001members statement should not be present and discuss complaints against individual employees of G community school corporation at any board school trustees meets issues related to personnel individual circumstance es for an individual school will be referred to the building principal upon an appropriate administrator in an attempt to resolve the issue prior to an appeal before the board. Speaker cannot transfer the remaining time to another person. The board president will force these rules and may take actions necessary to maintain order at a meeting. Such actions may include but are not limited to interrupting the speaker statements to limit the unduly repetitive or otherwise violates the rules. presidently terminate the address of any speaker who violates these rules and limit the total time total amount of time devoted to public comments if there's a large number of people
002wishing to address the board or if there was a large agenda on other business before the board. >> Thank you sir. I will start with Mr. I believe Kevin McKini. [Music] Good afternoon to the board and public. Good afternoon to you, Dr. Stokes. I was I was the one that called you on the radio about three weeks ago, said that you had a good person working for your tell you anything. >> Uh my comments uh due to the violence that occurred at Walmart here in West the other day. I mentioned this to Natalie and Leonard on WLT radio this morning. Would you ever consider having like an anger management class for students? And uh I put in a resume with Jeff Smith back in December and he told me he had to go through the
003school board. I used to have gas and he got in the late 80s. I ask you how those positions determine when positions be open. That's it. Thanks for taking my questions. Geneva Dunham. [Music] Good afternoon to all. I am Glenny Vun, president of AFT Car Teachers Union, local number four, president of AFT Indiana, vice president of National American Federation of Teachers, vice president of Indiana AFL CIO, a teacher of Community School Corporation, starting my 47th year and kindergarten teacher here for 31 years. I have a life license in elementary education. My topic is Gary Green School Corporation. On behalf of local 4 AFT, I would like to welcome all of our students and families to the 2025 26 school year. Thank you for choosing Gary Community School Corporation. Thanks to the state of Indiana, you
004have many choices. With all the noise, I thought it was a a good time for a twominute history lesson. Many of us in this audience today are responsible for this school board being in place and the G community school corporation that was superintendent. When Gary Community School Corporation was under the distressed unit appeals board, many of us made that trip up and down in Interstate 65 to Indianapolis to stay informed of the decisions that the distress units board and the MGT company was making on behalf of our babies and many of our parents couldn't make the trip. We were also supporting then state senator Eddie Milton and state representative Bernie Smith who alternated as board members on the on the DAB board. One of the last meetings of Duab that was held in this room.
005Our community was pretty much told by DAB to put up or shut up financially. speaking. The only the only way dear community schools were going to be returned locally was through the state takeover was primarily about finances, not academics. This community went to work in the process of attempting to pass our third attempt of the referendum. Gary Teachers Union was primary central for the referendum. The promise was that the first million dollars of the referendum would go for teachers and pair professionals raises. teachers and par professionals had not had a raise in 10 years. The community was split over the referendum, but it passed 60 to 40%. Gary Community Schools was saved and the on the backs of many of us in this room today. GTU helped our local legislators draft the language in the
006bill that produced this board made up of and the ability to select a superintendent. The point Gary Teachers Jr. local number four is an integral part of the school corporation. We are the workers in this corporation. We will not move forward if teachers and pair professionals are not included in real decision making. We will not stand by and be mandated by folks about what is best for our kids. >> Thank you. >> We are in the treat trenches every day and our voices have to be heard. >> Thank you. folks have told me personally that they want peace in this city and I want peace too. >> Thank you. You're welcome. If you want to hear the rest of my speech, you can call me. >> Linda Collins Brown. [Music] Good afternoon everyone. First of
007all, uh I divor to all the educators. I love and support our teachers. I am Linda Collins Brown of the fifth district. A heartfelt thank you to Dr. Stokes, Mr. Suts, and the board that served that was a part of the team when Dr. Vanessa Alan Mloud was a part of it. And quote, please note that you are servants well done by good and faithful servants. Matthew 25 and 23. Just when our school district was on its way toward continued progress under the leadership of the team that I just mentioned that included Dr. Mloud, one comes along and sadly disrupts it. Why? Because she or he can. Why? because other perhaps went along just to get along. Why? Because an unjust request was not adhered to. This unwarranted action is an abuse of power. We
008must hold our elected officials accountable. We've been taught to pay attention, listen, and learn. A message for voters, taxpayers, parents, and students. Get involved. Bring your children to schoolboard meetings. Take them to council meetings. You learn a lot by paying attention. Our children are our leaders of tomorrow. I do appreciate the time afforded me and know that the best is yet to come. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Nikki Bird, [Music] Nikki Bird. [Music] >> Good afternoon. I was actually but I was actually supposed to go next after I was supposed to speak after M done but it's okay. Um the main thing that I really wanted to talk about tonight and I'm a little upset about it. We're doing the same thing that we always do after the fact. We talked about virtual
009learning and that we wanted to not indulge in that because we didn't think it would be good for the kids. When I say we, the public, when we had the meeting at the teachers union, it was kind of decided that we would come here tonight to talk about it, but it's already in place. We're already doing it. It's not good for our children. And that is basically what I want to say. I'm a little upset with myself because um I'm trying to hold back some stuff. I don't want you all to tell me to sit down. I'm just going to take my seat. But know that I don't know what other people are saying. I'm not happy with it. We have special needs children who need teachers in the classroom. They don't need to be
010on the screen. >> We have young people who are confused and miserable at home. Then they come to school, think they got somebody to talk to, and they don't. It's not fair. It's not right. what we're doing to our children. It's really sad and somebody needs to try to make it right. All >> Vernon Smith [Music] I want to thank you for this opportunity to to address you and share some concerns. Um, I'm here for one reason, but I want to point out that uh I am concerned about our teacher recruitment plan and we need to come up with one that involves the community and ought to be a wholesome one and hopefully we'll get some better results than what we had in the past. I'm concerned about our student recruitment plan. And I shared
011some ideas with MPT the last year. They were supposed to the people were supposed to remain were supposed to implement some of those that did not have them because those persons did not remain with the school system. And then I'm also concerned which I expressed to the president to this superintendent with virtual education program that you have put in to place. I'm really here today and I guess it could be seen uh selfish and personal. I hope it will confuse that plan. But prior to MGT taking over the Gary Community School Corporation, we had a buy and carry policy and u it allowed uh us to deal with local vendors uh even though the the cost might be as much as 2% higher. um operates long distance and we uh prior to uh MT MGT
012take over or the state take over uh we used to do business with uh all the schools uh since MGT took at the point where MGT took over that ceased and they started business with everybody under the sun they could be as far as as a career and they still uh doing business with them rather than deal with local vendors. Many things that the students are using, the schools are using uh we sell promotional items. That capability we have there, we do that and our trophies and everything, t-shirts, and we're doing business outside the community. If we're to survive as a community, and this is just not for me, but it's for all the local businesses in here. you would survive the money must turn over more in Gary than it does and I'm simply
013bringing it to your attention. I spoke with the president Mr. Sts about it. I think you are to reactivate some kind of Biden car and support Gary uh buying program so that we can survive as a whole. Uh I am willing to work with the school board. I I believe in all of you. up in this process and uh I'm here to help you any way I can and I'm hoping that at some point you choose to use my services. Thank you, [Music] >> Eric. And I'm sorry I can't make out the last names with the SIP, I believe. >> All right. Thank you, R L Tindle. L Tindle. [Music] Good afternoon to all. Hunts, songs of praise, use of favorable terms such as equity, high quality education, those are fine, but do not correlate
014with your actions board and administration of our school system. Virtual learning is not for black and poor children. We've been told that. You've been told that. Reports show that. And yet you have decided to do something that is adverse and not conducive to quality education of our children. What we want to see this school board and administration do is to adapt to the practice and principle, excuse me, of using both and either, pardon me, both and rather than either or related to quality education, inperson teaching pools topnotch [Music] grammatically correct direct yearbooks, decent and proper and fair handling of teacher placements and hiring, decent, proper legal bidding in contractual matters. And I personally want to tell you that I would like to see this group join in financing and providing adequate support along with the
015city of Gary and the Gary administration. support for the Indiana Historic Agency represented by Ununice Troder in the restoration in the repurposing in the preservation of the historically renowned and architecturally profound Roosevelt High School and connected properties. And we want you to develop and soundly establish the first parenting and family classes in the school system of Gary, Indiana. The incident that took place the other day and like other incidents similar to that indicate a need for more services including parenting classes and family classes. Our people are not prepared to parent many of them. Our people are not prepared to take care of and head families units. We need to pay attention and do something about the ills that are so apparent in our city and among our people. Thank you so much. Thank you to
016the members of the public who took this opportunity to share their comments. It's much appreciated. Item number five on our agenda is our consent agenda. Item number 5.1, [Music] 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4. I'll entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chairman, I'll u make a motion to approve consent agenda 5.1 through 5.4. >> There's a motion on the floor to approve the consent agenda. Is there a second? >> Second. It's been moved and properly second. Any discussion on the motion? >> Hearing no discussion, may we have roll call for approval, please? >> Yes. Dr. Woods, >> yes. >> Attorney Lockett, >> yes. >> Mr. Johnson, >> yes. >> I say yes. And President Suggs, >> yes. >> Right. The vote is 5 to zero. >> With a vote of five to zero, the consent agenda is approved.
017Item six on our agenda and I would like to ask Mr. Z Miss Linda's Zabarowski come up please. Excuse me. [Music] Good evening, Gary Community School Board members, Mr. Suds, Dr. Stokes, and community members. I would like to request the renovation and rebuilding of the Banaker Marquette elevator. About 4 months ago, the elevator started acting up and wasn't working. We had Otis elevator come out to assess what needed to be done. We have a contract with Otis that MGT put in place prior to our administration. Um, that contract states that any repairs or any renovations to any elevators that Otis would be granted that contract. So, I we've talked to Otis. They've proposed, I believe, $128,000 to rebuild it um and make it up to par for OSHA standards. Um a new elevator, if we
018went with a brand new elevator, um it could be close to $500,000. So, this this contract would be to uh it'll have a new cage. It'll have all new parts. It'll be almost brand new, but it will be parts, brand new parts put on it. Any questions? >> Does that U rebuilt elevator come with a warranty? >> Yes, it does. Three years parts. >> Three years apart. >> Correct. >> Any other questions? Board members, >> just just out of curiosity, [Music] >> how old was the existing home? >> Uh, I believe 15 years old. >> Yeah. >> And it was not under warranty anymore. [Music] I certainly um respect the proactive move move that was made with MGT as far as signing a commitment to have the elevator served, but I definitely would like to
019have a second opinion. >> Sure, I can do that. I I would have to pay for it, of course, to have somebody else come out and assess it. Yeah, >> I think with these numbers, >> I agree with um President SS. However, we do want to seek attorney you make sure that we're not violating that contract in some kind of way that's going to cost us additional funding. So, of course. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I will I will update you on this. [Music] Item 6.2, the August donations. [Music] >> So, President Suggs, >> yes. >> Miss Whittington, one of our donations. Do we have someone here who wanted to speak about his donation? [Music] Good evening once again, members of the board and Dr. Stoson community. Uh, approximately a few weeks ago, I received a
020phone call from someone whom I consider a friend, a proud graduate of Gary Horus man High School. And what I knew of him in being in high school was he was just the ultimate track star. that no matter what school we attended, we did not come up against this gentleman by the name of Eric Smoot. For the past few years, Mr. Smoot has adopted, if you will, Beverage Elementary School, supplying the students with backpacks and school supplies. This year he annied up and doubled up and tripled up and quadrupled up his donation to the district in that he has adopted all five of our elementary schools donating a total of 150 backpacks filled with school supplies for every one of our elementary schools fitness. In addition, he is also making a special scholarship presentation to
021one of our students at Westside Leadership Academy who is present with us tonight. He has an amazing story to tell. So, I'm going to step away from the mic before my tears start to flow. Please give it up for Mr. [Applause] >> Hello everyone. Uh it's an honor and a pleasure to be here uh tonight. Um as she had said Chelsea had said um you know I represent um my company uh Redefine Fitness and I also um am representing the Gary Horseman High School track team. Uh we we are we got together and we um came up with the money for the for the um check [Music] and uh you know I just wanted to talk a little bit about a few things that we've done through the years but um when I was in
022high school I uh had a lot of um trauma, a lot of issues. Uh I my mom was a former drug addict. Uh my my dad wasn't present. Um but I was so blessed and fortunate to have my best friend, his mother adopt me in high school. And uh and then I had a phenomenal track coach named Roosevelt. And because of the two of them, I was I was able to go on to be extremely successful. Um I won three state titles. I was a high school allame. Um and everywhere I went, I represented Gary, Indiana. Um, I earned myself a full ride to Purdue University and uh because of the confidence that my high school track coach gave me, always believing in me, my my godmother who adopted me, always telling me uh that
023I was going to be successful, always there for me when I needed them. Uh, I was able to go on, like I said, and get double degrees at Purdue University. But, uh, when it was time to, uh, go into the workforce, I was blessed to start my own company. And I always said that when I got in a position to do for others, I would. And so I'm I'm in a position to bless others. And every quarter we do something for the community. And about three years ago, we raised $66,000 and we bought computers for um for the we bought computers for 100 computers for uh a school on the west side of Chicago and 100 computers for um 21st century here in Gary. So, whatever I do, I always add Gary because Gary is
024a part of my heart. I wouldn't be the man that I am today without Gary Indiana. And um and so I just want to let you all know that I'm grateful to be here and uh so blessed. And let's get to the scholarship right here that we got right here. So this young lady is um the niece of Mr. Roosevelt Pium. And Roosevelt Pium worked at Gary Westside for 34 years. He recently passed away and uh the team got together and we said what can we do to pass on his legacy and he was an educator and so the first thing we said let's do a scholarship to continue to pass on his legacy through education and so the young man that we have here you want to say something real quick >> good evening
025I'm here on behalf of the family of Roosevelt William better known as Chief Yes. And we are um creating the Roosevelt Chief William Scholarship Fund that's being established by the former horseman track and field athletes. This is a memorial scholarship fund awarded annually to a Westside graduate who exemplifies Chief's values of leadership, perseverance, and service. And it is our honor to be here today and to give the award, the first of many. And the young man who will be receiving the scholarship is Kiran Max. [Applause] And this is a $2,000 scholarship. [Applause] [Music] Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. And last but not least, this is the first of many. We will be giving out more scholarships. Uh this is just the first year. Um and with uh in one month uh we raised $20,000 uh
026for um the some of the money, a lot larger percentage of the money went to the Gary uh public schools and then uh and then the rest of the money went to this young man for scholarship. Thank you, sir. Mr. Smooth, we'd like to thank you personally for the efforts that you have done and your fellow track alumni to create the scholarship and donation um on behalf of your track team and the uh Chief Pium scholarship and we'd like to congratulate Mr. Massie. Um are any comments from board members? Well, I I would just like to say reiterate congratulations for, you know, all that you've done in in the community as a whole, but especially as you support the Gary Community School Corporation. We certainly appreciate that and I'm sure that young man is very
027grateful for the scholarship as he goes on to pursue, you know, further education. So, again, thank you. And your your donation, by the way, was very generous. So, thanks for that. Thank you so much. And I do want to add to that Eric, you and I didn't go to Horseman together, our class of 1992. We were in chemistry class, but it's nice to see someone doing so well who was phenomenal in high school. And I was just in Canada this past week and someone was talking to me about my educational experiences. And I just told them this week, I wish I had tried out for the track team because we had an amazing team. And even though I may not have made state like the rest of you guys have won, I know I would
028have definitely been better from the experience. And so that's what I was talking to my colleagues about just this week in Toronto, Canada. So it just shows the impact that our students make when we are students. We carry for the rest of our lives. So thank you for all you do and congratulations. Thank you. At this point, I'll entertain a motion from the board to accept the donation from Mr. smooth and the others involved from the horse man alumni. >> Some move. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Any discussion on the motion? >> Hearing none. May we have roll call for approval, please. [Music] >> Dr. Woods, >> yes. >> Attorney Lockett, >> yes. >> Mr. Johnson, >> yes. >> I say yes. And Mr. Sugs, >> yes. The vote is five
029to zero. >> With a vote of five yes and zero against, uh, the motion carries and thank you again for the donation. I'd like to move on to item number 6.3, the approval of the college experience. The board members, you'll see item 6.3, there's three items. the Westside Leadership Academy Department uh workshop in Indianapolis, the central administration office special program in East Chicago, and the central administration office program uh conference in Indianapolis. And I will entertain a motion for the approval of these experiences. >> Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the conference experience for school. >> Thank you. There is a motion on the floor to approve the conference experience. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Been moved and properly second. >> Any discussion on the motion on the table? >> Yes,
030please. >> Um for this conference experience, is this just approving? Is there an amount associated with it? >> It is approving the expenses as well as the uh content of the conference. Do we know what these are? >> They were sent to you in your board packet, but we can't get that for you specifically. >> I guess I'm new, so >> No. No problem. We all have to be new. >> Any additional questions hearing? None. May we have roll call for approval, please? Dr. Woods, >> yes. >> Attorney Black. >> Mr. Johnson, >> yes. >> I say yes. And Mr. Sug, >> yes. >> There are four yeses and one abstension. >> With a vote of four yes and one abstension, the motion carries and the conference experiences have been approved. Item seven on our
031agenda and I would like to turn the floor over to Dr. Stokes. [Music] >> Thank you, President Suggs. Um, as you know, we have been working diligently to bring forth policies as based on Indiana code that govern public schools. And I say that govern public schools because charters and parochial schools might have different guidelines. But with that, we want to make sure that we stay at our best efforts in guidelines with Indiana code. With that being said, we typically bring forth lots of policies and in most districts this would not be the case. But because we bring forth so many policies, we basically have our meeting of which Dr. Woods chairs. We have a policy meeting monthly and we discuss policies of which she has in advance and can look at and she represents the
032board. With that being said, we then bring the policies forward. You all have those policies in your packet. They are numbered one through probably 30 or 40. But I'm only going to highlight three policies that are critical to our success and support in the district. And if you look at your packet, those are policies number five, six, and seven. And I'm going to ask Cliff Caldwell to come up as these policies deal with um something around the safety of our children um and some of the new federal guidelines that deal with um ICE, law enforcement, enforcement, and things of that nature. >> Good evening, board, superintendent, community. Uh this evening I'm going to touch base on um policy 5540. Previously policy 5540 was one policy. Um it has now been separated into three different policies
033was 5540 5540.01 and 5540.02 2 and the reason for that is um we felt it uh important to specifically touch base on the department of child services and um ICE and other law enforcement agencies how they have to show up when they come to our schools. Um and so basically with the um um 5540 it talks about ICE specifically in that policy. They have to come dressed inconspicuously. They have to check in through our regular visitor policies. They have to check in with the principal. They cannot speak the truly without u administrator present and they cannot um enter into our uh educational area the classroom area if they need to speak with a student. It also talks about u the time frame in which uh parents have to be notified if children do speak and
034uh 5540.01 is similar with department child services talks about how they have to show up to our schools. they have checking through our policy and it also lays out the responsibilities for administrators and 5540.02 02. Um, it's just pretty much a uh talks about the schools and governmental agencies. So, say governmental agencies, those are agencies that have no law enforcement authority. Um, it addresses how they have to show up as well to our schools. Questions? >> Yes. Just a quick question for me in regards to 5540 and 55 401. when uh the representatives of the ICE group uh attends the Immigration Custom Enforcement Group, um it says that they need to speak to a member of the administration. Is there any specific person or can they talk to just anybody or >> weer for it
035to be when they show up to the building the principal or the principal's designate? Um those would be principal or assistant principal, one of those two. Um and definitely uh central office administration will be notified. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Any additional questions from any board members? >> Thank you. Second. [Music] >> So, President Suggs and board members, this is the first reading only. We are required to have two readings before we take something out for vote. So, we will be bringing this back to our next board meeting, these particular set of policy. With that, I turn it back over to you. Thank you, Dr. Stokes. Moving on to item eight on our agenda, administrative report. And I would like to ask Dr. Craig, come up, please. [Music] Good evening, Dr. Stokes, board members,
036and community members. My name is Dr. Ren Craig, and I serve as the director of curriculum and assessment for Gary Community School Corporation. [Music] This evening I am honored to present on behalf of Dr. Treadwell who is our chief academic officer. My focus will be on the supports provided by the academic team to both our staff and our students. The supports that we launched during the start of the 2526 school year. In June the academic team host our leadership institute. We provided four full days of intensive training for our school-based leaders. We focused on areas such as instructional leadership, building and sustaining positive school culture and climate, multi-tiered systems of support, otherwise known as MTSS, behavioral interventions, PPIs strategies, also known as positive behavioral intervention supports, and our new classroom management tool called CHAMPS. CHAMPS
037stands for conversation, help, activity, movement, participation, and success. And what it is, it it is a program that is designed to proactively manage student behavior, create positive and structured classrooms that promote an engaging and uh learning environment. During our summer institute in July, the academic team provided uh the summer institute professional development exclusively for our teachers. Our sessions emphasized tier one instruction, which is instruction for all students, practical instructional strategies, ensuring curriculum alignment and consistency across all grade levels. We also provided curriculum map alignment, shared district lesson plan templates, and introduced champs to our teachers to support proactive classroom management and positive student engagement. On August 4th, all district staff, including our proximity virtual teachers, participated in our professional development, where we gathered at Westside Leadership Academy for a full day of professional development. We
038rolled out our three major curriculum adoptions. Whitten wisdom, which is our new reading curriculum for our kindergarten through fifth grade students. We also rolled out foundations which is our kindergarten through third grade phonics and funding awareness program and prek on my way which is our new program for our prek students. all are fully aligned with the science of reading. And we also introduced the new districts the district's new behavior matrix which was recently presented by our assistant director of curriculum assessment, Miss Adams, at a recent board meeting along with strategies for attendance, McKenna dental supports and launching our parent advisory council called PEC. Uh there there will there is a Thank you for changing my slide. I did not realize I did not change my slide. Thank you. There is a QR code available for
039you on the screen uh for our new parent advisory council. If you have any further questions, you can speak with Miss Crystal Lein who's over on the side. [Music] We provided additional supports on August 5th. August 5th was designated as a teacherdirected day, allowing teachers the autonomy to work on lesson plans, uh collaborate with good grade level peers, create champs, expectations, posters, and prepare classrooms. on August 6th, which was a principal director day where principal le staff meetings, grade level meetings, PLC's with stairs for professional learning communities, uh additional chance training, and a review of the behavior matrix. We also conducted a cadence training, which is our new reading benchmark assessment. On the first day of school and during the first week of school, the district staff gathered. Therefore, the academic team and district office
040staff physically were present at our schools um assisting with morning arrival, lunch supervision, and after school dismissal. If you can see that first picture on the top left, our our uh superintendent Dr. Stokes with boots on the ground at our schools for morning arrival with our students. Um we will we will continue to visit our schools regularly uh providing immediate and constructive feedback, support staff professional growth and ensure operational systems run efficiently all with the goal of increasing student academic achievement. Our ongoing supports will continue um after after the start of the school year as they are continuing to do so now. We will be providing monthly professional development on early release Wednesdays once a month on-site coaching from our curriculum partners um as well as uh professional development from our literacy hydrant coaches. monthly
041leadership professional development for our principles and our assistant principles. And we will also design targeted professional development sessions based on student performance data from our benchmark assessments. I learn checkpoints. I read three scores, PSAT, SAT scores and more. I am going to switch gears now and move on to the second portion of my presentation which is going to discuss uh the awarding of the next gen school improvement grants. Um, it is with great honor, great honor that I am excited to share that Gary Community School Corporation was awarded the NextGen School Improvement Grant, which one of only four, excuse me, which four school districts received and Gary Community School Districts was honored with this particular award. So, I just like to stop and just give a round of applause. This grant represents a new uh
042funding model for the Indiana Department of Education, awarding fewer districts with uh with larger amounts of funding in order to make a bigger impact for our planning year. for our planning year, which is this year 2526. Uh Ger Community School Districts will receive $800,000 to strategically plan initiatives to increase academic achievement and transform our district-wide [Applause] [Music] our application progress was quite rigorous. There were four steps involved in the process. Step one was providing a detailed vision, strategies, and implementation plan with our state approved partner, which is Skyown. Step two, the academic team underwent a formal review for alignment with the Indiana Department of Education goals. Step three involves the academic team participating in an indepth interview with IDOE to discuss our transformation approach. And step four was Gary Community Schools uh school corporation being
043awarded the next generation school improvement grant. [Applause] I would also like to share that 60 school districts applied for this grant and only four districts were awarded this particular grant. The original amount for the funding was $300,000, but thanks to our application and our interview, Gary was awarded $800,000. [Applause] So, let's talk about how the funds will be used. I'm sure that's a question that's on people's minds. During our planning year, which is considered phase one, which is 2526, we will embark upon personalized learning for our students and our staff, creating flexible learning schedules, providing tutoring, differentiated instruction. We will offer leadership development for our school-based leaders, training in the science of reading. We will be visiting high performing schools. We will also engage in a family engagement framework which goes back to PAC the
044parent advisory council and more and we will also provide community engagement strategies. Phase two includes years 2 through 4 and that is based upon the implement I'm sorry excuse me that is based upon the planning year. So based upon the success of our planning year, that will determine whether or not we receive funding anywhere between $3 to $8 million. The same way that we worked very hard and were blessed with the gift of $800,000, we are anticipating and expecting to receive the full funding allotted for this particular grant. So the next step is how you can support this grant. But we we will be having we do have an education transformation team and otherwise known as ETT. Um on this particular team it is made up of the Indiana Department of Education district leaders and
045community stakeholders. Um you will be able to participate by contributing your expertise, participating in planning sessions and focus groups, giving feedback and helping to identify the most pressing student and staff needs. More information will come out soon about the ability to participate within ET. That concludes my report. Are there any questions? >> Dr. Craig, thank you uh for the effort and the work that Dr. Treadwell, yourself, and the team put in uh to get this amazing grant. And I'm just really excited as you went through your deck um correlating the items that are listed in the deck and the items that were discussed in our public comments. It seems that the team is already engaged and proactively looking at the items that were asked for. So, I encourage those here to get involved and participate
046and become members of the ET team so that they can help support this initiative that you all have done an amazing job of collecting more than nearly a million dollars in assistance of a grant. Thank you. Any other comments from board members? >> Congratulations. Thank you very >> Thank you. >> Moving on to item 8.2. Linda Zabarowski financial report please. >> Good evening again school board members and community members. Uh tonight, the first thing I'd like to do before I actually give my financial report is I would like to um talk to you about the property tax and how our property tax is calculated. This was in response to a request from the board at one of our previous board meetings. And I will I will kind of simplify the process just a little bit.
047Um I have a few slides just to show you an an example of how it's calculated. Um so how are the tax calculated? So for instance, the district determines how much money we need to fund our budget. Then the county assessor values all of those properties, businesses, homes, um land. Then the tax rate is determined to to fund the budget. Now, there's a lot more that goes into it. These are just like three overviews of of how the tax rates are calculated. Here is a little bit more detail. So, we have Homestead, which are the homes. We have the property tax rate, which is determined by the local levies set by the city, counties, and schools, libraries, and other local units. The property taxes fund all of the schools, police, fire, roads, libraries. The property
048tax caps, so we are capped on how much we can collect. It's 1%, 2%, 3%. In this example below, the $100,000 value of a home. Now, I did not include any deduction in this. Normally everybody receives receives a homestead deduction and right now it is $48,000 for the year of 25 and the year of 26 and then that will actually go down to $40,000 and then a year after that it'll go to 30,000. So what happens is your home is assessed at $100,000. Typically that deduction will lower that value. Then you receive your calculated tax which is we are capped at 1% as a district for homeowners alone. So if you take that credit plus our tax cap the homeowner will only pay $1,000. Now that $1,000 gets dispersed between the police, the fire, the
049fire fund, the school district, any municipality. So, that's kind of how it works with property taxes. And here's just another overview. The property tax levy is what we've budgeted and is approved by the Department of Local Government. What they are allowing us to budget, what we are allowing to charge and tax the homeowners. Homeowners receive their bill. They also they receive deductions and credits off of their bill. That is the net collections that everybody gets dispersed. All municipalities. [Music] I wanted to touch base on how the operations fund is is um funded by by these property taxes because the operations fund is the fund that receives the least amount of property tax money. So in our budget of 2025, um our certified operating fund levy, what we requested was $31.88 88 million to fund our
050budget with circuit breaker losses. So that's those property tax caps we're talking about. We had to eliminate $22.7 million. So really our net collections for Gary Community Schools would be $9.55 million. Now, that is if we receive all of the tax money. If everybody pays their bills, if they don't pay their bills, we do not receive it. In June, we received our spring dispersement. Our spring dispersment dispersement in the operations fund only was $3.39 million. We will receive another dispersement in December for the operations fund. And all of these figures are from our budget, our 2025 budget that was approved by the Department of Local Government. Any questions on that? I think it's important to note that even if we anticipate that we should with 100% get 9.55 million, we won't necessarily receive that amount.
051and in fact will only receive a 3.39 for the first half of the year. That is correct. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Um just a couple questions. >> Sure. Um, is it anticipated that the second um, >> amount is going to be similar to the first or does that >> it it I believe it will typically be a little bit less than what this amount is because you you know it's 2024 taxes dispersed in 2025 and normally I requested an early tax draw in May and then the remainder of that in June. I will request an early tax draw to get whatever revenue we possibly can in house in November and then the remainder of the taxes in December. >> Any Well, first of all, thank you for being responsive to the questions
052that was asked by myself and fellow board members of further explanation in regards to the property tax fund and our operations. It's much appreciated to share how it actually works. um this indication of the 9.55 million um well first of all the budget what does that do what's the correlation to what is collected or what should have been collected and what we actually need to operate >> what what happens with that is when the department of local government approves our budget they also look at our cash operating balances so even if we don't collect the 9.55 the actual fund as long as they have a cash balance can cover the remainder of that needed. [Music] >> Thank any questions additional questions for members. So this slide is in regards to Senate Enrolled Act One, which
053is a property um it's it's a it's a property allowance for homeowners pretty much. Um we have to start sharing with the charter schools. [Music] Um so how they determined this and um in your packet there is uh a memo from the director um from IDOE um in regards to this. I received a memo about this August 1st. How they based this incremental levy that we have to share with the charter schools is they took our base they took our levy from 2021 levy from 2022 and 2023 and they came up with an average. This is currently our incremental levy. They subtracted it from our current levy in 2024. So in a whole Gary community schools based on our ADM count receives 44.89% of the incremental levy ADM explain correct average daily membership. Thank you.
054The charter schools receive 55.11% which is 2.4 million. We have 11 uh charter schools in our district. So the funds are redirected on student enrollment. At the end of 2025, if there is any money collected and the charter schools have not fulfilled any legislative responsibilities um provided to the department of local government, we will receive that excess of funds if they have not complied. You know, there's certain public hearings they have to have. There was there's certain things that they have to do. They have to get an approved budget. So they have to provide all of that information. >> Please clarify the 11 charter schools engaged in our district because obviously we're not talking about the city of the area. >> We are not. So currently the way the legislative was written is that we
055share with all Lake County charter schools, but so do all the other districts. um that will end in 2028 and we will only have to share with charter schools within our district which I believe is five. >> Thank you. [Music] >> Um I did this just was this was just released um at the beginning of August. This is our 2025 estimated circuit breaker report. This report is very valuable valuable because this will help me in providing um the 2026 budget and where we're looking at um funding and property tax caps and credits and money we will pay to the charter schools. So, if you look at our operations fund, this is kind of where I wanted us to kind of target the charter school property tax adjustment, which is the $1.3 million. That is the
056portion we have to share with the charter schools. So, they have already deducted this amount from our June dispersement. If I would have had this June dispersement and not had to share, I would have been able to make all the debt and common school payments. But what I had to do, and I have that in in my financial slide, I had to borrow from the operations fund in order to pay the debt uh loans and the counts of $728,000. The other thing I wanted to point out is the examination of records that that minus that credit is from state board of accounts when they audited the 2022 2024. Um they were here they left in I believe February. Um they automatically deduct that from our property tax. It's the cost of their service. Correct. >>
057Yes. All right, now we are leading into the actual financials. So again, this is my overview of our um three major funds. Um as you can see in the education fund in June, and I'll just look at June. Um we received in June uh 2,755,000 in the education fund. Now, the education fund does not receive any property taxes. It is exempt. Uh the referendum fund, which every month we transfer $100,000 um from the referendum fund into the education fund to support teacher salaries, benefits. We transfer 700,000 into the operations fund to help fund that fund to keep our buildings upkeep for our security for our athletics and transportation costs. [Music] The operations fund, you'll notice the transfer amount in the operations fund. This was where I had to make that transfer um into um debt
058service in order to pay our bond payments. Any questions? As you can see, our total major funds we are still holding. Um, it's the end of June. We've finished the form 9. We've submitted all of our financials. Um, our form 9 has been approved. Um, we still have 50% of our budget left. >> And then here's just a breakdown of our education fund. In June, we started out with a cash balance of 20 million. And um this is where you'll see we receded uh the common school loans. So what happens is with the common school loans, they thee deducts the common school loans from our basic grant money from our state aid. And then what we have to do is we have to pay back the education fund. So that's what that's why you see
059this receipt of the 3 million 396 because we have to pay it back. [Music] This is not legible to us. Excuse me for interrupting report. What's the point? >> Moving forward, we will try to do better to provide something that you can see even if it's in a tangible paper form. Please continue. >> Um, so the education fund at the end of June has a cash balance, I'm so sorry, has a cash balance of uh 22,949,000. And then here is just kind of a snapshot of pie chart of the expenses for every month, the remainder of the budget, the percentage, and the total budget amount. And then here are year-to- date expenses in the very specific categories. And then we move on to the operations fund. In June, we began with a cash balance of
0607,553,000. We had the transfer in from remember the referendum the 700,000 into the operations fund to help support um the buildings um security um things of that nature and our expenses totaled uh 2,721,000 which leaves us with a cash balance at the end of June of 8,223,000. [Music] And then here is just a pie chart and an overview of the operations fund. The expenses, our total budget that was approved was 21,939,000. [Music] And then we have the debt fund. So this is where and the reason I I put this up, I did not do a pie chart of this. Right now we have a balance of zero in there. And that is because I had to transfer the money from the operations fund into the referendum into the debt fund in order to pay back
061debt. [Music] And then here's the referendum fund. Now, the referendum fund receives healthy uh tax property tax. Um and you can see that the transfer out was the 800,000. and we we're leaving June with a cash balance of 6,183,000 [Music] here. Um here is a comprehensive financial analysis um that our board has requested. Um he kind of um they kind of wanted to see what were our revenue, what was our expenses from our previous years. So, in 2022, I've listed what our revenue and what our dispersements are, and I it is kind of small. Um, but I also wanted to make sure I projected out um through 2031 with the effects of Senate Enrolled Act One. So based on this legislation, we are we will assume that the referendum will pass in 2028, which starts
062in 2029 in this projected sheet. This includes no reductions to annual expenditures. So we would spend just as we are right now. As you can see, we would be left with 14 million. You can see the education fund is in I know it's a little the colors maybe are a little different. Um education fund operations fund is in the light blue. The operating referendum is in the yellow. So this chart is the projection out to 2030 with the assumption that the referendum passes. Correct. So we need to make sure we understand that fact. That's an assumption that it masks. If it does not, you'll show us something. Yes, I will. >> Additionally, it also assumes that the ADM >> hold does it assume the portion in 28 that will have to go then to the
063charter schools? >> That is correct. So, so in this actually I have some notes. So, we would assume in this that 3% increase in operating costs, increase in salaries and wages, insurance increase of 10% and the utility increase because of NIPCO at 17%. [Music] Dr. Stokes has already started her reduction plan and this actually shows it us a reduction in 3.1 million in reduction in expenditures um beginning in the 2027 calendar year. And keep in mind these are calendar year numbers. So you'll see that if we if we start this reduction we will be left with a a bigger cash balance in our funds. So let me speak to that for just a moment. Um, you know, we know first and foremost that schools exist to support children and that's what we are about is
064making sure that our students can grow academically and we've done everything we can to make sure that they have they their older right to grow academically. But to do that, we also need to have an operational budget that's sustainable and healthy and operations. What sometimes I think we don't consider is that we're paying for buildings and grounds. And let's just all be honest, we've got aging buildings. Uh we're paying for our maintenance staff. We're paying for transportation. We're paying for those things that cannot be paid out of the education fund which primarily supports anything directly influencing the students like our wonderful teachers. So with that being said, even though we're trying to reduce and so far we've been able to reduce through attrition if someone leaves, we try to, you know, reertify, recommmit that position
065in a way that we're not negatively impacting or if we can move somebody around. We've been able to do that thus far. That won't always be the case. But what I am saying is there comes a point where you can only reduce your maintenance staff, for example, by so many people. because if you reduce too much, you have what's called human overload. And we have to be able to have people to maintain our aging buildings. With that being said, I don't want anybody to think we're just letting people go. We've been blessed so far, but we're only impacting the operations fund because that's where this major impact is. And then the next slide is if the referendum does not pass in 2029 and this still includes the 3.1 reduction to the annual expenses. So as
066you can see our cash balance in our funds would be $12 million. Any questions? [Music] So what we want the board to know with this presentation is we want to be able to show as you asked for board members and Mr. SS president you asked us to kind of give you something with the past which is why we've got 2022 moving forward and a projection but there are so many things at play. Do we win the referendum? Don't we win the referendum? We now have Senate Enroll Act One which says that we have to share money. So, we're trying to project some scenarios of what things could look like, but we're also being good stewards of our money and we have already begun to reduce in our operations, but as I've said, we can only
067reduce so far at some point you have to have staff. One thing that I don't think um many people know is that Gary Community Schools, as do other public schools, we do more than just support Gary Community Schools. Linda, can you share about how we support the parochials? >> Yes. We are the LEA for all the um other schools within our district and I believe there are 12 of them I believe. I could be wrong on the number. Um, so what we do in our office, we collect their money, we process all of the paperwork, we order their supplies, we do everything to support the other schools within our district, >> the parochial school. >> The parochial. Correct. Yes. Yes. The parochial schools. And I only have you explained that to say it that we
068do have to have human capital because I think sometimes there's a misnomer that we might be topheavy, but we're not. There's a lot of work that's required from a public school and you need human capital to support that work. You do. >> Mrs. Zroski, I just want to thank you for taking the question on and bringing it back and really breaking it down into terms that even I can kind of digest and that's with Dr. Sto's holding my hand on this. But it is the information that we need to know because we have some challenges and some really um difficult conversations to have internally and I want to thank you for the foresight of sharing this with us. I want to take thank you Dr. Stokes for the foresight of making some difficult decisions. >>
069And um I want to uh also thank you for putting this presentation up on the screens. But as as it was said um when we have this type of detail, we should have handouts so that we can share and give individuals an opportunity to take this home and digest it and ask those questions so that uh we're very transparent with this information. I don't know if any other comments from board members. Please feel free to share. >> I just I just want to thank you for putting this together. This is a lot of information to digest and school funding is not the easiest thing to understand >> and I'm still learning too. >> They keep changing things on us. >> Changes, right? Right. And >> so u definitely appreciate your work on this. >> Thank
070you. And we want to um of course make sure that we support our community. We do want them to be able to see it. We will do better community. We will put this out for you. But I do want to remind our community for those of you who are technologically savvy, please go to our board docs because this information after a board meeting like 48 hours later won't be on board docs so that you can review it. But we will make it available for those of you who need to pay for. I have one more slide. I I I wanted to just bring this to the forefront just so you all can see the debt that we have and what is common school loan debt, what is general obligation bonds, first mortgage bonds. So, I've
071just kind of laid it out. Um, as you can see, in 2025, 2026, we will have a little bit over $10 million. Then we will have some debt that will fall off in 2027 and then in 2028. So I just kind of wanted to give you an overview of the debt situation. Great. >> Thank you. >> Item number nine on our agenda, boards communications. This is the opportunity for individual board members to make comments uh to the uh individuals in attendance. I'd like to open the floor for board member comments. [Music] I I certainly want to start. Um I'm sorry, Mr. Johnson. Mic is on. >> Oh, yeah. Um, well, first of all, I'd like to say welcome to Attorney Rocket. >> Thank you. >> I hope you enjoyed your first meeting. >> I did.
072>> Uh, and then I I again want to give kudos to uh Mr. Smooth. I want to thank him for his all the things that he's doing and um you know I definitely um appreciate his hard work and his his dedication to the city and here to our students and so again I just want to thank you for that and so um and then um Dr. Craig, thank you very much for uh that information that you shared and uh I definitely look forward to um you know seeing how much more we can get in in that grant funding and and that that goes a long way to kind of help offset some of the bad news that Rosski has to share with us. and and I definitely appreciate Mosi for her hard work because it
073school funding is especially in this state uh it's actually nationally it's becoming a treacherous name for public schools and definitely appreciate your work. >> That's all I have Mr. President. >> Thank you >> Mr. President. Yes, I may just make a comment. I know that Miss Zabaroski mentioned about all the changes that happened around finances, but I also want to say that I want to applaud the team for just always being aware and on top of the legislative changes that relate to policies that school districts are have to abide by and that is not an easy task to remain in compliance. And I've seen it because there are so many policies. But and the thing to remember is that most of the policies are very prescriptive. But when there's an opportunity to have a selection
074to make a choice, I noticed that the team puts a lot of thought and deliberation into making the right choice that would impact our schools, our school, the Gary Community School Corporation, in a very positive way. So I want to say thank you for that. I also want to recognize Miss Chelsea Whittington, who most of us probably already know she will be receiving an award uh with the Legacy Foundation for all of the good work she does here and in the community. [Applause] We are proud >> sorry I said legacy YWCA but thank you so much for that. Um you know she's always out there she's always doing good work and so we appreciate the work that you do. Thank you. That was our other legacy down there. >> I I want to go on
075on record of thanking everyone for the engagement tonight. I want to thank the community members for the engagement. I want to take thank the staff and the leadership of Dr. Stokes and her team. Dr. Stokes came in here a little bit over a year ago and said it takes you, it takes me, it takes all of us. And this is an example of where it's going to take all of us to uh continue to move forward and do what we're here to do and that is to give our students the academic background to be have a successful future. And I encourage the public again to take advantage of the educational transformation team and look for the opportunity when announced um to get engaged and participate um in that opportunity. Um I I want to take
076a moment and talk to Attorney. I can't see her, but I'm going to talk as if I do. Attorney Tolbert, um you know, at this time of the year, based on our contract with Dr. Stokes, the board was supposed to uh renew uh we actually review her performance over the year and um there needs to be an action taken. Um is there a proper time? It can actually be done now during your board um reports. So um I believe that Dr. Woods was u ready to make a recommendation. >> Thank you. I appreciate the lifeline. >> Thank you. I was just trying to figure out when you might address that issue because we're getting close to closing time. But I just want to say that I would like to make a recommendation that Dr. Stokes
077receive the incentive that has been outlined in her employment agreement. Um we all felt that she's done an outstanding job over this past year to kind of get the school ready and getting um all of the programs and staff in line bringing on her great team. And she and we are very pleased with the job that she's done generally. And so I'd like to make a recommendation that we award her or present her with that incentive as identified in her contract. >> There is a motion on the floor. I'll entertain a second. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Any discussion on this motion? I I certainly want to start out. This has been an amazing school year. >> Yes. I mean, we went from three cut t tornado touchdowns to fixing a
078school roof to uh HVAC systems failing. And we are still here and we're still moving forward and we're moving forward as a team. As Dr. Stokes said again, it's you, me, it's all of us. And I want to thank the members of the team. I want to thank the members of the community for your engagement. And as I shared um just a little bit a year ago when this board was brought on, feedback's a gift. And so I don't need you to agree. I need you to share. And just because you don't get comments and everything on your comments, it's not because I'm not listening. But I will certainly take the appropriate time to ask questions when I need to. But I encourage you to continue to participate, support, challenge, and um somehow we're going
079to make this thing an opportunity for folks to look at Gary Community Schools and say, "Wow, how did they do that?" So, thank you for being here, and that's my comment in support of Dr. Stokes and the team that she's pushing forward. Any other comments? >> Chairman Stokes, if you don't mind, I would like to um reference areas that you all evaluated. >> Thank you. >> Contract I'm trying to pull up here. So, if you could just give me a second if there are any other board members that want to comment what I'm looking for. [Music] I do have a comment. It's not necessarily related if that's okay, Attorney Tober. But I do want to say while we're recognizing um Chelsea, we also want to recognize Attorney Tober. She is also getting an award from
080the YW.CA as well. So, one thing about this bishop, we just we don't have one superstar. We have many. And so, we definitely appreciate everything that you've done and what Chelsea has done as well. So, congratulations. >> Thank you. I appreciate taking a minute from my phone to load up >> the items. Um, attorney Tolbert is the enrollment of the school, the the maintain and support of our financial and the last increase our academic performances. There you go. >> Those are the items that we had chose within the contract to address and those are the items that we are supporting and um measuring at this moment. >> Thank you. >> So with that being the case, I guess we'll now take a vote. >> Thank you, sir. >> All right. Dr. Woods, >> yes. >>
081Mr. Johnson, >> yes. Attorney Lockett, >> that took no pardon evaluation on those things. >> I say yes and President Suds >> yes. >> All right. The vote is 4 to zero with one abstension. >> With a vote of four yes, zero against, and one abstension, the motion carries. And I would heartedly say congratulations Dr. Stokes. And I just want to let you know the bar is higher next year. I'm happy, but I'm not satisfied. >> I understand. >> Um, at this point, we'd like to go on to superintendence. >> Thank you so much. >> Support. >> Well, thank you, Gord. I appreciate it. You know, there it is a lot of work and our goal remains steadfast. We exist to support children and I I won't be apologetic for trying to support the academic
082outcomes for our students. They deserve it. They deserve to be able to graduate with a diploma that means a lot so that they can have their choice of any one of the four E that they want and I won't shy away from that fact. With that being said, I do want to um welcome our new board member and thank you for she was there on our first day. Attorney Locket, welcome aboard and and we we'll support you with making sure you understand your packet and everything. But thank you very much for showing up and um supporting us in our first day activities. I also want to go on and talk about some matters of corporation interest Crystal. Um I want to remind us about the open houses. So if you can see on the screen,
083and I hope it's large enough for us to read, you see that Tuesday, August the 26, we have the elementary and prek through 5 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. we have open houses at each of the schools. And then our secondary will have their open houses which is 6th through 12th grade. So middle and high Thursday, August 28th and that's 3:45 to 5:00 p.m. So I wanted to talk about that a little bit. And then our next slide, I wanted to reference this whole free college scholarship fair which is occurring Thursday, September 25th from 9 to 12. And I do want to go on reference saying I want us as a community to know something about our children. Do you all know that our children are brilliant? I don't want to sell them short. They
084are brilliant. There is so much that our students are capable of doing. Sometimes I think I cringe when we say they can't do certain things. They are brilliant. And when I tell you we were able to offer a physics class this year that we've not been able to offer in many, many years. And you should see those brilliant scholars in there. And why not? Why not? And I don't say this what I'm getting ready to say to brag. I'm saying this for a reason and you'll understand why. In 2018, I won the governor's award for education for what I tried to do in my professional life to support academic increase increases among our students. And I will tell you for me this is not a job. This is a calling. There's a visceral reaction in
085my body when I think that students aren't being done right. They need to survive. Our students are more brilliant than what we think they are. They are capable. You know how they say if you if you you set the bar high, they will rise to it. We are trying to make sure that we show up and show out on behalf of students. And we realize that there's no oneizefits-all. We agree on that. We realize that the best path forward is to have a face-to-face teacher. And we are trying to do that. But please know that we care about our scholars and we are trying to do something to elevate their academic outcomes. And with that, I give it back over to our board president. >> Thank you, Dr. Stokes. And I am just totally supportive
086of your passion and engagement and thank you for that. At this point, I will entertain a motion from the board for a German. >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? The meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for your participation.