001Pledge and our prayer to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for our school and our community. I pray that you especially be with the firmator family tonight and the loss of loved ones. I also know the community accident that happened today. I just pray that you'd be with those families that are struggling tonight. I pray that you'll be with this meeting. I know you're here and I know you care about this school and I know that everyone who is here tonight cares about this school. I pray that we'll make good decisions and that we'll be good listeners. in your name. All right. First on
002here is the approval of our agenda. You all had a chance to look at that. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Next is approval of our minutes. We have our June 4th executive session, June 10th regular session, June 30th um and executive minutes from you've all had a chance to review those ahead of time. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? Okay, any discussion or changes to those minutes? All in favor? opposed. Um, next we're going to move on to our public comment. I know we have more a little bit more than usual for that tonight. We have five people who have signed in to speak. Um, our our regular policy says that we take 15 minutes and split it up among the people who
003want to speak. But we want to make sure that we give everyone five minutes to speak tonight. So to do that as a board, we have to vote upon extending our time then by 10 minutes. So is there a motion to do that for our public comment? All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Um next we actually will start with something that's on the agenda. Um I know that Jason Brun, Haley Brun have signed up to speak tonight. Again, you have five minutes for each of you to speak to that agenda item that's there. Um, we do want to remind everyone that you cannot call out people. We cannot answer questions that people directly ask us. But it is a time for you to share with us what's important to you and share with the community
004what's important to you. So, you're welcome to start. Um, so I know there's a big issue tonight, but tonight is also the night that we're talking about taking away ranking for the class of 2029 and on. Um, so we need to talk about that tonight, too. Um, so as of the end of this school year, I had the highest GPA for my class. Um, and I'm in the class of 2028. So, even if there are changes to the current ranking system, none of them will affect me. But, um, ranking has been important to me since I started middle school. And I think that the future classes of AC should be recognized for their hard work. So, um, currently there's a top 10 recognition. It was middle school through high school whenever I started middle school.
005Um, and then the validictorian saludiatoran at the end of senior year got to speak at graduation. And I've known um who the valadictorian saludiatorans were through my years in middle school and my freshman year and I look up to them and their achievements. And I think it wouldn't be fair to take away the recognition because it takes more than just pure intelligence to be in the top 10. Um, it takes constant attention in class and putting careful detail into homework and studying. Um, and not being afraid to ask questions when we don't understand. So, it's more than just being smart. It's caring about school. Um, one of the main arguments of why we should take it away is that final GPA um, places can be close and there's lots of students that get over 4.0.
006Um, but ultimately students who got in the top 10 worked just a little bit harder and so they deserve that spot and the recognition that comes with it even if it affects um, certain college scholarships that students are able to get. And um so one suggestion is to add kumlada awards um which there's like certain marks of GPA and then a whole group of students would get the awards and I think adding that would be a good way to recognize more students but you can have both top 10 and the mod system. um because having a high GPA is important, but the top 10 worked extra hard. And so I think that um both systems should be instated and that the validictorian and saludiatoran should still be able to speak at graduation. [Applause] So, I'll
007uh follow up with what Haley had to say. As you know, I sent a email to the board, so I'll try to highlight without rereading the entire email. Uh the first issue uh with this proposed change to class ranking is that really the administration uh started to try to carry out this change without schoolboard approval. The class of 2029 kids were already denied their awards at the middle school level. Policy changes this impactful must always be given adequate time for board and public consideration which was not done. The administration is accountable to the board and the board is accountable to the public. We all have a right to know but the public was left in the dark even with such a massive proposed change. something that's been going on for 60 or 70 years. I'm
008frustrated that this was even brought for consideration before the board, let alone or keeping the public uninformed. It's very very disappointing. Course selection was brought up as one uh consideration or concern. It's up to guidance uh and the administration to inform the students, but it's ultimately up to the parents and the students to decide which classes are best for them. There are lots of reasons that students might pick a non-career path course, not just class rank, friends, teacher preference, uh classes like swing choir or band choir that they find interesting or fulfilling even if they're not planning on going into a career in music or something that just helps them to be a more well-rounded individual even if it's not directly related to their career path. I took piano and golf in college. I don't
009do either one professionally. Just because some students are making different choices than guidance suggests does not mean that we should punish all high achieving students by taking away their recognition. As regards the rank and how it can affect college and scholarship applications, it's unfair, as Haley touched on, to take away from those who benefit from their hard work. This is the everyone gets a trophy mentality. The top 10 and specifically the top two earned it and they deserve the recognition. And also some of the concerns as brought up cannot be both ways. Either class rank is required on college and scholarship forms and therefore must be calculated and reported. Or colleges only look at GPA and academic resume as was stated last board meeting. And then there would be no harm in recognizing top ranking
010students. It can't be both ways. It's either going to be required to be reported or if not required then there's no harm in telling the students what their rank was. to draw some comparisons to athletics. Uh we think academics deserves the same celebration level as us athletics. We celebrate excellence and individual achievement and ranking in sports so we can continue to celebrate in academics. As an example, we even have athletic scholarships for people at the top. We emphasize that with the signing ceremony here at the school. These student athletes are allowed to take full advantage of their individual achievement in athletics. And we're just asking that the same be continued for the highest academic individual achievements. If individual recognition of highest achievement is bad, then to be consistent, you would have to deny it to
011student athletes. And I don't think anyone here is in favor of that. Some solutions. We need to make sure that adequate waiting for GPA for advanced college and career classes is being applied. And as Haley touched on, the Kumlada system can be added to the existing top 10 validictorian and saludiatoran system. North Adams has done this for years. Uh we've been to multiple graduation ceremonies where this is done. My father, who until recently stepped out to help babysit my other child, um helped add this to North Adams and it's been very wellreceived. So these systems are compatible. They are not mutually exclusive as was falsely presented at the last board meeting. One minute. Unfortunately, AC has been turning away from celebrating academic achievement for years. We've seen this with spelling bee and fifth grade graduation
012being minimized. When did it become socially unacceptable to excel in academics? When did it become offensive to succeed? Kids put in the hard work, determination, dedication, sacrifice, grit, and tears they deserve to be recognized for their highest achievements. Let's continue to recognize validictorian and saludiatoran. Continue to allow them to speak at graduation. Continue to recognize top 10. continue to recognize class rank and add additional recognition with the Kum Lada system for those who have high achievement without having the highest rankings. Let's not take the students hard work for granted, value the work that not only got these students to the top but helped AC as a school maintain high achievement across the entire school system. Let's continue to recognize the highest ranking students in each class. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Jason. Snap.
013Thanks. Please let me know my time starts. Please begin. My name is Zach Smith. I'm the father of London Smith, the student who was violently assaulted and left with a traumatic brain injury on Adam Central School's grounds. Before I speak to this board, I want to turn around and speak to the people behind me. To every parent, student, taxpayer, community member who came here tonight, thank you. You didn't just show up for my daughter. You showed up because you have concerns of your own. You showed up because you want answers. You showed up because something isn't right. But most importantly, you showed up because you believe in Adam Central. We all do. We've seen the school system at its best. We felt the pride of what it means to be a jet. Even now, through
014all of this, we all believe it can be better because we've lived that pride before. This is why we're here. We don't want just accountability. We demand it and as a community we are ready to drive that change ourselves. Now the board when each of you stepped into your role as a school board member. You probably didn't imagine uh it would be well you probably imagined it would be to help kids improve education make your district stronger. But tonight some of you are probably thinking I never expected to be publicly called out. I never asked to be part of this. But you are part of it because the moment you accepted those seats, you became responsible. You may feel like your hands are tied. That's that without some agenda or you have no real power,
015but that's not true. You have the power to vote. You have the duty to act. And if the issues aren't being placed in front of you, I asked each of you, when are you going to demand that that it comes in front of you? Now, I'm going to skip on part because I was told I can't say names and I'll actually take that out. But I sat down with one individual in this staff and went through for 4 hours from start to finish of my daughter's incident. Okay. I thought that person I had hoped. I thought I had a chance of having somebody in this school system care. My second encounter absolutely the opposite. A matter of fact, my update was we did nothing wrong in the first day. I would like to say you
016probably only have 45 minutes of the first day and I have the rest and I have informed that individual of the rest. Now, okay, I'm going to go to your policies right now. Students referral to DCS in criminal justice policy 517, page 49. Fighting in assaults, fights resulting in injury or when the victim is much smaller and must be London was injured. She was hit by a boy. It required referral. It was not verified. Code of student conduct page 25. Serious offenses do not require progressive discipline. This was not this. This was premeditated assault, but no appropriate consequences followed. Core behavioral expectations section 6, page 26. From your own policy, students shall not use a threatening or violence unless it's in self-defense. This was not self-defense. that was premeditated and it was ignored. Now I
017want to speak on another side for the teachers. Now some of them have brought issues forward but you've done nothing. You've jeopardized their jobs making them feel unsafe if they spoke up and that's why many stay silent because the fear of retaliation the fear the fear of losing their career and doing the right thing. If at an extentual is the place where teachers are afraid to report, that's probably why our kids aren't being protected and we're losing teachers every year. Now, I'm going to go over I'm just telling yes training I have a visual of your training document from the summary that you send out to every teacher. Those policies in there are not what you guys follow. Your core policies have not been followed ever with any of the issues. They haven't. You make
018your teachers rehearse them every summer, but yet I don't think they get used. Now, when my I'll just go right to my final statement. Let me ask the community behind me. It's five minutes. Do you truly believe my daughter or any child at potential is safe under this administration? Now you're going to be served some vanilla envelopes. You had the chance to deal with one case. There is 10 plus in there of issues that were never resolved by this administration and more coming. So we'll have to look into that and I assure you that we will. We pay your salaries. We are your employers. You work for us. Also, let me talk about secrets. Zack, I know you know secrets here in Adam Central, and I demand that the secrets come out as the community
019deserves to know what you've been hired. At this point, I am not willing to wait until you're out of school off the school board to hear your secrets. The community demands them now. Thank you. Excuse me. Does that mean anything? Keep staring. I have no reason for you to try to be a tumble. Okay, check. It's your God. He's not doing anything wrong. You're his authority, right? And say it to him, too, cuz you will not say it. Listen. Hello, I'm Mia Chumblesson. I'm a former graduate of Adam Central. My whole family, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, siblings, my own children, and now my own grandchildren have went to or are currently going to Adam Central. We love this school and the values it has stood for. The motto that has been instilled into my
020grandchildren by the teachers and the administration regarding being a jet. R Jets work hard. E exercise self-control. Treat others and things with respect. Safety first, something that's lacking in the school. Now, however, the recent violent attack on an innocent girl while sitting in class has me questioning these values, if they even truly exist at Adam Central. I asked the administration and school board members if they believe and agree with what our students are being expected to enact while being a student at Adam Central. If you agree with this and how our students are to represent AC by the jet motto, then why is this violent act against this innocent girl being swept under the rug? No one is being held accountable. A high school boy bet another boy this $20 bucks that he wouldn't hit
021her. He did and all for $20. This girl's life is forever changed. She suffered a brain injury that day that has affected her life. daily recurrent headaches, memory loss, unable to do the things that she loves, dance, golf. Her life is limited because of this act. And nobody wants to hold this act accountable here in this school. Why are the students that done this to her still in our school? Why was the attacker still sitting by her in class? unreal that she had to face her attacker every day as a victim. The attacker got a whopping noon time detention all for $20. And yet our kids are expected to apply this jet motto while they're here at school. It's expected by the administration and by the school board. And yet nobody protects our kids. Would
022you want your own kid attacked for 20 bucks? Would you want their life changed for this? No acts of violence, talks of violence, or plans of violence should ever be tolerated at AC. It should be zero tolerance and the student is expelled and not allowed back in this school. I worry every day when school's in session that AC will have a safe day with no violence happening to anyone. We as parents and grandparents are trusting you with our most prized possession, our children. We want them safe and to not get hurt while at school. We all know life is not perfect. Things can and do happen when it does. But when it does, I expect accountability, as does everyone else here. We want our kids protected. From the administration to the school board regarding this
023violent act, there needs to be no place in this school that this type of act is allowed in this school at all. Period. Zero tolerance. Please practice what you teach our children. J. Just work hard. E. Exercise self-control. T. Treat others and things with respect. S. Safety first. Something that's sorely lacking at this school. I did not think I'd be speaking to this many people, but just as Mrs. Frank started this meeting, she prayed. I'm going to get choked up. That's what led me here tonight. I've been praying When I look at this board, I see AC from this end. I'm sorry, but to this end, former student, parent, I mean, what I'm looking at, there's no doubt everybody in here loves this school. I mean, it's disgraceful what we're going through, especially the individuals
024involved. And I'm going to be honest, I'm a little embarrassed at the way the public is treating the board. Like, maybe I'm different. I know the public's demanding results. They want answers. I get it. But I also try to look at it from your guys' shoes. All of you. I couldn't imagine sitting up there taking the heat like you're taking it. I mean, I'm glad I'm out here and I'm not up there. But I want you to know these parents, they're hurt. I know, not all of you, but most of you how deeply you love this school. And I would venture to say it's probably more than I do at this point. But the future of the school, I feel like the biggest thing is trust. We've always I mean, all my years of school,
025I probably could have told dang near any teacher anything I wanted and it have been all right. I feel like the biggest thing that Adam Central is in fear of losing his trust to the community. And it's not your fault. I'm saying whoever's in charge, maybe whoever's in charge has too much power. Maybe we need to put more power in your hands because we voted you guys to represent us. And that's that's what I'm here for. I just want to voice my opinion that Adam Central I still believe Adam Central is in good hands with this board. I just hope and pray and will continue to pray that you guys can push the right buttons, get the right answers, and make Adam Central do the right thing. Thank you. I didn't miss anyone who signed
026the so you can choose to believe or not believe that every person up here does care the countless hours that are put into this Um, and I apologize because I laughed when you said salary and it wasn't at you. It's I don't take it personally. It's at salary. It's No one up here does this. Some of us went into this job not even knowing that you had any payment at all. It's not about money. It's not about power. It's about a deep care for children. And it hurts all of us when one of ours is hurt. It really truly does. Then do something. Right. It does have to be gone through the correct chain of command. I did. And as as I'm just speaking in general right now, the board members all up here when
027we take our oath, the three things that we have charged to us to do our budget, hiring a superintendent, and creating policy. So, from what I'm gathering tonight, the deeper dive should probably be into a discipline policy that we would actually have some control over as a board. But we do not have we do not have we don't have the control to discipline students. We don't even know what discipline procedures are taken with students because we trust that they're being followed because that's what those people are in positions and hired to do. and we can ask questions and that's exactly what I would do when someone calls me. I can ask questions to the correct person, but I can't solve the problem and I can't investigate it because that takes me out. That's not part
028of our job. It's it's something that I think is a misconception that we have all this control. Do you and we do not hiring and firing recommendations are made for hiring and firing and you have the control. Okay, we'll move on now. No one wants you probably don't want to listen too many, but thank you. Thank you for your comments tonight. We do appreciate it. We do take it to heart and we'll just try to move forward in a more positive way because I think everyone here wants item central to move in a positive way. Finance board action items are next on the agenda. Approval of payment vouchers and fund reports. Everyone had those emailed to them earlier. Is there a motion to approve the payment vouchers and fund reports? I'll make a motion. I'll
029second. Are there any questions or clarifications on the fund reports or vouchers or anything, Don, you would like to add in for us? Okay. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. The approval to purchase is next. And this is uh Mosul manager. And Mr. Snder, do you have anything you'd like to add about that? It's piece of software that was used to manage all of our iPads and switch. Okay. Is there a motion to approve that contract? Second. Any discussion or questions for Greg? Okay. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Next, we have approval of disposal and we have some stainless steel cleaner that was in the cafeteria. Um, we have some surplus items that are from the 400 wing project like steel cabinets, teacher desks, um, things due to construction. And I don't know if
030Mr. McDonald is here tonight, but he is not. Okay. And then we have the buyback program of the iPads. And this is something we do each year. Correct. Greg. Okay. Is there a motion to approve disposal of these items? Um, any questions or discussion about the items that were? All right. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Next, we have our approval of our lunch fees. And these will stay the same. So, we've got K through 12 breakfast at $1.50, K through five at $2.25, and 6 through 12 at $240. And I don't know if Jessica is here. Okay. All right. I don't think there's any more to say about that than this. Those are staying the same, but we need to approve them. Motion second. All right. All in favor? opposed. Motion carries. Next, we
031have approval of donation. We have backpacks um for the start of the school year from from Freedom Lutheran Church. Is there a motion to approve accepting that donation? All right. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. And thank you to that church for helping some of our kids start off their year in a positive way. Uh, next we have approval of a contract that we get each year. Foodto school cooperative. This is our food purchasing agreement. Should have had a chance to look that over. Is there a motion to accept the contract? Second. Any questions or discussion about that contract? Okay. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Next, we have our approval of ourus. And this is a yearly thing we do also. This is with Bowen Health Center and Park Center. And in looking those
032over, I don't think I saw any differences or changes. So, is there a motion to accept those motion? Any clarifications anyone wants on that or questions around? I don't know if we can at the park center but superintendent previously were kind of like meet with the people before they started. Is that something that is still part of what we can ask for? That's something I don't know if we are I mean I assume we would be able to continue doing that since that's the precedent that we have set with Bowen. So I would assume that we will continue on with that. If we find out differently, we can reuse it. No, I can't remember. All right. Is there a motion to approve the motion? Okay. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Uh, next we have
033our policy board action items and this is our approval of textbook recommendation and this is something we're continuing on the elementary. So I don't think we have too much to say about it but it's our big ideas. This is okay. All right. Is there a motion to approve the big ideas map K5? All in favor? opposed. All right, motion carries. Um, next we have approval of overnight and out of state trips. Um, our agriculture ed students have a stone lab at Ohio State University at Footin Bay on August 26th and I believe they did this last year. I don't know if we have anyone here from from our a department that wants to speak, but it sounds like this is a very a very beneficial field trip where they get to go and um go
034for go to you know look at the stone lab and and work out there. So uh is there a motion that a little bit if you want I sit on the egg advisory committee those kids go and learn about biology of the water fish microorganisms. It is a very very wellreceived uh trip for all those kids. So I mean they're s they're wanting to go on that trip and there's not a room to take everybody else. So very wellreceived trip. All right. Thank you. It's free. All right. Is there a motion to approve the the act trip? All right. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. And I hope they have a final time. All right, we're going to move on to the approval to forgo the reading of policies allowed. Um, and we need a
035motion to do that. All in favor? Opposed? Okay, motion carries. So, we last time had policy 5430 on academic recognition and 5451 had their first reading at our last meeting. Uh, we had a lot of questions generated from since the last meeting on those policies. Um, heard some more about that tonight and we feel like we might need a little bit more time to look into that policy closer to dig in. Um, and think that it might be best tonight if we would if board is in agreement, we may have a motion to table that tonight as a topic and then we can answer find questions or find answers to questions and then move forward with all the knowledge that we need to make that decision. Question. All in favor? Opposed? Okay, motion carries. And
036I'm sorry, I should have said, did anyone have any questions that they wanted to, you know, get out there tonight? Like, so that, you know, Mrs. might be able to look into it if we wanted her to. I can speak to I'd like to speak to that a little bit. Um, and do brought up a great point. I I I'm probably in the old fashion for the part of I I hate to see us get rid of something that we've done for a long long time. And there's some opportunity for kids. work super extra hard. However, when the state of Indiana gives you something you have very limited control over, it puts us in a very tough spot. Um, from a funding standpoint and from an acceptance standpoint, these are all the these are all
037the diplomas that you can get as a high school student. Well, I'd love for it to be the good old days where you could just get a diploma and go to college or go get a job, whatever you wanted to do. Unfortunately, when you're in about the sixth grade, you have to decide what you want to do with your life. Um, in doing it, that makes it very tough for kids um to know what they want to be outside of being a superhero. When I was in the sixth grade, I had no idea what I wanted to do um and do it. I thought I was going to play professional baseball for the rest of my life because that's what I enjoyed the most um in doing. So, some of this I applaud the um
038guidance departments and this position to try to figure out, okay, what's best for all of our students um in doing it. I I they don't want to leave one kid out of any opportunity to get a scholarship on anything that they possibly can. However, I would hate to see the fact that we have to get rid of class ranking or solidator with that. So, I guess my challenge to them is a little bit is if there is a hybrid program out there that we can do all of those things and still get our kids into one of these diplomas that is laid upon us, then we don't have a choice over. I would love for them to be able to do that in doing that. And again, I I'm not opposed to change. I'm probably
039just a little stingent upon just automatically changing. Um, so I guess my challenge is and so if there's a way to make everybody happy, then I would love for that opportunity to make everyone happy, at least 99%. How's that? But again, thank you for the efforts and what you're doing to try to make sure that all of our kiddos get every opportunity they possibly can for any type of funding that they could possibly get. Um, and especially for those that are not athletically if they don't want to be that, but those that are academically. I too believe that that's very important as well. And I don't think anyone up here or our guidance counselors or our administrators think anything less along with our coaches. I'd like to say one thing. Y I'd like to say
040one other thing, too. I met with Katie and Cara and um Megan today. Um they were gracious enough to give me an hour and a half of their time just to answer some questions. Um and just just in a little bit in response Jason about the public um so this was presented to us in September just a brief kind of session um during our our workday. It was presented at a public board meeting in December and it was on the front page of the paper in bold print. Um it was presented um at the board here in June. It was presented at the eighth grade parent night in February. There was a survey that went out to staff February 28th. They had a PLC, which is a professional learning committee team that got together. This
041was out there. So, I guess my challenge to the community since you've challenged us is to actually get involved, too. Like, don't don't say, "Well, this wasn't presented to public. This has been done in private." Like, read the newspaper. Watch watch the videos. Come here. I mean, this is the most people I've seen ever at a board meeting. It's usually like three people, you know? So, like, get involved. find out what's happening. If you come to um if you came in in December and you came in June, you would have heard a presentation from them. So, I guess it's just kind of my challenge. I'm not saying one way or another on on what direction we're going with this, but um I just did want to um say that it has been out there a
042little bit for um for people to see. If I if I may, I guess I just suggest that some of those sources I mean, as a busy person myself trying to help raise my kids, I don't have time to go back. I get it. I'm a busy person raising children and probably needs to be emphasized over the newspaper because All right. So, next on our list is the handbooks and we have the elementary handbook and you have given us a change sheet of things that and I I think everyone had a chance to look over those changes. Um, did you have anything you wanted to point out to us? Um, there's just three basic changes. The first one is we are cell phone policy down to elementary. Our guidelines for elementary are that they may
043have cell phones, but they are to be in an off position and in their lockers throughout the full school day, but we are seeing more phones coming in. So, we've brought that down just for clarification. Um, we are adding a note would like to add a note just stating that once the issues arrive at the elementary that may not be foreseen at the elementary level, we do lean into the high school middle school handbook um for for consistency. page 12. And also um we are proposing adding a note regarding field trips that when parents want to um take students from a field trip um we're following the athletic guidance where they allow students to go will allow students to go home with others. So that that request is in there too just to maintain consistency
044with prior approval um of a written document before the field trip. So, as far as the elementary handbook goes, um, is there a motion to approve the elementary handbook? I'll make I'll make a motion for that. I'll make your hand of approval. Okay. Um any discussion about anything that's in there that you want to have further? One thing that I'm just going to add in um I do think that the board's going to take a closer look at the discipline policies overall, you know, and so if we have changes, that's something that can be put into there. We do need a handbook to start our school year, but that is something that we can make those changes and we can do that at a later point. But at this point, I know the changes that
045you've given us and I think everyone I assume is fine with those. Sounds sounds good. So, um I think we can go forward with it tonight knowing that we are going to examine that closer. So, all in favor? Motion carries. Uh middle school high school handbook had quite a few changes into it. So, I don't know if you uh I don't know that you need to Was it like three pages or four? Um I mean some were pretty minor but if if if you want to hit the high points or things that you think would affect students directly or families directly. So for our attendance policy um on the excused absences we remove some of the consequences like Friday school three days of risk and expulsion just um stay with the um the powers to
046log for parent meetings and sex. When we look into um just some athletic changes as far as giving an athletic letter, there's going to be changes when grade checks will be done for athletics, which is a big one to highlight. Um we need checking at the end of each quarter or each um if they go to midterm again. They can get more opportunity to get um long. Now, unfortunately, that also means there's more opportunity to get off. That's the bad side, but it's just a shorter amount of time than students would be off at the high school level. This is already the way it's done school. Um we are making some changes based on the um graduation requirements. So remove the ones that we had done um the fall table. So we're going to remove
047those. The seven semester early graduates starting with the class of 2029, they have to complete a seal before they can graduate. Um and same with six um six semester graduates will be junior graduates. That's a state too. too. Way early. Um those are pretty much the highlights. We also drive testing policy. I don't know if that's something you just want to do. So since this was the first time that we saw the written up direct policy, I do believe that the entire board that so we'll remove page 51 change, page 70 change and then page 76 we discuss. So it would be like um the kumla system that will not it will stay how it is presently. We just won't make any changes to that part. And the drug policy, that's a random drug testing
048policy just so the community knows what we're looking at. Um, many other schools do it. It's going to be I mean, we're looking to put that into the handbook for this upcoming school year, but we need to look at it closer. I I think we need to examine that as a group um together and make sure that everything is is set there. Um, also in light of all the discipline tonight, I'm going to say the same thing I said with the elementary that we feel like this is definitely important enough that we need to look very closely at it and see what changes might need to be made to make things clearer and go from there. But at this point uh board as far as a motion what we would be making it would be
049minus tomad minus the drug policy that was sent random drug testing policy um and knowing that the discipline policies could be updated or changed and we would just go anyone else have anything there. Is there an advantage to approving this or tableing this as far as if we're going to go back and modify it? What's what what's the advantages of giving you an approval tonight? The be that for registration for the next board meeting, we normally would have everybody signal just part of the registration. So, if we don't have anything approved, we can't have sign I guess I'll challenge that too. If we sign a handbook that doesn't have the policies that we're we're going to implement, you know, at the beginning of the year, then it's kind of fictitious again. So, it'll be more
050work because they'll have to be re I mean things will have to be signed again. Parents will have to be informed of the changes. I I think I think that's our only option because we're in July. And I do think that moving a handbook to like June might might be a better idea for the future that we need to keep in mind. Like try to get that I know there's so much going on during the school year, but trying to get that looked at in June so that we if we are in this situation, we can have time to go through it for July and approve it so it's ready for registration. I think that would probably be best for next year. So, is is there a motion to approve the the middle school high
051school? I'll make a motion. All in favor? Opposed? I motion carries. All right. uh personnel board action items. These are the approval of the status quo contracts. Uh currently there is not a superintendent contract. There is a principal's contract, administrators contract and directors. Does anyone want to speak to that or these are not these are just July one contracts? There's no increases in salary status. It's all settled. Yeah. Okay. Exactly. All right. You have to do that because table July one, right? Yeah. July 1 to Okay. Yes. All right. So, is there a motion for the approval of the status quo contracts? Motion. I'll second. Any discussion or questions? All in favor? Opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Um, next we have approval of the job description that was sent to us on for kitchen manager motion
052to approve that. Any questions about the kitchen manager position and job description? All right. All in favor? I opposed. Okay, motion carries. Next, we have sadly uh approve approval of a retirement. Um Mrs. Carol Bowers, 37 years as a bus driver at Adam Central. I don't know if you would like to speak to that. Sure. Carol, excuse me. Been a bus driver bus for 37 years. So if you stop and think about that, 37 years, 180 days, thousands of trips back and forth to school itself. And it was always always obvious to Carol that safety was her utmost thing. She did all those trips safely. A lot of years before Thank you. All in favor? Opposed? Thank you, Carol. Just if she's out there, we thank you so much for having the patience to do
053that job for 37 years. I think that says a lot about her and to do a good job. Uh, next we have resignations uh for Mrs. Julie Collier in special needs and Mrs. Jennifer Harshman who is just approval of resignation that was for food service director. Um later on we're going to revisit again as she's kitchen manager but we needed that formal resignation from her for food service director. So we will take over those together. Is there a motion to approve the motion? Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. And thank you to the ser for the service those ladies. I know we'll be keeping Jennifer, but thanks to Julie for her hard work in the special needs area. All right. Approval to hire. We have Mr. Josh Alana in maintenance. Mrs. Amy Curry
054as a library assistant. Mrs. Jennifer Harshman as kitchen manager. Mrs. Hannah Lewis as an elementary special education pair professional, Miss Emtt Ellerine as a again a special needs pair professional in elementary and Miss Christa sheets as a special. Uh I know Todd is not here tonight. I don't know if anyone else would like to speak to any of those individuals. We just said that Josh is a big kid, wants to learn, has worked for us for the last couple of years. So, we're thankful that he wants to stay on. Okay. Thank you, D. All right. Is there a motion to approve these new items? Motion second. All in favor? Opposed? Okay. Motion carries. And welcome to these individuals and thank you for joining us to help out in these areas. Uh next we need an
055approval to fill open positions. And this is just Mr. Layman. Do you want to talk to this? We I don't think we've in the past had this as a voting item. So you can explain the challenge this time of year is the next board meeting is after school starts. So we could have some staffing changes between now and then and we need those people to start on day one. Those people will be brought to the board at our August meeting, but we the kids are going to show up on the first date and we need those people. And by allowing us to hire them, we'll have them up and ready to go and all training and then we will thank you. All right. Is there a motion for the approval to fill the open positions?
056Okay. Any discussion or questions? All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Um, next we're going to move to our administrator reports and we will start with our elementaryaries. Um, we're first of all wanting to thank our summer cleaning crew. They are amazing. They move a lot of items. They clean and they are joyful as they do it. So, thank you to all of the hard work that they've put in to make our building school ready. Um, I want to highlight a few things. back to school night um will be August 12th from 4:30 to 6:30 or K6 K6 um to come in. Students may bring their school items if they want to drop those off so they don't have all those things to carry on the first day of school, come in, meet the teacher. Um
057parents are free to look at the the building. Um if especially if they're new, we can get them a tour of where everything is at. Um, our lead teachers are working diligently to help plan out the year, planning celebrations, um, any kind of parties, having those things on the schedule ahead of time so that parents are well aware. Programs, um, the fifth grade graduation, all those dates will be sent out here um, in the next week or so. Well, actually, a jetliner went out today with a lot of the that information on it to update parents um, on planning. I want to thank the PTO. we've met and they have their agenda set for the year so that parents can um get it be a part of that. They do have um I think it's
058three or four times a year and Kim's not here to help me out um that they have meetings in the school elementary library. So parents we encourage you to come and be a part of that to volunteer to support give ideas um and participate. One of the things that the elementary is working on is some celebrations of students. Um our goal is 95% attendance. So we are looking at doing a celebration for students who maintain 95% or higher at semester and and end of the year. We are also looking at having um honoral and behavioral awards for grades each quarter um at different levels would pretty much mirror what the high school middle school does to just honor the academics. And one that we would like to add is just um an outstanding growth for
059students who maybe have a personal goal but don't attain those A's or B's or um C's, but they really are working hard. And so one of the celebrations we would like to have is just outstanding growth, whether that's behavior or academic um to honor students for that work that they're doing each day. Um and then the rest we're talking about our curriculum, making sure we have our materials ordered and everything here to ready to start on 14th. Can I ask one more question? I miss August 9th. August 12th. Thank you. Sorry. Yes. The teachers will be here that evening from 4:30 to 6:30ish. Well, I just want to thank our maintenance crew. Um, I'm not here as much for sure, but every time you come in, you can see them hard at work and evidence
060of everything they're doing getting school ready for us to come back. So, I just appreciate all of the work that they do. I also appreciate all the work um over the summer that's going into ordering our curriculum and supplies. So that keeps coming in and we're inventorying it. I know a lot of people are putting a lot of work into getting ready for everyone to return. So we appreciate that. Um August 5th is registration from 3 to 6 and this is going to be for K12. So it'll all be on the same day. So um we will also have our school um online registration and opening for that. I believe it. Um, so we'll have that online registration. Um, so that you can get most of the the paperwork, the online paperwork done prior to
061even coming. But at registration, we will have pictures and um, people can be around the building, try out your lockers, get your locker combinations. Um, and schedules will be available as well and online registration. So students will be able to see their schedules too. If anybody needs anything, I have summer office hours. So, I just encourage everyone to call, come in, um, send me an email, and I'm happy to meet or do anything I can for anyone in the summer. Hope that all of our teachers, kids, and families are enjoying a really nice summer. Are there pictures for middle school, too? All right, maintenance. I think maybe you might have something from Tom. I do. I I joke that I was going to have a hard hat and a tool belt on until someone threatened
062to take my picture. So, here we go. Um Todd said summer cleaning is on schedule and hanger the hanger floor has turned out great. It's got a wonderful shine to it. As far as the 400 wing, uh it's pretty much complete. We do have the certificate of occupancy, so we're moving teachers in, getting furniture around and straightened out. Um, so that's a big plus. As far as the pool, the painting issues have been resolved. We're painting the se the uh ceiling painting is complete and are working on the walls now. Scaffolding has been removed. The locker rooms are 80% complete and the pool people will start soon. Elementary HVAC uh classroom and hallway work continues. Main piping is complete. Sheet metal is complete and the ceilings will start going back in this week and the
063new rooftop unit has been set. Any questions? Ctop not. Thanks, Bonnie. All right, we'll move on to superintendent report. I got a couple things tonight. Uh, first of all, I want to read 11. This comes from the Indiana Association of School Business Officials. Behalf of the board of directors of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials, I am very pleased to announce that Don Cook has completed the required courses the Indiana ASBO certification program. Her certification designation is assistant chief business officer which required 85 hours of instruction. The certificate acknowledged this certification acknowledges the experience and knowledge that Dawn has regarding the school business management arena. Indiana as created the certification program to recognize the professional achievements of its members. qualify for certification. An individual must be a member and fulfill all the personal, ethical,
064and professional requirements established by the Indiana Association of School Business Officials. Dawn is an outstanding individual who is a credit to the Adam Central Community Schools and Indiana as I second that in my attending Adam. Uh now a couple things uh to report. Uh first of all, I've always made it a practice as a superintendent. I know I haven't been here in quite six weeks, but whenever people would present at a board meeting, I would try to re respond at the next board meeting. Uh and at the George at the June meeting, London and Zach uh shared uh how they feel that Adam Central let them down. Um and I want you to say that as educators uh we take that to heart. We really truly do. Whether that's students, parents, or the community. I
065know I've only been here for about six weeks, but I can assure you that everybody I've met so far doesn't get up in the morning thinking who can I let down. They are passionate. They're caring and they want the best for our students. Now, I know tonight that rings hollow because we it happened and we have to own it. But I am confident in my short time here that this shortfall was not in any way a resolve. I was made aware of the situation for the first time on May 5th. I was meeting with the school board. They were asking me to come fill in for a while. I learned at that time that the prosecutor's office was involved. They were addressing the allegations. So during the month of June I met Smith met with
06616 other people who are involved in this had a total of 28 meetings and phone calls and by going back through my calendar I've spent about 14 hours on this four and a half of those were with Mr. Smith. I don't share that to lift me up. The board charged me to look into it and that's what I did. But I what I want you to know is that that was taken seriously. The hardest part of this and other school situations is by nature people want to know what's going on. I get it. Unfortunately, this situation and most school situations, they involve students and staff. And by the federal rules, staff, administrators, board members, I can't speak publicly about those situations. There are rules about disclosing discipline situations involving staff or students and we can't
067share those. I would also like to address a misconception that Heather related to a little bit before. I will begin by saying this. This is not Adam just Adam Central. Most schools here's the misconception. The misconception is that the school board should investigate and look into things when people feel that's necessary. And I understand that. The reality of it is for the school board to do the job you elected them to, they can't do the investigation. And here's why. If the information comes forward and there are disciplinary actions for staff, those staff and administrators have due process and that due process ends up with this board. If this board does the investigating, they can't serve in that role. It it might help. It's like jury tampering that the people that sit on the jury in
068the court aren't the ones that were out doing the investigation. The board's job is to tell administrators this is what we want to learn and this is what we want you to look into which is exactly what they told me in May. And then we work through the chain of command and we try to gather information. I'd like to promise that going forward we will never again disappoint any. That's not going to happen. We will fail you from time to time. And I just right out of the gate apologize for that because we're human. But here's what I can tell you tonight, and I'm a short time away, but as long as I'm here, I can promise you that when we fall short as a district or individually, we will own it. We'll seek forgiveness
069and we'll make adjustments either personally or as a district based on what we learned so we can be better. That's the message I've heard tonight. We we are better than this. So what do we learn from this and how do we become better? Now to a different topic. We have to build a budget. Many of you, but probably not all of you, cuz a lot of people don't follow the legislation like some of us do. But one of the big things in Indianapolis this year is people wanted to pay less property tax. I'm with you. Okay? I pay property tax but property taxes as you know pay for county services roads city services in some extent that's what property tax go for so if people pay less taxes there's less services and I will tell
070you that each of those agencies can provide less they can say we're not going to do this we're not going to do that. That can be done. But you know what? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty used to all the things I have. Decent paved road, even though I live in the country, and some of those things like that, those are paid with the property taxes. Don and I have started to dig into the numbers. We have basically two funds, an education fund and an operations fund. And I can explain all that to you someday if you want to stop by the office and you have 30 more hours. The operations fund is the one that's funded with property tax. And because of Senate Bill One, the first estimate is we're going to
071get about $250,000 less dollars. Over in the education fund, that's the one where the state takes your income tax and then gives you some back to the schools. We were excited. The first number we saw was we're going to get $400,000 more dollars. Now, in the scope of our budget, that's not a lot, but that's more. However, as typically happens in Indianapolis, couple years ago, they said parents shouldn't have to pay for textbooks. So, they said, "Don't charge them. We'll give you money for textbooks." And they did. Now, they didn't give us enough. So, we had to use the education fund to pay the balance. But in the budget this year, that textbook money was a separate fund. They put it in the education fund. So, we were getting about $200,000 through the textbook fund.
072They put that over in the education fund. So that 400,000 we're getting, yeah, that's only now 200,000 because we were already getting the 200,000 for the textbooks. So education fund might go up about 200,000. Operations fund is going to go about down about 250,000. in round numbers. That's basically Well, these things I'm going to say now are no different here than they are at your house. Utilities are going up. NIPSO's put in some high rate increase. Uh supplies, equipment are higher. Uh we'd all like a little higher paycheck. Um health insurance costs are going up. And then there's a whole another series of deductions that I'm not even going to go into because of the time. But Don and I have many hours ahead of us to try to sort that out. What the we'll
073get down in the weeds and try to figure that out and how can we minimize the damage from those numbers. Now, Adam Central has been very careful with their financial planning over the years. The district has not spent recklessly. The boards have done a great job. We have some money in our rainy day fund. It's like having a savings account at home. The school has one. They call it a rainy day fund. And it's there when the revenue is not stable. Yes, we're there, aren't we? And I want to say we're entering another time with reduced revenue. And it's another time. This is not new for schools. when you live based on what they do at Indianapolis, it's always a bit of a guess as to what's going to happen. So, as a district will
074do like districts have done before you and you do at home, you have to ask the question, what do we have to do? Not what do we want to do or what would we like to do? What is it that we have to do? And let's keep this going. So, how do you try to save a few dollars here and there? Well, I'm on a weekly Zoom with superintendents all over the state. It's, you know, pretty common for 75 to 80 super 75 to 90 superintendents to be on that Zoom on Friday mornings and they all throw out ideas. What if we did this? We could save a little money. If we did this, we could save a little money. Some of the things on that list hurt a lot. Some of those things on
075a list maybe don't hurt as much, but it's nice to have all these different ideas. Examples, and there's probably 40 or 50 on my list, but things like most schools allow people to use the buildings for things. Well, if we have to keep custodians on and we have to turn the lights on, does that mean that has to cost? to use it. We can move money from the education fund into the operations fund. Now, you can't go the other way, but you could you could move, but what does that do to your education fund? Now, that's short. So, that's probably not a real good idea, but it can be done. Um you've seen in Fort Wayne um high school students that live within 2 miles of a high school have to walk to school or
076get their own way. There is a school in the state of Indiana that went to a 4 day school week. I'm thinking that wouldn't be a great place to start um if we need to reduce because at the end of the day I'm well aware that as a school we are child care for many of you we we take care of your kids during the day and you're at work. Other things uh rebid insurance, rebid trash collection, try to do all kinds of things. So, where do we start? That's a good question. Board, you'll get to decide where we get to start. Let me make some suggestions. And the first one's going to sound really strange. Dan's going to love it. But the first idea would be go borrow money. Now, if funds run a
077little tight at home, that's probably not the first thing you do if you can help. But because school funding is so strange, the money you pay your debts with is a different fund. So we could actually go out and borrow money to buy a bus because we could pay that out of the debt service fund where we have some more flexibility instead of the operations fund. And you're thinking that's crazy. I agree. Absolutely. But that's what the state has painted for us. Um, if they do delay, and you may have seen on the news, they're talking about not sending us our title title money right away. That's the nice part about having some rainy day money. We could take money from there until that money comes and not have to cancel those programs. Wonder what
078happens with our bills if we in the cooling season raise the thermometer two degrees and in the heating season lower it two degrees. I don't even know. It's just another idea that was shared. And I'm sure Todd could figure that out for us. Anytime somebody leaves, you have to ask, do we need to replace that person? We have bus routes. Can we take the kids we're currently bringing to school and bring them to school on less routes? And actually Dan has told me we can do that. An interesting thing if you go back and you can help me better than I. It wasn't me, but there was a time when here in town, the county buses would come on their way to school through town and stop and pick up groups of kids because they
079had room on their buses. And then I think it was during Mr. Pedone's time, they started stopping at different houses. They had money and it was a nice thing to do. Well, Dan has told me we could go back to the county buses have room as they're driving into town. They can stop at select places, pick up some kids, and come on to school. We save a bus and a driver. And the nice part about this is we have a driver who just resigned, so we don't have to look at somebody and say, "We don't have a job." A lot of people say, "Well, you delay the purchase of buses." Okay, Adam Central hasn't bought a bus for two years already to try to save money. Now, Dan and his team, they're really good. And
080our buses pass inspection and they're running well, but we have buses that are 16 years old. State used to tell us when they got to be 12, you need to get rid of them. But we're we're getting through. Regardless of where we start, we have to work from the fact that the bulk of our expenses are people. And how do we still provide our services to the best that we can? Now, this all sounds really difficult and it is. I won't lie to you. Don and I have a mountain to climb. But we're not alone. Every every agency that uses tax dollars is facing this same thing. But I want to come back to the fact that Adam Central financially is in good shape. There are schools that are in some serious trouble with this
081chamber. Adam Central is not right now. So, we don't have to make drastic changes right now, but we need to start figuring out how to spend a little less money. I also want you to know that the administration and maintenance have already been talking about how do we redo our long-term look at funds and maybe stretch it out farther or maybe there's some things we don't do to keep us going. Dawn has been a huge huge help to me. again, haven't been here alone. Usually when you're in the school, you're immersed in this all the time, but haven't been. But Dawn has helped. We've gone to meetings. We've been on Zoom meetings, uh, and we have a budget to build. Now, I know this is a lot to to digest, and I'm I'm happy to
082talk to anyone about it that likes numbers. Um, and tonight's not the only time we're going to deal with this. We've got couple months here to put a budget together and we will have a budget and we will maintain just as much as we possibly can. But I wanted to get that out there tonight because by the August meeting, we have started having a budget hearing and all kinds of other things. Just wanted the board to know what we've learned so far. And uh if you have some questions uh or some thoughts or you're sitting there going, why am I doing this? Anything else? I think I'll stop with that. All right. Thank you. Um for did you have anything else that other matters? Uh one update that I didn't think of earlier to mention
083just as far as superintendent search. We did do first interviews last week. Um we're meeting this week to have further discussion on second interviews, but we're not rushing the process. uh we're trying to make sure that it's the correct person that selected the position. So, we don't have dates yet for our second interviews, but that's that's where we're at with that. Um, our next meeting is on Tuesday, August 12th, and it's at 700 p.m. here, and we need a motion to second. All in favor? Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Thank you for coming tonight.