April 9, 2026 Board Meeting

001Okay. Okay. Make sure Okay. >> Thank you. I knew you were gonna I knew you were going to fall out. I heard the whole thing. Are you doing this? >> Colonel Lake. Yes, he should be around. Amen. >> Very good. >> That color. Okay. Everyone's going to She's making her way here. >> Most of them are. That's the only one that's I'm trying to work it out. How about you? I'd like to call the Gary Community School Board meeting to order. Would you please join me with the >> Igiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Let's have roll call to confirm that we have legal Mr. present. Attorney >> present. >>

002Glenn Johnson is present. >> Mr. President via remote. Yes, >> Mr. Chair. We have four members present. >> With four members present, we have quorum and a legal meeting. Moving on to item number 2.1 on our agenda, the approval of this afternoon's agenda. I will accept a motion. >> So move that we accept that agenda. >> There's a motion on the floor. M >> I ask that we take 5.3 5.4 off the >> motion to Move to take 345.4 5.5. It's not a motion. It's just >> just >> it's just a request. So it's not a motion. >> So what should happen is you have to have your your motion in a sec a second and then discussion is where the request to remove from the consent agenda comes into play. >> Okay. Thanks. So

003currently we have a motion on the floor lacking a second. >> You need a second to have discussion. >> Second. Now let's have discussion on the motion. >> Okay. So I move that we remove 5. >> You have to request. It's not a motion. >> Okay. I'm requesting >> that we move 5.3 5.4. So this is in regards to accepting the agenda as it is. Correct. >> You just you don't have to say why. You just make your request if you're asking to move consent agenda items out of that consent agenda. >> Okay. So, um I also would like to move for something else to be off the agenda. >> Okay. So, the there's a motion right now to accept the agenda and then if you're talking about just consent agenda items to be moved,

004then that's where the request comes into here. If you're just wanting to discuss other items on the agenda that should be removed, this is also the time to discuss it, but a motion within the motion. >> Okay. >> So, the motion is to set the agenda >> and I move from I request that 5.3, 5.4 4 and 5.5 be removed from the agenda from the consent agenda and then if I have an additional request say that now >> if you have additional discussion >> this request only goes to the consent agenda. >> Okay. Thanks. So for discussion um item 6.1 custodial services I was informed that our CFO wasn't going to be here today to go forward with that. >> Okay. Because and I also know that we have a shortened or we're trying to

005have a shortened meeting today and just I feel like there's going to be some discussion so I don't know if we want to move it or if we want to keep it but we may end up staying later than you all wanted to say. Okay. So the request is to remove items five.3, 5.4 and 5.5 on the consent agenda. So now I will entertain uh roll call for consent agenda of two items 5.1 and 5.2. Well, what what you you have before you is a motion to approve the agenda, but now there's been a request to remove three of the consent agenda items. So now the motion >> Sorry, please. Could you make that four 5.2 also? >> Okay. To clarify, so you're saying you want remove I'm sorry, commission. I apologize. >> I'm sorry

006to block it. You're wanting to remove 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, and 5.5 from the consent. >> That's correct. >> Okay. So, what happens now is that we've got a motion before you to approve the agenda with the request of the removal of these four consent agenda items from that consent agenda. >> Okay. Now you can and unless there's other discussion um you can move forward with your vote. >> Roll call for please. >> I'm sorry but like I'm saying there's not a roll call. >> No, this is it's in the approval with these things to be removed at at your request. >> No, that's fine. Thank you, >> Mr. S. Yes. >> Attorney. >> Yes. Attorney. >> No. This is to approve the agenda with the removal of the consent agenda items as you requested. >>

007They've already been removed out of consent. >> Yes. >> There's not to be a vote on them to be removed. This is saying the agenda. That's not right. >> That's not a motion before it. If you said yes, then you all say you said yes. So you can't discuss it. >> So we're clear on that. >> Okay. >> All right. And Glenn Johnson votes. Yes. >> Dr. Woods has arrived. >> Yes. >> With a vote of four. Yes. and zero against. The agenda has been approved >> with the adjustments requested. >> Any further discussion? Oh, I guess that's >> not Item three on our agenda. Gary Ray snapshot. >> Mrs. W. >> Mr. >> Good evening, >> Dr. Stones, members of the board and this amazing community. My name is Chelsea Whittington and I proudly

008serve as the chief of public and community relations for York Gary Community School Corporation. It's that time again, Gary Rey snapshots and my abbreviated version today has one very important announcement. It is about our parent survey. If you know anything about the team at the district, we are all about data, right, Dr. Treadwell? We want information about how we're doing particularly when it comes to serving our community and our um efforts in community engagement. So, we have a survey and the deadline is coming up April 13th. And so, um this is located on all of our platforms, our website, social media. It's being announced on our radio stations. We've done eblasts. We have hard copies at all of our school buildings and we're just asking our parents to please weigh in on the things that

009you are noticing that we're doing, the things that you feel that are needed, etc. And there is a chance to there's an incentive on it as well. We're holding this QR code up for those who are in the audience who would like to scan it now. But again, you can find it at garyschools.org. One other short announcement, uh, the deadline for our knowledge seekers survey program where we are looking for two cohorts of 15 participants to learn about how and why we do things in the district. That deadline for applications is tomorrow, April 10th. And all those same platforms that I previously named, the application is there as well. Thank you so much. And this concludes my Gary Ready snapshot. >> Thank you. Are there any questions >> questions? >> Yeah, I do question um

010for the um >> the knowledgeers. >> The knowledge seekers. Um how many applicants do we have this far? >> I haven't checked today, but the last time I checked, we were a little over 30. >> Yes, they're coming in and a nice diverse interest. The survey closes tomorrow. >> The survey for knowledge seekers here. Uh this one as well. Oh, I was mistaken. The parent survey also closes tomorrow, April 10th. So, please scan the QR code. We want your feedback, parents. >> Any additional questions? Thank you, sis. >> You're welcome, Mr. S. >> We'll move on to item four on our agenda, public comments. Um Mr. Johnson, would you read? >> Pursuant to Indiana Code 5-14-1.5-3, Gary Community School Corporation Board of Trustees welcomes comments from the committee. As a result, the agenda for each

011regular meeting provides time for public expression. The period of public expression is limit to three minutes per individual and 30 minutes total discussion of items on the agenda or to express concerns relative to the operation of school city school board actions and other items of general educational interest. If there are many people wishing to address the board may limit the amount of time a person may speak. Comments should be directed to board not individual board members. Statements shall not be abusive or argumentative. Persons making comments shall not de debate statements made by others. It should not be permissible to orally not discuss complaints against individual employees of the area school corporation at any board of school trustees meetings. Issues relating personnel, individual circumstances or an individual school will be referred to the building principal or

012an appropriate administrator in an attempt to resolve the issue prior to an appeal before the board. Speaker cannot transfer 90 time to another person. The board president will enforce these rules and may take actions necessary to maintain order at the meeting. Such actions meaningful but are not limited to interrupting the speaker to statements to lengthly unduly repetitive or otherwise violates the rules. The president may terminate the address of any speaker who violates these rules or limit that amount the total amount of time devoted to public comments if there's a large number of people wishing to address the board or if there's an agenda of other business before Thanks. Thank you, sir. Our was Good evening, Dr. Stokes, board, and members attending. I'm a little bit confused uh about the beginning of this meeting. It's my

013understanding that if you vote to accept the agenda, you vote to accept everything under that agenda. And if you're going to take items out, it's not for discussion, but when you say a vote is carry, you must admit, I mean, you must state uh what the exceptions are, where they're going to be moved to. I didn't hear that. Items uh 5.2 through 5.5 should have been mentioned by the chairman when he said that the vote was carried. So, I'm a little bit confused about that because this is not the first time this issues came came up. The when a board member requests that something be moved from one place to another one, there's no discussion. The chairman automatically moves it to that where where it can be discussed like in uh I think on action

014items where it can be discussed. So, I'm confused as to the rules and what the law states because I'm really confused when you say that you vote on the consent contender, then you vote on everything under that consent that's on the agenda. But if you're going to take things out and move someplace else, then that must be stated when the vote is carried. And I didn't hear that. So legally those items that was requested to be moved uh has not been moved because it wasn't stated by the chairman. >> So could someone give me some clarity on that? >> Sir, this is your time for your statement. >> This is your time for your statement. >> I'm not making a statement. And I asked for some clarification of this meeting that item that was asked

015to be removed and placed someplace just to be discussed. I think the public has a right to know what's going on. This has to do with this meeting. >> Chairman, if I may, Mr. Bugs, yes. >> This time is for public comment and not an exchange. there was a clear explanation as to how the uh agenda was adopted and to the request of attorney locket. So if you want to continue with your public comment, your time is running out. >> Okay, you got about 10 seconds, but my comment >> for response, sir. So if they could give him 10 seconds, 15 seconds back, please. I don't want Mr. Bugs to feel cheated. give them. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> But my comment was on how the meeting is going because these items are very

016important. They should never been put on a consent items anyway. They should be discussed so that we can be aware of what's going on. So the other thing I want to say is that uh a pool. I had a student today ask me about would I rent him a hotel so he could go to the pool for his birthday. Someone please tell me the status of the pool at West Side. >> Thank you sir. >> Christy S. Did you miss me? I haven't been here for a while. My name's Chrissy Sass. Math is relentlessly hierarchical. I've told you a couple times about Chalk and Talk. It's podcast about math. And um if the kids can't do addition without looking at their fingers, then when they get to trying to do multiple um digit numbers, they

017get lost because the cognitive load is too much. So they're still adding on their fingers in fifth grade. They can't do multiplication. And that means they can't do fractions and then they can't do algebra and then they can't get a lot of the highpaying careers even though they may have a math aptitude. Okay. I'm a stakeholder. Um I've spent hundreds of hours volunteering at uh one of the great schools as a volunteer reading interventionist. I fled Illinois because of the taxes. And uh then soon after I bought a house here, the referendum came along and my house taxes went up $1,500 a year. So times eight years, that's $12,000. Me personally going into the school, so I'm a I'm a stakeholder. Um math is relentlessly hierarchical. Did I mention that? Okay. about knowledge seekers, which

018in principle I think is a nice idea. I'm really glad that you want to educate us. Um I think a lot of us have been wanting to know the stuff you're going to teach. I just have a question about and I have applied. I'm one of your 30. Um, I don't understand why you're doing it the way you're doing it because I think there's going to be a lot of time and effort spent gathering the information, making it into a presentation, meeting with the groups, and I think the way you're doing it is very inefficient. You're having two sessions. Yeah. So, you're doing it twice. I don't know why you limited to 15 people. Neither one of them is in the evening for people who work until 5. Um, and I just think that with

019all the time and effort that's going into it, it's gonna be great information, it should maybe be videotaped and shown to everybody or put on the website or, you know, presented pieces of it at these schoolboard meetings. Um, but I don't understand why you're doing it the way you're doing it. >> Um, math is relentlessly hierarchical. >> Uh, you're I have a little problem with the way you um say the rules before we do this public comment. Um not too long ago, Neighborville 203 had some controversy going on. I don't remember what it was exactly, but they start their board meetings at 7:00 and they were still going till 10 because so many people wanted to make public comment and they hear from everybody. So it's insulting when you say you might limit how many

020people can speak. >> John Allen Good evening. Good evening. Uh those of you that may remember and for the sake of the public, some time ago, I requested uh external spending for the Gary School Corporation from years 2019 through 2024. And that uh that information although being voluous was ultimately released to me. It was approximately 6,800 pages of documents of spending uh between 2019 and 2024. Uh me and a team of other citizens have gone through those documents and we found some interesting things in our overview in the data set. Uh in those documents we find that it's 1633 different vendors in that time period. Uh right now Tesla is a small car manufacturer and they don't have 1,600 vendors to make cars. Uh Gary School Corporation has about 12 uh sites or schools in

021comparison to Chicago school corporation with 600. Yet the ratio of vendors to students is relatively high compared to that school system which is spread out over 200 miles with Gary being concentrated less than 50. It's about 2.4 four uh vendors per student right now, the Gary School Corporation. This to me and my fellow citizens suggest that we have some redundancy in our purchasing and using of vendors. And it's hard pressed for me to believe that maybe we couldn't buy pencils, paper, and copier from the same vendor instead of multiplying these vendors probably would make us more uh efficient. In addition to that, we discovered that about 454 vendors appear to be individuals rather than registered vend uh registered business entities. That's quite a bit. That's a lot. 400 different people. Some people may be doing

022business in their uh personal name, but that's quite a lot. Uh with that being said, our other issue that we have at this time in our first review of the volume documents is that um it seems to be 477 million in spending. Of course, larger school systems spend more, but we're outpacing the rest of the state average at 13,000 per student. We're breaching 20 almost 10,000 more per student. And uh the average parent or average citizen we talked to don't think we're getting like 10,000 more in results. So and sum it up in comparison to Chicago. To be fair, of course they spend a lot more money, but we're at almost five times the ratio in many of the things we're doing with comparison to density of vendors and spending and we need to work

023on that. And our internal transfers caused the numbers to seem to be exaggerated. We had $133 million in internal transfers and the way that works to the citizens and we could be wrong. There's no tracking of it if we're internally spending trans money to oursel as vendors. So we don't know what's done with that. Thanks a lot. >> Jackie Lee Good evening. Um, I came in here this evening because I have a question about a new hire and I have information. I have videos and I just wanted to let the public know that this person was um terminated from the school and they rehired him in a position that I believe that is not conducive or it is they didn't check and find out why they hired this person. I'm not going to say this

024person name. I will give him that much benefit. But I do have videos on this person and I would like to see someone after the meeting to uh show the videos. And um just like u Mr. Allen said about 1,600 vendors. That's uncalled for. And you know a citizen of the taxpayer we shouldn't have 1,600 vendors. I don't believe the United States government has 60 million. >> Oh, they have 16 million, >> you know. So, we going to have to do better as a uh community. And I'm speaking out on this because I'm concerned about how we are spending our funds. and the board is the one supposed to be, you know, have the checks and balance when it come down to the funds and find out why they are spending these this kind of

025money and these many vendors. I believe that's you all's job to do that. So, I mean, you all need to look at that because these are our tax dollars. And for some reason, when I go to board meetings, I believe you all think we work for you, but you work for us, >> right? >> And so, we going to have to do better. And this is not out of disrespect. It's out of concern. I'm a concerned citizen. And I've been fighting this battle for a while. And I don't believe our superintendent understands or know who that person she hired and what they did to get terminated and to rehire them. Somebody should have told you something in this in the school board system. I'm sure they know. And so I will be getting in contact

026with you, letting you see the videos of this person that you put in charge. that was terminated for a good reason. And with that, y'all have a good evening. >> This is Greetings to I am Mrs. Levetta Tendle taxpayer 1966 belt graduate. Please I'm appealing to you to adapt to the principle of both and regarding our students. Our students are competent, confident, many of them are black. Most of them are black and products of the Gary Community School Corporation. And they can play basketball and read. They can mop, wash windows and walls. They can dance tap. They can dance ballet. They can dance the slide. They can sing blues and opera and gospel. They can count. They can add, they can think, they can speak. Stop playing our students cheek. What are you, the board,

027the corporation? What are you doing as a board, as officers, as the attorney, as members to ensure that each student is assured of the best day every time they come into this building, come into each classroom, go into the cafeteria for a meal, and are engaged in extracurricular activities. Where is the swimming pool approved for in 2023 by MGT? Where is the evaluation of the present teaching methods? How often is the training of teachers in controlling classrooms? How is the behavioral services program going? What's the status of the Westside Leadership Academyy's yearbook? Will it have names next to the students pictures? What's the number of high school graduates this year? When is graduation day? What's the number of diplomas, certificates of attendance? What's the number of flunking students, expelled students for this 2025-26 year? And

028finally, well, in addition, Joy, please add board meeting dates to the school calendar and fix the entrance way so that when I push a button to get in, the door opens. I'd appreciate that. Also, this board needs to work with the city Eddie Melton and the Indiana landmarks, Miss Troder, in providing monies to renovate, repurpose the Gary, Indiana's historically renowned, artistically profound model educational institution known as the Belt, Roosevelt High School. Thank you very much. Hello everyone. Um both school board, superintendent, staff, community residents, friends of the Gary community uh school system. I've uh come to the just I only think I've missed one since last few years uh schoolboard meetings. I represent um NAACP education, been to all the school boards around uh in the area in Lake County. I've been I've actually went

029in the schools just for myself. I want to observe to see what's going on, how the students, what they're thinking about careers, uh how they act, the environment, and a lot of things are changing. Gary uh with your new superintendent I have to tell you I've seen the positive changes I've been before I've seen after I've seen some things and it's involvement and the key thing about effective school boards I when I was in Jersey I I used to be a corporate vice president pharmaceutical Johnson Johnson and I go to schools there and I seen things and the two traits that in boards and and community and everything was about common vision and trusting relationships. Now you think about that in life with friends and family. How do you build that? You got to talk

030talk straight. I mean have meetings. Meet the superintendent. If you see something not right, then you got to be part of the solution. And and I'm saying that right now the challenge for 2026, 2027, we know what's going on in the world. We got to leave a little bit more love for each other and we got to talk. We We can't use it on the phone. We can't be texting. That's a game. I like to talk face to face. So, I'm just saying as a common purpose and I'm just hearing a lot of things tonight. I've talked to the budgetary John May there. I've talked to the about things going on in the community, but I'm not dealing with the past. I'm moving forward. And that's my objective. We're going to help the priority which

031is the students. Key thing, collaboration, unity. I'm a data person. I like I don't just talk general. I want to hear facts before I make a decision. So when we deal with problems, we got to have facts. I think we've been we've been engaging that way. And I think uh we need to continuous improvement. I want to pull. Why do I want to pull? For life safety. I want every kid in here to know how to swim because we got a big lake >> and if you don't you can't swim that's a problem. So we got to develop community relationships. If the pool's not there west side we go to YMCA. We got $40 million boys and girls club policy. We need to work together until we build the pool. >> But we need to

032get a pool. I agree with that 100%. I got 10 seconds left. Don't comment on it. I'm just saying this is me comment. So I just want to say let's work together. and let's let's talk about the pastors. Let's work together and look at each other face to face. That's my challenge for the community, for myself. I just don't just come in talk and complain. I want to be involved. And I'm I signed up. I think I was one of the first ones to sign up. I want to learn what this new school system is doing. That's what we got to do. Can't think about the past. I'm sorry. only the time but school board I got these eight data points I try on all the time it's about effectiveness and that's all we want

033and I think it comes down to we have to have common vision and trusting relationship I'm done I'm sorry about my 10 seconds okay we will move on to item five consent agenda which is only one item today 5.1 I to entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chair, I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda item. >> There's a motion on the floor. May I have a second? >> Second. >> It's been moved properly second. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing no discussion, may we have roll call for approval, please? >> Dr. Woods. Yes. >> Attorney. Ter >> yes >> Johnson yes and Mr. Suggs >> yes >> vote is five to zero >> with a vote of five yes and zero against consent agenda agenda item 5.1 has been approved we will move

034now to item 5.2 two on our agenda. I will entertain a motion. >> There's a motion on the floor to approve item 5.2. May I have a second? >> It's been seconded. Any discussion on the item 5.2? >> Yes. Thank you. Um I did want to discuss a couple things. That's why I asked to have this taken off the consent agenda. This is the um payable voucher register which kind of goes along with what one of the comments were just here when it comes to who we're paying how often we're paying them. I'm just looking over this register is 162 pages. I'll never know everybody there and having been on this board here. But I did have specific questions about a couple items. So I hope that um you Dr. Stokes can help me with

035this CFO somebody. But um just I was curious as to what Galani Educational Services for they were paid $11,000 for a month. >> This actually is going to speak to what we're going to be discussing later as well. Jalani services are um school it's a school psychologist and they performed and supported evaluations >> for >> Special education evaluations >> students. Yes. >> How many students? >> I wouldn't be able to have that immediately at my disposal. >> Is that how um they have a monthly contract for 11,000 or is this an announcement? The contract was previously approved by the school board. Um I would have to verify what month and it was in order to provide a stop gap from a school psychologist who resigned. And if you uh to explain special education a little

036bit once an evaluation consent form has been signed, we have a certain number of days depending on if it's an expedited evaluation or if it's a regular evaluation that students must be evaluated by. So I wouldn't be able to tell you the exact number since I didn't know what that question would be. I didn't gather that data today. >> That's fine. And I didn't know what the question would be either. I just um I get my four dots. I got a Wednesday at 4. I have a full-time job, so you know, I don't have time. Um this was discussed at some point, but I really don't have time to get into like I'd like to prior to the board meeting. So, we wouldn't be spending this time here. But also though, the public is very

037um it's their business and they want to know. And so I think it's the same, you know, we just want to know uh so should we inspect or do you know if it's 11,000 a month every month is the time >> I'd have to pull a contract. I don't remember the tenants of every single contract that we approved. It is my understanding typically though when we sign contracts with school psychologist that it's typically per evaluation and evaluations are very different. So as an example, an autism an evaluation that will support whether or not a child has autism is much more involved than let's say an evaluation where we are determining whether a student has a learning disability. So often times it's not only the sheer number of evaluations, but it's the type of evaluations that

038are also being conducted. >> I just want to add real quick um there are laws in Indiana codes around like she said timelines for evaluation. So, we don't get to use the luxury of an excuse to say that we didn't have somebody to do the evaluation. We have to have somebody to do it. Hence, this company that is assisting when we don't have all the staff boots on the ground to do it for us. >> Thank you. Um, I know the CFO is in here. So, Dr. Stokes if you could tell her or have her send me a copy of that contract. Johnny, >> we will we will talk with our board president and it is the express will of the board for you all to have all that information and we'll send it. >>

039I'm sorry. Um this is public documents. I mean you wouldn't make me do a foiler request. >> Yeah, >> that will always be your choice. >> I'm asking that you have the documents sent to me. That shouldn't be a problem. But going on to my next question which was uh which was going to be about CSK architects PC. I see that they have to charge here for about $7,000 for the month. Um what was somebody here answer what was that for? I know they're architects. >> I wasn't I'm not prepared to answer that question. Ky, would you be able to answer that? >> That's fine. Um, the question was on the on the accounts payable voucher register there was payment to uh CK CSK architects PC. And so I was just wondering what type of

040work they were doing for the district for um the if you know >> it was for 63,000 no my computer jumped. I apologize, but it was um at least $70,000 I believe for this month. >> They're the architect for uh McCulla School and Westside the works that we had done there. >> McCulla Westside was that the work in Makulla not from the >> From the storm that's still yes. And what work was done on what side? >> Uh bathrooms. >> What? >> The bathrooms? >> Yes, the the uh student restrooms. >> Were they remodeled? >> They're remodeling. Yes, >> they are remodeling now. All of them. >> Uh not all, but majority of them. Yes. >> Um When did that work begin? >> Uh, I want to say probably two years ago. >> Okay. So,

041they're the architects. I'm sorry it just looks slow. You know, this isn't my line of work. But does the architect they just do the plans and then someone else does the building? >> Yes. >> So, there 70,000 about this this month alone alone. And again, I'll be more careful with checking this and making sure it's off the consent agenda so we can have these conversations. Um that $70,000 for this month. Um you know, well, you probably hear how much they build last month or if they're going to build next month. Do they have are they done with what you just discussed? The bathrooms and the >> No, not the storm. No. >> Okay, >> Dr. Stokes, I'd like a copy of those contracts also. >> Thank you. >> Any additional discussion on the motion hearing?

042Hearing no discussion, may we have roll call for approval of item 5.2, please? >> Dr. Woods, >> yes. >> Attorney, >> yes. >> Attorney, >> yes. >> Glenn Johnson, yes. Uh, Mr. SS. >> Yes. >> Vote is five or zero. >> With a vote of five yes and zero against, item 5.2 has passed. Items 5.3, approval of payroll register. I will entertain a motion. >> Motion. >> There's a motion on the floor to approve item 5.3. May I have a second? >> Second. >> It's been properly second. Any discussion on this motion? >> Yes. So, in terms of the payroll voucher register, I really just had a question. I was looking at it and I didn't understand why Bishop Null and Portage Christian was on here like just you could just tell us about that.

043Thank you. >> Would you like me to address that Dr. Stokes or would you like to? >> Go ahead. >> We're what's called a pass through location. So, title one services are provided, title one funding is provided to other entities other than the Gary Community School Corporation. And when we say that we are a pass through, it means that um those entities are required to go through us to manage those funds for them. Um and they the we are able to take a percentage of those funds since we are actually doing the administrative work of um supporting that that hire process. Yes. >> Okay. So, that's why I'm here. >> Yep. >> I appreciate that. You're >> welcome. >> Any additional discussion for item 5.3? >> I'm sorry. Yes. I also had another question about

044it. When um you look at the line items like Gary Middle where it says teacher 26, is that like 26 teachers or >> No, that's a great question. So, there's uh there's multiple pay groups. So 26 uh signifies the number of pays per year. They're on a 26 pay. >> Okay. And then is that line item for all the teachers? >> Most uh we do have some teachers that are on just the school year pay. >> Okay. Okay. >> They've elected to not have their paycheck spread out over the summer. >> Oh, makes sense to me. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any additional discussion for 5.3? May we have roll call for approval, please? >> Dr. Woods, >> yes. >> Attorney, >> yes. >> Attorney, >> yes. >> Johnson, votes yes. Mr. S,

045>> yes, please. >> 5 to zero. >> For the vote of five, yes, and zero. Item 5.3 has been approved. I will entertain a motion for item 5.4, personnel report. There a motion on the floor to approve the personnel report. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Been moved. Properly second. Let's have a discussion on this motion. >> Yes. Thank you. Um personnel report for April 9th, 2026. Um there was some discussion that somebody had told just now um in terms of uh somebody being rehired. I'm I'm I'm sure you do your due diligence in that. Um my question about this was about the salary adjustments under the employee status change. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um so SR salary increases that school resource officer. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Thank you. That school resource

046officer. >> Yes. >> Okay. And how many do we have? >> We had just one. Um and we have added a second one. Um he is SRO certified. Both of the individuals are SRO certified. Their salaries are mostly paid from the safety grant as well. So they are uh current Gary police officers. >> Okay. They're paid for a safety grant. Are you required to pay them through that grant or just as they >> No. So we because we have the option to utilize those funds. We do utilize them for salaries and benefits. It does not support both of them in full, but we use it to pay for most of it. >> Okay. And then the um lower salary adjustment, there's two listed here. Certified police, non-certified police. >> Yes, ma'am. So, historically speaking, student,

047I'm sorry, school resource officers or current certified Gary police officers were hired as rovers. um the practice was um it kind of veered away from utilizing that practice because we had already a shortage within the Gary Police Department. So we were not able to attract uh Gary P to come and work for us. So many of our rovers were not uh active police officers. We still do have one rover who is um and then we have other rovers who are not necessarily the area police officers but they go through a required training to be rovers. Um, and so when you say salary adjustment, is there a reason why did they get raises like everybody else in this packet? >> No, actually Rovers did not get raises. We did um a structural change and as I

048mentioned earlier, the um historical practice was that we were attracting certified Gary police officers. So the salary scale for those rovers was a bit high considering that we historically always had them as Gary PD. Um because the rovers, many of the Rovers are not necessarily Gary police officers, we made sure that we were respectful of those who have that necessary qualification. Uh that they were in line with what would be fair considering the training uh that they went through in their arresting powers. >> Okay. So um so when you say salary adjustment certified police they got raised >> certified police um we made an adjustment for rovers versus those who are in schools and so certified police who are not SRO's their salary structure and hourly rate was based on $32 an hour. People who

049are uh licensed police officers their salary adjustment was based on $35 an hour and SRO if they have that necessary certification. And if they don't >> if they don't have the certification and they're and they're an active police officer, then it's $32 an hour and $27 an hour uh if they are a rover and do not have the credential. >> Okay. So when we look at these salary salary adjustments, um were they I don't know if you answered but were they up or were they down? >> So it depended on the individual. >> Okay. You have listed here. You have um security roing windows from Sorry. I apologize. This isn't public. >> You're getting into personnel matters. >> I apologize. My thought was that this whole document was public, but I will not say anybody's

050name. I will just say that um uh if there was a person who security security civilian academy. Did they get a raise or did they get a decrease? >> Each one of those cast subcategories has an hourly rate associated with it. So if they move from a position to a different position, their salary went from the position that they were in and it was moved to the position that they would move to. >> Okay? Because I don't see position adjustment. I just see salary adjustment. So, I don't know who you're speaking of. A salary adjustment could have been made if they stayed in the same position and they the position itself had a salary adjustment. >> Are you saying position ranges or help us better understand? Sorry. >> Okay. Because I can't say anybody's name,

051but there's two pretty people here in terms of the rover security ro. So, when it says salary adjustment, I'm just wondering was it up or down? because we have another document here where everybody got a raise. This seems like in the whole entire school corporation. So I'm just wondering if these two people got raises also like everybody else. >> So again, it depended on if they were a certified acting officer or if they were not. >> That's what I'm saying. Is it adjusted down or is adjusted up? >> If they are certified officer, it was adjusted accordingly to the new structure. When all rovers were receiving $35 an hour, certified officers were moved to $32 an hour as rovers and then the individuals who do not have certification and officer move to $27. >> Okay.

052So then everybody's getting 35 and then you guys restructuring and then you say okay >> we wanted to make it equitable and we looked we did a um >> an industry standard comparison to see what other SRO's and security staff were making across >> we took recommendation from our director who you know we don't do things in isolation our director of security to make sure this is effective so Sorry, I didn't have it on at all. I apologize for that. Um, well, maybe nobody heard the name. I wasn't supposed to say. So, um, >> then. So, um, if you're if I'm hearing you correctly for it could have been or it looks like it was based on what you just told me and what I'm looking at that somebody let's say was making $50,000 a

053year and then you all came one day and said, "Oh, sorry. We're changing you to 40,000." Like that wouldn't happen, right? >> It depends on if they moved to a different um position as well. >> No, I understand that. I'm I'm looking at this. It doesn't say anybody moved. It just says salary adjustment. So, I'm just wondering, would there be a situation where I'm coming to work every day like I've been doing for 5 years straight and then one day you all come and say, "Hey, we're going to um >> depends on the physician." So, if they were an SRO, we made salary adjustments up because they have the necessary um credentiing. You have to get an additional certification as a school resource officer. Um and when we again because I think Dr. Stokes refer

054to the fact that we've hired a new director of safety and security. So when he came on board there was a discussion had with him regarding the structure of our current security model and um he uh again looked at some industry standards spoke to some other directors from across the state of Indiana as well as in our region and looked at what we were paying our current security staff whether they were certified not certified and what their requirements were um in the capacity of their roles and that's why there was a structural change. So that structural structural change could have um netted that somebody came to work one day making 50,000 and then you all say hey we're making a change now you make 40,000 >> certainly could have. >> Does that seem fair? >>

055Uh definitely if when you're looking at what they were making for if it was inflated according to what their credentiing was >> were they given time would they have been given time to get the credentiing. And again, if I'm coming to work doing the exact same job, just you all do a structural difference and say, "Hey, sorry, but we're cutting your salary." >> So, it was based on their credentiing. You can't just go out and get an SRO certification. You have to be a licensed and certified police officer first and foremost. And you cannot just become an officer without actually going through the pre-basic training. So we are actually promoting some of our when I say promoting I mean we're encouraging many of our security staff to pursue the necessary pre-basic training to possibly become

056reserve officers and in the event that they do that then they would be eligible should a position open for a particular role as an example in SRO they could be uh considered for that position. I suppose what I'm asking you is before you cut somebody's salary, are they given the opportunity to do whatever it is you're asking them to do to bring it up um to where they were before the cut? >> Not if they don't have the necessary credentials. >> Okay. So, if I'm hearing you correctly, >> Yes, ma'am. I can be doing my job that I've been doing because you all hired me to do this job at this pay rate and then you hire somebody new who comes in and says, "Hey, I'm looking at the structure over here and I don't

057think this person should be paid and then you just cut their salary." >> So, let me reiterate when the structure for the specifically the rover positions was created, >> can I speak for just a moment? Sure, please. So when the rover positions was created, what she's trying to share is that it was created for people who were licensed police officers who have to carry guns who go out and they face a certain amount of danger in their role of being a police officer. What we have, we do have one person who has that, but not everybody has that. We've got some civilian people who are ropers and quite honestly they are making more money than our police officers who don't even have the same they don't have the same risk. So we did an industry

058look and I don't want to speak for our new director. He could speak for himself but we looked at all of this information to make our salary ranges fair and equitable. >> I and when you say fair and equitable it just doesn't seem fair or equitable. If I'm doing a job, I'm getting a salary and then one day I'm just cut because it's not fair or equable. And I say that to say when you say that with the police officers and they do all the training and so forth and that's why it was priced as something. But like I'm a lawyer. I cannot go to court and do lawyer work unless I have a law degree, right? So when I step up in front of the judge and judge says, "Hey, what's your attorney number?"

059Then I know my attorney number and the judge knows that I'm got the degree I'm supposed to have and I'm there and that's what I'm doing. So what I'm saying is if you're saying that this position was for certified officers who had ABCD, then if I didn't have ABCD, I shouldn't have been hired. I would have been hired if that was a requirement. >> I understand. And those hires were made before we started. We're trying to rightsize things as one of the um staff said, you know, we are trying to do things to move the district forward. And so in some situations, we do have to rightsize things. Um, I I can't atone to things that were done before I came, but we're trying to do what's right. >> And I understand and I know

060we don't mention specific people, nor should we, I suppose, but we can't lose sight of the fact that we are talking about people and we are talking about people and their livelihood and their families and what they're doing for uh to provide for their family and how they have to live. So when you are in a position and you're working a job and then one day you're told, "Hey, you're getting less money because we're right sizing." I I just feel like there's just something inherently wrong with that to me. >> Please. >> Good afternoon, Dr. Sure. How about now if I hear it? Yes. >> All right. >> Okay. Um, we do have a tier and the tier as you said is the SRO. Now, the SRO person could be an auxiliary officer according to

061the state of Indiana or an actual police officer. And then, of course, that's the highest tier that we have because they work within school. They have the SRO uh street. >> Yes. So once we move from there, you go down and we go to the actual police officer who actually is a sworn police officer either auxiliary or reserve and that's where it drops down. Now however the actual sworn police officer has the ability to actually become an SRO and move up just as if we talked about the $27 that everybody made. for the people who are roads. If we like we have a process coming up in June. If those individuals wish to go and become an auxiliary officer, they can be considered for the position as well. >> Okay. I suppose what I'm having

062a problem with. >> So you you came and you right sided, right? Or looked at everything, restructured. If I am a person and um we don't have to talk about people specifically, but let's say I'm working and I am I am a roper. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, I'm a roper and I've been working for Gary Community School Corporation for 15 years, 20 years, 5 years, two years, but whatever. I got hired on. They said that you were going to get $30 an hour, right? And so I'm working this job and I've been doing it and I'm doing a good job and I'm getting my increases or whatever it is that happens. And then you're hired >> and then you get hired and then you look over you say, "Oh, you know what? Uh, Rovers,

063if you're getting, I don't know, if you're the SRO officer, then you should get this. If you're just regular police officer, you should get there. If you're not a police officer, you should get whatever." Right? that that was according to how we looked at other schools and we made a basis pay of how the community actually looked at. So that's why we had tears too. >> Should that apply to new hires? You would go and you would take money from somebody who's been working and making a specific salary. Well, at this time, like I said, they have the opportunity to actually go and become a reserve officer if they if they wish to because there is no age requirement for it. >> What I mean, though, is so why, and I don't know if this

064happened. You can tell me happened. Uh, but it's saying, "Hey, you're making $30 an hour. We've restructured your that position you're in to make it 30 hours. You got to go get this X X certificate." And so, um, we're going to give you six months to get X certificate. and if you don't, we're going to take you down. Or is it just, oh, we're going to just I'm here. I got a new structure and this is what you're getting paid now because I've changed things. Sorry. And if I may speak to that, there are certain groups of individuals that have this kind of protection with them, right? Teachers have a collective bargaining agreement, pair of professionals have a collective bargaining agreement. There are other structures within our district that do not. And when we come

065in from a human resources perspective, I hear what you're saying, Attorney Lockett, that um you wish that people could stay at the salary that they were hired in at. However, also from an HR perspective, we had individuals who were hired in at an inflated rate, which caused inequitable practices because they were being paid more than our certified and licensed police officers, and they did not have the necessary credentials. >> Would you agree that they didn't hire themselves? >> Yes, I would. Right. >> Okay. So, all I'm saying is that um >> I'm sorry. What was that? >> No, there's another question after you >> I'm just call you back. >> Yes. I just like to ask how does this structure compare to other school districts? >> Actually, it's right on point. Um, as far as

066the SRO makes the highest because they actually are within the schools and they have an extra certificate even though the police officer is a police officer or reserve officer and they have the actual arrest within the state of the city. Um, we start off with the SRO and we work down to the actual police officer and then we go down to the actual ro officer and then we go to the in which is basically the officers that work the security guard. Would you agree? Go ahead. >> Would you agree that having a tier structure provides an incentive for people to who want to aspire to do more and to make a better salary? >> I would I would say so >> structure >> I would hope so. >> Okay. And then again we talk about

067limited funds and when you bring people on as as has been said inflated salaries I would think that it would provide for um just um morale issues in general. Uh so because people do want to be treated equitably and fairly and so if we are inclined to make the structure fair I think that morale would improve immensely. I I believe so. And it gives no pleasure. I don't think of anybody when it comes to taking money from somebody. I mean my I myself have worked and had money taken from me. So I know I sat on both sides of that coin. So I understand that. So it gives me great pleasure as I stand here and say this is what we have to do. But if we have to work within the means that we

068have sometimes this structure has to take place. >> You say the means that you have. I know that you all are about to present to us this great windfall that became upon the community school corporation. Everybody's getting a raise um except for this person or I don't know if it's except for this person but on here the salary adjustment it appears that um through no fault of their own because like I said they didn't hire themselves. somebody is going to have their salary cut um when the corporation has the money and that's really not your issue. I know your security. I'm just saying that. >> Can I speak to that? Um please. >> I'm not sure what you're referencing when you're saying everybody's getting a raise. And do remember that buckets of money positions can

069only be paid for buckets of money. For example, teachers are paid out of education fund but not our officers. So you got you got different funding sources that pay for things. Our raises have already been taken care of in previous board meetings. If you're referencing what I think you are, that is something totally different. That's only for our teachers. >> Um I'm referencing what's going to come up to the agenda next. And then um that's in terms of >> at this point we've really discussed this item. Are we >> No, I wasn't done. >> No, I'm not asking are you done, but I'm calling for a vote. You should have enough to decide whether or not you're going to vote support him or not. >> No, I just have one question actually. >> Just one?

070>> Yeah. >> I'd love to hear it. >> Do you think it's fair? No. Let me stop. No. So my question is um was the person given an opportunity to get the training to justify their salary before their salary was cut? One was advised, one wasn't. >> What was advised? >> Advised of they had the opportunity, they chose to actually go when the auxiliary program was actually going to take place. >> So you said one was and one wasn't. >> Yes. >> One took it and one didn't or one was advised to one. >> Well, he was he was one was advised and I I believe they were just open. That's on fact say they didn't give me an answer. I would I can't make that happen for them. I can only advise them when

071it's coming. >> All right. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> That was it. >> That's it because you need to stop. >> May we have roll call, please? >> Dr. Woods. >> Yes. >> Attorney. >> Yes. >> Attorney. >> No. >> Glenn Johnson votes. Yes. What's up? >> Yes. >> Four and one >> with a vote of four yes and one against. The motion carries. >> Item 5.4 has been approved. I will entertain a motion on >> I will entertain a motion on item number 5.5 on the agenda. I'm sorry. Um, at this time >> we're going to uh pause and ask athletic director please come up. >> Dr. Strokes uh board audience members uh great privilege here today. Uh for the sake of time I'll keep this short as possible. Uh we had a

072extensive search for a new football coach and also a a teacher a member of the teaching staff and we've hired with your approval right there. We've now hired Mark Kadalgo, our new head football coach here at Westside High School. Uh Mark's had a winning record everywhere he's been. uh his 23 years of the or coaching experience. He'll be a very valuable asset for the Westside community and students. With that, I'll introduce Mark here right now. Any questions? I'm honored and humbled to be here. Um just a quick I'm just be real quick. Uh my father passed away in October. So I was the head football coach at River Forest. I went to take over for a legendary coach over at Kelly Smith. He passed during that time and I've pretty much done everything in wrestling.

073I've had state qualifiers. I had state champs and one thing he wanted me to do is be a coach. So that's why I kept uh fighting and finally I I'm here and I'm happy. I'm just ready to start winning and I just want to build good relationships with kids and that's all you can do. But I want I want a community to get involved and I want it to be like back in the day cuz I grew up I'm old I'm older I should say. So I grew up when you know I was playing basketball and stuff like that at Gary Roosevelt. I was playing at East Chicago in the parks and stuff at the schools and I remember when Gary was driving and I just want to bring that back here. >> Welcome coach.

074>> Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> We'll entertain a motion for item 5.5. >> Mr. Chair, make a motion. >> Approve item 5.5. >> There's a motion on the floor. >> It's been properly second. Discussion on this motion. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um, superintendent, I see here that there are um, a lot of field trips and things like coming up for the kids. Bronzeville Children's Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, Navy Pier University, Medieval Times, which growing up in Shamburgg I used to go to all the time. Um, so fellows, I just want to say good job. I love to see this. I love to see the kids. Yeah, that's right. I love to see the kids getting out um being about getting culture experiences, seeing new things. I think that's very important

075to their development. So, I just wanted to say um >> you're welcome. >> Any additional discussion on the motion on the floor? >> Hearing no discussion, may we have roll call for approval, please? Attorney, >> yes. Attorney Michael, >> yes. >> Glenn Johnson, yes. Mr. S, >> yes. >> Vote is five to zero. >> With a vote of five, yes and zero against, item 5.5 carries. We will move on to items. >> We're going to go to item 6.2 on our act on our agenda. ask a question. >> Is there anything else that we need to state board action on in terms of the votes? >> Yes, sir. The next four items are action items. >> Okay. Yes. >> Good evening members of the board, Dr. Stokes, and our community. Um, I am here to

076request approval of our with the American Institute um for research. Um it as you know we have uh quite a few programs in our uh K to8 I'm sorry K to 12 buildings um to support student well-being through social and emotional learning. Um and we have an opportunity to ensure that there is a program um that meets the needs of our middle school students. Um what we have found um from their own um out of their mouths and their feedback is that the program that they're currently engaging with um doesn't necessarily meet their needs. And so um this program is free of charge for the district. Um but we just there's aou um that we want to go into partnership with them. So that's what I'm asking for approval for. Are there any questions? >>

077Thank you Dr. Treadwell. Board members. >> Yes. Um, you say this is paid for through Oh, I'm sorry that you're asking the question. >> Yes. If you respons. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um, you said that this was paid for through a grant. >> It's free of charge. So, no grant. No. >> Okay. The organization >> they got their come to us >> for free. Correct. >> Is this um web based? there's an actual book assigned to it. So teachers will receive training. Um there is an aspect of research to look at how what the impact that it has on students and their well-being. Um but yes, students will have their own book. The teachers will receive the training. There's a book for the teachers as well, but it's specifically geared and created for sixth

078through 8th grade students. >> Okay. Um so I was looking through here and I just want to say that It seems like a a nice quote. I mean, I appreciate it. Um, this seems to from what I'm reading, you could correct me if I'm wrong. Um, is this geared towards character development? Um, there are aspects, um, but it's more a little bit broader. So, that's why I said not just character development such as social emotional learning, but student well-being. So, really helping them to understand their needs, what they're um, what they might be feeling, um, how to even advocate for themselves. So there's one um unit of study in there that's focused on responsible decision making, right? So it walks students through what that looks like as a middle school student. It takes into account

079what's developmentally appropriate for their age. Um and so there are lessons and activities that the teachers will engage the students with so that they have an opportunity to synthesize that information to meet their needs. And so that's where that disconnect was in the current program that they're using is that it didn't really meet the needs that they have and that they're voicing that they need. And so um this one is a little bit more well designed for middle school students. >> Okay. And um I think there criteria to evaluate like it was figured out. >> Yes. >> And um is it culturally uh sensitive like >> Yes. >> Okay. because you know uh we have student body population that's mostly black African-American. So >> correct >> um >> just have to keep that in mind

080when there's things that may work for other districts and other places that may not fit so well with us. So, I'm glad that this is culturally responsive. That's what you tell me. >> And where spaces there are not um we have the autonomy to remove and or add um and we're actually having to do that with the K the current program that we're using is making sure that we're leveraging culturally responsive um things for our students. >> Okay. And this is um for middle school. >> This is specifically for Is there sort of this type of program for other grades? So, this program, they are K8. Um, when I last checked, they were working on a high school program as well. Um, but we've already adopted one for our high school and the K5 one

081works very well for our K. So, we're moving towards having something for 68. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Any other questions? >> Yes. I will entertain a motion for the approval of item 6.2, to theou between the American Institute of Research and Eric School Corporation. >> There's a motion on the floor. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Been moved. Properly second. Discussion on the motion. >> Roll call for approval of the >> Dr. Williams. >> Yes. >> Attorney. Attorney. Did you ask me something? >> I was asking for your vote on item 6.2. >> Your vote for item 6.2. >> Attorney. >> Yes. Dwayne Johnson votes yes. Mr. SS >> yes. The vote is five. >> With a vote of five yes and zero against theou between Gary Community

082School Corporation and the American Institute of Research has been approved. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Let's move to um back to item 6.1. >> Welcome. Good evening board members and Dr. Stokes and community. Um we are here to request approval for uh the recommended custodial bid services for the Gary Community School Corporation. Um first of all we want to just thank all of the um the uh participants who participated in the process with the walkthroughs with uh the um um understanding Gary community's uh specific needs and also those who submitted their bids. So we received about 14 bids. Uh the bidding was open uh March 26th. The deadline was 3 p.m. and the uh bids started immediately coming in. So there was a committee put together to review uh the bids about uh 10

08310 people all together, board members, principles, teachers, support staff and administrators all conducted an extensive and I I would like for you to underline that an extensive uh review of all proposals received. And then after that extensive review, it was narrowed down to about four uh finalists. And after the four finalists uh were selected, we went back uh to the drawing board. And the the discussion was focused around the cost, the staffing, supervision, training, accountability, communication, and over the overall fit for the district. And so after completing the process, the committee is recommending SSC also known as uh supportive supporting student building communities uh for the custodial services contract for the Gary Community School Cor uh Gary Community School um corporation. So at this time we are requesting the board's approval to award the custodial

084services bid to SSC. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh any questions board members on the presentation? >> Yes, >> please. >> Okay. So, you say that there was 14 vendors who applied? >> Yep. >> And those window down to four? >> Yes. Did these um 14 vendors did they have all the requirements or or was this just bid? Were they all qualified to go forward? Meaning were they missing anything technical or is that the reason that they weren't chosen to go into final form? >> So let me answer that question. We looked we had a rubric of requirements that they needed to meet. No vendor was not chosen or chosen based on if they, you know, submitted their information. It was collectively looking at all of the components of what they submitted based on our

085needs. And then I'll let um Linda share a little bit more. >> Correct. >> Yes. We we we we had several requirements uh certifications, things of that nature. So nobody was excluded, everybody was included in the decision. Um the committee consisted of 10 different people. It was teachers, administrators, um a school board member, um our support staff, um and collectively um it was it was a tremendous process and these vendors. It took us a tremendous amount of time and days to go through all the information and kind of isolate, you know, what what does Gary Community Schools need? Um who could facilitate all of these buildings and all the square footage related to our our district. Um some of them um submitted some very unique proposals, bids, things of that nature and collectively the committee

086decided on a top four and then we went back to the table and we kind of started the process all over again. >> It was a good problem to have. I'll be honest. It truly was really >> um was this uh this was a RFP as um and opposite to a bid, >> right? Is that what you're saying? >> Yes. This this was an RFP because of the total amount of the contract. So there were some uh uh specific things that we by law we had to follow. We had to produce it in a paper um two weeks in a row. The bid we had to put it on our website. Um and I know Chelsea Whittington assisted with a lot of this with >> social media. Sure. >> Yep. >> Good evening again. We

087started the announcement of the RFP actually at school the February schoolboard meeting. It was originally announced there and from there I have a saying turn my shoe on. From there, we posted this on our website where it still currently lives. It is the announcement of the bid as well as the full document that explains the qualifications being requested. We posted it on our social media. We included it in our monthly newsletter. We um announced it um multiple times on our radio station WGB88.7. We sent the announcement to all of my media contacts. I have more than 1,000 media contacts in my network, some nationally, locally, but we wanted to make sure that the word got out. Um, we had announcements on our television program, just all of our different channels that we use to um,

088communicate with our stakeholders were used and that's why we were so pleased to get so many vendors. There's a total of 14 is quite impressive for custodial and we have the links and the proof of the dates and timestamps of when that information was pushed out. >> Okay. Um thank you. So the bid being open um when was that and who witnessed it? >> That was Thursday, March 26 at 3:00 p.m. We locked the doors. Um the vendors were present, I was present, Linda was present, Alvin Richards was present, and we also recorded it for um for our records to ensure that we were following the letter of >> And Dr. Sto was there. She locked the door. >> I locked the door because after 3:00 we cannot accept other bids. They were considered late

089so we don't accept them. >> Did you get them electronic clear? in >> actually they were sealed bids. So we had to we had to open every bid. >> Okay. And so um were all of these 14 biders that you put right here were all of them able to do the bond that was required? >> I I believe there were a few that could not but they were not not considered. um we would have further discussions with them if they had um advanced to the next level. >> So when you say that um they were not not considered was this a requirement or not? >> It is a requirement and then that would be a followup um in the RFP we actually um added an extra layer to um talk with vendors in case we

090had questions or in case they were missing any documentation. So, let me clarify because I don't want there to be mis any misunderstanding. I'm not sure if you're asking if it was a requirement of the law for us to have. >> It wasn't >> or if you're asking if it was our requirement because it was our requirement to protect our district. >> Um, I'm not asking you uh what the law is. Um, just was asking you in terms of what your requirement is. And then when you and and thank you for that because it it wasn't anything that was required by law. This was a decision that the school board made, but I don't know. Um, and you can tell me how sensitive the school board was to the fact that um, if you're dealing

091with smaller companies when you're um, required to get a bond of that amount, which uh, 5% bid bond required, 100% performance bond, um, just just common sense. It would knock out D near every small company. And so we'll get to who bid and what type of companies they are, but I think that's exactly what happened here. And I just my thoughts. Um, so that's why I asked that question about the bid. And so thank you. It wasn't a requirement. This is something that uh we put in and and and my understanding, you correct me if I'm if I'm wrong, but this isn't something that school boards do normally. No, but um we I am here to protect Gary Community Schools and if a vendor couldn't assure that they would be able to do the job

092that bid bond would allow me the opportunity to bring somebody in quickly um without any additional costs to the district. So in with the food service RFP, we there's also a 5% u bid bond required. And then for transportation, because of the volume and capacity we have here, um it would more than likely be a requirement as well. >> I understand what you're saying in terms of protecting the community. It's kind of reminds me of a conversation that was had by uh Miss S came up here and spoke to us and she talked about how uh she's the community and where it's our taxes that are paying for this. So when you put things in, it's kind of like a poison pill where there's going to be that us who pay our taxes here live

093here in this city. We won't be able to participate in things that our tax money is going to pay for. This is $2 something million dollars that is going to be a year and that's a lot of money and that could be lifech changing for a local company for somebody um not that they're struggling trying to get off just that they're trying to go to that next level and they won't be able to go to that next level if they're precluded from doing so because of something like a requirement that's not for a bid for that much for the entire project. That's $2.6 $6 million and that would wipe out especially being a black city and knowing how black people have been cut out of the capital of America basically from the beginning and then

094we're trying to crawl and we're trying to get there and then you go to a city like ours which is >> attorney we did not cut anybody out even if there there were some people who didn't meet that we still considered them I hear what you're saying we did not cut anybody out but at the end of the day We have to have a vendor that can support meet the needs of our school district. We are 52 square miles across. Our buildings are big. We have to have a vendor that can meet our school district. The team did their due diligence and they came up with a vendor who they believe can support us. >> Excuse me. >> We have um another board member that would like to have comment. Well, first I may applaud

095you for the diversity of the group that reviewed these RFPs and you know made the decision as to who to move forward. But um I I just wanted to ask you because I kind of think that the process that you're following was followed in the past. Am I correct? >> That is correct. >> Okay. And the purpose of the bond as you said if someone if a company for instance small or big for some reason could not perform this allows you to immediately move forward and get someone else to do the job. Is that correct? >> That that is correct. >> Okay. So and I think that what you're doing and I and I do understand we want to include as many people as we can. want to be diverse and make opportunities available for

096everybody. But I I do understand the need to be able to move quickly if something should happen and I do understand the need to look at best practices when you're doing this type of thing. So, um that I mean that's kind of all I was thinking about, but I know that this has been a pattern in the past. And that's not to say that in the future you may be able to look at how you might be able to move forward differently, but as it stands, this is kind of the process that was followed. And so perhaps in the future you may want to look at uh just expanding it or whatever. I don't know, just evaluating it and make sure it may work. I don't know, but just evaluating the process. And I'd also

097like to add that we looked at safety compliance and also what is critical for the environment for the students so that you know it would be sanitized, clean and orderly for educational purposes. >> Just like it. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um just taking account of uh sorry Den I don't want to say Dr. Dr. um just taking into account what she just said. I understand that we have the need that we want to protect our school corporation. At the same time, we should not be excluding. We'll never know how many people didn't apply because they saw that ridiculous. Sorry, I I'm I'm I am uh using an adjective and I shouldn't because they saw the bond requirements and knew that this is something that they wouldn't be able to do. And this is not something

098that normally happens with school corporations. Now, I don't know if it happened prior with the Gary Community School Corporation, but I do know that this is not something that's typical for school corporations and especially like the bonding company restrictions that it has to be listed on US Treasure Treasury. You put that in there, then it's knocking it's making it even harder and harder and harder for people to bid or to win or to think that they could bid and win this contract for custodial services. And again, I'll say it again. This is taxpayer money from the city of Gary. Black people, and I'm saying black people, have had it hard enough as it is. We're excluded on several levels all the time. And I'm sorry. I'm going to say, you know, I'll get into that

099later. But all I'm saying is that when we have an opportunity that we can do something lifechanging for a company, and I won't even say black, for a Gary based company, for somebody that isn't big time, that isn't um on the stock exchange, that doesn't make um $20 million per year, you know. um when we have that opportunity, I think that we should be cognitive and sensitive to the fact that we shouldn't be trying to that our actions will exclude something. >> So, I'm not going to >> Thank you, Attorney Locket. I just just want to remind the board members, we're at a process. We're asking questions. There is a point in this meeting where board members have a time to make a statement, but we want to be have a productive meeting. So when

100we ask questions, let's ask a question. >> Why did she put the bid in? That was my first question. But >> this is the most productive meeting you ever had. >> It's true. >> Consider yourself warmed. If you'd like to stay, please be quiet. >> I just ask this one question. How long are these contracts for? within a year. Um, this current contract I only did it for one year just to ensure that it's the right company um with a possible 2-year and threeyear extension, but that would be decided later. Okay? And so because it's for a year possibly could be extended in a year you could go back and evaluate and you know you may want to reevaluate the entire process but but for now we kind of need to move forward and get

101a a company in place to do this and not delay the process and thank you. It's a year and in a year we may be right next year looking at this again. >> I do need to clarify something. We did not mimic a previous process. The only thing that I think was done previously that we did continue to do was the actual insurance bid and that was done by NGT and and DAB to protect the district and likewise you asked about someone asked about um other districts. Many districts have this. You if you talk to superintendent and I know you were at that training today and you asked the question even Linda many districts have this. This is not an anomaly. Well, accord it is. But >> well, I would advise you to check check

102it long. Um, when I asked this question, this is something that is not normal that does not happen that um, according to actually it was Chad and it was Brown, but maybe they're wrong, but this is not something that normally happens with school corporations that you're asking somebody for a $2.6 million bount. And if you are going to do that, then you do that with the full knowledge that you are going to knock out the majority of even midsize companies. and that um when you're dealing with well we'll go through it. So I'll leave it alone for now. Mr. President, I think I think that we we all understand the point that we do want to be inclusive as inclusive as we possibly can be. And so what you're hearing is that in the future

103you might want to re-evaluate your process. And I'm not saying you might you will change your process. I'm just saying reevaluate it to make that it works. make sure that it works for the school district. But in the meantime, if we could just move forward, uh we we get the picture. We all understand I am all for opportunity for everyone, you know, everybody who deserves to have that opportunity. But but in the meantime, I'd like to ask that we could continue to move forward. >> There's a question for Mr. Johnson. No, it it was it was more so just a statement that yes, we do want to provide preference to local vendors and and and things like that, but we also need to make sure that we are protected at the same time as well.

104And so uh you know it's one year I think you know we come back and say nine months and and evaluate not only the company but the process as well. >> I would like to entertain a motion for approval of the custodial >> so I'm not motion on the floor. May I have a second? >> Second. It's been moved and properly second. Discussion on the motion. >> Sorry. Yes. Okay. So, um the motion is to approve. There were four choices on here. I believe you all said that you wanted to do SSE. Could you tell us about these four? ABM custodial services. Start with them. >> ABM Custodial Services. Uh well they as far as their FTEES which is full-time uh employees um they had 47 including uh six working leads um also uh >>

105hey >> they they had a retention of current staff opportunity to retain current staff for evaluation. One of the challenges though that we had uh with uh ABM was the fix rate means meaning that if the um if they don't supply the uh workers the workers just call off or quit that they we will still have to pay. They will not credit us the money but we will be again uh caught with the bill to pay with the workers that they recommended. And then uh in the middle of the uh process >> I'm sorry I actually I don't feel comfortable talking about a company. Um >> so I I think if >> well okay so so >> attorney Irvin please mute yourself. Mute yourself. Okay, sorry about that. Um, so um, no, we don't have

106to go into uh minute detail like that. Just high level. Um, how much is revenue do they have? Where are they based out of? Um, what is their diversity score like questions like that for each of them? >> I still think that this probably isn't the proper location to dig that deep into a individual's business. So, how about for the one you're asking us to approve? >> Yeah. >> Can we know that >> about them? No, no information, just pick them. >> Go ahead and share why we're selecting the company that we want. >> Well, they uh they have 47 uh full-time employees. Uh consists of two managers, two supervisors, night, one main rec uh recruiter. Uh also they are based their base is K12 K through 12. That was one of the big things

107that we were looking for. Um also they share with us that if we needed more of the full-time employees that they would be willing to work with us to increase that number and that's one of the things that we were looking for as far as someone working with us as far as employees. Uh also their evaluation uh was clean intelligence. Uh managers on site meet with principles weekly standard evaluation annual midyear bi-weekly monthly to determine if the standards are met. Also they had trainings um what does it look like to clean? Monthly trainings to staff uh 10step training processes active training at least monthly. Um, also they had a fixed cost versus staffing hours. Uh, they have a provision to give the district back $75,000 if they do not meet the KPIs that they um

108uh put in place. also $30,000 a year in employee incentives based on KPIs and is also a sister company to the chartwell group that we are using and contracted with now >> and they are K12 supporter >> K12 supporter >> okay you say they're sister with the company you're using for what >> that we're using for food service >> for food service >> um and So how much in revenue do they have yearly? >> We do not have that information here at this time. >> Okay. So um how much do they plan to pay their workers and are they doing local hires? >> They are they are doing local. >> At what rate do we know? Was it discussed? Is it going to be seconded arbitrarily? >> We do have some representatives from here if

109you guys want to Good evening, Dr. Stokes and the board. Appreciate the opportunity to be here to explain a little bit of what we put into place for being a part of the community here at Gary Community School Corporation. I'm Sue Wither Stu and I also brought um our VP uh Kenny. >> Nice to meet you all. >> As well as your regional director of operation Nathan O'Neal. >> So, we'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. Um, I can tell you as far as the wage scale, it will vary upon each different position that we have in place. Um, I believe, if memory serves me correct, and I can't go back to our documents, I think we had daytime staff starting at about 1650. Um, originally the district had asked for about

110$16 for those starters. We decided due to some of the concerns they had had um around the difficulty staffing that we would make that more encouraging for them to be able to start at a higher rate. We also have our supervisors at a higher rate and then the night cleaners I believe are about 16 at that starting wage that they had required. >> Thanks. Um could you tell us about the company you are you uh private? Are you stock exchange? Are you you know tell us about Um well it um became a part of Compass Group. Compass Group is a national company here in the United States. Um it is still private. Um we are one of many divisions but as I had explained SSC is just based in education. So all we do is

111higher ed and K12 across the entire country. Um believe today our revenues are over $500 million for SSD. Um, and what am I missing? Um, but we currently have about a hundred different districts across the United States. I typically handle just the Midwest. Um, and we're we're continually looking to to find those right partners to partner with. >> How many districts do you have in the Midwest? >> In the Midwest? >> Well, 10 in Indiana. >> 10 in Indiana. I have uh five in Indiana. This would be six for us. And then we also have some >> I have five in Indiana. So this would be >> attorney please. I manage five school districts. >> Five in Indiana. >> Yes. >> I mean locally here I mean here in >> Westfield Hamilton just the closest

112region on that but it's around the Indianapolis but we also have some up in Wisconsin not too far from here. that I assist with, but my focus is in here. >> So, I I guess the big question is in terms of staff, you're going to hire locally. >> That's correct. We partner with the district. Um, a lot of times when we come in, we evaluate with the staff of do we we take on here. Um, you know, there's there are some that may not make the cut as far as trainings and stuff like that, but we do we won't bring in from outside. >> And we did bring in a local recruiter here um for the district to kind of help keep that expedited and keep the staffing levels up to where they need to

113be. >> And that's at all levels of staff. >> And that's all management levels. >> Yes, sir. >> Yes. >> I'm not too familiar. I think number one was Gabriel Johnson lives in Miller. So he's local. Um and then typically our steps are for our local hiring is about 95% when we take over. >> Just your questions. >> How much does the CEO make? >> I'm not sure that question. It's probably not public information. >> Oh, they're private. That's right. Hearing no more questions. >> I do but not for them. >> Thank you so much. >> Are we still having discussion? >> He still has some vote. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um you had mentioned um well just in terms of the evaluation factors that was all put in place before an event for

114a second correct I mean I know just process wise but >> no no it did not >> the evaluation of the vendors >> the factors factors >> I'm sure that's how it goes right >> yes >> okay and I'm saying um are you you said that you wanted to act pursuant to the law of course. Are you familiar with Indiana code 522 5-22-3 which is about open and fair competition? >> I believe so. I believe. >> I believe. Do we share that code? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And so um just in terms of the corporation and our um potential liability to any type of um action rising from our action today. um which 5- IC5-22-3 goes into the fair and open competition that there are any arbitrary barriers um to prevent qualified vendors from

115competing and that they all must be treated equally. Um it could be made the argument that the bid requirements shut out a lot of people. So that's um why I'm going to be voting no and I would recommend all of you vote no also. That's all. >> Any additional questions? >> I will entertain a motion for approval. >> It's been moved. Second. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> That's the end of discussion. May we have roll call, please? >> Dr. Williams. >> Yes. >> Attorney. Attorney, >> no. >> Glenn Johnson votes yes. And Mr. SS, >> yes. >> Vote is three to one. >> With a vote of three yes and one against, the motion carries. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Item number 6.3 on our agenda. >> Good evening, board members.

116Good evening, Dr. Stokes and community at large. I am so excited to be able to come here today to talk to you about anou that was ratified by our local union um for the teachers to receive an increase to their base salary. Um that will also increase the uh salary minimum for all of our teachers who are licensed to 57,000 keeping the max at 83,200 and also increasing the minimum for individuals who are working with our district for under emergency or alternate permit from 49,000 to 52,000. The paraprofessional agreement also provides an additional $350 stipend for all of our paraprofessionals on top of the uh upcoming $175 stipen that was already agreed upon in the uh collective bargaining agreement for them. >> Board members, any questions on the presentation? >> Yes. Um when you say

117that this was real that Dair County Community School Corporation recently realized various cost savings in its budget, where did those come from? >> So there were allocations for a variety of student resources within the budget. And when it came to fruition that all of those student resources were going to be required as they were allocated, Dr. Stokes in the process of collective bargaining did uh explain to the teachers that we did not have current resources at our disposal according to our budget. Once they became available and we realized that those monies were not needed in those particular areas then we were able to allocate them to the teachers and to the pair professionals and we're really excited to do that. >> I think it's awesome. What um fund was this? Is this operations? >> No,

118this is all education. >> Education. >> Yes. Okay. And so um but of course um as I had um earlier there was not earlier just before there was a discussion that you can move funds from the education fund to operations fund >> that it yes that's more of a financial function that I could have miss speak to but >> so when you say that it came into the um education fund >> you don't move fund you I've never seen anybody move funds for an operation operations to education. >> No, I'm saying from education to operations, right? >> But all of this money is coming from education. Yes. >> Right. Um and so I asked that because there was a conversation earlier about payment for an officer and there was no money. How much money was

119found in this? How much how much money does these raises represent? >> Uh I think that we guesstimated it to be about $1 million. >> About a million dollars. Yes sir. So I want to clarify there was no money found. We didn't spend as much money as we thought we would spend for some of the other resources to support students. And what I told our union is that you know all of this money is to support students and it's teachers or other staff that come out of the education fund. When we realized that we didn't need all of that money that we had quote unquote kind of set aside to support our students, I told them I wanted to give it back to them because is in the education fund. >> I'd like to be

120also be able to speak to, as an example, you asked earlier about the Galani contract. Um, that was agreed to at the November 13th conference. I went ahead and looked in our board documents. So, if you go to the board meetings, you can actually go to our board agenda and the actual contract is in there. You had asked for a copy of that. So, it's again the November 13th uh board meeting and I do believe you voted for that one. Um, but it also has the cost structure in there. Um, and it shows flat rates for specific types of evaluations, additional money that would be for like a $500 extra if it's an autism evaluation in addition to uh all of the other cognitive measures. But as an example, some of that money was allocated

121for those kinds of services. Whether it's for speech pathologists that sometimes we have to contract out for because there's a shortage of those, whether it's school psychologist, as what happened with Galani services when a school psychologist uh resigned and went to a neighboring school district. We needed to have that stop gap. We do allocate resources in that regard for those kinds of services to make sure that our students get everything that they need. And when it was discovered that there was additional money, especially at this juncture of the school year, that we were going to be okay. Dr. Stokes again promised that if there was any additional monies that was not used um to support uh students in the capacity that we originally thought that it would go back to the teachers. >> I think

122that's fair. um >> once they get up to this um amount that's anticipated, are we going to be able to maintain it for years going forward? >> We worked very closely with Linda Zabarowski who did projections utilizing this particular information and yes ma'am. >> Okay. And so just in terms of u I'm going back to it officer that got decreased which I I I just imagine come at work and then I come on day sorry you're getting less this money could have been taken >> different funding source >> it was a different funding source I think what you're alluding to is you're suggesting that we should take money from the education fund to send it to the operations fund because I think that that's what you were asking earlier um the money that we identified

123that could be utilized for other student support services were isolated for the teachers and I'm going to reiterate from your earlier question there was a restructuring to be fair and equitable for the way that we are providing uh our individuals within that security department the monies that is given to them for their salaries and benefits. >> Okay, thank you for that. And so when we look at this is are these salaries in line with uh Indiana the increases? I suppose they're lower. I don't know. >> That's a great question. Um that was one of the other things that we talked about. we were going into the recruiting and hiring season and so we definitely want to be competitive with our area school districts. So we did look at what school districts uh start their teachers

124and we are very competitive now that we are going to be starting at the $57,000 mark. There are some districts that are less than that. Um some of our neighboring districts are less than that and there are some districts that are more than that. >> And and some of the districts that are more than that also our neighbor districts. >> Yes sir. And so, um, was there a formula put in like we're going to raise you 30% or 20% or is it just like we got this money so we're going to divide it amongst this many people? >> Yes, that's a fairer way to look at it. There was uh monies that was identified through the budgetary process and we identified that amount of money and then what could be distributed to all of the

125teachers um both individuals who are supporting our district from a license perspective and from um an emergency permit and alternate permit perspective. >> Okay. And so, um, just like some of these like building services from going from 50 to 84, like that's a big jump. No, >> I'm sorry. >> That's a range. That is a range. The lowest to the highest in that range. >> Oh, I apologize. Yes, Miss Locket. The salary ranges means that a first year teacher would be at $50,883.68 68 prior to the increases for the 2526 school year. We raised them then to 57,83 57,000 is the base and the max would be 83,200. It is important to note that this is anou that increases what was originally agreed upon in the collective bargaining agreement. >> Okay, I got it. So

126that's just the range. So they're starting now on the >> right there. Then the next number is the high, but that's the minimum. >> Correct. So it could be anywhere in between those two numbers. >> Okay, I get it. And so um >> however, all teachers will be getting the increase applied across the board. >> Their base is going to go >> that is correct by the 5,000 I don't want to misquote it 5,116. >> Okay. And so then it's somewhere within range. >> Yes. It depends on where they work right now. >> Okay. And was there any thought given to liveable wages just in terms of what the minimum is for? I just asked it because I'm looking at the um the the lunch aids and the uh crossing guards. They're trying to >>

127So much a wouldn't be paid out of the education fund. Huh? >> They wouldn't be paying down education. who you only have that document because we just changed it. So we just gave you the whole >> So when they're blue here that doesn't >> these are just all the salary scales >> specific to the that is in front of you today. Though the reason that you have the difference in salary scales that salary range needed to be changed and if you so choose to approve if the board graces us with the ability to approve these changes. >> Okay. But I'm sorry. Um Yes, ma'am. >> What did you just tell me? >> You were talking about >> Yeah, I just to understand what you're saying. >> And the cafeteria workers. Yeah, they wouldn't be included

128necessarily in that education fund, >> but is there >> Well, they previously received your raise at the beginning of the school year, but >> I think for clarity, I need to just share the document we gave you, we didn't make changes necessarily to other positions unless it was something that was being impacted tonight. We just wanted to give it to you because we don't just we use that for our own purposes, too. So we made the changes if you based on the fact that if you approve this for our teachers their salary goes up to 57 at a minimum. So we just put it on there and gave you that so that you can approve that change as well if you approve theou. >> I appreciate that. That makes a lot more sense to me.

129>> You are welcome. >> Um and so with that then I don't have any more questions. >> Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to approve theou for the teacher impair professional compensation agreement. >> Uh Mr. Chair, I move that we accept the >> motion on agreement >> to approve. It's been moved properly second. Discussion on the motion. >> May we have roll call for approval, please? >> Dr. Williams. >> Yes. Attorney >> yes. >> Glenn Johnson votes yes and Mr. SS >> yes four zero with a vote of four yes and zero against theou is approved. We will move item 6.4 to our next meeting. We will go on to item number nine on our agenda. Uh opportunity for individual board member comments. I have some of course is there anybody else? Okay. So, thank

130you for that. Um I just would like to say that today's um I think it's disturbing to me two things and probably have um come across to everybody in this room who and who may be watching. two things that um I think uh are not a good look for this board, for this corporation. One is somebody coming to work making a specific salary and then they're talking about we're restructured so we're taking some money. That just sounds horrible to me. If I'm doing my job, I've been doing the same job. I did not hire myself. I was hired at a rate and then I come and you say, "Oh, well, we're restructuring. We're going to take some money from you." I just think that is unfair. I know it may not be illegal, but there's

131difference between unfair or morality and legality. Slavery was once legal. So just because something is legal, you're allowed to do it doesn't mean that you should do it. So I just think that stinks. First off, secondly, um I also think I don't or has really bothered me is this whole RFP process. I I have nothing negative to say about the company S SSC or whomever. I just feel that um we need to be very intentional about our dollars and about how we can make them circulate in the city of Gary for the benefit of the people of Gary. And again, I'm not disparaging any company here. I'm saying that when we put in poison pills is which is what this kind of was was we put in a poison pill and it may or may

132not be legal to have done so. I'm I'm sure that it'll lead to litigation that we could have avoided by just not doing because litigation is not free. Lawyers are not free. So um when we're talking about um $2.6 6 million. That's lifech changing for um some people uh people who have been shut out, never given the opportunity um and now that when it comes to us putting in things that they cannot um that they're not going to be able to obtain and there's historical reasons for that. I think we all know that um access to credit and fair lending and banking uh for African-Americans, for descendants of slaves, it hasn't been um an equal playing field. And so then we're given opportunity to equal a playing field. Um I think that we should have

133taken that opportunity. Let me just say that Gary is 76 to 78% black. That we um 49 to 50% of us are property owners. that um that these are property taxes that are paying for this $2.6 million a year. Okay? So, if we are spending millions of dollars, we have to be intentional about how we're spending it. And so, let me just say when I and I keep saying this because I know that a a requirement for these beds knocks out a lot of African African-American companies. It's just that simple. They're not going to be not going to be able to compete. And so, um, let me just say that in terms of African-Americans and black, well, black people in this country that the 2022 survey of consumer finances reports finds that the medium house

134wealth for white households is 285,000, for Asian households, 536,000. for Hispanics 62,000 and for blacks it's 44,000 per years. So that means that the typical white household has over six times the wealth of the typical black household and a typical Asian household has over 12 times the wealth. Now you might be saying why am I bringing this up now? What's the relevance? Well, first of all, it's always relevant to me. But secondly, because we're dealing with contracts here. We're dealing with um bidding. we're dealing with um make handing out millions of dollars. That's what this is. That's what this we're the fiscal body. So, I think that we should always be aware and hyper sensitive to that. As we know, there have been hysterical barriers to wealth building for black Americans. And that includes what

135I just said, which is access to credit, fair lending and banking, GI Bill benefits that didn't go to us, home ownership programs that didn't go to us. So these exclusions created long-term disadvantages that compounded over generations to the fact in the place where we are 10 times or six times uh behind white households and 12 times behind Asian households on wealth. Okay. And so then um we also have the income differences with the black households versus other household other households and inherences and inter intergenerational transfers. Um Federal Reserve data shows that white families are five times more likely to receive an inheritance and that when they do receive an inheritance is much larger on average than anything that black people get. Um, so black entrepreneurs, and this is the part though that really gets me,

136black entrepreneurs face higher denial rates for loans and receive smaller loan amounts, which limits business growth and long-term wealth accumulation. And that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about business growth and longtime wealth accumulation. And when we do things like put in poison pills and bids that knocks out the vast majority of minority businesses, then we're not doing anything to help that. And I think that that should be our focus, especially in this big beautiful black city of Gary. So that's just my >> huh. I I would caution you to kind of tread lightly because you're right on the cusp of actually making a federal lawsuit. >> Oh, well, let me say something about that. It's funny you should say that because I don't know if anybody heard, but JD Vans, the president, the

137vice president recently came out and he was talking about what has to happen for white males. White males specifically. But not just that, I don't even have to say race. Guess what? I'm not even talking race. I'm talking lineage. I'm talking about descendants of people who were enslaved. That has nothing to do with race. That is it just is a historical fact that they just h we happen to be black. But but so I'll say that because then nobody can accuse us or me of talking about specific black issues or black uh families or uh black wealth. I will say then that those of us who are descended from those who were enslaved for 20 generations have had year after year after year after year after year after year after year after year for 400

138years of not being able to participate. And so when we get to 2026 and we look at the conditions that are that are for our people, I think that we have to be intentional. And when I say our people, I won't say black. I will say lineage basic descendants of slaves. Okay? So, I think that we need to be intentional about what we're doing, especially when it comes to this board. And like I said, our beautiful city, we need to make sure that what we're spending is benefiting. And again, this is nothing against any company that won. I I I'm very happy for them. I just want to see it for all of us. Um, I don't want to see anybody excluded. And so, let me just summarize my grant. Um, the racial wealth gap

139is one of the most persistent economic disparities in the United States. Federal data shows that black households have far less median wealth than white, Hispanic, and Asian households. So, we are at the very bottom. And we, like I just said, it's not race. It's lineage. is based on the fact that our wealth was stolen from us for years and years and years and years and years. You could not own you could not make money from your own labor. Um so attorney locket I would just like to caution you as the attorney for the board again as you're quoting data that indicates racial distinctions. >> Let me say something. >> Please >> let me say something. >> May I finish my statement, please? >> Yes. Please be cautious because I don't want to have to have

140do any unnecessary work in litigation that should not be brought up on this board. >> Thank you, Shalise. And I appreciate you and I respect you. But let me say nobody was worried about any um additional litigation and work for this board where we wouldn't put a point of pill into the documents for the RFP. So, let me also say that it's fair game for them to say uh like I just said, JB Dance recently said about white males and how uh um they have the EOC on their side now and so they can mention it, but we can't. But I'm not saying you can't mention it. I'm just cautioning you as to your remarks at this meeting about this topic and you're quoting statistics that infer racial >> the statistics. >> All I'm asking

141is that you caution yourself. >> Okay. So, >> we are both councils of the law. >> We are. >> So, I would like for us not to have any discrepancies regarding your statements that may lead to any type of litigation. just asking for that respect. >> Thank you and I appreciate that. And as a lawyer, I am also very hyper aware always of um lawsuits and that's why I voted no on the uh RFP for that. So that I appreciate that I am hyper sensitive to lawsuits. But let me just say again that um I don't want us to be a target but me stating facts about what it is in real life and the I didn't make up these statistics. What I am saying are facts. And so what it sounds like I'm being

142told is don't discuss the facts. Facts are neutral. Um some people say and I really hate when they say facts don't care about your feelings. Facts are facts. And the fact is is that um the racial wealth gap is persistent. It's wide. It's been here historically um for the reason because for hundreds of years there was a group of people and I won't say black people just descendants of those who were enslaved who had their wealth misappropriate appropriated for years and years and years. So not just that um so there is historical exclusion from wealth building systems lower home ownership rates income disparities unequal access to capital smaller or non-existent hysterity. So these factors accumulate across generations creating a gap that remains large today. So, and nobody wants to hear it or we're not supposed

143to say it. But the truth of the matter is is that the wealth gap remains and this persists and if we act like it's not there and we ignore it and we're scared to say something, then I don't think we're going to get to the point where we even try to save it or change it. So, all I want to say is that that is why I voted no. And that is why I would hope in the future that this board is very intentional about making opportunities that all can participate in. And that is all. Oh, I'm sorry. Also though, let me just say this too. Sorry about that because I know once I get off here, y'all ain't never going to let me back on. Um, I just want to say that um, Miss

144Miss Tidwell, I believe she was talking about Roosevelt and I just really love the thought of it and I hope there is something that this board can do um, to uh, renovate, I don't know, make a museum, whatever we need to do. But I see the love for the belt and I feel it. I appreciate it. And I hope that this board will do something positive uh, for the community with that high school. That's all. Thank you. Any other board members have comment? >> Yes sir. >> And and I I'll be a little brief. >> No. Uh first of all I want to say you know earlier it was it was mentioned uh you know talking about the the spending from between 2019 and 2024. Now while that is important to know how the money

145was spent it was that predates this board that predates the superintendent. So it's it's it's something that currently, you know, the superintendent is changing some things, but you know, things don't change overnight. And I would just caution, you know, before people start saying that, the board spent all this money. The board did not spend all that money. It was prior to the board. And so it it they were they were working under different rules. uh and and the state they they were basically an agent of the state and that's what they were allowed to do. And so I I would just caution the the committee not to label this superintendent with that uh with what happened during that time period. Secondly, I I would like to say that uh as the board member that was

146on the the committee for the the custodial contract actually I I did question that uh bid bond requirement and uh as a matter of fact attorney and I had long conversation about it. Uh, so it wasn't it didn't go under the radar. Okay, that you you can trust me when I tell you. Okay. And and so and again, it's a one-year contract with auctioneers and and that that part was important to me as well. So, uh, it it's because as a federal contractor, as a person who currently has federal contracts and has had them for 11 years, trustingly, I understand the contract process and I also know how at times unfair it can be. And so, uh, that is directly within my wheelhouse. So, I follow that. And I also understand the wealth gap and

147and things like that very well. And so uh you know we we are working to correct that. So that was all I have for you tonight. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Johnson. Uh Miss Thank you. Um, I do want to say that I want to applaud Dr. Stokes and staff as a board member who understands the task that we have at hand being a school system that just came back to local governance based on financial reasons that were put under state takeover and how we're still being evaluated for our fiscal efforts. And I want to applaud and uh consistently encourage every effort that you can make to be physically sound and responsible. And so I want to thank you for that. And um Dr. Snow knows all too well that part of her annual evaluation

148is how we are doing visibly. Um secondly, I do want to say that um when we make note of race constantly in this meeting, I feel it's irresponsible and personally I am offended >> that we put that in content on all of our conversation. Um, we are bigger and broader and more focused, laser focused, as I have said in this seat, on the education of our students. That's what we're here for. That's what I signed up for. And I just want to make those comments. I will move on into the agenda. >> No, let me say something because >> this is not a back and forth. >> Well, you just said something about me. >> I did not say anything about anyone. said something about comments. >> I think Dr. Stokes know that was planning

149to make, but I can talk to you next. >> All right. Um, thank you. I I do just feel like I need to go on record and clarify something because we're talking about a process to hire for our custodial supports that my district worked on. I want to say this for the record. We did not exclude anyone even if they could not meet the bid requirements and we did not exclude anyone. In fact, I probably don't need to say this, but I'll say it. One of the one of one of the um people who evaluated some of the ones who did not have a bid still promoted them to another level. And then we went on. We did not exclude anyone. We are cognizant of the fact that we want the best group working for

150us. It just so happened that four vendors rose to the top. You heard me say earlier it was a very hard decision because there were so many good vendors but we can only select one only one. And of the four we told you who we wanted to select. So I want to go on record saying to everybody who's listening we did not exclude anyone. Even if they could not make the bond requirements they were not excluded. Beyond that I do want to say something about our board. Um, I want the community to know that our school board, Can we go to the next slide, please? Our school board received an award for exemplary governance. And I just wanted to say I want to read to you what the award says. It says that presented in

151recognition of the G community school board, school boards, they get this reward for displaying continued evidence of leadership and exemplary governance. So, we want to remind our board members and our community that how you show up matters. And if we want to continue to receive awards like this and be an example in the state of Indiana about how a school board should govern itself, we all have to remember that how we show up matters. We don't have to always agree, but we do have to be professional and how we show up matters. So, I want to thank my board for winning this award. With that, I give the floor back. >> I will entertain a motion for adjournment. >> Been moved second. All in favor say I. >> You guys got to head on over.