001she's beautiful because of that and myself let's get one public comment for this evening it's Donna Johnson just a reminder there's a three minute time limit of questions I'm like Curious George I look for answers so this is in no way I don't want to be interpreted as like accusations these are not amputations I don't know what you are doing I just know what I've seen on the wide world record so uh concerning the outside contractor for the Strategic initiative the education elements I looked on their site and I've seen some things and uh so I guess this is this is what I'm going to ask about so uh to introduce how we're I've been looking at the territory here during the past few years there's been a lot of tearing down and building up
002we've got stature's being torn down and it was building up institutions Traditions everything's got to go his old one day for me told me I asked her what the instructions were going to be in the post that they're going to be forthcoming and she said well nothing from those old dead white men so I think if someone says that to me that they have agenda so from covert we've had Mass mandates vaccine mandated School lockdowns the nation's landscape has forever changed and we all know more to be accepted we'll move forward and also I'm only here for one reason tonight that's because I love my community I love children uh hello emojis um and I I see things and I'm concerned so the growing Dei industry has become a multi-plated dollar industry this is in
003schools pay thousands of dollars to consultants for planning dishes and training seminars I've looked at some of these seminars I went to the initiative initial thing and I took a little survey initially for the initiative and I respond um except for all the people that part of the school board and I just found a day and I you know just like okay it's all about my feelings a lot about this and that but nothing confirms like I'm just used to go to school with you okay here's your math is my science room whatever and that the kids are so suffering because of all these things school's being closed um the other problems drugs and mental health and it goes on and on and on looking at the education elements these are the things that were
004pulled up from an article that I shared with you so CRT influence teachers must this is from the element State an arguable on them must acknowledge white supremacy culture it promotes the DI restorative justice um social justice center supports black lives matter that's more that Foundation has been really discredited in California has taken away their charity status supports prioritizing hiring for Equity um I think we want equality we want diversity so we want don't let diversity at the cost of conditions we don't want inclusion at the cost of excluding other people um this company sounds like company also has worked with Allen County Public Schools which was very publicized way back in 2012. it's that three minutes Mrs Johnson okay so and then just in closing um I had also wondered I know that uh
005SEO system follow up on that question from last week and from last time thank you yes in uh Mr Johnson we'll let you know that when you present then we consider what you're saying and if there's we look into those things and if there's something to get back to you on we will do that I have notes for my from your last presentation that I can send you but typically it's not a question and answer session no I understand okay very good thank you you're not presenting anything to sort of get yourself correct okay thank you we'll move on to the consent agenda with the approval of the minutes of the November 14th 2022 school board meeting the financials for ratification and approval of December 12 2022 Treasures report November of 2022 Personnel recommendations and
006travel requests for further consent identity so I'll second thank you Mark thank you Shannon any discussion none all in favor signify by saying aye aye we have no old business we'll move on to reports superintendent report thank you president of large today first of the ball would like to show off our artwork in the back of the room here by our Hanley and in Trail students thanks to them and their teachers for all the hard work that they do and for inspiring our students within their areas of talent certainly something that we want to continue to do is support the Arts here thank you secondly I would like to talk about our interest and focus on the pathways you've heard us talk about graduation Pathways quite a bit over the last few years Dr Larson's
007reports repressed a lot about Pathways it certainly is a focus today more now than ever specifically today we heard that at this point on average in the state of Indiana 53 percent only 53 percent of students are on track to go to a four-year College this number is way down for many of us that have monitored this number over the years specifically at LaPorte High School we've seen numbers as high as 85 percent students on our way to a four-year institution we know that the rate of graduation at those institutions is not nearly as high as that and so there is a good reason for us to look for alternatives to sending all students so there's an opportunity here but my point here is that our focus on Pathways that are non-traditional in that directly
008to work Workforce or certification while they're in high school or right after they graduate from high school it's something that we are building and have been building for a few years we're excited about the programs that we have especially specifically in the in the area of AG now recently welding in conjunction with New York blower and as well Ivy Tech with industrial maintenance and we're going to continue to look to build those Pathways while we do continue to recognize students and that are in traditional career coursework at AK Smith I'd like to take a few minutes to update everyone on strategic planning the last few months we've been planning if we take a look when we first started this Quest or even talking about strategic planning we had a timeline and we showed that timeline
009on the on the screen and we're going to bring that up here in a second and so this year is going fast can't believe we're here in January already but if you look at it we are in what is called a design phase at this point um so as we get through the design and launch we'll be in into April and early May I want to take a second and kind of go over what the end product is going to be with regard to a strategic plan and so specifically as we're designing we're going to be looking at re look revisiting our current mission and vision we identify values that we have as a corporation and probably most important on here Focus areas what is it that our focus is going to be and uh
010that we go through collecting all the data that we have we will identify and try to address as many synergize those topics in in areas of interest and certainly something that's going to be very closely related to our domains that we currently have safety curriculum and engagement of community students and staff but with that then we have objectives and that we'll come up with and specific goals for each one of those Focus areas take a look at the percentage of people that have participated in some of the engagement activities that we've had we had heard Mr Johnson talk about the survey that went out which had close to 4 000 people involved with that we did hold a town hall meeting we had 13 different focus groups and interviews uh with community members we have
011a number of different teams that have played a role in the process at this point and in the future we'll have we still have to put together planning teams that are going to actually talk about and and be representative to work within the specific areas of focus so if we have a safety Focus we'll have a planning team community members staff members of course a number of different entities will be involved with that to talk about those areas to help us come up with strategies just some of the comments that came out of our process of collecting information uh interesting what we found really is we have to do better at getting the students interests and comments there were students that were very instrumental in and give them a specific information we did interview or
012survey students that were at the secondary level not Elementary you can see some comments about asking and Thanking us for for asking but the the idea is that the data that we collect will be in their interests that are shown through that will be reflected in the final results that we have some discussion about education elements and the group that we are working with if you know early presentations on my behalf we demonstrated and discussed that they do work Nationwide in a number of different schools and settings and one thing that we want to make very clear is that we're paying them for basically them to work alongside of us but not to direct us and so all of our voices that come out from our collection of data and the end result that we
013get to is determined by our community and our people not by education elements regardless of what affiliations they may or may not have uh next steps as we move ahead here are going to be some of these planning committees that are planning team work that we'll be talking about that we're in and specifically we set dates already for each one of the topics that we're going to come out of the actual data breakdown on and so as we know what those Focus areas are you'll know and because we will be doing that just at the first of the year so again as we move forward here our next steps as I talked about our job is to basically work and think along with the community to develop and Define what it is that we want
014to do within those specific areas and have specific outcomes as we get to the end product it'll be an action plan it won't be a plan to plan it won't be planned to do General things it's going to be very specific as far as the outcomes that we're going to want to come about from this plan and we're looking forward to that as we pick up again from our last strategic plan which is we're basically come in to closure on completing all those items on there and the last thing I would say is if anyone is interested in participating in the upcoming planning teams that could please send an email to us and demonstrate their their interest in that last item that I have on my report is a 23-24 school year calendar we put
015that out towards the first of the new year we are working with groups to look at the calendar closely this year not only to gain input but to also discuss some of the logistics that we might need to consider as we look to read to rethink the calendar instead of just doing what we do every year a number of things have caused us to revisit the calendar including attendance that we see prior to breaks whether it be students or staff there's a number of other things that we're hearing and seeing is that we need the need for breaks and time for our staff to be able to do the things that they need to do and we have to work days into the calendar for that we certainly know that the restrictions that on e-learning
016days are causing us to rethink and not to encourage a lot of those days in our calendar but I think more importantly it's just that thinking a little bit outside of the box there are a number of different formats out there including what people talk about often which is a balanced calendar and if there is some way for us to cut down on student absences or breaks and learning and extend breaks so that people have time to read rejuvenate and regroup then we're going to try to do that but there's always a price to pay either on the beginning or the end or the total length of the calendar because you only have so many ways when you have 180 school days that you have to get in there and we know that traditionally we
017start somewhere in August and that means that the more days you have the break days you have in between there means you move further into June and start treading on those summer months that everybody puts a value on um so and then of course in the end result all of it also has to have some some reflection upon uh interest in the ability of the parents to be able to adjust their schedules as much as possible and we know that in the long run we'd like to look for long-term solutions to help which is to have alternatives for students if we were to really make some serious scheduled changes so we could have some activities or child care for them but those are things that we probably will come out of our strategic planning that
018concludes my report thank you thank you thank you assistant superintendent president at large good evening everyone I've got four items that I wanted to share with you two of them in guaranteed Bible curriculum and two of them in staff parent Community engagement first and guaranteeing Bible curriculum I'm really excited about some of the work that we're doing in professional development just to support our guaranteed Bible curriculum first I took a team to Goshen community schools to learn about their English learner program we hired two new English a learner teacher of Records in the past year at the elementary level we have one at the middle level and one at the high school but we're expanding to our elementary level because our English learner population is going up so we wanted to go to Goshen who
019has had a program in place for many years to look at how they're using their Grant resources their parent Community Liaisons and some other things that are embedded in their curriculum and in their their way of doing things so we took our two teachers two principals two data coaches I want to thank the Goshen Administration for helping us on our journey of better serving our El kids secondly I'm really proud of our elementary teachers for completion of our project-based learning unit is a part of a grant that we have in the state of Indiana for promoting stem education it's the stem acceleration Grant and we have a course that teachers can take online on their own time and we rode into the grant a stipend this year to incentivize teachers to complete the course it
020helps them develop a project-based learning activity for the semester and they get a small stipend and last I checked we had over 50 teachers finishing that course here right before break uh third in staff parent and Community engagement we'll be wrapping up grading so come December 20th grades will be cut off for this term we will be giving our teachers time on January 4th which is a professional development and e-learning day and then we will post grades through Skyward Family Access on January 6th we don't print report cards unless we have a need we have a family that can't access them online but they'll be released and ready to go January Friday January 6th and then lastly want to thank the Northwest hospital and the Healthcare Foundation of Laporte for little fish program that is
021going on right now for our second and fourth graders I believe that is a wellness outreach program that we've partnered with the community hospital for many years and they're in our classrooms right now delivering that program it's well received by our students and our staff and so we want to say thank you to those two organizations and that concludes my report next we'll have the secondary assistant superintendent's report Dr Larson Chief president at large and so the secondary level again as Dr tonical said the semester will end next Tuesday December 20th um final exams at the high school will begin this Friday and also on Monday any necessary work next Tuesday the 20th I'd like to congratulate two of our high school students that were inducted into the Indiana Association of school principals rising stars
022of Indiana class of 2024 they were recognized along with students from across the state for their academic achievement Juniors Ava Pennzoil and Emerson stitzman so they were inducted asp we have a lot of musical performances going on this month and week I think where the band concerts so if you have not been to a holiday concert there is still time this week our Middle School choir concert is tomorrow at the pack at the high school and then Wednesday will be our high school choir concert and so I would invite invite all of you out to enjoy those also at the high school level you may have seen that the Indiana Department of Education is launching a new platform that they are calling the dashboard so um this will be launched more later this week but
023just for your awareness we will no longer have our a through F grades as we has passed state has been studying this over the last couple of years looking at how to break down looking at schools and what what the significant portions are so looking obviously at our graduation rate at the high school but also College and Career ready credentials employment and enrollment looking at our SAT the big piece as well so when these are not embargoed I will bring that information back and share that with you informed on what's on that dashboard and along with curriculum the state has also unveiled new Civic social studies standards for sixth grade and those will be coming out next year in the second semester but our teachers are working on updating their Curriculum maps so that they
024can adequately include those updated curriculums at the intermediate campus we are excited to expand our district partnership with the Boys and Girls Club we will begin on January 30th offering after-school care for our fifth through eighth grade students through the Boys and Girls Club and messages are going out to parents on signing up there will be a link and I believe next Monday the 19th is the first day that parents can go on and sign up there is no charge to be a club member and they just need to sign up early so that they can get those slots if they are in need of that after after hour child care for their student also another piece that we are very proud of is our partnership with Swanson Center all of our counseling teams at
025the schools are in the process of reviewing their crisis data and their forms and procedures and having Swanson Center staff at the high school and the intermediate campus has been very helpful very supportive of our students in need and also their families so that they can get registered quickly for services as well so that and we recently got news that we received the secured school safety grant for the corporation that Grant supports our two sros in the amount of seventy five thousand dollars and although that is a matching grant that is a huge support for us as we continue with our sro1 that is housed high school and the other at the intermediate campus and then they serve all of our schools and lastly is um Dr tonicle mentioned traveling with some teachers we had
026a group that the board approved to attend the National Association of gifted conference that's usually held across the state and this year it was in Indianapolis and so we had a secondary and an elementary principal that attended along with our instructional our elementary high ability instructional coach and our secondary instructional coach and we are in the process of making updates to our plan looking at our curriculum looking at our instruction and really focusing on the needs of our high achieving students coming out of covid we've had a lot of focus on our students who may have had learning loss and we need to equally be more Focus as we work with that team so those are all of my announcements so thank you thank you next we have the assistant superintendent business and operations thank
027you president large uh this evening like we have done the last couple of months I'd ask that David Merkel from Larson Danielson be able to present to the board and to the community and update on the transportation on Stevens Road to see the progress we got to the point right now in the exterior of that project that looks pretty complete now I'm anxious to start to get into the interior see everything that's been done especially since I don't want to take anything away from from Mr Merkel and his report but the masonry work being done in there so anxious to start getting in there and actually see the interior of the transportation garage so we'll go ahead and turn it over to Mr Merkel foreign first photos I have here were actually supplied to me
028by Mr Hunt I assume this was maybe some students flying the Drone or a big mechanic anyways with some drone shots of the building as it was going and as Mr Hunt said the outside is looking pretty good um you'll notice that on the day here there was on the last side and the north was let's say only a third complete and then in the next picture you're going to see that it's probably more like two-thirds complete and this is as it was this morning uh the part that is left out there is actually left out uh because the the end of this week the Precast will be coming inside the putting inside the building on top of the mezzanine here there's a mezzing floor and then there's a Precast deck that sits on top
029of that so that they need access to get the a small crane to be able to lift those pieces in into the building you'll also notice in this picture that what will eventually be the office area is all what we would say is tempt in and you can see over here right here there's a heater pointed through the window and the point of that is to keep work going in the office area throughout the winter so you're going to see in the next picture this is the slab I'm great it is poured in the office area and once you pour a slab this time of year it means you're committed to heating it through the winter so you don't allow Frost to get underneath it and uh start messing up or changing elevations of yourself
030so you know we have the office area is kind of corded off or separated off from everything so we'll be able to continue with work throughout the winter finishing offices and drywall and things like that okay so now you're looking into the uh the food storage area and the uh Truck Wash area or the vehicle washer which we're not going to pour the slabs there until the springtime comes because as I said once this time of year once we Forest lab we're kind of committed to heating it all winter so uh we wouldn't want to waste the money to to keep this building all winter so you know that was just the idea was that would get the area going that uh takes the most time to finish plenty of time to finish this in
031the spring so again a couple more pictures and they will they will continue with roughing in electric and uh doing those kind of things in those areas throughout the winter uh south side of the building this is where the uh pole barn for the vehicle storage will go and that is set to arrive here in the middle of this month so that brings me right ahead to what's what's next what's next for the rest of this month uh Precast mezzanine as I said that that will be going on later this week then we'll close in that north wall and so we'll have a good perimeter uh for topping concrete topping on top of the Preps mezzine and metal stud framing will start an office in the full board interaction will start so that's the update
032any questions or anything I can do to answer it for you tonight David just for the benefit of all or we're on schedule I'm assuming to be able to occupy this building sometime for you know first of school hopefully you'll be completely moved in and ready to go for the first to school I did check today on the uh switch gear if some of you may know switching gear right now is uh kind of one of those things that has pushed out and a lot of projects uh you know are sitting waiting for main switch gear to come in and yours is scheduled to be here the middle of March so shouldn't present a problem uh I say that with a little bit of a grain of salt because just because they tell us it's
033going to be here in the middle Marshall we'll believe it when it shows off but that's right now we're playing with that and the indications are good so thank you David appreciate it but next to my report I wanted just to give the board an update on the budget process we are one of the very very end of the budget process process for uh calendar year 2023. the next step in the budget process is the 1782 notice we just received our 1782 notice at the end of last week that is basically a draft of what our budget is going to be it gives us an opportunity to review it and make any necessary changes with the 1782 notice or with the budget I have been able to review everything is in line to move forward
034with that so that will be signed in return to the Department of local government finance and then the last phase of the budget will be the certification and so we'll be waiting on that as well but uh just wanted to let the board know that that's where we are in the budget process I also wanted to update the board on the teacher appreciation Grant just to let you know like like in the past the state designates an allotment as part of their Mining and budget for the teacher appreciation Grant we did receive our grant on November the 28th that's when we actually received and receded it into our account in the amount of 217 000 and 97.35 everything has been calculated out to be able to provide that to our teachers and that will be
035a part of our December 20th pay and just to let the board know that the highly effective teachers will be receiving 545.87 and the effective teachers will be receiving 436 dollars and 70 cents uh just to remind the board as part of Statute that there has to be a differential of have at least 25 percent between the effective rating and the highly effective rating and these are based upon the 2021-22 evaluations that were conducted during last school year so very excited to be able to provide that on our December 20th pay and the last thing is part of my board report this evening is again to give an update on our 2022 Geo Bond if you recall that uh that we've gone through the processes and we did have our bond sale and we did
036have a closing on December the 7th uh everything went as planned and went very smoothly with again with the assistance of Taft which is Jimmy Shanahan Bond Council and Baker Tilly is is our financial advisors everything went off exactly the way it should have and so we did receive that amount of one million six hundred and thirty five thousand dollars on December the 7th any questions on any of those items Mr Hunt what uh that teacher appreciation grant for those two levels uh how does that compare the last couple years I just can't remember what it is similar this is actually a little bit higher than what it was last year but it's very similar that concludes my report move on to new business first we have the consideration for the recommendation to approve the
037acceptance of Grants donations gifts and bigquests Dr Francisco very much this month we're the beneficiary at least our programs were of close to five thousand dollars specifically from fastpac a thousand dollars to LaPorte High School radio and TV program another five hundred dollars to the TV already radio and TV program from JJ's Pizza close to 500 from the United Way for the slicers Champion or mentoring program seven hundred and eleven dollars to Riley Elementary from 7-Eleven um as well a donation of a lounge refrigerator for Riley Elementary School by an anonymous donor and in 2000 from epac Machinery to go to the advancement of the lphs robotics Club and looking for your consideration of accepting those gifts and grants thank you is there any discussion 189 all in favor signify by saying hi hi next
038we have a consideration for the recommendation for the ratification of the 2022-2023 working agreement between the Laporte Federation of teachers and the Laporte Community School Corporation Dr Francis thank you again president hot large so on your on our agenda tonight is official ratification of the agreement as you know previously we have a tentative agreement has details in it in which those details get specifically entered into the working agreement and so though we've signed off on the working agreement and um we want to formally approve that tonight the actual details coming forth out of the agreement including raises and any other positions that were added in there will be effective sometime at the on the December 20th pay thank you we've heard the recommendation to have a motion to approve so much thank you Mark is
039there any discussion seeing none all in favor say goodbye bye saying aye aye thank you Japan next we have the consideration for the recommendation to accept an award bid for the HVAC projects Mr Hyde thank you president large uh this evening is part of your board packet you're going to see a few different items in there uh just as you recall uh that the board did approve us to move forward with an HVAC projects at both Kingsford Heights and crichfield Elementary we have been working with the Architects for quite some time on the planning of this and as part of your board packet you will find number one the proofs of publication we did legally advertise for those bids those both ran on for both Kingsford Heights and crichfield on November 10th and November 17th
040is part of the regional news as one and the other one part of The Herald Dispatch and we did open the bids and we held we did hold the bed opening on December the 6th at 11 o'clock here in the boardroom and we did have a combination bids as well as a single bits presented and uh part of those sealed bids and you will also find this part of the airport packet a letter from Schmidt associate the recommendation letter that also includes the bid Taps for those particular projects and this evening I asked that the board approve the bids is submitted for Crutchfield Elementary School an award to acms in the amount of the base bid of one million four hundred and seventy thousand dollars that also being said we did obviously receive bids for
041the Kingsburg Heights project unfortunately for those those bids came in considerably higher than what we initially had budgeted for that project so this even asked that the board rejects as part of Schmidt's recommendation as well because they exceeded our budget and what we're going to do at this time would be going back to the drawing board and working with them on a type of changes that may need to be to be taken place for that particular project so again this evening I asked that the board approved the bids and award to acms for Chris field one million four hundred and seventy thousand dollars and then reject the bids as submitted for the Kingsford Heights project thank you we've heard the recommendation do we have a motion to approve thank you Jim your second okay thank
042you Jim is there any discussion see none all in favor signify by saying hi hi thank you we'll move on to more to comment I know I'd like to just say thank you to the community for the opportunity that I've had for the last eight years to serve on this board um it's been really a rewarding experience um I did because that was a good journey to watch the programs and things that we helped with for helping our students grow so I just want to thank everyone The Other Board have just a couple brief comments I attended a webinar last week on legislative priorities and advocacy strategies and I was growing up as an animal did you were you able to participate well the revenue forecast for the state of Indiana are far exceeding the
043projected Endeavors now the question is what are we going to do with that money you know I talked to uh representative Russell last week about of course right now Bill filing just ended last week so as we don't know what can file but it's going to be interesting because of a large part of this Revenue that's coming in they're talking about the complexity index you change that complexity index on that school board so I was a great great webinar and uh we'll be hearing more about it I'm sure in the future legislative session doesn't start for several weeks yet but it's going to be fast and furious it's a budget session and it's a long session so education is as usual at the top that's going to be priority again who knows the expector could
044be over 100 bills filed with education and over 1200 totals so which is an uncommon on it so I want to make the board aware that as well so we're monitoring that legislative day for the School Board Association is February 21st at the State House I plan on attending that as I usually do but and encourage people to go down to demand and see how to see how your government works if they make you feel good and they make you think you're stronger uh secondly I want to bring up real quickly um and bringing up today on Nikki project we know we have four board members leading here but just so you know because you've been so gracious to bear with me the Nifty project double tracking from Michigan City to to Gary the 26
045miles is ongoing in full force although the construction season is drawing to a close the portion from Michigan City to Dunes Park is is really Progressive fast and almost completed almost completed we hope to have the ribbon cutting ceremony for that portion which would be Michigan City at 11th Street which you see to do its pirate Copley in May then we have a new construction season from from Dunes Park all the way through uh Ivan dunes and then to uh I think Gary which will take the next construction here so it's another we're still 18 months away of getting that project done the South the West Lake Project is going open throttle as well so it's going to get there and we'll save this to disruption and all my contact with the Michigan City County
046Council and the city council want to talk to them the business people is Michigan City is having a surge in real estate the Chrysler real estate is starting to Surge in Michigan City because people realize what's happening what's what this is going to bring bring forth so it's very much on track it's uh we haven't had the disruption we thought they're permanently closing some streets and some streets are remaining open but we'll make it there's a side note if you haven't been paying attention we awarded a contract just two weeks ago today to an engineering firm we're now looking at changing the uh which has been in the project for some time building a new a new West West exit at the South Bend Airport which are directly Head West out of the airport instead
047of the East where you land where you go in now you're at the East End of the terminal if we get the West End operating that would eliminate about 21 grade Crossings in South Bend cut down about 15 minutes which means you could conceivably leave South Bend Airport which is the Whole 30 behind us the South Airport made downtown Chicago in a little over an hour and a half when this is done right now it's two and a half hours so that's way down the line but that is very much on the drawing board we awarded a six million dollar engineering study pre uh just three weeks ago we kept that off and did a coin but that's going to be years of going but that's the new thing now right now is to get
048that going get the project at the South Airport up and running along with that I just want to thank the departing board members for the guidance and assistance they've given me and I I appreciate it it's going to be a new experience without having you here I'm sure we'll survive but uh I want to thank you for your friendship your guidance and the professionals that we've shown on the board keep me appreciated on that part so what happened but president not large if I could as well I would like to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing board members for their service over these at least at least last eight years for all four um I want to thank you for your commitment on again on behalf of the community the students and staff I
049would like to say publicly that this group that's going outgoing has been instrumental for in a number of the accomplishments and programs in buildings and improvements that have gone on over the last eight years and this is amazing that we're able to do this it says something about them it also in a time especially where it's becoming harder and harder to do a job do the job as a board member because of the number of issues that are ultimately putting people in positions of no win positions I just want to thank you for your service over the years I'm proud of you for all you did it was our pleasure to work with you so with that I do have a little something if you bear with me here I'd like for you to come
050up and um Shannon Hannon 2012 to 2022 thank you congratulations and then though we'll get a group picture if you don't mind me Chariot large we served from 2015 to 22. thank you for your service the Anne Murray 11 years 2011 to 2022-23 Mark kosher 11 years is Walmart thank you for your service commits to the community we could get a few photo out here please can you get a big round of applause [Applause] I just want to thank all the different outgoing board members who have public service over the last many years I think we'll just go down the road right a couple things I was going to say to it first off just want to congratulate all the incoming uh board members and encourage everybody to kind of thinking of you know what
051I might say but you know I thought of this like always be learning like really as a board member I'd encourage all the new board members to do what what I think we've all tried to Aspire to do which is always be learning whether it's from from Reading resources to reading the newspaper to keeping track of legal articles to taking advantage of the ISB age educational resources through so many things but then also engage engage with engage with the people who passionately agree with you engage with the people who vehemently disagree with you at the same level if not more I think that's a critically important it's what I've always strived to do uh and then my thank you is we're all you know very thanking a lot of us are a lot of them
052thinking each other um all the board members that are up here I think as as was pointed out in the last eight years I think this group has really accomplished a lot in terms of getting through some pretty significant challenges I mean who would have ever thought covet would have faced us but um and not easily it's been a lot of very difficult discussions within the group so that's not always seen in the public but it certainly happens behind doors uh often and sometimes in in phone calls so thank you all to all board members and those board members who uh served you know many years ago so this is my third term thank you to the staff everything from the bus drivers and I guess I don't go on and on but we all
053know who you are um students for for all the successes and really the superintendency leadership team for the high level of communication and focusing on what's really most important in in terms of you know student achievement and lastly I bought that last I guess I thank the community I guess for for having the trust in myself and in this board for all these years and and also my family because the thing that people don't realize is how many times it's like sorry I can't make it because I have to be you know at a meeting or something else to do and it's just that's a lot of time and I think we all we all do it because we feel so passionately about doing the best for our students so just thank you to to
054everyone I would just like to say because I know when it was the students welfare and their well-being is why I ran and I think that needs to be the number one priority and anything that we ever do anything we ever challenge I know that's hard to keep that there but because there's so many outside issues that come in that the school that I didn't realize when I first got on the board the school corporation really has to deal with everything and we deal with a lot of social things and outside um projects and and things that happen that I never thought the schools had to deal with but I think the top priority is always the kids and keep those in mind and their best well-being and and also I would just like to
055encourage the new board members also that it's not always easy to ask hard questions or but I sure encourage that that they do that and keep on track and keep on top of the information and things and you know ask the questions because sometimes those are hard to ask but they need to be and so I include always do that so thank you the last 10 years have been a journey as others have shared we've navigated some unprecedented times for me coming at making it some when I first moved to LaPorte I knew I wanted to be part of something that allowed me to give back to what I see as a community that helped raise me so getting to see my girls go through this school system has been incredibly rewarding I'm looking forward
056to more time at all of their things now that we're coming off the board but thank you to my fellow board members for challenging me for supporting me but also for really coming together even when we didn't agree to land the best place for kids so it's gonna it's been a fun ride thank you thank you everyone okay um future board videos we've got the reorganization meeting on January 9th 2023 at 6 PM we have the board of Finance meeting on January 9th 2023 at 605 and we have the school board meeting on January 9th 2023 at 6 10. thank you