001I'm going to call the uh call to order the uh school board meeting, Leaport Community School Corporation. Today is Monday, October 13th, 2025. We'd ask you to please silence your cell phones out there. And if you would um if uh Shabble, if you would come forward, we have some uh um hold tight. No, the kids are going to come forward and lead us in the pledge. >> I'm sorry. >> It's okay. >> We have this fine group of uh young people that are going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance tonight. >> So, if everybody would please stand, raise our flags, and this fun crew from Critchfield is going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,
002one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right, Secretary Homequist. Uh, roll call. >> Mr. Arnold pres >> Mrs. Harley is absent. I am present. >> Vice President Jackson >> here. >> President Sebert >> here. >> Okay. Next order of business is uh a Delta Kappa Gamma Grant Awards. Um, Miss Rosenbot. >> Good evening. So I'm got a makeshift podium here. Okay. Okay. So I can see everybody in the room. So good afternoon or good evening. I am Christine Rosenbomb, a mental health counselor at the middle school and high school and along with me I have Monica Datee from Hanley. We are both members of Delta Kappa Gamma, a group of current and retired educators who promote excellence in education. This is our seventh year
003presenting teacher grants for special classroom projects. Tonight we have two outstanding grant awards to present. Our first one goes to Mrs. Zartman and Mrs. straight at the Keslake campus. Please come forward and their grant will support them uh when they're working with students diagnosed with autism due to the communic communication challenges with this group of students. These teachers will further provide a safe and calming place for students before they successfully return to the classroom by utilizing a variety of calming tools through this grant. >> Thank you very much. >> Congratulations. [Applause] And our second grant is going to Mrs. Polly from Indian Trail in Kingsbury who teaches K4 art. And through her grant uh the students will be introduced to the process of mono printing and experience creating layered prints using leaves, flowers, and other
004textures found in nature. This year, 518 students will benefit from the grant and more in the years to come. Congratulations. Delta Capagama looks forward to seeing the results of our recipients projects at our April meeting. And we thank all the educators in our school corporation who submitted a project idea. We had a lot to choose from and it was a challenge but nice one though. >> Awesome. >> So, thank you so much everybody and here are the real stars of the night slicers. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, the next we have a a school spotlight. Critchfield Elementary School. Hey [Music] >> everybody. Perfect. Okay. Perfect. Are we good? All right. So, I brought with me some of my friends. Um, these are our kiddos. I I figured you want to hear the best
005about Crutchfield. And so, I wanted you to hear it from the kids. And then afterwards, we have a little video that really highlight all the different programs. So, we'll show that in a few minutes. I've got a couple of things. So kids have uh some assigned parts that they things that they want to share with you. And then we wanted to share with you a program that we have um at Critterfield that I am so proud of. Mrs. Overly has been doing this for several years where she has kiddos um create flower arrangements and deliver deliver them to all of the teachers every week. And so they practice their communication skills. It's a really great great thing that brings us all lots and lots of joy. So after the kiddos speak then she's going to
006have you can see um how that looks for our classrooms because they're going to share an arrangement with you. So let's start with wait Bristol Lenley is here and she wants to start off. >> Hi hello I am Bristol Lenley and I'm and I am from Qufield Elementary. I'm in fourth grade. I'm positive that Frisfield is one of the best schools around. We have all sorts of amazing people and things. First of all, we have wonderful lunch ladies. We have an awesome principal and also fabulous teachers. We also have a new amazing playground. Oh, and one last thing. Elliot. Oh my goodness. Elliot got one. Go for it. >> My favorite part of school is science and STEM. I like to do experiments and projects. >> Cool. >> I love the double swing is my
007favorite. >> My favorite subjects are math and science. I recently tried out for the robotics team and I really hope I made it. I am also really excited to do all the fourth grade sports. So now our six friends are going to deliver some flowers to the flower cart. >> All right. flowers. >> Thanks, buddy. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. You're awesome. Becky, be careful, >> sir. [Music] >> All the way right there. All right. for us. >> Okay. Okay. >> All right. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> You guys are beautiful. >> Wait for me. >> Excuse me. >> All right. Great job, kiddo. Our [Applause] mission is to engage and ensure high levels of learning for all of our students. We have a vision
008to be recognized for excellence and commitment for lifelong learning. When I think about the dean of Cridgefield as the principal, I can't help but think about our people. Outstanding. We have teachers that have been recognized for their years of service and commitment to students. Marty Briggs has recently had her run for the Indiana Teacher of the Union and that just exemplifies the hard work and dedication that all of our teachers represent. And I'm just so proud to learn this to model things and push our students to grow. >> It's not just the teachers that make me proud. Our students are amazing. Our students strive to do their best. They rise to challenges every day and they work really hard to achieve goals that lead to that bigger vision. Our Critchfield families support our students and
009staff and they want this to be the best place to learn. Our life skills program is special to Critchfield because we're able to meet students needs and then in turn our life skills students teach us so much about perseverance, empathy, and just being a caring school community. Some achievements that make me proud to be a cougar are our hearts safe school certification, being a project lead the way school, being named an Indiana STEM school, as well as the completion of our playground project. State standardized testing scores for iid and iLearn are proof of the rigorous academics that support our success. Other opportunities that make kids shine are K kids, student ambassadors, track, basketball, ring toss, robotics, spelling bee, as well as various clubs. Kirchfield's mission to engage and ensure high levels of learning for all
010students is made possible by the supportive work of our wonderful students, staff, and families. [Applause] I just have to I worked on that video but I did not create it. That was created by Jamie Null who is a Slicer alumni who is going to Hope College uh for communications and so I was very thankful that she was able to help me make that. Thanks everybody. you. >> So, uh, I would encourage parents if you guys want to leave now, probably fine. Uh, you can, if you want, we're going to start getting into some boring stuff. Uh, you guys are the excitement, so feel free to take off. Obviously, if you want to stay, you certainly can. I don't want you to feel like you have to stay. Okay. So, our next order of business is
011public comment. So, we have uh David, you want to come up to the podium? You moved it a little further this way this time. >> That's okay. >> I did the exercise. >> There you go. >> Should I turn around? >> Uh you could you could speak to us. Uh turn around if you want. Uh >> first off, I want to thank >> just real quick, just some housekeeping. You got three minutes, which is is great. So, >> I want to thank the board for allowing me to voice some concerns about child safety here. It's nothing against the school district. I think you guys are doing a great job. It's just I have some concerns because it appears to be getting closer and closer gun violence and whatnot. Uh I I try to monitor what's
012going on around because I have a very precious granddaughter that's at school and one thing that I've noticed is getting more violent closer to us. Westville, Delazo. And what I did is I drove, thanks to your president here, a little itinerary of what I feel I could do to help. You guys do a good job. And I can't imagine the pressure you're at maintaining the safety of your your children, your staff. It's got to be It's nothing like when I grew up. When I grew up, we had one one guard and that was it. Now, you you have no idea. So, I put together I've given it to the board president some of the things that I've been tracking as far as school shootings and church shootings and whatnot. And I never thought I'd have
013to talk like this in front of anybody. Uh, one of the things I I want to say is this is a combined effort between the school and the parents. We monitor our granddaughter, what she sees online, what who's talking to her, and that's a parent's responsibility. We need more parents heavily involved and not depend on the school to do everything. You know what I mean by that is uh >> oh >> the social media it's a big deal and we have to monitor our kids social media look for aggressive behavior on it you know look for websites that have individuals with aggressive behavior that's our responsibility that's not yours but one of the things that I'm suggesting is having either an armed guard here or having have a relationship with the police department where they
014have somebody come in and out daily. That'll be a deterrent because people will see him here maybe not realize they're not here all the time. Also, there's a lot of grandparents like myself that would love to do whatever we could to keep our our kids safe, staff safe. I mean, even if it was, you know, maybe going through a program and getting in concealed carry where I was on the outside perimeter of the school, if I noticed some behavior that wasn't correct, you know, having a walkie-talkie, that I could call somebody inside, say, "Hey, look, there's a suspicious character out here, not to do it on my own, but to to assist with the school, you know, and uh it's got to be qualified through the school board. Uh, I've been watching this for a
015few years and since Colibine happened in 99 and a lot of people might not not know this, but one of when I mean suspicious behavior is there's a movie that miracle of uh what happened in 1986 in Wyoming. >> Okay, you're up against the times. Just close your thoughts here. >> Yeah. Okay. All I'm asking is if I can do anything, if I can be part of a a board that can do anything, I want our children, staff, and employees safe. And it's getting crazy out there. And it's getting more crazy. >> Thank you. >> Look what's going on in Chicago. So, I I'll close with that. If anybody wants a copy of this, I'll gladly give them a copy. >> I share I shared it with >> Oh, good. >> Yeah. Like I said,
016you guys are do you guys are doing a wonderful job and I and I wouldn't want to be in your position right now. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh the next order of business is the uh consent agenda. Um seeing the consent agenda is the approval of the minutes of the September 8th, 2025 schoolboard meeting. The approval of the minutes of the October 6th, 2025 school board special schoolboard meeting. Financials for ratification and approval. Treasures report. Western Governor's University Student Teacher Replacement Agreement, Personnel Recommendations, and Travel Request. Uh, does anyone want to make a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So, moved. >> Thank you, Justin. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Amy. All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> That passes. Uh, we have three special personnel recommendations
017that we need to go through one at a time. Um, so we'll go through the first one is special personnel recommendation number one. You've all seen that. Is there a motion to approve that? >> Salute. >> Thank you, Amy. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Monica. All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Okay. Special personnel recommendation number two. A motion to approve that. >> So move. >> Thank you, Tucker. A second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Monica. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. >> Okay. The last one is special personnel recommendation number three. Is there a motion to approve that? Thank you, Justin. A second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Tucker. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. That passes as well. Uh, moving on. The next thing is,
018uh, the first joint public hearing on projects and preliminary determination. So, since this is a hearing, we're going to open up this hearing to uh the public. Does anyone want to uh comment on the uh joint public hearing on projects and preliminary determination? Okay. Uh we do have Dr. Penrod uh joining us on Zoom. So he is able to provide a little bit of information or context to that. This is in relation to the geo bond that we're pursuing for 2025. >> Right. >> Yeah. Thank you. Good evening and thanks for letting me join. Uh tonight we have the uh as you just said the preliminary determination and um that is the first kind of first hearing first step in the geo bond process. And so this I'll share some slides here from Baker Tilly
019the financial or municipal adviser is working on uh working on um this particular bond issue. So, uh, we've got existing debt, uh, service and lease rental payments. So, these are going to be the, uh, everything that's currently on the port's books for, uh, for debt service. And this is the, uh, this is the total here. So, this is, um, not anything to do with tax rate or anything like that. Just simply how much money uh, Leaport is going to spend in 2025. And then what spend in 26 through 37 as far as the uh, as far as the debt service payment goes, excuse me. You can see This is a good time for uh to issue debt service or to issue bonds because of this cliff here. So you got a um from 25 to
02026 a big drop there and then the amount of money that's going to be paid. Then it levels back out until 2031 where you get a little drop 2033 another drop and then 2037 a pretty significant drop. So that's what the uh that's what it currently looks like. the proposed financing. Uh the maximum amount borrowed uh proposing five $4,510,000. Uh the estimated proceeds available for the project uh $4,380,000. And somebody might say, why don't we get the full 44.5 million? Uh the cost of issuance, so the cost of paying the underwriter, the bond council, etc. uh is going to come out of that of the bond proceeds. Uh maximum repayment term at 5 years. So the interest expense would be at 306,796. The maximum annual debt service payment at 2.5 million but the increased uh
021the estimated increase the current debt service rate will be zero. And then the certified debt service rate in the tax or for that fund is4432. So a couple things to point out there. Uh that is uh on the estimated interest expense. uh that assumes an interest rate of 5% which is a little high for for the current environment. Um although that fluctuates daily just like any other market would and so uh that would also um mean if that is high uh and I think it probably will be that would also mean that the interest expense is a little high and then the max manual debt service payment at 2.5 million that's also uh significantly higher than what I would suspect it'll end up being. uh these are maximum parameters as we mentioned and so these
022are kind of worst case scenarios. So we put that the $2.5 million in there on the uh on the payment or estimated payment to uh to give the school some like maximum flexibility once the bond is sold. uh then whatever kind of fits best for the school is how we'll pay it back. Cuz this is not, as you know, this is not like any other loan where in your personal life where you, you know, you might go buy a car and they tell you the payment's going to be uh $600 a month for the next 5 years or you buy a house and it's going to be $1,000 a month for the next 30 years. Uh the school can kind of can kind of fluctuate there to say we're going to pay back x number
023of dollars, whatever is more beneficial to the school. And so, uh, these maximum parameters just give us, uh, a lot of flexibility once the bond's sold. I should also point out that, um, the underwriter and, uh, Baker Tilly do a good job of of monitoring those the market conditions. And so, uh, generally they'll sell on, uh, a specific day of the week, any in a specific week. So, rarely do we see Mondays or Fridays. It's a lot of times it's Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. And again given what the the bond market looks like um they'll they'll monitor that and then sell on the appropriate date. So this is the estimated debt service projection with that uh with those maximum parameters involved there. So we have the maximum borrowing amount of 4.510 projects available or available
024for the project of 4.38 uh 5 years is a maximum repayment and that same interest term is the maximum there. And so you can see now the uh all of this gray is what was colorcoded a couple slides ago for the existing and then this green would be the uh would they be the proposed taxable geo bonds of 2025. And so uh you can see about a $10 million uh again if if that $2.5 million payment is is correct uh or is accurate which again I think it's too high but about a $10 million payment in 2627 and then that cliff is created again in 2028. So this is the uh the total school tax rates 22 certified through the 22 26 estimate. So you've got um again total school tax rates here in 22
025at 9668 9627 9659 drops a little bit in uh 25 to 9254 and then uh this would go back uh up slightly in 2026 to 9397. Still not as high as it was in 2024. um the debt service the net net uh net impact on debt service rate by itself would be zero um but because the uh because the AV didn't grow by as much as the uh by the MLGQ for the operations fund the operations rate will actually increase um just slightly from 4822 to 4965 and so you can see down here the 44 432 and the 25 4432 and 26 it's just this operations that grows by uh 1 1.43 43 cents to increase the uh increase the total tax rate uh general obligation bonding capacity then um there's a uh not not
026uh not to quote or to quote Indiana code or statute because I don't know which code it is but there is law that says the a uh a school corporation cannot be in debt any more than 3% of or sorry 2% of one/ird of their AV and so the 25 uh certified net assessed value is uh just over 2 bill 2 almost $2.1 billion. So we divide that by 3 multiply by 2%. And we get the debt limit of 13 uh 13,88612. Uh so that leaves with outstanding geo bonds in of 2020 21 23 and 24 that leaves the 4.51112 uh for uh total capacity and that capacity will increase as uh payments are made. So, this particular one will close before your December payment's made, but once that December payment is made, uh the
027capacity starts to grow again as far as uh the amount of money that you can that you can bond for. And then these are um these are Baker Tilly's uh the people that are on the on the Leaport file as far as the Baker Tilly representatives. Uh this uh also is another way to look at everything we just said here. Uh this is more in u in numerical sense instead of charts and graphs but we got the same information here 4.5 million the same interest uh same 5 years 2.5 million uh the the debt service rate impact is uh here it's listed at.1124 and that's only because if you didn't do this the the uh the debt service rate would would predict we predicted it drop by 1124 but the net increase would be zero
028because it's just a level a level tax bond. Uh so we've got the uh some more uh data here. This gets in a little bit more a little bit more um uh kind of in-depth data. Uh the result of political subdivision's current projected annual debt service payments divided by the NAV of taxable property within the subdivision. Um and so we've got 48% there. Uh the total number three here the total of political subdivision and overlapping tax units long-term debt. Uh so that percentage is 5.78. So overlapping uh the school district and the overlapping tax units long-term debt divided by net AV of taxable property. Uh then we talk about rate here and so that's that's held and and will hold again in 2026 27 uh 28 I mentioned that cliff so that would drop again.
029Um and then as we move on to number five here um with respect to bonds issue or lease entered into uh to open a new facility or an existing facility. The school has to determine how much money we uh we would say it would cost to operate that facility. And this in these partic this particular instance, we're not uh opening a new facility uh or reopening an existing facility. We're just updating things uh kind of a deferred maintenance type of thing. And then um a statement that any owners of property within the political subdivision or registered voters residing in the political subdivision who want to initiate a petition uh the proposed debts um and that service payments may be subject to petition remmonstrance if that petition is filed. So we have to go over each
030of those uh each of those topics as well. But it um but that kind of that kind of concludes the uh required information on the 2026 2025 taxable geo funds. >> Okay. So I would ask after hearing that if anybody in the uh the audience has any comments or they want to speak uh they can. If not you don't have to. Okay. Uh board any questions or comments? We have gone over some of the stuff in our work session. So, >> good. Okay. So, we're uh we'll go ahead and close the hearing then. Thank you, Dr. Penrod. Um >> thank you. >> Okay. So, the next order of business is the financial dashboard. Also, Dr. Penrod. The stage is still yours. >> Maybe there you are. >> I'm early. Um >> sorry about that. shut
031off too early and I am uh I'm unsharing or I I'm closing all those documents I just had and I'm going to I'm trying to find my dashboard. Hang on just a second. All right, hang on. Sorry. Okay. Um, you all have the dashboard, correct? I don't need to share this one. >> I think you should probably share it. >> Okay. >> If you can. >> And hang on. Sorry. I don't know. I don't have that link. >> I've just got my spreadsheet, but I don't have the link. Hang on a second. Yeah, we can pull it up here. Do I need to? >> I thought you could see. You can't see this right here. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. Sorry about that. Um the uh uh put that together and I I uh didn't
032actually get the link. I just put the data in my spreadsheet. So I apologize about that. Uh so in our education fund um the uh overall financial health, we can talk about that first. On the total cash position, uh 9 uh 9.69 million, that decreased by 2.03 million in September. uh representing 16.1% of the annual budget. Uh September expenses exceeded revenue by that same 2.03 million uh higher spending in both the ED and ops fund uh which is again typical for this period. And the education fund now holds 83.9% of that cash on the uh total cash balance like we said 9,68777 the September revenue at 5,185 527 and the expenditures uh the difference there at the uh 7.217295 and there's the 16.1% of cash balance or of but cash as a percent of the
033budget. On the education fund we have $43.22 22 million budget, $35.16 million spent through September. So that is uh 81.3% of the budget. Um and then we move to the operations fund at 17.1 million budget. Uh 12.35 million spent through September. And so we're at 73.2% of the budget utilized in the operations fund only. Uh when we go to down to the fund balances then we have the education fund um there with uh with with uh 8.17 8.12 million uh that's down again from the uh from the beginning balance like we said the operations fund also down uh operations a little different though because of the cash flow and so we'll see um we'll see the uh the the an influx of cash in June and December for that one. So typically in the months
034of January through May and then July through November, uh we do see more expenditures than revenue in the operations fund. And then the rainy day fund uh no activity there. So it just held it held even at uh 620,000. On the September cash flow, we see our revenue uh lower than lower than um lower than the expenditures in the uh education fund. And the gray there represents the amount there, the 1 uh 1.39 And the operations fund, like I just said, uh was is pretty typical to have uh expenditures greater than revenue at this time of year. And we'll see that in uh October and November as well. And then December, we'll get uh uh an influx of cash at the December property tax uh settlement or fall settlement occult. Then as we move down
035um to the uh monthend cash balances by fund uh 8.12 million like we said in the education fund that represents almost 84% of the cash in these three funds that we have uh 940,000 in the operations fund representing 9.7% of the cash and 620,000 uh in the hearing day fund representing 6.4% of the cash. And then we move on to the fund summary. And these are this is just numerical of everything we just talked about. But we've got uh we started at 9.5 million in the ED fund revenue of 400 4.4 million expenditures of 5.8 and so our difference there is about a million4 uh at uh 8 ending at 8 8 million12309. The operations fund began at 1.582 million revenue of 754,000. Again that's uh not property tax. we get have in December expenses
036at just under 1.4 million leaving our ending balance at 943,000 and then the rainy day fund at 621,463 uh no activity so we end uh September with that same amount in the rainy day fund. So again sorry for not having that link but I'd be glad to answer any questions here. >> Anybody have any questions? So just uh so the public knows this is on our public facing website. So if anybody wants to check this out, they they watch Tammy operate. They go through the business questions. Okay. Um All right. Thank you, Dr. Penrod. Uh we're going to move on to uh the superintendent report. Dr. Wood. >> All right. Um so starting out this evening, I would like to ask Mr. Mr. Marty Briggs to come up, join us here in the front of
037the room here. So, as you all know, our very own Mr. Marty Briggs from Crutchfield Elementary was named one of the three finalists for the Indiana Teacher of the Year. Um, so while he did not ultimately receive the top honor, being selected as a finalist among thousands of teachers across the state and is an extraordinary achievement in itself. So, Marty has dedicated 47 years to the students of Leaport Community Schools and his impact runs deep. He is known for his creative, hands-on approach to teaching math and science, his commitment to helping every student reach their full potential, and his willingness to share his expertise through professional development and state and national presentations. We are tremendously proud of Marty, not just for this recognition, but for the legacy of excellence, care, and professionalism he continues to
038model every single day. He represents the very best of what it means to be an educator, and he will always be our teacher of the year here in Lorp. So, on behalf of our administration, the entire Leaport community, and the board, we wanted to extend our heartfelt congratulations and appreciation for all that he has given to our schools and our students. we wanted to officially honor him for this amazing accomplishment here in the board meeting um and congratulate him on this amazing honor. So even though he's not the winner, making it to the top three is is a phenomenal feat. So >> congratulations, Marty. >> Congratulations. >> Very very honored uh to be top three. Um and I think this reflects on our board. I think this reflects Leaport Community Schools. of our leadership, our
039administrators, and the teachers that many of them are doing the same things out to them. So, uh, it's it's an amazing honor. I couldn't have done this by myself. I've got to thank a few people. First of all, Dr. Wood who reached out to me a few times to help support me. Dr. Tonicle I talked to all the time. Ryan, I talked to you yesterday. Just a lot of support there. um former student uh Amy Jackson uh who wrote a letter of recommendation for me and she also um was part of a video that was incredible and uh she was in the car at the time but but she wasn't driving. Okay, so that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Also, um I really appreciate the help of Erin Meyer. Uh a couple weeks
040ago, she drove me to ABC 57. I did a live interview and and we snuck in during the weather and it was it was great. Uh she's very supportive and very helpful. Um even um uh Dr. Hinckley is has reached out a couple times, the interim superintendent just to support me and also my principal um to assist Shabel. She's the she's the one who um convinced me to do it this time. So thank you very much for for that. And then let me tell you also the um also just the incredible support I had from the community was amazing videos. I mean I was videos there were um I was in front of Critfield as I was leaving to do the top seven and there were parents from 20 years ago holding up Riley jerseys
041and just all kinds of things like that. It was just so much fun. I'm not even on social media, but I had so many people tell me great things that were happening. So, thanks. And also, let me tell you a little bit about top three. I'm learning more about this all the time. Just had some um emails this week. Uh the top three people, LA High from Mishawaka, and then also Megan Johnson, the the two 2026 teacher of the year. They're both incredible teachers and they're incredible human beings. When I when I first met them, way before anything was announced, we just all pledged our support to each other. There was no sense of of competition or anything. And as it turns out, the top three is a collaborative group. So if the uh teacher
042of the year is not able to do something, they will call in one of us and do that. We've already made plans of doing some things next summer with fundraising and different things like that. So it's it's a great honor. Um I thank you all. I'll never uh forget the support I had from all of you and I'll try to represent you more well. So, thanks. >> Thank you. >> Well, Marty set me up perfectly for this next part that I want to share. And um if you recall last month um we shared a short video clip from our YA Teach series. Um, and I met with Marty a few times during this experience and he always reminded me that there are a hundred more of Marty's all through the different schools within our district.
043Um, so I want to share a clip. Um, this one featuring another teacher from Crutchfield. We're we're spotlighting Crutchfield, so we thought we would share um, one of the clips from Crutchfield. Um, this is teacher Sarah Waldridge. >> It was great. >> And she um, was one of our featured teachers. So, this is going to be just a real quick clip that you can see just what it is that Sarah likes um or Sarah loves about teaching at Leaport. [Applause] [Music] >> I love working in Leaport because Leaport is such a close-knit community. The family ties to our schools are so strong and often multigenerational. It has been so rewarding for me working here to get to know the families that attend our school. I've had multiple siblings from the same family come into my
044classroom and it's been such a joy to develop those relationships over time. One day I hope to have the child of a former student in my classroom because that would be such a cool full circle moment. [Music] Just a great connection hearing from one of Marty's co-workers as Marty has had that opportunity over 47 years to see the the generations of students come through his classroom and we have many other educators that we're very very proud of as well. Okay, so segueing into some additional information for my report. So, our official APM, which is our average daily membership, um count day was October 1st. So, at that point in time, we finalize our building level enrollment numbers and submit them to the Indiana Department of Education. And as you're aware, that information that gets submitted
045to the DOE then is connected to the funding that we receive, which funds our education fund, which we heard a little bit about in our financial report. So, I'd like to take a few minutes to share where we are um with enrollment and I'll highlight some key trends. I've also um shared with the board some charts. So, I'm going to summarize just a few points from this and um as you take this with you this evening, you'll be able to kind of study this in further detail. And if you have any questions or any observations or thoughts, please let me know. So, this year's total enrollment is 5561 students. that is broken down with 5,450 enrolled as traditional in-person learners and 111 students enrolled virtually. Um so this represents a decrease of 68 students compared
046to our October 2024 count. Um and it also comes in 59 students below the projection from the McKibben demographic study which was completed in 2024. Um so again the trend of declining enrollment continues um with the numbers that we see for the 2526 school year. Um so just a few additional details on that decrease. The kindergarten class accounts for just over half of the total decrease. Um so this year's kindergarten group includes 359 students. That is compared to 395 last year. And if you recall, we talked a lot last year at this time about last year's kindergarten group being the very first to dip below 400. Um, so now coming in at 359 students, we've dipped even further um, below that metric of 400 students in a cohort. Um, I'll note that this decline reflects
047a broader national and global trend of lower birth rates, which is just beginning to impact our local school enrollment as well as the other districts around us as well. Um, one key analysis we do is we track individual groups of students as they move from one grade level to the next um to determine at which grades we tend to lose the most students. Um, so following that same cohort of students as they move from kindergarten to first or from first to second and so on. Um, so comparing last year's enrollment to this year's, as students have moved up, we lost the most students as they moved from 10th into 11th and then from 11th into 12th. So, it's really those upper level, secondary grade levels where we're seeing um the drop in students. Looking um
048specifically at the elementary and middle levels, the the biggest drop occurs between kindergarten and first grade. Um, so we're reviewing right now some building level data and really going to drill that down to determine um if we can figure out if there is more context into that trend that we're seeing with with the drop that's happening between kindergarten and first. Um, and I I will follow up with the board as we determine more information um from that. On a positive note though, I will say that the transition from from fourth grade to fifth grade um which is often one we hear concerns about showed a loss of only four students and that's less than 1%. So although we sometimes hear that families leave the district at this critical transition time, the data right now is
049not supporting that perception and that's encouraging. Um, as I mentioned, the 11th and 12th grade classes saw the most student movement, but we did retain several of those students through Leaport online school. Um, where we added 18 students in 11th and 12th grade. Um, so it is reassuring to know that our online school is keeping some of our students in our district while allowing families to make that choice to transition to an online learning environment when it best suits their needs. Um, and then finally, while overall district enrollment is slightly down, there are positive signs of growth in some specific areas. Uh, Kingsbury Elementary increased enrollment by 9% and Kingsford Heights Elementary grew by nearly 16%. Um, reflecting most likely new housing development and growth in those communities. Um, additionally, our Little Learners Early Childhood
050Center has nearly 30 students more um than the students that were enrolled in our preschool programs last year. So, that's a positive trend for our youngest learners um and hopefully a good sign for future kindergarten enrollment. So, again, um if you have any questions, this report is broken down. Um we report numbers in two different reports. The first one in this document shows membership. Those are students that are enrolled through Leaport Community Schools um and which are tied to our funding. The second page is the enrollment report. That includes students who might be attending programs in our school but are enrolled through another district through our special education co-op. Those numbers are relevant when we're looking at class sizes or when we're looking at building capacity. And that information is broken down there. And you
051can see the cohort change and the kindergarten cohort trends on the last page as well. And I'm happy to provide additional detail on anything. if you see any interesting or unique um data in this uh report um just let me know and and we can drill down um further as well. And then finally um one final thing to note with my superintendence report this evening um as we are heading into the winter months, believe it or not, I wanted to briefly review our inclement weather plan for this school year. Um we've made a small but important change and so we want to make sure everyone is very aware of that. Our calendar now includes two built-in snow makeup days on February 13th and February 16th. So if we would have cancellations before then, those will
052be traditional snow days that we will make up in person on those two dates. After we use those two days, then we shift to the posted lesson e-learning days. Um and that is where students complete assignments online with teachers available for support during office hours. Uh the state does still limit us to only three of those days. Um so we would have three posted e-learning days. Um and then if there were additional cancellations needed after that, they would be added to the end of the year and made up in person. Um so our goal whenever possible is to keep students learning in person because that's where we know they learn best. Um so we've made these small modifications to our calendar to try to prioritize in-person learning. Um, and as always, we'll communicate delays and
053closures through our website, social media, local media, and now Parent Square. Um, so families should make sure that their contact information is current and Skyward. Um, as that pulls directly through our Parent Square platform, and it won't be long before one of those first delay or cancellation days will be coming along. And that concludes my superintendent report. >> Okay. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Dr. >> Whit? You go. >> Okay. >> Um that drop the um the 11th grade and 12th grade is at a negative rate. Do we know what the percentages for dropout at that time? >> Well um our graduation rate um has been increasing year after year. So, we've really put a lot of effort into making sure that we're capturing these students in some way, shape, or form so
054that they're not dropping out and that they're remaining in school in some capacity. So, I can dig down and get that number. Um, you know, we traditionally see a variety of different factors that play into when students get to the the older grade levels. Um, like I said, we were able to capture some of these with our virtual program, but that has been traditionally one of the um, decisions that students tend to make at those older ages that either they're going to pursue a homeschool or a virtual program to provide more flexibility. A lot of times students have jobs um, and are working and and sort of moving into their adult life and so they're they uh, can tend to make those changes for those reason. But I I can pull that number for sure.
055we can run a report out of Skyward for that >> because I would hate to at that point in your education to be >> a dropout perspective, right? >> You know, so that would be concerning. >> Yeah. Our our graduation rate last year was the highest it's been. Um and so we're really we've really put a lot of resources into making sure that students aren't dropping out. Um but you know, of course, if they're choosing another um opportunity besides staying in Leaport High School, then that's where >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I was just going to say I I I I appreciate the the inclusion of the capacity percentages. Like for Lincoln in particular, we can see there was a 54% capacity last year and now that we've repurposed that building for the little
056learners, we're at a 90% capacity building. So yeah, I just think that's very interesting. Definitely. >> Any other questions or comments? Okay, we're going to move on to the assistant superintendent of student learning report. Dr. Tonibles. >> Yeah, thank you. One comment I would make about that, Monica, is sometimes that graduation rate or the numbers that change are more about transiency than they are about completion or keeping up. One thing we've noticed and you know we've been tracking um withdrawal data for many years as we've tried to get that graduation rate up that the better job that we're doing with transient students and recordkeeping because kids that do move out if you don't have things just in the right order whether they finish somewhere else or not they will count against your graduation rate. So
057it's a little bit of a kind of a confusing point when you're looking at that graduation rate. So we will we can pull that because I know Mr. Up and his team have been very on that data. the number just looked really high. So that's why I asked >> it. It is and and we see that across the district as well. Um but we we definitely work hard to you know anytime we hear that a student is thinking about leaving for whatever reason it is. >> Um you know because the reality is even if it's just a move from one district to another, there's research that tells us that those transitions that happen, particularly if they're happening midyear, set kids back academically. So, you know, it's always in the best interest of the student if
058we can try to make things work and and we our our team does a good job. Um, but yeah, we'll dig into that a little bit and get you some additional information. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. So, u for my report tonight, I wanted to uh tell you a little bit about our school's um federal accountability ratings. So, just recently, um, federal accountability ratings through Indiana's Every Student Succeeds Act were released, and we had four schools that met those expectations at the federal level. Congratulations to Hanley, Riley, Kingsford Heights, and Critzfield for meeting those. Those are a part of Indiana's plan for federal accountability. Those plans kind of are built in together. Um, the state has certain goals, uh, essentially, and I don't have the specific report cards. They didn't release those, so I
059can't drill down into it to find out exactly how we scored on their metrics, but essentially they look at um your accountability assessments. Can I learn, which is a 3 through eight assessment, they look at student growth, and they're really disagregating the data at the student uh level. So, they're looking at efficiency. They're looking at students with special needs and the progress they're making. Um looking at male, female, so student groups. So, um we're we're excited about that. only 36% of the schools across the state of Indiana met um expectations at the federal level. So, it's kind of a challenging category to be in. Um it's not uh reflective of the whole picture. It's an informative uh accountability rating system, but it does tell everything what's going on in schools. Nonetheless, it's a reflection of
060hard work and we're appreciative and we celebrate with Hanley, Riley, Kingsford Heights, and Critzfield for meeting those federal um expectations. Additionally, uh we were notified that Kingsford Heights was nominated for the 2024 25 ESSA Distinguished School Award. So, this uh is federal legislation that's aimed at uh closing the achievement gap for students in schools in high poverty. And so, really proud of Kingsford Heights. Um the state of Indiana is allowed to nominate two schools uh nationally for this award. So uh Mrs. Wyman will be putting together an application packet to show more about how they do things at Kingsford Heights and their success stories and the ways that they're winning um closing that achievement gap for kids with high needs and they'll be submitting that to the state of Indiana with the hopes that it
061would go on uh on the national level. So um previously that award was uh titled something with title one schools. It's now got a different title, but it's all about improving outcomes for kids. And so we're proud of Kingsford Heights and the staff who's been working to closely achieve that. That concludes my report. >> Awesome. Any questions for Dr. Tagle. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh next is the assistant superintendent of operations report. Dr. Honey. >> Thank you. Uh it's been other than working on the budget, it's been kind of a quiet month, so that's good. Um just a few updates, not a whole lot, but the secure vestibules and the playgrounds projects are all finalized. Um we had a ribbon cutting for Critfield's playground on September 25th and Kingsford Heights has
062theirs scheduled for October 27th. Um and then just from a safety and security side of things, uh there is a presentation on Wednesday, October 15th at 6 p.m. in Keslings Auditorium. Um it is a school safety based presentation. It's called When the Unthinkable Happens by a partnership, Carly and Reiken Posie. They were a parent and first grade student that were involved in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. So, if you have an opportunity to make it out to Kesling at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, um that would be a very good presentation uh to attend. All I've got questions or comments. So, I just want to say at um at Kingsbury and that turned out really really good. I was a little unclear how they were going to do a secure vest to build there the
063way that they >> they did a great job. >> Did a really nice job. So, um kudos to >> Ryan and Mike Tower with the tech side of things. They did a great job. >> Yeah. Figuring that out. Some of the some of the schools it seems pretty cut dry, but that one was a little tricky. So, um okay. Uh moving on to new business. Uh the first item is consideration for recommendation to approve the acceptance of grants, donations, gifts, and requests. Dr. Wood, >> we have two items to request approval of this evening. First is a grant of $5,000 from the competitive workforce development uh through robotics to Leaport High School robotics club. Um and that grant is to be utilized for the advancement of the robotics club. Um, and then second is a
064donation of $1,000 from the Leaport Gleaners organization for the life skills program at Keslan campus. >> Any questions or comments on these? Someone want to make a motion to approve the acceptance of these two grants and donations. >> Thank you, Jim. >> Second. >> Thank you, Monica. All in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> Okay, that passes. Next item is consideration for the recommendation to approve the working agreement between the Leaport Community School Corporation and the Leaport Federation of Teachers for the 2025 2026 school year. Dr. Wood, >> um we held our public meeting last week Monday regarding the tentative agreement between the Lort Federation of Teachers and the Corporation. Um we we don't have anyone here this evening. I know our um president of their association, Claudia Williams, is out of town um
065this evening, but we um had a very collaborative process with the Lepart Federation of Teachers. Um we were able to start early with uh through some pre-negotiations. The team they brought to the table was very eager to learn um and very um much willing to participate in reviewing some of the historical data um some of the uh financial information that we shared um and overall it was uh a very good process uh to work with them on a working agreement proposal that we um all agreed to. So, this is a one-year contract that we are proposing. Um, terms of this contract were reviewed at the public meeting, but also are posted on our website. Um, and so I would ask the board um to approve this working agreement for the Leaport Federation of Teachers for
066the 2526 school year. >> Any questions or comments? So, I have two uh comments. So, uh, I just want to give you a at a boy. Um, I had a lot of, uh, teachers come up to me and say that the negotiations went very, very well. Um, I appreciate, uh, your transparency with them. Uh, school finance is extremely complicated. Um, and I think the collaborative effort was felt by them as well. Uh, their president told me, "You did a great job and your team did too." And so, uh, as Jim has pointed out, when both parties are leaving the table feeling good, it's a su a successful negotiation. So, so thank you for that. Um, I also want to thank Dr. Tonagle. I know you put a lot of work into the extracurricular. Um, you
067know, our coaches haven't had a raise here in we think 12 years. Um, and so, uh, all of our coaches and all of our, that's not just sports, it's academic coaches, it's it's clubs, it's down to the little kids, the big kids, they're all getting a a right-sized raise through this. Um, we've also, uh, you guys did a lot of work on preparing that, and I don't want that lost. U,, thank you for that. Um, we've also tied coaches pay now to starting teacher pay, right, as a percentage, right? Whereas before it was stagnant. And so there had to be like all this board action, now it's tied as a percentage of starting teacher pay. So that's going to prevent this lack of a raise for coaches to happen for another 12 years. So we've
068we've hopefully corrected that. So moving forward, that will just increase as uh as the pay goes up for starting teachers. So, I think these are all very positive things um for our our school corporation as a whole. I think it's really good for the climate and the culture uh that we have here. So, I just wanted to throw that. So, with that said, does anyone want to make a motion to approve the working agreement as laid out? >> Thank you, Jim. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Amy. All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> All right, that passes. Uh the next order of business is a consideration for recommendation for approval of the 2026 budget. Dr. OMI. >> So I have a recommendation uh to officially adopt the 2026 budget. It's a
069total of 73,693,926 and the associated uh resolutions there. There are five resolutions tied to it. um the 2026 5-year bus replacement plan, the 2026 capital projects plan, the transfer of funds from education fund operations fund, the transfer of the 2025 budget appropriations, and then lastly, the reduce appropriations and/or operating balances. And upon approval of the 26 budget, the resolutions in the budget will be submitted to DGF. >> Can we do all those resolutions at once? as presented by Dr. Rooney. >> Okay. Any questions or comments on budget or those resolutions? So, this has not changed from when we talked about this last time. So, um Okay. So, does anyone want to make a motion to uh approve the budget? So, move. Thank you, Justin. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Monica. All those in favor
070say I. >> I opposed. >> Okay. So, the budget and all those resolutions passed. Uh other business there's none for comment. Anybody have any comment? >> I just want to make a quick comment, Mr. President, that uh not that you can take this to the bank, but I've been speaking to a few of the legislators on Senate Bill one. And it seems to me that this was according what they were saying down the state that it may be a possibility this could get addressed again. Apparently, there's a lot of a lot of turmoil and a lot of dissension about bringing home the rooster of what this is going to mean to us. I'll be in Annapolis at the state house uh next Tuesday down there. But in speaking to a few of them uh this
071last week, it seems they're just saying, "Hey, it may not happen. It's a short session. Elections coming up, but there may be there may be some approaching and reconsideration on Senate Bill one. If there is, I would imagine they'll hold it over till budget session the following year, but at least maybe that's a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel like you're realizing. So, thank you very much. >> Okay. >> Any other board comment? >> Um, I'll just make a quick comment. It's no secret that I'm a Marty Brig super fan, but I just wanted to go on record and say congratulations. Um, I'm not going to say anything else better than Dr. what I already said, but we are so so grateful to have you in the corporation. And I told
072you before I was going to need to see receipts if you didn't win, but I'm sure the person who did is is fantastic. So, I'll take the high road as well. But congratulations. >> Could you ask her to teach you how to show up on time? >> I was here right on time. >> All right. Any other comments? Jim, I thought you could make a comment to get out of here. We'll go wash the pairs. The Brewers and the Dodgers are on. >> All right. So, our ne next meeting is November 10th uh at 6 o'clock. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So, move. >> Thank you, Tucker. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Justin. All those in favor say I. >> I. your end of the meeting.