best and to um recognize the importance of the test, but recognize also that it's a you know, it's a it's a one dipstick moment in time for um for all those folks involved. So, um I just think it's always good to have that conversation and be thinking about that. Summer school programs are up and posted. I think we've talked about that last time. Getting good good um good engagement there and getting folks signed up for that. Um listen and learn sessions. We wrapped up our last listen and learn session last week. We had good attendance. Um, I did a couple of road shows with uh with Lifelong Learners Group at Ball
054State, the Exchange Club, Community Engagement Council where I went out and had conversations and gathered input from those folks in addition to our listen and learn sessions. Um, people are are very pleased with the work that that we are all a part of and the progress we're making, recognizing there's still plenty of work to do um and receive good feedback um from from those sessions. So, our team will begin to uh have began looking at that and digesting that. We'll we'll again work with Dr. K to help us pin out pin out those plans and and um put the strategies into a into a plan that we'll bring back um later in June and July for approval and and action. Um couple of uh maybe a couple of fun things. We have uh all of
055our spring sports and programs are are in full motion. Um this Saturday is the Muny Relays. It's one of the oldest track meets in Indiana. So if you get a chance to come out, it's a it's a lot of fun. Showcase our facility. Uh schools from all over the state will will come to that. It is it is a boys only event. um starts at 10:00 a.m., but a good another good showcase for the for MCS. Um competitions for our our bands and choirs started last week with our or a couple weeks ago with our middle schools. The high school band and choir will continue this week. Um and let's see what else. And did anybody else Oh, and celebrate excellence. The art show um celebrate excellence and the art show is coming up May
05615th. That'll be just a few days after our next meeting. So, I wanted to make sure you got that out on your calendar. We'll have that at the fieldhouse. Um Brad has assured me that we'll have plenty of parking that we won't have anything to worry about at that time. No, maybe not so much, Brad. But, um um and then if on social media, I don't know if you you got a chance to see that on Friday when when the students were home at a at a didn't have school for kids on a snow makeup day. So, a mysterious guest went around and and hid some Easter eggs around our buildings and then posted on social media um for our families to go out and see if they could find those. And we had terrific
057interaction on social media and kids kids taking picture out in front of taking pictures out in front of our buildings, finding those little treasures. Just uh just a little fun for our students over over a day off to keep them engaged. It was a tremendous idea for Miss White and um had lots of great engagement on social media and most importantly seeing some smiling kid faces find those in the building. So in front of the building. So really really a neat fun out of the box activity. So was it chocolate or Oh I think there was some chocolate some u some sticky candy. I don't know if there's any Oh, there's some gift cards in there. Um all all donated and just just a fun just a fun something to do. What's sticky candy? Uh,
058Skittles. Oh, okay. Sour sticky candy. Okay. Okay. You really need to live. You don't I don't. I don't. He's not ran he's not had to run a concession stand as a as a band parent or a band director where he had no sticky candy. I'm not offended. I I do now. I heard they're going to make it illegal. They might. That's what I heard today. But Skittles are on their way out. So, um, jeez. Yeah, that's you know, government the profit margin. You hate to see that go for and boosters and athletic boosters. Okay, any questions for Dr. Reynolds? He did a wonderful job. Boy, yeah, he did. He he signed me up to do this and I had a few uh several teachers, one of my bosses, former teachers, church um attendees that I
059grew up with. It was it was it was high pressure. I wasn't quite ready. I was a little sweaty. [Laughter] Any additional questions? Do we have any public comments? Okay, we'll go to the uh consent agenda. the um items in personnel. Um couple notes. Uh Dean Hayes, who we just he was going from interim to That's all right. interim was just here, but uh something to note for the board is that I think George Schaefer was a central student who presented with the advisory group. Is it the same George Schaefer? Uh, who's a special ed aid? Yes. Barbara and Carl's son. Okay. So, back at the outset of our um existence, George was one of the members of the student advisory council who presented not here but someplace else. Awesome. So, uh, full circle. We'll
060welcome him and the other recommendations. Do we have anybody else who is a re is a new hireer with us tonight? Look like it. Uh, any additional questions concerning uh the consent agenda? Approval. Okay, we have a motion for approval. Do I hear a second? All those in favor signify by I. I post same sign. Okay. Uh, Mr. Derome, financial report. Uh, thank you. Uh presented in your board packet is the financial update uh financial report for the month of March and just a few highlights on the front page on the dashboard. uh um still reporting state basic grant as an estimate for the the calendar year 2025 about 47.3 million because the legislature is still in session still debating uh perhaps what the budget information um may trickle down for schools uh because fiscal
061year 26 affects the last 6 months of our calendar year here. So, um certainly probably not going to be more than 47.3 million, but at least that's an estimate uh that we're we're still using for now. Um still over 35 million in our checkbook. Still continuing to pay our state loan as uh as originally intended. That's down to 7.3 million. Uh the rest of our financial update, uh still uh still tracking obviously just three months into the calendar year. um still uh expecting to be over 15.5 million or so at the end of the of 2025 for the ed education fund and we had no long-term debt payments in the month of March. uh still tracking a lot of information obviously from the legislature last week on Senate Bill 1 um and what that may
062do for schools and we're we've seen many different u estimates and many different uh models or simulations if you will that's been passed on to us and uh we're still um I guess digesting all those some of those showed us uh uh losses of perhaps 7 or 800,000 in the operation fund and then other times you look at it it's about the same amount of money that we received now. So, we'll wait and see how that all gets interpreted um uh in in the next few weeks, I would I would guess uh after the legislature ends up um really no other uh changes or surprises in the financial report or the charts and graphs. We're still tracking well on spending appropriations. Still spent still planning on spending uh some money out of the rainy day
063fund to help offset operational spending. That's still our plan for 2025. So that kind of concludes our report for this month. Thank you, Mr. Derome. Any questions regarding the financial report? There are no questions, would entertain a motion to approve. So move. Hear a motion to hear a second. Second. Been moved and seconded. All those in favor signify by I. I. Oppos. Same sign. We'll show the financial report passes. We'll move to the next item on the agenda, which is for the B board to hold a preliminary termination on proposed construction projects that we discussed at the prior meeting. If you're interested in speaking at this hearing, please make sure you've signed the sign-in sheet, which would include your name and address. After presentation is made by Mr. Derome for the administration, there will be
064an opportunity for uh comments on the project. Uh at this um commentary period, we would ask that each person limit their comments to three minutes and the topic be limited to the proposed projects under consideration. This notice was published as legally required. At this time, I will ask Mr. Derome uh to explain the purpose of the hearing in a little greater detail. Thank you. Uh pursuant to Indiana code, uh a school corporation must hold two public hearings and adopt a resolution to preliminarily determine to issue bonds or enter a lease uh for a project which has a total cost in excess of certain thresholds. These public hearings and the future consideration of resolutions are the very beginning of this legal process. We note that no board action is legally required for this first hearing. Rather,
065this hearing is solely to hear public comment regarding the project. Okay, we will continue to hear from Mr. Derome about the uh process of determining and communicating the project to the community and the educational need for the project. Okay. Uh thank you. Uh the last couple uh the last meetings or so, we've certainly talked about some future capital needs as we did that some and we'll get into more of that uh this evening. Um and basically uh what we have um presented um to the board we started talking about it uh a month ago is really a culmination of many uh capital project reviews that we have done within the district uh looking at our current needs in the district. Uh over the last uh three years, we have done projects related to spending money
066on bond projects that related to some severe capital needs that were needed um at the Muny Central campus, related to the football field, the football stadium, and over at the fieldhouse and also on the Muny Central campus. And we also were able uh with federal ESSER funds that we did not have to issue debt. We were able to use uh ESSER funds to re renovate three schools and we did that um with no borrowed money at all. And at the same time also I mentioned those three previous bond projects that we did uh and currently the one we're doing this summer. Those payments were were based on debts that were paid off in one year or two-year payments, almost like a a two-year mortgage payment or or one-year mortgage payment. So, those debts have continued
067to come off. And uh with that being said, um we still have many needs in the district, which I will uh address that. Um some of these things that we have identified as needs in the district uh that have certainly uh need attention is the boiler and the HVAC system at the Muny fieldhouse. Uh that failed a year ago. So we've gone two winters in a row at the fieldhouse with a rented uh boiler system on the back of a semi and uh obviously it needs to have a more final conclusion to that and replace that. Um, we also want to talk about chiller replacement at North Side Middle School. Uh, that was also original uh equipment there. We have some lower arena bleachers to replace um that are over 40 years old at the
068Muny Fieldhouse. Um, we also had to take out the bleachers at Northside Middle School. Basically, also original bleachers. Uh, dealing with a lot of repairs with those. Those were taken out. Um, we have a lot of exterior door sets at Muny Central. We have 18 exterior door sets at Muny Central High School. That represents probably over 50 doors. And once again, those are original doors. It's it's um just a tremendous upgrade on security if we can um continue to replace these. We have over 50,000 square ft of roofing sections that need to be replaced in the district at a variety of schools. Um we have not done a roofing project. Uh it's been uh two years since we were able to do that. And um and when we talk about the operation fund and how
069that works with uh when we do these bond projects, we just don't have the existing money or funds uh set aside. We just don't have it in the operation fund. So the way we're able to do some of these uh projects is take money out of the bond proceeds. And that's what this would represent for these roofing projects. Uh, in addition to those roof section projects, and this is by far probably not an all-inclusive list, we have resurfacing uh the track at Southside Middle School that's in dire need. Um, resurfacing the tennis courts at Southside Middle School and also resurfacing tennis courts at Muny Central High School. Those would be the primary the primary items on that particular list. No item that I have listed has yet been spec designed um or anything like that
070with architects or construction manager. This is just our identified list um that we feel like is necessary to bring in front of the public and then the uh the school board um tonight. Okay. So, uh does this project is anticipated that this project would meet the proposed needs? That is that is correct. I mean, this this particular project uh addresses those particular needs. It helps the building envelope. When you talk about roofing, um you're you're really protecting the uh all the items underneath it. And uh these particular items were identified with our roofing consultant that we have to identify roofs that are in need of replacement. And and most of these roofs uh we've got tremendous life out of them. Uh most of these are in that 25 to 35 year uh age and uh
071as you know most all roofs in a school corporation are what you call flat flat roofs. This is not like you'd have in a home. Um, so they need to be replaced from time to time and we have certainly um used roofing repair companies to help extend the life as much as we can and we've just reached the end on certain sections and um I think most recently the most recent projects we had done were at Southside Middle School what uh two years ago and then at North Northview Elementary when we had done some smaller projects there. Um but all these projects address needs that are certainly needed in the district for uh operational purposes. Okay. Um as we discussed at the prior meeting, it's our understanding that the pro proposed financing is tax neutral,
072but if you want to go Sure. into a bit of detail about that. Yeah. Uh basic and we've been we've been partnering with uh Yeah. We've been partnering with our Baker Tilly uh consultants and they have put uh some of this information uh up behind us. Thank you, Cindy. Uh we have been we've done very well at my uh schools, Muny Community Schools over the last uh 7 years. Um way back in 2018, a little over 38 million in in long-term debt. That that number is now down to a little over 22 million. We've continued to pay off things as they're originally intended. And obviously back in 2019, we went back and and did all that work on those original 2014 GO bonds and all that work was then done uh this the year of
0732019 that addressed many capital needs and HVAC systems at that time. So we've continued to do uh some of these smaller um projects that we could afford and pay off early, pay off quickly. And uh that really brings us to today. Um we're down to at the end of last December a little over 22.8 million in outstanding debt and these are all uh scheduled on on amorization schedules. What this project would be uh and it totals approximately $19 million and we would cons still be tax neutral is what we're trying to do. Keep the tax rate uh at the existing 41 cents and then after two years it's going to drop down to 16 cents on the debt service tax rate. And all this is done under the same backdrop of uh all these legislative
074changes that are still in the works and have been passed just a week or two ago. Um this would all still fit under those parameters. The Baker Tilly folks have constructured this debt in in basically two two pieces if you will. And um what they have done uh they have done a combination of issuing part of the debt would be as a lease rental debt and part of it would be as general obligation bonds. And by doing that it allows us to keep some capacity uh for the district if we had more uh project needs uh two years out. Um and it was it's structured that way uh just to help keep the keep the tax rate low. uh and that's why they have helped structure that when they originally uh we originally tried to
075work with them to figure out what is the best way to structure this type of project. When we talked about it with them um they came back with a couple three different scenarios and this is the one that that was going to work out the best for us to just split it up to where we would uh sell bonds in 2025 and two different methods. one was the lease rental uh proposal of about 10 million or general obligation of 9.8. Those general obligation bonds would be paid off in two years with a 2-year payment and those lease rental bonds would be paid off over 15 years. But the whole combination is to keep that tax rate steady for the next two years and then it will drop to 16 cents is their estimate uh after
076that. So, they're trying to give us flexibility uh going forward in case we ever had new projects or things that would would come up. Uh we know as a school district, you're never really done making improvements. And this would help address some serious needs that as we've continued on uh making my schools facilities uh look better and be better and be more operationally sound. This will help continue that uh process. So um I feel like the what they have presented to us um is a way to give us flexibility for the future. Thank you Mr. Dum uh for working with Baker Tilly and thank you to Mr. Heater and I think there were others who participating Mrs. Barnes Griffin in the meetings uh with Baker Tilly and council. Uh it's exciting that we have it
077structured in a way which is able to maintain tax neutrality for the next two years and then uh see a pretty dramatic reduction. Uh so that's also gives flexibility uh for the future. Uh these are all as we look at it. Certainly both uh safety and operational concerns when it cons when it comes to having um reliable roofing um reliable doors at Central. Uh the boiler at the fieldhouse obviously a an incredibly important part of the history and and continued um wellness of my community schools. So, thank you uh for that introduction. At this point, uh Jim, can I sure two com if I if I may and and uh thank Baker Tilly because they've been a partner a great partner of ours uh from the time that we've been involved. Just two things. The
078the the 41 cents that is our current rate um is about um 20% below what the average rate is across the state. And I think that's that should be of note to us. And secondly, the 16 cents we keep referring to is I think we want to at least be a little cautious about that because uh what we want to do is is is provide capacity for us to do the things in the schools that we do need which which you know that I think that's what that 16 cents gives us is is is the the bogey between where we are today and what that 16 cents could be if there's if there's no additional borrowing which we may need depending upon, you know, the plan that that this board with with Jim's leadership and
079Brad and you and and Chuck have uh have worked. Um we know there are there are costs out there. So I just want to be cautious a little bit there to make sure that that we know that. To Dave's point, would you go to slide four? I think it's one the assessed value $2 billion. That's a big excess value for us to take care of. the $19 million may sound like a lot of money, but it's below even that which the uh standard would suggest you continue to pour into your building. So, it's amazing what Brad and others are doing to maintain our buildings at a very low cost when it could be into the 25 to$60 million range annually. We just don't have those resources. But what he's doing and others he's doing is
080just remarkable. consider a $2 billion asset that you have to maintain. Just just Yes. Great job. Absolutely. And it's it's amazing how the the costs just don't go down on the on facility uh upkeep or building new facility or buying equipment. Uh after the pandemic, it seemed like the world changed on the equipment and the lead times on mechanical equipment or the HVAC equipment. We just saw tremendous increases that they really have not come back down nor do we expect them to. So we got those small buses. We did get the small buses. I saw good. I just want I just Okay. So we will call the public hearing to order and if anyone would like to speak at this point u please come forward and speak. Would anyone like to be heard on these
081capital projects? Anyone? Opportunity has been uh held for hearing. Um I do appreciate the the information provided to the board and again Mr. Low and Mr. Peter's uh contributions uh regarding um the status of of the project and where it stands in terms of fiscal responsibility which is well within the range of of responsible fiduciary behavior by the board and by the administration. So thank you. So at this point um we will close the hearing uh and we will move to the next item in the agenda. Okay, which is dialogue of the board and recommendations. I do not have any I always have dialogue but we don't have any recommendations. Uh anybody have anything? Jim, if if I if I could just add, um, it is a it is a kind of a trying time
082in in public education and where we're keeping a close eye on all the legislation. Um, attended a meeting last week and and got a legislative update from um the superintendent association and their legislative liaison. Um, and then they brought in uh Lauren Syler from Ice Miller and and gave a number of recommendations in order to prepare. Um, I felt extremely good that we had made all those steps. Those conversations that we've had with the board, um, preparing for bond work, knowing and contacting our financial consultant, Brad, I I feel like has been 100% on top of it. I know that he loses sleep at night over it, but um, I felt very good at at that meeting because of those conversations and those steps that they recommended that we take, we had already taken. Um,
083so I I I want to thank Brad for for keeping us in the loop and and um doing those keeping us ahead of the game. Yes. Thank you. And thank you Dr. Reynolds and to your team um for helping us navigate uncertain waters. Um anything additional any Mr. Clattz any media? Okay. Would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move entertain a second. Second. Okay. Uh it's my understanding we need a roll call vote. I probably should have um in order to be official since Mrs. Barnes Griffin is with us remotely. Uh we will reopen the motion on the consent agenda, approval of the financial report and the mot and the adjourn adjournment. Showing motions and seconds on all of those and I will call the role. Mr. Heer, do you approve? Yes. Uh, Dr. Washburn,
084yes. Mr. Leo, yes. Mr. Irvin, yes. Mrs. Barnes Griffin, and Mr. Williams is a yes. So, um, one of the things that 35 years of practicing law has taught me is that everything's fixable. Good work. Except a few things, but we won't talk about this. Okay, we will stand adjourned. Thank you all. It's really well done. It said, "Don't take