001Good evening. >> I hereby call to order the work session of the board of school commissioners for Tuesday, February 17th, 2026. Would you please stand and join in reciting the pledge of allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Before we get started, we have language translation services available upon request of the action session next week. Welcome commissioners, Dr. Johnson and members of we will now call the role. James, would you please call the role? >> Commissioner, Commissioner Moore, Mr. Thomas >> Mr. Thompson >> pres with that we move on to section two of the agenda. Do any commissioners have any open comments that they would like to share. Hearing none we
002move on to item two.02 And I'd like to mention that we continue to accept written public comments through our online portal. The written public comment portal is available under the schoolboard tab at myips.org and will remain open until 400 p.m. on Wednesday, February 25th, 2026. At this time of we have not received any written public comments. We will now receive inperson public comment from those individuals who have signed up to offer comments to the board this evening. I will remind our speakers that you are allowed three minutes to offer comments to the board. The timer will start when we begin and I ask that you briefly conclude your remarks when we hear this title of law. Comments should be directed to the board collectively, should not be abusive or disruptive and should not address a
003topic that might be of confidential nature or that would compromise the impartiality of the board. Also remind our speakers that while the board is happy to receive your comments, we will not respond or answer questions at this time. Please come to the podium and begin your comments when your name is called. Miss James, please call our first speaker to the podium. >> Carl Down. >> Thank you. I'll turn the agenda over to Superintendent Johnson to the work session items. >> Thank you, President Star. Good evening, commissioners. Um, there are two items for tonight. I believe we will start with the uh comprehensive school health and wellness needs assessment that was completed um through our health services team. And so I would like to invite Dr. Megan Carlson and Dr. W to uh the table at
004this time to walk us through these presentations. Thank you for being here. So good evening to start by members of the board Johnson as director of health services. My responsibility is to ensure the district has accurate reliable information about student health conditions that affect. Tonight I will share how the IPS comprehensive school health needs assessment. My remarks will be focused on the assessment process. So the data shows this portion of the presentation is descriptive only and does not include interpretation or recommendations. IBS conducted this assessment to better understand the health related and wellness conditions that affect students ability to attend school consistently engage in learning and persist over time. While academic data tells us how students are performing, it does not fully explain the conditions students experience and influence learning before they ever enter a
005classroom. This assessment was designed to provide that additional context to help the district understand what students, families, and staff report about health, access to supports, and school environment so that they can get informed, responsible, and grounded in the evidence. While we began this work in 2023, the assessment portion was conducted over 2024 and 2025 using mixed methods approach that includes surveys, interviews, and a collection of administrative data from department leaders. In total, more than 5,000 respondents participated, including students, parents, and caregivers, schoolbased staff, school leaders, and district staff. It is important to be clear about the scope of this work. This assessment, this assessment includes students enrolled in IT managed schools and was designed to inform planning in areas where the district has direct operational responsibility. Charter and innovation network schools operate independently and were
006therefore outside the scope of this assessment. Findings are organized using the whole school child whole school community whole child framework. A nationally recognized approach to understanding how health, safety, engagement and support interact within school environments. To help you understand how interpretable follows, I want to briefly note how particip participation and confidentiality were handled in this assessment. Data was collected from elementary, middle, and high schools across IPS near schools. Participation varied by school and responding groups for voluntary assessments of this size. Data was received from majority of schools at each level providing broad representation across the district. Participation was entirely voluntary. All respondents were informed that their responses will be kept confidential and reported only in aggregate. No individual staff, student, staff member or specific school can be identified in the data that is shared by
007the student. So this slide illustrates the breakdown of participants by population. The largest contributions were parents and sixth through 12th grade students. Languages were offered include English, Spanish and Haitian preal for the surveys and then English and Spanish for later use because of the nature access to this assessment represented a significant investment of time and resources nearly three years of work and it was designed to produce something more useful than reports that sit on our show. What you received is a districtwide picture of the conditions that shape student learning and school capacity, including health, mental health, and basic needs. Importantly, the findings identify zone based patterns, indicating that needs are not evenly distributed and responses should not be uniform. We also strengthen confidence in the findings by looking for alignment with independently collected data from
008the Marian County Community Health Assessment, which was completed in 2025. That validation step helps answer a key question. Are these findings Yes. Or do they reflect broader community conditions? In short, what you got for your investment is a decision tool, evidence that can guide strategic principal choices about how to support student success. As you review the findings, there are a few important things to keep in mind. The data reflects reported experiences at a point in time. The most important takeaway is not in a single number, but that the patterns have emerged across respondents. Variation across schools and communities is expected in district of this size and the differences help illuminate work conditions are not the same for all students. These findings are descriptive. They are intended to inform understanding and planning, not to evaluate individuals
009or people. And with that, I'm going to turn it over. >> Thank you, Dr. Paulson. You just received a really detailed of the assessment process and why IPS had engaged in this work. My role is to translate some of that data into implications for student success. Um verify its accuracy by comparing it with the independent county data and outline how the district can use the findings to make informed decisions. I first want to briefly introduce the community health assessment or what I'll call CHOP um and explain why it's relevant to this conversation. The Marian County Community Health Assessment is conducted by the Marian County Public Health Department as part of a regular countywide process to evaluate health conditions, access to care, and factors affecting community wellbeing. Importantly, the conducted during the same general time period
010that IPS comprehensive school health and wellness needs assessment was being conducted but it was developed independently and for a different purpose. It was to guide the public health plan across man county. We are not going to present the chop today. Instead we're just going to use some select findings from it to interpret and validate the IPS assessment. In other words, we really want to understand whether the experiences of IPS schools are unique uh to reflect or to reflect the broader conditions in the surrounding community. The trial provides an independent benchmark that strengthens confidence in the IPS findings and adds zone based context for understanding the students needs. As we move through the next sections, I'll selectively reference child findings alongside IPS data to explain why certain challenges are more pronounced in some schools and communities
011and communities more than others. Before we look at the specific needs like food and security, I want to ground us on the district's geography. You all know this very well, but I was learning where's different zones for people of course. IPS is being in organized in four zones, each reflecting a distinct set of community conditions, including access to food, health care, transportation, housing, and employment. Schools really don't operate in isolation. Um, they operate within these surrounding environments. This map will explain why schools across the district are not experiencing the same challenges in the very same way. The variation we see in students needs is very much shaped by what exists or what doesn't exist in the neighborhoods in which the students live. Importantly, schools experience a downstream effect from these conditions when access to food
012to health care and stability is in a community. These conditions manifest in the classrooms as attendance challenges, difficulty concentrating, and increased need for support. So, food u insecurity or food security is one of the most immediate indicators of readiness for learning. Districtwide, as you can see, about a third of the responding families reported experiencing the highest level of household security. Importantly, this experience is is not evenly distributed across the district. Rates vary meaningfully by geographic zone, indicating that students their dayto-day experiences differ by where where they live. These differences matter because hunger can affect concentrations, stamina, and behavior, all of which directly influence learning. I want to highlight this map here is from the CHA report and I want to highlight food in security because it's one of the most immediate ways communities conditions affect
013students readiness to learn. Um you've already seen the district data so I'm not going to repeat that but but instead I want to focus on the patterns that tell us when we look at the food insecurity marketplace when food security is viewed by the IPS zones. If you can remember where they are, this is the map of Mary and Kelly. So, it's not just IPS district. So, you can imagine where where the IPS districts are and the zones are you can see a clear pattern emerges. This experience is not evenly distributed across the district. Some zones are managing substantially higher levels of food insecurity while others report more. Although meaningfully meaningful level that variation really matters. It tells us that students daily learning conditions differ based upon where they live, not based upon their efforts,
014their motivation or their family priorities. So if you can imagine layering over IPS um the the zones over this map, the IPS findings with with the independent county data with Mary County the community health assessment. The map shows the census tracks where the households are both low income and life access to food ser. So the blue in the map that you see are low income and low food access from a half a mile distance. The green is not low income but still low food access from a half a mile distance. And if you can imagine, well, let me tell you this. The red dots that you see here are the convenience stores. The blue triangles are small grocery stores. The yellow squares are full service grocery stores. And if you look at that map and
015kind of imagine where zone three is where we had 40% of food insecurity, you can almost tell on one hand how many full service grocery stores are in that area. This slide um you can look I'm just explaining that part of it. The county data helps us explain what IPS families have reported. Across Marian County, a third of residents, 33.3% are at risk for food insecurity. The risk highest among young adults age 18 to 24 and it remains elevated to adults who are in that parenting age and working working years. Food insecurity is also substantially higher among residents who are uninsured and among households living at or below the federal poverty level. When we place the IPS zone data alongside these data maps, the alignment is very clear. Schools are experiencing that downstream effect of
016predictable zonebased community conditions, not isolated family circumstances. In school serving zones with that higher in food insecurity, hunger shows up every day in difficulty concentrating which is stamina, irritability and behavior challenges. These are not academic issues at the core. There are effects of unmet basic needs that directly interfere with learning. At the same time, even zones with lowered food insecurity are not unaffected, reminding us that this is a districtwide issue, not an equal. The purpose of showing this data together is not to label any part of the district. is not to demonstrate that food insecurity is structurally its own place or sensitive to policy and access but that it is programs such as snack wick free and reduced lunch summer meal summer food service really play a very critical role in mitigating these conditions and
017when access to these supports is constrained schools immediately feel the impact Taking together this IPS data and this county context help the district anticipate where needs are greatest and why schools in different parts of the city experience different levels of challenge. This is how data moves us from awareness towards more informed responsible planning. This slide presents what we learned by integrating the IPS findings with the community health assessment. What stands out is consistency across food access, health care, mental health, housing stability, and transportation. The patterns identified in the IPS schools closely mirror the patterns identified across the area. This alignment matters because it tells us that what schools are experiencing is not isolated or incident. It reflects broader community conditions that shape students lives before they even arrive to school. The value of this comparison
018is not precision at the school level but confirmation at the systems level. It strengthens confidence that the challenges schools report are rooted in structural conditions and helps us interpret the school data with a wider context. Without that validation in place, we can move forward with knowing that findings reflect real predictable conditions affecting students readiness to learn. It's also important to be clear about the role of this assessment. The assessment describes health related conditions that affect learning and establishes a baseline that the district can reference in the future monitor of change. What it does not is evaluate individual schools or staff. We didn't rank programs. We're not re making recommendations to specific solutions or advanced policy positions. The decisions about strategy, investment, and program changes will require additional analysis, stakeholder engagement, and board direction. I'll now
019turn it back over to Dr. Paul to discuss the data we actually found. So these next several slides are going to highlight some of the key health related findings from the access assessment and I want to walk through what they mean for students learning and for school operations. So these first two slides highlight student health needs and access. 39% require prescriptions for medical equipment. 26% require physical occupation or speech therapy. And these are not occasional needs. They are ongoing and require consistent coordination management. At the school level, only about onethird of schools report that they are able to assist students with fully controlled chronic conditions through care coordination or chronic condition management plans. That means in many buildings capacity does not fully match the level of student need. This data also shows that families are
020navigating their access challenges among households with incomes below 35,000. 51% of parents or caregivers reported that they could have used additional help in the past year arranging their child's healthcare. You guys this tells us that access challenges are not only availability. They are about navigation, affordability and stability. Families and staff ing expanded mental health services, more basic health services such as checkups, vaccinations, dental and vision care, and additional school nurses focused health center staffing. And that feedback reinforces the scale of need related to capacity. Sorry, my members just a substantial portion of IPS students are managing health related needs. 36% of students have a disability. In addition, 30% of parents reported their children not have health insurance over the past 12 months. I'll repeat that. 30% of parents reported their children did not have health
021insurance over the past 12 months. And 27% who needed medication or equipment were not able to get those services. A good portion of students reported they received a preventive checkup in the past 12 months. The 65% also reporting accessing preventative dental care. When chronic conditions are not well managed, students miss school. They struggle to concentrate and return to class less ready to learn. Teachers and staff then spend time responding to health related disruptions rather than focusing on instruction. Access to healthcare both in schools and externally can have significant implications for students readiness to learn and school's ability to meet student needs. In addition to physical health, mental and behavioral health was a significant theme throughout the data. 65% of students did report feeling safe at school. 28% of parents reported their child needing treatment or
022counseling for a mental, emotional, developmental, and or behavioral problem. And 50% of mental and behavioral health staff reported closing the loop on making sure families are able to access care. The takeaway from these slides is not that schools are failing. It is that the student health needs are substantial, especially in IPS, and schools are serving as critical access points for care. The question becomes how to sustain and strengthen this in structure in a way that matches documented needs while recognizing that schools cannot replace the broad healthare system. So what is IPS doing in relation to health access and mental health supports? IPS has built significant infrastructure to support students. The district provides full-time medical staffing in every school building, maintains long-standing partnerships with schoolbased health centers in 21 schools, provides social work and mental health
023supports for students and staff, and offers space leaison in the family academy resources to help families access information and community services. Even with this infrastructure, families and staff report wanting expanded mental health services, more basic health care services such as checkups, vaccinations, dental and vision care, and additional staffing. That feedback reinforces the scale of need relative capacity. Student sense of safety is another important learning condition. Data shows that most students report feeling safe in school reflecting important foundational work across IC schools. At the same time, some students report experiencing a bullying or unfair treatment. These experiences are not uniform, reminding us that outages can mask meaningful differences in day-to-day experience. The assessment also highlights variation in school and capacity. The ability to consistently coordinate care, follow up after referrals and support students with complex needs
024varies across schools. Staff wellbeing is another important factor when staff experience high levels of stress or burnout. It affects stability, relationships, and learning environment for students. These findings reflect system conditions, not individual effort or commitment. So just a a snapshot um of some interconnected challenges impacting our ability to fully support students and families. First, schools are not consistently implementing trauma informed best practices that students needs related to health and wellness continue to rise. This creates added pressure on already limited systems. At the same time, staff report under understaff classroom heavy workloads and limited opportunities for breaks, which contributes to fatigue and burnout and reducing overall capacity to respond effective needs. In addition, many families are facing significant life stressors, including poverty and homelessness, which can make consistent school engagement difficult. Some families may also be
025unaware of available school-based services and may not see preventive supports as necessary. Finally, when services are not available within the school, families often face barriers accessing care in the due to lack of insurance cost and limited provider availability. Together, these factors create systemic barriers that limit school's ability to deliver comprehensive equitable support to every student. So, this next slide is about the conditions for success within the current constraints. When we talk about the conditions for success, we're not we're not only referring to the students needs or the family circumstances. Schools themselves operate within constraints that shape what's possible. Effective implementation really depends on sustainable and predictable funding, clear role definition, protected specialized positions, strong coordination across departments and partners, and measurable accountability. Schools are al are also operating within the evolving funding governance and service
026delivery environments. Changes in public benefit programs, shifts in healthcare reimbursement, hospital closures and adjustment in the state funding formula influence both the demand placed in schools and the resources available to meet that demand. Schoolbased health and mental health services are most effective when they are financially sustainable. Many rely on Medicaid and insurance reimbursement to function. When coverage or reimbursement is limited, students wait longer for care and schools are left managing more severe needs. Without sustainable mechanisms to support service delivery, it's important to be really clear. Schools cannot replace Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance, child care systems, or the broader health care infrastructure. When those systems shift, schools often absorb the immediate impact, but they cannot sustain sustainably substitute for them. Naming these constraints is not about lowering any expectations. It's it's about aligning expectations with the
027operational realities that strategic planning remain possible, sustainable, and centered on student success. So, as we conclude, it's important to be clear about the board's role in advancing this work. The board sets priorities and establishes policy framework that guides how health and wellness are embedded across the district. Though through developing, approving and enforcing policies, the board operation or institutionalizes IPS's commitment to physical, mental, social well-being of students, staff, and the broader school community. Clear policy directions enable accountability, aligns resources with documented needs, and ensures that health and wellness are not treated as add-ons, but they are an integral part to the long-term strategy, which of course is student success. The board also plays an important role in supporting strategic partnerships and engaging broader public policy conversations that influences the resources and systems that shape student wellbeing.
028Tonight's assessment provides clarity. The work ahead involves thoughtful governance, sustained commitment and alignment between policy, practice, and documented student. So with that, I'd like to thank you for this opportunity and welcome your questions. Commissioners, do you have any questions for Mr. K? >> Thank you. Um I have just a couple questions. Um on the slide we talked about the inconsistencies of practices. Can you give me an example that what that could potentially look like that you have that was one of the questions in the survey for our staff. Um and it was supported by Pat. Okay, sorry. I was really interested zones and how it overlay county data. Um, so I was just curious in that part of the process. Have you did you take a look at birth rates or is there any projection
029that we didn't go we didn't go deeply into the mar county department we really focus on things that related to what we found the things but the report has >> and the report just came out I think like last week it was just released to go through just your time. Sure. So um just two additional questions on the areas where it talks about barriers and you said this was descriptive in nature. Is this just what was reported as barriers not interpretation some of the challenges seem as if they're qualitative in nature? >> It's both. Yes, it was both. I went through and they gave um the section the needs and the barriers. Some of it was reported through survey and there was a lot of qualit I think for the most part it's building that
030foundation that IPS is committed to health and wellness and that's part of the resolution for that build from with policy at level. >> Okay. Um so I have a question. You had mentioned zone base. um how you were connecting all of the dots, right? Um that kind of feels like transformation zone. This might be about China, but it kind of feels like when IPS had transformation zone and we had like all of the feeder schools, there was assessments about what the needs of that entire school community. I know our zones are much bigger, but um I wanted to just make sure that what I'm understanding is that it was like a similar assessment when it comes to except the community was probably larger. >> You all can correct me. I think it's uh just arranged
031by our enrollment zones um which there is some connectivity within those zones but not not quite in the same way that transformation zones were very linked but my understanding is you all geographically sort of reviewed by our enrollment zones. Okay. Okay. Um so again my followup question to that when it comes to the zones um were the do we go by the school that they attended if they attended the school in a particular zone on how we connected them to the zone or did we go by where they lived >> their school? It was their school. >> Okay. So it was their school. So So we didn't go by the actual address that's like in the record. Okay. Okay. Um that's helpful. And then um another question, I have a few that are like data
032integrity so I can have the same background. Um how did you define convenience stores? Were that like power stores, dollar generals, gas stations? >> That was a Marian County definition. We don't know how they >> Oh, okay. >> Cuz that was on their map and that was their data. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. So maybe I might be able to pull up and find that out. Um, okay. So, I know you also mentioned that uh the goal for this presentation is not to make recommendations. Um, but I'm curious on the work that you all are doing. How is that going to or have you already started connecting with like different Q quality of life within the IPS boundary planning and those that are already set to be sure that IPS can possibly get some visibility on
033our needs too when it comes to families um so that we can connect with the folks who are doing the work and the research around that because I could see this data being really helpful um in quality of life planning. So I'm curious how are we intertwining ourselves that can also elevate our visibility when it comes to funding and access food all of the things right and you know our schools being community schools so just curious >> so the initial goal is to present to you and then release it because we've already had people that are spirit races reached out you know this year with the foundation there's a lot of people in your county is very interested in their data so that we can you know have the data show be like hey we
034need your partnership with this we need your partnership with this and also making sure that the departments that are involved in this assessment have the information too. So starting here and then that information there's a lot of data a lot more than we gained. >> I have a maybe it's a comment question. Um first of all I'm really thankful for the data and the t our leader the leader of our task force has already kind of started talking about the child's pieces and we were hoping to take put all of these pieces together data has been a big part just learning what is already happening has been a big part of the work of the task force but now you given us a really wonderful charge and saying that we do have you know we've
035been trying to figure out how the data will influence how they can add value. These are good resources at the table of mental health leaders and folks who are focused on youth mental health. And so having this and having you talk about the board's work in setting policy in this area gives us a little bit more, you know, because now we're able to talk about now that we have all this information, how do we take this committee and figure out how do we show up or press as my commission said to raise funds for things that we have need for? And so that was really helpful. I had a hard time keeping up with the slides. say that with packing and so I thought they were going to be like I was going to be
036looking at what you were talking about wasn't quite that. So then I would ask do you mind if you get the slides as well? one more comment. >> So, um, and I I want to lift up. So I mentioned the Q processes for the quality of life just because we can't do this work in a silo and what happens is the people who are also doing work trying to improve outcomes and opportunities in community um are also doing the work and I'm curious I'm just so always curious about how our schools are showing up in the Q processes because schools are critical to quality quality life of our communities, for our kids, everything. So, um, so I definitely am really curious like for me as a commissioner, um, some of the things that I would
037like to as we as a board consider how we move forward and what we do next. I want to make sure that whatever we say that we're actually really working together because either one of your slides talked about, you know, us being pulling things together and being cohesive. And I think that has to happen where we're not just doing it in a silo. Like we've got a report, we've got great information. I know I'm going to share this information with others who know some of the things. Um but it creates a lot more awareness um around what we are doing too and what we need and uh could also put us on the radar to get more attention or partnerships and again more dollars. So sending it directly to the funders is great but sending
038it to the people in the community who are advocating for what the community needs is even better because we are people rich and resourcerich because our people are knowledgeable and we get to advocate for ourselves. Thank you. >> That is all the questions that board has comments. >> Thank you so much Dr. C and Dr. for joining us this evening and sharing this information. Thank you doctors for being here and for presenting this evening. Um very very helpful. The next item that we're going to discuss is as we think about our budget process going into next year and so Won will present that and I think commissioners we continue to have conversations around the fiscal realities we are facing and those trade-off decisions that we know we'll need to make. And I think when you
039hear data and see the needs that are real in our community, it makes it that much more important um that we are advocating for the resources that our communities and our families deserve to have u more broadly. So um I know that thought that thought will be on all our minds as we're thinking about um our budget design process ahead. Wes, I'll turn it to you to sort of start to frame up. We are at the beginning of the appropriations process as we start to work toward next year. This is the time of year where we have a briefing kind of oversee what will be happening timeline wise over the next month or so to finalize our budget appropriation and our money requests for 26 247 school year 27 calendar year. So the timeline we've
040been working on projecting revenues advisors team looking at what's happening legislatively what's happening in the markets determining our school operational needs a lot of my colleagues in the room here there's a lot of needs our schools have trying to reach out reach kids each day take all that give you just an overview of kind of some of the directional thoughts we have on numbers and how we're thinking about that after tonight we're looking for a public hearing That'll be March 10th. We'll advertise uh numbers on our DJFS websites. On March 10th, we'll review open public hearings and then seek approval of those budget appropriation requests. March 6. What happens after that is that by April 1st, because we're a fiscal year entity, we submit our budget appropriations to the DJ. That is the required timeline
041for us. And then as we move forward into the late spring and summers stepping align we finalize my budget as we head into the year. So tonight we're going to be purchase we just go through some terminology. You have been through this process before which is always good to have terms also want to review state local funding overview how it is today the budget priorities and decision points that we have as a district and then some of the planning considerations what's happening around the landscape. First item I want to use is the word probation. What is a budget probation? What we're doing is an estimate of the maximum expenditures that we believe the school corporation will have for each fund. We'll review those funds next slides. The authorization uh is something that the board approves
042and it's a maximum amount for each fund and as I said we appro It's not a lot of budget. It's not a breakout of expenditures use and it's also not a guarantee district. If we ask for it, we aren't necessarily not guaranteed to receive that. Some other terminology referencing at the state house and there's laws in statutes that are shifting and changing policy shifts. The field is really tasked with taking those laws and enforcing giving the guidance, providing us uh what we need to do uh to go through the steps to transparently publicly uh have approval. Uh we cannot spend without approval. That's a important guideline within the DGF. So they do that not just for schools pretty much every governmental agency that exists in the state. Another term that is commonly referred to is
043levy. This is the property tax process. Think about it as revenue. Levy is revenue. When this board approves the levy request that is a levy request for the revenue for all schools in the boundary. So there's one IPS boundary tax rate for schools. This board is the board that's including authorizing that revenue. Even though we may not receive all the revenue, this board is the one that is 100% responsible for the money at this time appropriation. We talked about that spending authority financial sustainability. A lot of lot of talk about sustainability. This is something that on a long-term basis, no matter what economic cycle is, whatever policy shift, that whatever is desired in our community with the funding that exists. So that's that's our ultimate goal. We have some signs that talk about the purple
044line having $50 million in the bank at the end of every year. Financial sustainability is really having the dollars every year no matter what. conservative. This is something that there's a couple slides we have where we ask for but because of the constitutional cap that exists since the 2008 2010 time frame there are there are revenues that we seek but we do not get and so there's property tax caps and those are commonly referred to also as the circuit breaker. We want this much revenue. We could bug it. We could seek it. But we won't get it because the circuit breaker will probably rain a fund. We've had a rain fund with about $17 million the last few years. It was funded in the early 2000s. There were some funds that had some excess reserves
045and were transferred to the rain carried over by about 15 years without really being touched. wasn't a need for it, but we do appropriate receipt authorization to spend it just in case there's a rainy day. And then lastly, we commonly talk about what is amount of cash we want to have in our funds to have one month to three months of reserves. There's the calculation there of cash divided by those expenditures. As we go through the slides, you'll see these terms. So when we look at the funds and the revenues going through this process. We're really looking at our state our state support and our property tax our local property tax supporters highlighted in the red. Anything federal really is not anything that in this process is addressed when we look at the authorization to
046spend really shows up in the categories we have listed here in the debt. So this process will approve approximately 75 to 80% on an annual basis of what the district spends on an annual basis. We've seen this device before in our tax update. Other budget updates commonly referred to as education operations fund and our debt funds. State support is received into the education fund. The property tax is received into the operations and debt funds. The metrics of how the dollar for pupil in the education fund uh is is listed there. We just had our February count for this school year. We're finalizing that with IB next year be the 1st of October and the 1 of February of 27 that would dictate how much revenue we would receive from the state. You can also see
047some of the other categorical funds that are also maybe based on an occurrence or the student population and then property taxes. You basically have the value of a home of a business multiplied by a tax year and that's how the property tax is generated and distributed to operations. So for 2627 fiscal year and school year this board is approving appropriations in both of those. What's listed here is where specific positions or contracts expenditures are booked or accounted for. So my my salary by my my team is is booked accounting wise in operations fund whereas teacher salaries and principles are booked education. So the decision points what we show from the screen a lot of the macro environment there's a lot happening around us in the space. When we look at legislative policy, I would say
048we're going to touch on that over the course of this presentation. The funding formula, it's been set since the 2025 session. So, I don't think there's too much shift and change going on in that environment, but enrollment is a big driver of that funding formula for the state budget. So the student mobility, supply demand, the seats, the demographics, the shifting demographics in our city. Well, how will that impact our enrollment and the broader education of students show up? How is that the economy? A lot going on in the economy. The federal, state, and local funding is all connected, more connected than probably ever before. What's happening in DC or not happening in DC, the states are having to consider they do in response. What the states don't do in response or do in response the
049local community has has to decide. So decision points all of the regular environmental impact how we think about and fund our plan. We're trying to fund the plan that's been outlined for many years. So 2020 strategic priorities goals trying to continue that in 25 26 trying to continue that in 26 27. We do that with compensation for our teachers, for our staff that's supporting. You heard the health assessment for our students, health insurance has been really key critical part of tracking, improving, retaining our our workforce. And lastly, the strategic conversations that we had for many couple years when we ran up to the 20 25 26 time frame, the investments our students make. to talk about what what does high school students have what is middle school experience what's the early learn experience the technology
050that Chief Calgary was managing her team one to one that is the commitment we've had and also early learning the commitment we have to pre our learning literacy at grade three we've had opportunities throughout throughout the course of the uh year to talk about where we're having some positive results last month we had a great presentation about our success our progress in energy engine that's just one example and the Fendics will see the last probably six seven months all the updates we provided on academic and operations some exciting things are happening we want to continue that the bottom section is really what we've highlighted this at the audit and finance committee and we've had this phrase in there planning for revenue shifts and state multiple properties policy last session we talked about SDA the shift
051of dollars in our operations fund and sharing those with charters that are associated with this and also unafilated charters in our boundary what's shifting most likely in the coming month is the authority who is making decisions about state park we'll look at that some other talks we're talking about the budget we're having schoolbased conversations this week last HR academic team, title team is really focused on making sure that school based are supporting opportunity for us to go and hire great people to teach our kids and central supports funding goes up as we speak. Looking also lastly is the mandates. There's literacy post right. We have new diplomas that are rolling out. We have literacy mandates. We are staffing. you're contracting, you're really focused on those as meeting those mandates, but also as part of our
052strategic initiatives. So again, decision points, who who's making the decisions of these items as a reminder, state revenues based on enrollment pupil figure, we anticipate slow growth. We anticipate long-term enrollment trends showing a decrease in student overall home school boundary. When we look at property tax revenues, probably refer to as the highest pie does not change based on enrollment. It may be distributed based on enrollment, but it does not grow based on so we have 27,000 students on a daily basis that are in buildings that are being transported. The schools have that that access. Those are both schools that are in or out of our LA some of our charter partners. So we've also talked numerous times about the reduction in revenues whether it be through economic ups and downs of the values of of
053the policy shifts where we say charters will receive some portion of it or other policy shifts. These require tradeoffs and we're already enacting some of the chart facing that for our innovation partnerships over the years. We have some rental relationships with some non-charters in our buildings. The chargeback for services has been a response for the IPS LEA as we have transportation services for many of our our partners in our network and they have received operations dollars that we previously would have received to support transportation. This past year, we've been working with the portfolio team and the charter partners to recruit the dollars and that something that's statutoily allowed. It's also statutoily limited. The amount that we the amount that they receive in operations funds is the limit which we can charge the increase in local
054state federal revenue. We have a great advocacy group. I appreciate the letter committee raising opportunities but also talked about having that because it expires in 26 going out for our community and asking for renewal of that. And then reduction of services later talked about facilities and transportation in that in that conversation. Those are items that when we look at decision points over the course of the next few years that maybe should change. So we talk about education fund, operations fund and operating referendum fund. Here's the projection we have for this year and next eight years. Look at eight years because that's typically the timing of an operating referendum. It's also showing where by 2031 we have a phasing of the charter share but over the course of time IPSA this this board would have followers
055available to provide services to kids. So the dark green is more kind of instruction based. The lighter green is instruction based because we are friendly. We've supported compensation for teachers and our leaders in our schools. Then we also have the operations fund which supports the transportation facilities operational support for those students. So you'll see here again operate referendum expires in 2026 showing a overall decrease over the next three or four years as well. As we dive deeper into the property tax, so this is more of the operational part of the revenue. You see this gray section here when we talk about circuit breaker. This is the revenue that we ask for receipt but we never receive because of the property tax because of the circuit breaker. So how many ask how many push do you
056lose on an annual basis? So this roughly about 1620 million a year the last 10 12 years that's been an average for us will continue as time goes on here what we see is operating we see the operations fund supported facility transportation we see that so this this line really highlights this is the amount of revenue IPS we have control over as we move forward this darker gray section is shared with the charters in our calendar. So lastly, just to highlight some of the policy shifts again point on sea1 was a policy shift that's represented by the growth of the lighter green in the years 28 to 34 and then the operating referendum again expiring in 2026. And all the while there's been some voluntary sharing with our innovation network and then policy shift going
057forward upon a renewal about that that will be shared through people. So we look at the pie is the pie focus on the local properties and we look at the projections over the next eight years. A lot of conversation about expanding services having more uh available to receive services. And what that what the slide shows is that over the course of eight years, if you look at the production without referendum, we have an actual decrease in non debt property taxes at a time of wanting to expand services. What's also not represented out here that supports 27,000 part of the 40,000 students is the charter school which is an important funding uh source for a number of the charter partners in and out of our buildings. And so when we look at who's making decisions and
058how those decisions are being made, when they're being made, uh there's some consequential decisions made how students will support and the same can be said about the property tax debt. uh 27,000 students in IPS own buildings today trying to expand the same high for local property tax debt to support 40,000 students in building. So again, consequential decisions are on the horizon. Let's look at some policy shifts. The main one that we've been focusing on as a team is HB1423 session not finished tracking and analyzing the bill process. The key key uh provision there is the probation of the public education corporation oversight clarity. How how will they oversee all of the schools all the buildings in the boundary? When will that timeline start? Where will it end? And also how does IPS how does our
059team how does how we engage with transact this provide a stable environment for students. We talked about operating referendum. This is something also policy wise as we seek to pass this referendum. We will be watching our expenses have to be watching their expenses while at the same time seeking additional revenue. This revenue hopefully last, seven, eight years shown that has provided a level of stability for students and families. As we move forward, the passing of that will be shared for pupil and the amount of kids that would be benefiting from the revenue is going to be a part of this equation. So we have more students most likely see increase The process is something also AP 1423 is speaking to how that process is adopted. The resolution being adopted no matter who is going to
060do it to get on the ballot in November. We need to have the resolution authorized by by July. We must take into account the charges for participation again reflect most likely larger ask and then we must take into accountifications IPS is not alone in the process of seeking referendums. We've shown the slide a couple times over the last year or so. You can see that star in green there. Avon had a successful referendum in 2025. 25 session, they moved it so that you can only have referendums on even number of years in November. And so what you see is you have all the schools with red stars. They expire 2026 most likely. You'll see them on the ballot in 26. Also, if you're expiring in 27, you probably need to move it forward. So you'll
061probably see some of the yellow star as well. If you're expiring in 28, 29, 30, I think we might see some of the other districts showing up on the 26th as well as if you lose a referendum you have get an opportunity to go again 28 for anybody listening to the star that is not an option so big big conversations in a lot of different communities around key messages I want to drive home tonight appropriation is the maximum spending authority When we present further details, we talk about cash flow. We're aligning those to shape priorities which are supported by operating capital funds. And then the last few years we've been appropriating our rain a fund for adjusting case and also our referend to address needs. We're trying to always work towards the sustainability uh in
062the long term. always looking to what we're trying to trying to fund academic success through our academic authorities. reminder of what the next steps are. We're doing our budget appropriations this month, the process, some of the considerations on March 10th, we'll have a public hearing and meet again. >> Thank you so much, President Commissioner. Do you have questions? Thank you for always presenting all this great information in a simple way. Um I'm always curious about the impact. So like what's the impact of losing the dollars? I know about showing us all the red but all the red to see how this really does impact say stories news articles sharing charter It's been the last year or so looking at tradeoffs for as to instructional supports. What we're trying to protect is classroom instruction with conversation
063about facilities transportation numbers that we've shared in the past. back in 2018 when he shifted the dollars down from the original superintendent at that time mentioned stated in the June presentation would be devastating that was used again I guess I'm asking is there a way to put it in the line just so we can Right. But just to see it all. So then we can say okay. So we can visual people can see. Okay. you know what can we do so we can start an issology all Certainly that's >> for the board. We're doing that level of conversation now um as an executive team and I think I hearken back to our our RBS days where we said we can do anything but we can't do everything. And so we are at that point um
064the fiscal considerations are significant. Um we should not understate this moment and the trade-offs that we have to make. We know our responsibility to students, families, and community is great. Um but we are going to have to operate in a different way in terms of decisions we make about expenditure reductions. And so being sure we're clear on those priorities and again to the extent that we can protect the classroom is going to be key. and going out to our community and asking them for their support in ensuring we can generate the additional revenue that we need so that we don't destabilize our students, our community, and our families. Both of those things are going to have to be true over the next several months. >> Wilson, do you know if um either across the country
065or Indiana there a school district that has relied on referendum dollars and has been shifted their policies no longer needed referendum dollars or um I know that this is the landscape of education right now but it seems as if it is a bandaid fix it shouldn't be the permanent fix for education and so I'm just wondering if there's been any examples of communities that have once used no longer in Indiana. I'm not aware I think everybody in this slide this is just everybody states other states we think it's shift in policy in a significant way if that's what it tast everybody in Indiana. What you see is that the cost of living, the amount of competition just between districts once once one school went out back 2011 for compensation and they won. Everybody has a
066problem to stay competitive until we all say, you know what, we don't need it. We all don't need it. We're going to stick to it. That's it's just running model for Indiana, other other places in Indiana, other pockets of Indiana. One goes out, they have a competitive edge, that revenue, we'll see others. I think 10 years from now, 15 years from now, policy shifts and govern Right now there's only one district in Marian County that hasn't gone out for a wars township has gone out multiple times and lost that's just county pretty much everybody goes out for one they discuss competitive west side county need out. So at some point every community has a plan to teach kids and to reach out priorities are pretty one of these communities and said you know what in
067order to do that we need to pass some places for example their town boundaries their city boundaries and their school district boundaries are the same town council school board they together and say, you know what, this is the tax rate we want. This is the community we want. This is what we want to do for you on that. Same boundaries, same county tax districts. It's just not the same. It's just one example of how it's different between Hamilton County versus county. your husband question. Do you, this is a long shot, but do you have any knowledge about for example Franklin who's tried and failed like how that affected them or do you have any knowledge about um like where other corporations are at that um because you you know that it is a referendum dependent
068state especially in Mar County. Do you have any examples of districts that have um been unsuccessful and what maybe what they've done or how that has affected them? >> Well, there's an example where early 2000s they failed. They basically removed transportation. They were all thinking the US Supreme Court and said transportation. Recently Hammond went up for a referendum loss. Immediately they went out and there's there's an action you can do as a board and say within here's a resolution to say we won't outer transportation after a certain date. The current I think at the time was years losing our passes is hey we're not providing transportation in three years that's one tool that's available that tool has moved from three years to one year so school anyway loses that's one tradeoff to protect instruction one
069would say transportation as the students and drivers enrollment for who shows up in the classroom choice district's going to probably rely on transportation district that's more neighborhood based. So Franklin Township have large buildings. Most of these buildings are built in the 60s7s. We have buildings that were built in 1911 1912. And our average size building see average size maybe 400 500 for elementary. You can go right across the district line to any of these township schools and you have 800 900 kids in elementary school. Middle schools might be over a thousand. Our middle schools are old high schools that have capacities of,200 to 2500 kids. Our community great spect part part of the plan for us is to have this tightknit community school drive kids too and other other districts are are making different choices
070as far as how they manage their cash flow again county >> does Franklin for transportation. When they did that, they actually sold the buses for a dollar and they have to buy them all back for a cost. Um, given that this is for operations, I you know, I know that we're all thinking about this and that you all have the greatest, but this new structure while we wait for the outcome. You know, you talk about Franklin not getting yours. What is the conversation around what makes our case, our story compelling besides Shar? Because if transportation is no longer with us, um then what is our what is the argument that compels folks to support us in operations? >> Well, I think we'll continue to shape that argument, but the way in which the law is
071established now, this board, our team would still be in charge and responsible for the academic experience of our students. And so when I think about the stability we want to ensure our families have uh the ways in which we still want to compete as it relates to our teachers and staff to choose IPS um and the commitment we want to make for our students to that that academic educational experience I think that becomes a part of the frame that's going to be critically important and the operating referendum dollars can be used to support all of those things. questions. >> Sorry. >> Thank you. >> Um, so I did have a question around um what is the current with the property tax? What's the percentage max that we can get? If you talk about property tax
072caps, if you're a homeowner, you only get 1% home 2% agriculture. You don't have much rescape value. Um and then question have we thought about you know I know in um Courtney's presentation last month she had mentioned that there are still two camp days for sped but only one of them is a is funded. So, one is funded at the top of the year, the October, but then the February first bed is not funded. Um, and I know even that second count day is still newer to us because we haven't always had a second one, but like is that an effort that's worth us advocating for to have that second one funded so that the dollars are split between the semesterers? Like, do we have that? Well, from the information that was being shared, I'm
073just thinking about like financials. The information that was being shared, it seemed like we get a significant number of students after that first count day. Um, and so if our second count day looks significantly different when it comes to special education students, I know that's not like getting more money, but it's like getting the dollars that are connected with that particular special education student. Have we considered that to advocate for that to be funded just like the other count general aid account? I would say I would agree that the second day provide more dollars historically to graduate. believe when we look at a spend gap is the fund funding isn't necessarily just on count here's the cost to deliver services for this kid right here's all the resources contracts etc transportation and here's my cost
074>> and the amount for a kid that was funded versus having a second accountate funding per kid that's not possible. I think I guess in a position where a second count day would be marginal be an increase. I think as we get the numbers deeper into the budget process what I'm seeing numbers the special education is just looking up right now lot of conversation about shifting here and there I guess decreasing on however the last three years special education numbers have increased. So in years where overall enrollment is decreasing the IPSA special education count has decreased. I think that's a policy decision that has to be wrestled with among our education community has done the count was 180 kids from last year to this year are IPS students per account at the same time generally
075So what is the role of the education safety net that is there to support the students with severe disability level one that that has to be recogn in our community. I'll use what's the cost to deliver services that should be a state should be a local district that >> and commissioner Thomas you probably are aware for all commissioner's knowledge there is a bill house bill 1325 being considered this session um that would require the study of the cost of these sort of services particularly those that we know are more expensive is a report due back um to the general assembly I believe by in the calendar or by fall and so there is um is going through the process looks I'm just looking like it's being supported um in the bipartisan way so there is
076some efforts happening at the state level to get under this um question around cost provision >> that's my last question >> is if you were to um you know think about this tight time frame where we need to get a referendum for all on the ballot. What do you think what would be like three action steps um that you would encourage community to do right now to support this effort to make sure one that we stay on track um and we actually get on the ballot and that we get it passed. bigger things. I >> think for me, you look at what we said in 2018 and look at what we've done. What we said as a community, the leadership we have, whether it be people that are appointed on a board or elected or
077superintendent who say this is what it is, this is what we're going to do. I'm living it again. That's why your vote. That was our final item for the city. And with that, we will adjourn it to executive session. And our next scheduled meeting is our action session on Wednesday, February 25th at 6 p.m. in the boardroom here. Having completed all items on the agenda, the board will now turn to session.