001is okay. I hereby call to order the work session of the board of school commissioners for Tuesday, March 10th, 2026. Would you please stand and join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Before we get started, I note that we have language translation services available upon request at our agenda review and action session. >> We are here this evening for a March work session to begin. Miss Shane, would you please call the role? >> Commissioner, >> present. >> Commissioner Moore, >> Commissioner Thomas, >> Commissioner Thompson, >> present. Secretary Pres >> with that we'll move on to section two of the agenda. Do any commissioners have any opening comments
002that they would like to share. Commissioner, good evening. I come before you tonight with a clear and resolute spirit. Effective March 20th, effective March 2nd, 2026, I vacated my seat as secretary of the board of commissioners. Furthermore, I am announcing my intent to depart board service effective on Friday, March the 13th, due to ongoing health challenges. As many of you know, my journey with IPS has been both personal and professional, starting way back when I was a kindergarten student. I am a proud IPS graduate and a former teacher for the district. My commitment to public education is not tied to a specific identity, zip code, or a niche program. It is rooted in the fundamental belief that our school system is the most vital public institution that we have. I view public education as an
003institution meant to serve the common good. This belief guided my first tenure on the board from 2012 to 2016 and it has continued to guide my framing during the second term. Every time I walk down the hallway on the way leading to the boardroom, I pause and and look at the photographs of the leaders that have come before me, the superintendent and the various configurations of this board. and it causes me to reflect on the importance of this role. Throughout its 173year existence, if Indianapolis public schools has faced significant systemic challenges, I'm deeply proud of my contributions to fighting against those challenges on behalf of our students and families over the past decade and a half, both in the state and as a community member. My focus has remained steadfast protecting the integrity of our
004public district and ensuring that the resources intended for our children are used to strengthen our community governed schools. However, we must be honest about the current moment. We are witnessing an unprecedented and coordinated assault on the very idea of the public in public education. Whether through the mechanisms of House Bill 1423, the overreach of the IPC, or the systemic seizing of IPS assets, the goal is the same. The erosion of local democratic control in favor of private interests. These buildings, these lands, and these resources were bought and paid for by the taxpayers of Indianapolis over decades. They are not surplus commodities to be auctioned off. They are the physical infrastructure of our community's future. To see these assets stripped away under the guise of choice is a betrayal of the generations of families who built
005this district. The privatization of public schools, the slow, calculated dismantling of a unified district into a fragmented market is not a reform. It is a displacement of the public's voice. It replaces a board of elected representatives with private entities that are not accountable to the voters of this city. I have never wavered in my stance that a strong publicly led IPS is the only way to ensure true equity for the families of Indianapolis. We cannot achieve equity through fragmentation and we cannot achieve justice by handing over public wealth to private means. The responsibility of this office is immense and providing our families with the high level advocacy required to fight these battles requires a capacity that my current health simply cannot sustain at this time. While I'm stepping back from this day to prioritize my
006well-being, my eyes remain on the horizon of what our schools can and must be. To my fellow board members, I urge you to remain vigilant. Do not be welled into complacency by the langage of partnership when it results in the loss of public property and public oversight. You are the stewards of a 173y old promise. Hold the boom. To the parents, educators, and community advocates who are in the trenches every day. Thank you for your partnership. Though I am vacating the seat, I am not vacating the fight. I look forward to continuing my support for IPS and for the preservation of truly public education as a private citizen and a neighbor. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Moving on to item 2.02. I would like to mention that we continue to accept written public
007comments through our online portal. The written public comment portal is available under the schoolboard tab at myipsip.org and will remain open till 400 pm on March 26. At this time, we have not received any written public comments. It is my understanding that we have not had anyone sign up to provide public comment. Is there anyone present who believes they have registered and signed up to speak? If so, please state your name for the record and provide your comment. Commissioner I don't see a place to contest the agenda. Um I would like to make a motion to contest the agenda as it is and offer to suspend the election of secretary until the role is filled. The vacant role is filled. So, we've received a motion to contest the agenda. Is there a second? >> All
008in favor? >> Was that a clear vote? >> I'm sorry. Let's I'm sorry. You Let's start here and do a roll call. Thank you so much. >> We'll just go. >> I'm sorry. >> We're going to instead of I we're going to roll call the vote to contest >> so that each person can vote individually. >> Yes. Excuse me. I have a motion. Point clarity. There's a motion to contest the agenda. There's also a motion. The change in the agenda would be the voting. Those are two different motions. And so I want to make sure we know we're saying yes or no. >> Okay. We have a motion to contest the agenda. We have a second. We didn't have any discussion, >> but the question you asked was around It wasn't clear the question. So
009before we take a vote, I want to make sure everyone understands the question we're answering right now and that's the contest agenda. >> Are we all in favor? We're asking if we're all in favor to contest the agenda. Is that clear? >> No. >> Yes. No. >> No. So, we've had a motion. We had a second. We've had a vote. The vote did not carry. Motion did not carry. Moving on to item 3.01. I would like to acknowledge Commissioner Pasby's announcement and formally accept her resignation from the role of board secretary. Commissioner Pasby, you have been a tireless champion for our community and your presence on the board will be deeply missed. On behalf of the board, I want to thank you for your dedication to our students, families, and staff, and for the future
010of public education in Indianapolis. We wish you the very best as you focus on your health and well-being. Now, due to this vacancy and per board policy, we are required to fill a position within 30 days. At this time, any commissioner being considered for board secretary should announce such interest. I'd like to be considered secretary. I'd like to nominate the list for secretary. >> I accept the nomination. >> President, I would like to make another motion. We have I am clear um based on our actions and our statements of what we have done. Uh Dr. counc her notes tonight that she vacated secretary on the 2nd. We received calls after that identifying her as secretary. Those dates are in conflict. And so um I also do not um believe that we since we all don't
011have the same message and we don't all have the same notice of date. I would ask that either we wait until the seat is vacated or we feel the seat I mean we we do the nomination based on what was practiced and that was not on the second I received a call as of last week stating I'm speaking to the president twice in the secretary. So at least for that day or every day we have truly stopped the work because that did not happen based on her letter or our actions. And so that is that is a a a error misstep if we did that then less at least for me >> and I understand that um it was a misstep for to call her secretary however she's still a commissioner >> but if the
012seat based on what we just said was vacated on the second then that should not that should vice president or somebody else doing that work because you told me the secretary I'm happy to provide copies of the email that I provided to the full board announcing that I vacated the seat effective March 2nd. However, I would like to address the board secretary at this time. There are only certain motions that can interrupt the flow of a motion that's already on the floor. Nominations have been made. Nominations have been accepted. This is not a motion that should interrupt the vote being taken. Um, thank you, Commissioner Moore, for your sharing your concerns. Um, we're going to move forward in our in the process of electing the secretary tonight so we can move the board's work forward.
013Um, Commissioner Thompson and Commissioner M. Pink have expressed interest in serving as force secretary in 2026. I'll now call the role for the election of secretary. >> Commissioner Mink. >> Commissioner Ming. >> Commissioner Moore. >> Commissioner Thomas. >> Commissioner Thompson. >> Commissioner Cosby. Commissioner M. Pink, Commissioner Perry, Commissioner Pink, and Commissioner Star. Commissioner M. Pink. Commissioner Mink has been elected to serve secretary of the board for the term March 10th through December 31st, 2026. Congratulations, Commissioner M. Pink. Look forward to working with you. Now on to section four. I'll turn the agenda over to Superintendent Johnson to introduce the work session items. Good evening, commissioners. Uh we have two items this evening for discussion. Item 4.01 uh is our postsecary readiness update. So would love to invite Mel Corel and members of her team to
014talk um the continuation of our conversation around graduation seals. Tonight we're going to focus on employment and enlistment. So welcome to the team. >> All right. Can you hear me now? Yeah. Good evening, commissioners. Thank you for um for your time this evening. I am El Coral, executive director of postsecondary readiness. Happy to be here to talk about um some of our to update about some of our work and also to dig into the employment and enlistment seals. Um before we do that, a couple of great metrics that we've recently um learned that I'd love to share are that 80% of our over 80% of our eighth grade students in the district advantage schools uh will complete high school credit this year. So that is a significant shift over what we've seen in past years
015and largely a result of the work that we've done through rebuilding stronger. And the other again not on these slides update because this is hot off the presses um is that we will earn over our students will earn over 9,000 college credits as a district manage high schools this year from their AP ID and dual credit source. So happy to be here just uh in that context and now we'll dig into employment and enlistment. We'll be looking at our why. We'll get through that briefly. You've heard that before, but we always want to center around our why. And then digging into employment skills, work based learning, workbased learning and action, and the enlistment seals. Here with me today are Jenny Barry, our CTE pathway director, and Matt M, our director of Army instruction. You'll hear
016more from them very soon. And as a reminder, we ground all of our work in an IPS student experience that helps all students to pursue and achieve their fulfilling life that they choose for themselves. And uh we hope they will do this through growing as thinkers, caring humans, communicators who are balanced and reflective. And our goal in the PSR team again is that fulfilling life of choice for our students. We know from looking at the workforce data around the country that when they have a credential or a college or college credit or something beyond their high school education, they will be more likely to uh be successful by many measures. So we aim for that for our students. And then finally, we support them in identifying their e enrollment employment as they approach graduation so
017that we know they have a clear next step that will get them ahead. just a lovely photo of some of our students and I'll give you an agenda so you can talk about workbased learning. >> Thank you Mel. It is great to be here with you all this evening. So we have been very focused on workbased learning over the past seven years since I've uh committed to this role as a CT pathway director and um really over the past few years have dedicated workbased learning coordinators and all of our district managed buildings um to ensure that students have access to the continuum of work based learning and we talked about the continual we're talking about opportunities to explore various u various activities to engage then also to immerse to really do those immersive experiences where
018students can apply what they learn um in their classroom into some practical uh workplace setting. Um and we've made some great games um in this area. Students are participating in these activities and we're seeing more more of our students complete immersive activities um through their CT pathways. So when we talk about workace learning and this is important because we know that with the new requirements uh one of the one of the the emphasis on the in the diploma is that work based learning um we know that um you know things are changing a bit that the state is defining workbased learning as the following and the criteria that they're seeking in these experiences include sustained interactions. So really what this state is saying here is we want we want these interactions to be at least
01925 hours minimum um but can go up to as many as 650 hours. We're also looking at experiences that can take place on either a school campus or at an external site. Um which is important as well because and these experience can be paid, they can be unpaid but we know that there just isn't enough external placements where we could students. So being able to embed learning as part of our pathways will really help more students have access to that uh experience must also include student training plans which are tied to individualized goals and outcomes for that experience is as well as a partnership agreement from either an organization or an employer who's active in the industry. So you see those that criteria here and this is something that my team has been working to
020really appropriate as part of our work based learning program. So, here are some examples of what work learning is, what counts, and uh we'll get into these. We'll dive a little deeper in to each of these, but as I said, some of these are things that are already doing and we're embedding as part of a CTE pathway. Some of them are new and include things like an academic internship. And this really applies to student who to a student who might not be doing a CT pathway but still wants to get that enrollment um plus and again we're really looking at across all of our seals in that employment and enrollment space. We know that we need to have a plan in place uh for students to be able to engage and experience these activities whatever
021their choice is and whatever their whatever school that they they choose to go to. So we've been working really intentionally with our schools to determine what this could look like um either in an embedded or in an external um way. So currently um some of the things that we offer based learning includes the schoolbased enterprise. So this would be a studentrun uh operation and one of those programs that we have um is right on Arsenal Tech or Colonel's covered which is part of our culinary arts program. We also have our cosmetology pathway that includes our salon 212. Those hours would count towards any diplomacy. Workplace sim simulations are also another way similar to a schoolbased enterprise but really allow students to experience a range of different opportunities within that particular pathway. So they might be
022doing simulations or scenarios um that they they would they would be able to count towards those work hours. We also have micro internships. So these are really critical for that student who may want to do an experience during the summer or even over breaks. And again, as long as they meet that 25 hour requirement, you can count those experiences toward towards those diploma skills. Academic internships are also something for students who maybe maybe they're not connected to a pathway, but they're really interested in in science or biology and they can partner up with a an industry partner uh like a next tech or a ro and do a um an academic internship. Again, those can be paid or unpaid. We also have a technical internship and um the way we currently this one out now
023is through our our healthcare specialist or pre- nursing pathway. So that those experiences are embedded right into the pathway. We take our students during the school day to their clinical site and they get an a total of 75 hours for that clinical experience. Industry develop team challenge. So this is uh this is a little new and it however is something that we've incorporated. If any of you have ever attended one of our VEX robotics competitions through our Arsenal tech robotics team that's a great example of a of a industry or industry developed team challenge because VEX is our partner and our students get an opportunity to prepare for but then also compete against other teams and so those types of hours would come to a towards those diploma skills. And then of course our modern
024youth apprentichip which is transitioning a little bit to um to INCAP which will be the Indiana career apprenticeship program. But we have had several students um participate over the the past several years in our modern apprentichip. Again, those are very um those are those are great opportunities but take a lot of planning because of course we are looking at several years of commitment for that type of experience. Biggest barrier not going to lie is transportation. Um but this is something that we have been able to um to leverage some of the resources that we have to support the programs that require. Um but not all programs do again um we do a lot with workbased learning that can be embedded in our programs and really try to you know help our our schools see and
025envision how that how that can happen how that can take place. Uh but we do provide um transportation to all our students who are in um our preceding program and our medical assisting pathways. We also have had some students through the moderating apprentichip program be able to use career scholarship accounts and there is some funding in um through that that they can use towards transportation as well. We also have a new provider called hot drive which has been amazing um this year and supporting our students. I have one student or even two or three or four that can pull together. we can use drive to support um those uh those students to and from their place of employment or to school or even back to their home. And then Ever Driven for students who qualify,
026we have that as well. Let me do just a couple of examples here for you. Um we do have a current student. This is this is a the picture is in him but this the narrative is but Nehemiah is working um at through the modern apprentichip at the Indianapolis Spirit Port Authority and he has just been doing a really great job. This is his second year and he is a welding student a senior um in the welding program over at Arsenal Tech um at the India Spirit Authority. He works as a technician and is working towards his um 608 license which is an EPA technician certification. Um and in December he just started working on the ear field helping to direct uh traffic which is really cool. And then our second student I want to
027highlight is Marari. She is a graduate 2025 graduate graduate from art tech through the um the early childhood education pathway. Last year she spent a lot of her senior year at Shepard Community Center uh doing an apprentichip, a registered apprentichip through the Department of Labor um that earned her certified or her um child development associate credential and is now working in the field. I do have a few links here. I I don't know if there's Okay, perfect. Um, you're welcome to choose one of those. Yeah. This is Barb from the fellowship. My favorite part about the modern apprenticeship program will be the different connections I have made over the last two years. I love it a lot. I have learned that the people I work with really care about me while having my become more
028of a leader in a lot of aspects. I do know she needs help in anything she comes to me. So I do love having the program coming into the modern practitioner program. I was a little nervous because I have trouble communicating with like new people. So I knew what I would have to do that with colleagues and supervisors but those beliefs have changed. I feel like the program has really strengthened my communication abilities. >> We have them for 4 years and then we elevate them out into their next post secondary endeavor. So the opportunities that we can provide them while they're in high school that helps them with their professional experience and career experience is very important. >> Being a part of the program has changed one thing about my life. I do want to
029dip my toes more into data now, which I think I enjoy a lot. I've developed a lot of skills and abilities I can use throughout future careers. And even if I don't go with accounting, I can still use this information for any career that I would like to do in the future. when this internship first started, we chose him. But I think during the two years prior and now even going into year three where he's now at Indiana University, um I think somewhere along the way and you corrected is somewhere along the way he chose us. >> Oh yeah. And I've never been more proud of a young man outside of myself because um you saw somebody come in with all the potential um that there is um and through you know guidance and exposure
030and drive and determination he's here at Indiana University kind of taking that next step. And I say this as as an organization that may not be a program of what we do, but that's the heart of who we are um as an organization, but more importantly, there are so many experts out there that we get a chance to serve and mentor and impact every single day as mentors. So, um it's been an honor and joy. He's been not as an intern or 100 or a mentee. Um he's staff, he's family, and he is just um tremendous. >> Honestly, they having these programs for other students or you know, other kids, other students. It's not what they do within the program like me being on the back end being staff and also being the mentee, but
031it's actual it's it's an actual internship. I just seen how their heart truly works, you know, like just being around and knowing that like they're there for the children, they're there for the kids. I seen that like I just seen it like front face on so many experiences. Like for instance, we had a um a high five rally at the school opening like they're there. They getting out their sleep just to come high five kids and like get them prepared and excited about school. Like it's just so many experiences and that I have with them that just show like their true hearts. So I just feel like everybody should whether you're do or whether you want to put your kid inside of the program. I definitely feel like it's a good return because the mentoring
032impact now makes a difference. But the mentoring impact over a lifetime that's what's going to change um our community and hopefully change their lives as mentees and as well us um as mentors to be able to see the success. mentoring is 100 way across lifetime. as a mentor and an uncle um and as a representative I understand you you embody the model of what they see what they mean because you took exposure and you made it strong and you know I couldn't be more proud of you know the brother couldn't be more proud of you um but more importantly I hope you know that you should be proud of >> you Honestly, I wouldn't be where I wouldn't be here. They don't like to take that credit, but I wouldn't be here. Craig, Joseph, Kelly,
033everybody else that works with 100, everybody. Oh, thank you for joining. >> But yeah, um really excited to see some of the some of the things we've been able to do for the modern apprentichip program. Our little sisters were Marjgery Washington. Uh Jania did her friendship with IPS to be able to have IPS as well as helping students find you know find find their voice. Okay. And then I think I just have a few more things here. Just uh work learning in action. We did a few um these are just some highlights from the first um semester that we did. Um we have uh over 400 students doing some sort of immersive replacement this year. So it's been great to see the growth there. Um we continue to work with JK on many events including
034job spark but also our career discovery meetings and career fairs. Uh we're working a lot to do more with um some of our industry partners who want to you know work with us to provide some more um opportunities for our students as well. So it's been great to see that growth and that uh that connection to uh industry, our students. And I'm going to turn it over to Mel to talk a little bit more about what we're doing next. So, you've heard me talk about you heard Jenny talk about the need to expand um we need to be at scale for our students um beginning the school year after next. That's when the students who have those new graduation requirements will be juniors. That's when they'll be ready to do this experience. So what you're
035seeing now is the first steps towards that fully flushed out um model of workbased learning. So um we're headed into a landscape review to see um what the needs are, what the demands are. We'll hear from families, we'll hear from students, we'll hear from um folks who work in schools uh about what some of the barriers are, what people want for themselves and their children, and we'll let that guide how we build out these experiences. Um and we're also as I said working to build out that graduation seal um requirement landscape so that again all students will have access to work based learning if they they would like it. And we keep saying we need to engage that full continuum from students who will get their work based learning in classroom through a simulation or
036a challenge or entrepreneurship opportunity um all the way through students who will complete something like a modern apprentichip and have you have you know those hundreds of hours of experience and will carry that experience on after they leave um after graduation. Uh we will not click on these links right now but we wanted you to have this information. So um links here to the commission for higher education's office of CTE to our workbased learning menu of experiences um just more information about workbased learning and the new requirements also our training plan and partnership agreement. So um we talked I think at the beginning of this year when we first came here that we were building out these systems and structures and this is something that's come from that. I know we also talked about transportation
037at the beginning of the year and you can see from what Jenny has presented that that's all much clearer and more structured. So we're really building the systems out and you can also um see a link here to our approved CTE pathways. This time I'll hand it over to Matt Mount who can talk about our enlistment efforts. >> Good evening. Just a couple questions for you all before I get into this. Okay. First one, are there any veterans on this board? I encourage you to seek out some additional perspectives. Second thing, you have any children or siblings that >> children or siblings? >> Siblings. Two siblings. >> Brothers, sisters, >> brothers. >> Okay, >> just a quick question for you then. Can you tell me the difference between how they were before going to basic
038and when they return? >> Depending on which one. Um they were some really transformational experiences for both of them. Um I feel like um coming from basic they were both really more polished um had things more structured, you know. Um it just seemed like they were just clear clear more clear minded about their direction too. So yeah. >> Well, thank you. I appreciate that. So I am not here to recruit. JRTC is not in this business of recruiting high school kids to go to the military. Part of our mission though is to explain to them the opportunities are there if they do choose to go in the military. And most of them that uh go through the JRPC program, go to JCLC, which is our JRPC leadership camp every summer, come back uh with an
039improved appreciation for the military service and many of them with the desires to go and serve. Now, the nice thing about enlistment of the three E, it isn't the only E that once you do it, you come back with a heads up, a huge advantage on the other two because in the military, you come back with the opportunity to have free educational benefits and have all your education paid for if you do want to go to college. And when you go to the military, you are going to receive your MOS, your military occupational specialty, which means you're going to get all this specialized training that you pay money for on the outside to go into the job market with. So that's the wonderful thing about the enlistment side of it. Now, Indiana's readiness for enlistment,
040as you can see up here, has some uh requirements that each one of them must do. The wonderful thing about GROTC is I guarantee you if you have a student that goes through GRCC all four years is going to meet every one of these requirements just by being in the JROTC program. And they will probably qualify for the honors plus depending on how well they do on the ASVAP, which is the Army's uh entry level test that they have to pass in order to end the military. Uh they do have to complete one of the following. as you know and you can see up here they have to uh be in in a introduction to public service course or JROTC for one year. There is no introduction to public service course in IPS since all
041the IPS schools have JRTC. So if they want to gain the enlistment seal they do need to do a year of JRPC. Uh most of those kids that do their first year come back the second third or fourth especially if we get into JCLC and I'll get into that just a little bit. uh they do need to achieve a score of a 31 on the ASAP. I used to think it'd be kind of like everybody can get a 31 on the ASVAT, but I've been surprised the number of kids that don't do a 31 on the ASAP. However, with our JPC programs, we have a lot of training availability to help them get those scores. One of them being March to Success website. Uh I would encourage you to take a look at that. It
042not only helps them prepare for the ASVAB, it also helps them prepare for the ACT and the SAT. And basically it is a tutorial program in the sciences, math, English so that they can score better on these tests to get the greater opportunities. The importance of scoring high on that ASVAD is that they do admit what they score on that ASVAD dictates the opportunities that they'll have in the military. The higher the score, the more job opportunities that open up, okay? And the more choices they have going into it. So those things that they do in GFC help them to prepare for those tests. Okay. Uh they have to make an attendance goal, meet an attendance goal which has been set by the legislature in this bill. Uh and that is they only can miss
043I think it is more no more than three excused absences per semester. Now unexcused different but only three excuses. Okay. and they have to demonstrate skill development in communication collaboration or work ethic. Okay, there's two different things there. The sheet that the state put out says and however the law that was passed is an or. So either in uh the communication, collaboration or work ethic. Okay? And those are all things that are covered in JRPC as they go through the program. Now those have to be externally verified through a mentorship experience. Unfortunately, well fortunately uh the GRTC instructors cannot serve as those mentors. They cannot verify those experiences. They have to be verified through an outside source. Those outside sources could be somebody who is a veteran, somebody who is currently serving the United States
044Army Reserves or the National Guard or could be done through the recruiters that work in each one of the high schools. Okay. The only difference now as we look at this between the honors and the is and the honors plus seal for enlistment is that they also need instead of a minimum score of 31 they have to score 50 or higher or enroll in ROC at the collegiate level or be accepted to one of the servicemies. Okay. And demonstrate an excellence excellence in their leadership through completion of 100 hours of public service which they're going to do in JRPC probably within their first year. Okay. Or holding a leadership role or in a uh co-curricular extracurricular activity. Again, in JRPC, they're going to be doing that on a regular basis or completion of two seasons
045of a team- based physical sport activity. In other words, getting a letter. Okay. So, if you look at a comparison and you're looking for kids that want to get a a graduation seal to go with their diploma, you're going to find out that the enlistment seal is the I don't want to say the easiest way to go, but it it is if they do JRTC, it's going to take care of all these requirements and be able to graduate with that seal. All right. Um, and here are the areas where we work with the cadetses. We have a a freshman orientation. We sit down with all the cadetses as they come in. This is the first year of course for the program and we explain what these seals are and we explain to them what the
046requirements are for the enlistment seal and we get them to commit as a freshman to okay yeah I want to try this at George for example George Washington University they had over 60% of the students that as freshman decided yes I want to start now to work towards that enlistment seal okay we had the goc academy leadership that are helping them as they go through these things and then we provide them opportunities develop their leaders leadership. Each company, I'm sorry, each school is is regarded as battalion. And all these cadetses serve in battalion leadership roles as battalion commanders, command sergeant majors, company commanders, and platoon leaders. They have these opportunities to learn how to lead. And then they have competitive teams that they're all able to participate, whether it's drill, marksmanship, uh raers competitions. Uh
047we have right now on IPS our Arsenal Tech Raider competi Raider team went and competed in nationals last year and they were going to go back to nationals this year before it got uh postponed. Our uh we have marksmanship team uh that has been developing and Crystal House is actually competing in the nationals there. Uh Jab which is basically kind of like the uh Alex who was the Jeep. Okay, this is the Jeopardy version for academics and leadership. Uh they have teams that compete and as they uh progress through the competition, they can go to national competitions which are held in Washington DC. The service opportunities we have galore uh opportunities for these kids to do these service opportunities whether it is marching the parades whether it is doing the annual service learning project. There
048are two major projects each battalion must do each year. One is a service learning project where these kids have to come up with an idea of a service project that they're going to do for their community. They all get involved in how we're going to how we're going to make this happen. What what are is our purpose of learning here? What is our end product? And then uh making it all happen through the year. And the other one is the continuous improvement program where they have to identify as battalion where they are weak and how they're going to strengthen each other as they go through the year in improving. And then of course we have our veterans day events such as the veterans day of service ceremonies etc. Okay. Um as we already talked about
049the ASVAB testing assistance our instructors are very active in helping these kids prepare for these ASVAB testing ACT SAT through these online programs and also they are able to bring in recruiters to actually do ASVAB prep and SAT ACT and prep classes as well for those students that they have to. These are just some of the service opportunities we've been involved with with our kids. I can tell you some of the the the brightest stars in IPS have come through JRPC. Right now, our first brigade commander, normally uh in the past years, each one of the battalions has a commander. Last year, we decided we're going to have a brigade commander who's going to oversee all as a cadet will oversee all the cadet activities for all five of the schools. And that and that
050cadet last year was actually a junior from Short Ridge High School, cadet Rome de Le Poni who since now has been accepted will be attending Columbia University. Just an outstanding student. And each one of those schools has these outstanding students that step forward for learn how to do these leadership opportunities. Down here on the lower left, you can see the race across America. We had uh close to 100 cadets from the IPS schools who came out and laid waste across the veterans graves at at Crown Hill Cemetery in preparation for the holiday season. They march in their parades. They do their fundraising. They work with food pantries and are also involved in the challenging activities such as the Raider challenge. And here we have some pictures of JCLC junior JRTC leadership camp. I would like
051all of you if you could to put into your calendar for this year June 15th through June 20th. That is our JCLC for this year and we invite you to come as VIPs to see what is actually going on with these cadets. It may be the only IPS program where you're going to go see cadetses that are there for day and night working together with 200 300 cadets from across the state of Indiana without any cell phones. They lose the phones on the first day and you would be truly amazed at what happens, the transformation that takes place by day two of how these kids are interacting with each other and learning how to get by without social media and without constant pings on their phones to drag their attention away from the people around
052them and start working as leaders as teams. Uh you can see some of the challenges they face as uh teams going through here. They have uh they're set up into squads and they're put they rotate through leadership positions and have to get their squad to work through a leadership challenge. If you can come and join these kids on VIP day and that would be the Wednesday of that week, we will have we will be more than happy to help you get through some of these chain challenges as well to include going off the 90T repel tower. Okay. Now, what does it mean for these kids? Well, when it comes to the 90oot repel tower, out of the 220 kids we had, all 220 kids went off that tower. Now, about a dozen of them were
053crying when they did. literal tears rolling down their face. Okay, but you've never seen a kid more proud or more happy once they reach the bottom and more happy going back up to do the second time. They learn how to conquer their fears. They learn how to work together. They learn how how to respect each other. And what's most important is they learn who who they are as individuals, okay? That they can contribute to society. They have worth. So, Indiana readiness skills GRC. This is the place where these kids can really find out who they are. They're going to be challenged. They're going to put through some very, very difficult physical, emotional, and mental stress. That makes them brighter, sharper, and tougher. Okay? And we hope to see all of you at JCS this year.
054Okay? Anybody have any questions about the enlistment, how that works, or how we're trying to work with that? It's not specifically about being in the seal, but I'm curious if the new Indiana school accountabilities um the new accountability the new accountability requirements. Um would you say that that those um accountability requirements um Do do they encourage schools to want to increase the ski the seals? Um can you just discuss with that passage how that affects this the the seals and how that schools? >> Yeah, great question. We uh we were very happy that when they designed the accountability model they decided around the skills. So, uh, in the past, we've had situations where the the systems didn't necessarily align, but a lot of time work went into making sure that these systems align. And so,
055um, the the model gives points or gives credit to the school district for students who earn the seals as part of the model. It's more than that, but that's at the heart of >> Yes, we not through the accountability model, but just through the funding they changed the funding model at the state level so that we now will earn funds based on how many students achieve the skills. So um we shifted away from some forces and some designations that were earning funds and now take questions about curious about the metriculation students that are in Jotc or who get this particular pathway. for their diploma. um any data around um JOTC students from past years that end up serving in the military percentage or >> I don't have the Okay, >> I don't have the exact
056numbers with me right now, but I do I do know that those that do GROTC versus those that don't are twice as likely to serve in the military. Once again, we're not trying to enlist them. We're not there to recruit you, okay? But we are what we are there is if they want to go to college, we're there to help them get to college. If they want to go into the workforce, we're there to help make the decisions that are going to make them productive workers. If they want to do military, we're going to explain to them the best avenues they can take in order to do that. Um, I mean, a lot of the kids can't do certain military service. They they love GROCC. They're kind of like, I want to serve. Sorry, you
057can't health issues, medical issues, whatever it may be, right? Uh this is an opportunity. When we do JCLC, it's a camper and the kids, they eat it up and you know, every year they, you know, they come to me at the end of camp. I want to come back next year and they're ready to do it again except for the seniors. They come, they want to come back and tell you, you're no longer a student. You can't be here. But it is it it's at least double the likelihood of them having that desire to go and do military service. >> Do you see this graduation pathway as a more formalized or a straightening of that path or does it make it more accessible in any way or or do you not see much of a
058difference with this being formalized? >> Well, this is the first year of course so it's hard to really answer that question. Uh but I I do know that with the instructors that I've talked to that have done these presentations to kids talk about the the pathway for these seals that they're they they're going into the year as a freshman with a perfect example. Okay. Uh prior to going into the JRC where all I was assistant professor of military science at Vand University. Okay. And one of the things they asked asked us to do as senior ROC category was to go to the high schools to talk to the kids about ROC ROC scholarships. ROC is the largest uh provider of scholarships across the nation partner. And so we would go in and the instructors would
059say, "Yeah, we want you to come and talk to our juniors and seniors." Kind of like I need to talk to your freshman, okay? Because if they're going to be competitive for a scholarship, they need to start knowing as a freshman what they need to do because it's too late to make up for your third year. Mathematically impossible to raise a 2.0 up to a 3, you know, two to be competitive in one year. You can't do it. And so as we have had the opportunity now to explain to these kids how the enlistment seal works, you you're seeing them take more their freshman year more seriously realizing, oh, I need to start doing these things so that I can achieve it. >> To that we expect that it will we will see more students
060accessing it. One main reason is that under the old requirements only short range could use as a graduation pathway because embedded in IE international career related program. There was no JOTC track so to speak in the Indiana graduation requirements. But now that there is the other three district manage high schools, students in those high schools can choose JOTC as their way to graduate which we just think will certainly draw more students and create more access. Our our reaction to that would be based on the student demand that is that is a very sensitive um and careful sort of block that we must do where we are trying to recruit students into the military that's not the purpose Um I think that what they set out to create when they created the CSAs is not what
061actually was created. So the answer to your question is yes but not as much as maybe it seems. The CSAs ended up being and so for those who don't know these um the career scholarship accounts that were created by the state to promote um students being paid for their workbased learning experiences. So originally these were built as like a student would receive a credit card, well a money card that they would be able to pay for um training or equipment um or their own wages for work based learning. But in implementation, what happened was um they decided not to really give that to the students. They gave it to the the business folks. And so now businesses have a pool of funds that they can use to pay a student to pay for schools, equipment,
062etc. and it ended up being more limited in number than what was originally stated. And so as a school district, we couldn't say, for example, oh, we will use CSAs for 30 health fellows to do an internship because we don't actually own the ability to place them within the CSA. So we have students who are using CSAs. We do this through employee indie who's the intermediary and we are interested in more of because we want our students to have that, but it's not the sort of like magic solution that was originally questions. Commissioners, thank you. >> Thank you, team. Um, second item, item 4.02 02 is our budget public hearing. So, commissioners will recognize that you've been in our appropriations process now for um the last several weeks. Uh but Weston's kick our process off.
063So, this continues in that process. So, I will turn it to West. We have a 267 budget public hearing. We're going to focus in on number one here the levy budget appropriation recommendation two three and four we talk budget planning we review those numerous times updates those session also highlight a number of key pieces focus on one and be available for questions Quick reminder of how funding we're looking at the education fund and the operations and debt funds. These are called the board appropriated funds. We have other funds such as federal funds grants that come in that is not part of this public hearing process. looking for approval for levy. So the revenue and also the appropriation the expense authority to spend each of these funds. Also a reminder of what is typically accounted for,
064what is expensive to those funds. See education funding related to the school and the instruction of students in operations and debt for support of getting students to school the school itself. appropriation review this where it's a max theoration has the maximum expenditures for each fund. So each fund has a specific number that is the max you'll see. It's also for a fiscal year for the next school year. Then we all have approval at the board level locally. We submit to department finance who sets the tax rates administration. Not You're not fined budgets at this time for schools or works providing break down at this time and by proving a levy does not guarantee that we receive this previous meeting and key parts is in the works in transition as far as authority in training. that
065authority Jeff is along with the appropriation too but will ultimately help us navigate and has instructed how the mechanics work while we had to publicly notice during session at a time we have a public hearing that is immediately after HB1423 was signed and that's these two different time frames where I takes over powers and duties appropriation. So what we're doing here is as directed by deal by by the current date as you know IC effect after that so doing work as they will administer the laws. So looking 67 the recommendations budget appropriation and the levy. So you'll see the levy. This is the amount of revenue requested from our local property taxes for the calendar year 2027. Note that it's calendar year because property taxes are the business cycle. The appropriation is the current balance
066projected max. This is the amount that funds the desired activities of the 26 27 IPS board. So this is money comes in spended. This is not necessarily appropriations for our charter partners. It's not appropriations for unemployed charters. But the levy this is 100% I guess we're improving levy for the county. That's a political cover all students 100% of students put a levy only the portion that studentation supports. So we have operating referendum is the first point you notice that number this is assuming the amount that we currently have for the 2018 operator. Then we also have to have an assumption of the successful 2026 November November 2026. This would be a max amount that be a lesser amount once final resolution is approved by that is the max revenue that we're having process by that
067operate referendum we have $75 million. So that includes the 25 million or so that will still come in before next school year related to the 2018 plus our six month portion that's assumed to be received in July through June. Typically the last six, seven years those monies have been the same because we receive we only rece all the other line items related to IPS debts. So these are the debts that we continue to retain. We issue the debt. We pay the bonds. We're raising money for spending that amortization. We have the education fund where we have the IPS number $32 million that we appropriate for the school year. and our operations. a levy that 100% covers 100% of the students that the IS portion of expense and for the next couple years we continue to
068operate facilities transportation operational support for students in a similar manner. That is the summary of the leation that received answers here supporting all boundary students and the budget appropriation maxing. We've also covered the projected cash flows that are aligned to RCA at this time with capital referendum dollars and the appropriation of the main a fund and future referendum addresses our capital means for district schools while we continue to work together and also extra partners to sustain our long-term financial sustainability academic priorities. Last slide is the next steps. We talked about SBA. We talked about school budget. Looked at that revenue projection conversations sessions. We've advertised these appropriations public hearing. Next step is for March 26 action session to approve deeper in the presentation again. >> Mr. Do you have any questions? >> Mr. Johnson, um,
069for slide eight, I believe it was. So, what percentage is that compared to the budget of the requested levy? What percentage? Do you know >> you're saying the total of the levy? >> Yeah, it is the budget. Yeah. >> Federal is usually about 10 to 15% of our budget. So this represents 85% is 85 to 90% of the budget. other questions. >> Thank you. >> Our next I guess it's time for us to adjourn and thank you for the presentation. Our next scheduled meeting is our agenda review session on Tuesday, March 24th. Having completed all items on the agenda, the board will now adjourn to an executive session.