001Americ come up. >> Welcome. Coach Hart, you got it. >> Just push the little button. >> Oh, that's fancy. Okay. >> Uh, good afternoon everybody. >> Good afternoon everybody. >> Thank you. Um, first I just want to give all the glory to God. I mean, going back to back two seasons in a row. Um, it's it's never been done, at least since I've been around. So, it's been a pleasure to be a part of that. Uh, I'm going to try to keep it short. Uh, two, I just want to thank the families. Uh, we had some amazing parents over the last, some three years, others two years. Um, they help with transportation. Um, I mean, sometimes we drop them off at 6:00 a.m. practicing six days a week. like, you know, that's hard to do.
002Um, and just whenever we needed help, they was there. Um, and we kept it together like a family. So, that's the best thing about this program. Um, and then two or three, I want to shed light on our coaches staff. Uh, we had some amazing coaches over the last three years, again, going back to back. I appreciate Mr. Winston for joining us, Coach Booker for joining us. Um, I know when Coach Booker first joined, we was kind of like, what's going on? Um, but she became family with us and then she embraced all the girls and the girls love her. Um, and then lastly, I just want to give a huge shout out to the girls. I don't think they understand what they did. Um, not only did they go to back to back, but
003when we talk about just excellence, they was invested from the jump. I mean, I challenged them academically. We got girls on our team with 4.0's and 3.8s. makes um that's a huge that's a huge pillar and again when we talking about investments um even keeping track of how many days they miss practice I mean they at every practice whether we Saturday at the high school at war or a random Saturday practice just at Crescent I mean they showed up they didn't complain they didn't pout um and then two I want to give a shout out for just again behavior-wise um it's hard to keep a team together throughout the entire season. We had nobody drop off behavior-wise. So, another shout out for that. And then just um being invested in the community and giving back.
004A lot of kids look up to him. Uh I know specifically my daughter like during our last game, she shed some tears and I was so confused. I didn't know why she was crying and I'm like, "Why are you crying?" She's like, "That's your last game?" I'm like, "Yeah, you already knew that though." and she was um and I just asked her why she was crying and she told me she said she going to miss them because they made her feel comfortable every time she came to the gym. And um as a fourth grader and trying to build a program in Warren like that's what you want. You want leaders and every single last one of these girls are leaders. So um and I just want to go down the line real quick. Um so
005we got Eva up first holding the trophy again. I don't think she I don't think she get enough credit for how much she helped us win and and just being a leader. She sacrificed a lot. I mean, she could played on any other team and been a superstar and averaged 30 points, but she sacrificed. Um, so again, I I commend her on that. Uh, next we got Maya. I'm pretty sure everybody know Maya just being Maya. Again, I met her fifth grade and uh challenged her since then just just to be a competitor, be a leader. Again, it's hard to do the right things every single day. it's easy to do the wrong things and I mean she took it on the chin and and was a leader from day one. Um and then next
006we have Um probably the most annoying on the team, a lot of energy if you know her, but again sometimes we need a little crazy on the team. So I just always told her just continue to be yourself everywhere you go. >> Uh who was next? Ka. >> Um thankful for her. Again, she was injured during the beginning of our season. Again, just sacrificing. She's easily was a starter last year. This year, she had to play a different role, but she didn't complain, not once, and she bounced back by the end of the season and made moments in games that again contributed to us winning. So, that says a lot about her character, just being resilient. So, I want to give a huge shout out to her. Who's next? Is Ken standing up? >> All
007right, next we have Ken Pin. Again, just one of our leaders since day one coming in sixth grade. Um, >> again, just been a leader, one of our best shot makers. Um, and her voice is annoying. She can't sing. Who? We got Bryley aka Bdub. Uh, so glad that she joined us. again, just her growth throughout the season. Uh, just being a part of family. Again, like I said, we don't win without without her. Um, she came up big in a lot of games. So, and again, one of our leaders in the classroom, 3.9 GPA. Like, you can't ask for a better leader. So, >> next last Brooke. >> Uh, again, Brooke just brings so much joy to the team. Brooklyn Bailey. So, huge shout out to her and uh surprisingly like one of our
008best athletes if you know that u if you've been in the gym with her, super hard worker, super outgoing and just somebody you love be around. So, uh just thank everybody who supported us through our journey for the last three years. Uh I'm going to miss a lot of these girls. So, um just thank you all. I'm gonna actually shift a little bit this way. So, we're not trying to get that in the background. >> Sorry. >> There we go. There we go. >> The trophy. >> Trophy's up front. >> All right. Here we go. >> You want to go through? Have you guys Congratulations. >> Don't let coach get >> congratulations. Oh, sorry. >> I'm better than that. I promise. >> Thanks for everything you did. >> Great job, Kristen. Girls basketball. We're now
009gonna call up Mr. Kumler and Pleasant Run. >> Good evening, President Amos, Dr. Hansen, board members and community. It is great to see so many Pleasantr run families and staff here this evening. Thank you for joining us. As we look ahead to our 92% goal for i readad and to meet or exceed the state average on ilearn by 2028, I'm excited to highlight this evening the literacy initiatives currently in place at Pleasant Run to help make these goals a reality for our students and staff. This evening, I'm excited to discuss and share about our Circle City Readers team and initiatives, our CKLA literacy instructional focus, and the literacy work within our dual language program. At this time, I would like to introduce Bridget Kennedy and Leia Bartlett, our Circle City lead tutors, to highlight the
010work that they are currently doing at Pleasant Run and to introduce their team. Ladies, >> thank you, Mr. Kumler. Circle City Readers believes that every child can make meaningful progress in reading and gain the confidence to become skilled readers. Our Circle City Readers program is a high dosage tutoring program that serves grades kindergarten through third grade across 10 elementary schools in Marian County. Each of our sessions are designed to help build foundational skills through engaging datadriven and individualized instruction and phmic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Mr. Commer, how do you Our tutoring team is what really makes this program work. There are power or there is power in people. Our team provides consistent high quality instruction and we bring a strong passion for literacy development along with a deep commitment to student success. Our
011literacy tutors come from diverse backgrounds and we share a strong connection to the community and a desire to make an impact. We would like to introduce and bring to the front our tutoring team. Holly Morgan, she is our direct deputy director of the office of education and innovation. We have Allison Beachch who is our literacy operations manager. I'm Leia Bartlett, one of the lead tutors. This is Bridget Kennedy, our other lead tutor. >> We have Mr. Charles Miller, also known as Mr. Zeke. We have Evelyn Pierce Hicks. Deja Pierce, and Mary Williams. Cir. Oh, I always have to remember I have to lower the microphone. Circle City Readers was created for a very specific p purpose. We wanted to close the literacy gap for our youngest learners, especially those that struggle with reading. I think
012we all know that if we can close that literacy gap, we can change a child's education forever. This work was initially funded through grants and is now currently funded through our city with great support from our mayor and our city county council. In the spring of 2023, we launched as a pilot. That was very successful. So, we moved on into the fall of 2023, expanding to 10 schools across the city of Indianapolis, two in Warren Township, one of course, Pleasant Run. Um, at the core of what we do, like Leia shared, this is a high impact to dosage tutoring for our students that gives us targeted literacy instruction that is focused specifically for the needs of each student. We'd like to share some of the progress and outcomes that we have seen in our program
013since 2023. Circle City Readers has seen 20 283 students at Pleasant Run Elementary. Each student we have a contribution of about $2500 of investment into their literacy intervention. Our model is intentionally structured. Students work in small groups of only three to four students for 30 minute sessions four days a week. This allows us to provide consistent, targeted literacy instruction that is designed to specifically meet the needs of each student. We work in close partnership with the Pleasant Run Elementary staff and we now serve as part of their tier 2 support system. All of this is what helps drive our success. I wanted to share one small point to us um one high program highlight. Um, over the past three years, about threearters of our kindergarten students in the Circle City Readers program come in as
014needing the highest amount of intervention for their literacy development. By the end of the year, that number drops to roughly onethird of our students. And on top of that, every student that has come through the Circle City Reader program at Pleasant Run Elementary has demonstrated measurable literacy growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Of course, there's no way we could do anything any part of this without good school and community partnerships. I'm going to start first with Pleasant Run. We are as a team incredibly grateful that we get to work at Pleasant Run. It is a joy to come to work every day. We love the entire staff, the entire school. Everyone just makes it incredible to come here. Of course, the students, the staff, everyone. Um, it is
015a collaborative effort and we know that we are always aligned with one goal. What is the best thing to do for each student? The next big part of our success are our tutors. They are the heart of our day-to-day work. >> They are. This is a deeply dedicated, passionate group of people. Some experienced educators, some are not. But everyone shares a strong commitment to help students succeed. They come prepared. They show up for their kids. They create structured, supportive learning environments that help students grow into strong readers. And our students, they're at the center of all the relationships that we build. Our tutors know their students. They know their strengths. They know their challenges. And they know what motivates them. They celebrate in every success. And they are there to support for all the challenges.
016These relationships are the heart of our work and they're a major driver of our students success. I will add a few more points to what Bridget said. We really pride ourselves on supporting students with growing their confidence in Circle City Readers is actually one of the most rewarding parts of the work that we do. We get to see them watch and grow and learn to trust theelves and make mistakes and know that it's okay in this journey of becoming a skilled reader. Sometimes when we meet readers, they're very hes hesitant to work with us at first, but over the course of a year, four days a week, we built a strong relationship and they love Circle City Readers and we love working with them. Lastly, well, not lastly, but our school is has a strong
017culture and of encouragement and celebration. So when we came in to Pleasant Run as a supplemental program, we just continued the amazing work that they're already doing. We are encouraging our students together. It's a collaborative effort between the tutor and the teacher and the student. We celebrate the small wins. Whether that's persevering through a lesson or learning a new sound or mastering a new concept or reading a sentence independently, we celebrate each win in Circle City Readers. And we can share all night, but we won't keep you here all night. We can share about the data and the structure of our program, but it does it no justice. We would like to invite some of our students that participate in Circle City Readers to share their thoughts with you. We would like to welcome Jesse
018Jazelle Lenaria >> and I tried to see him but here I'll stand right with you. Would you like to go first? Read your statement. Jazelle, can you go first? Okay. Thank you. Here you go. Would you like You got this. >> Hi. >> My name is Chazelle and I am in first grade. My favorite part of Circle City Readers is that I like when we read about gardens and I like getting stickers. >> Thank you. My name is Jesse and I am in third grade. I love Circle City Readers because I liked reading a book about President Obama. Hello, my name is and I am a second grader. I what I love about Soo City of Eden is about learning frogs in our books. back one. Let's give another big round of applause to our
019wonderful students and marriage Jazelle and Jesse. They are absolute joy to work with every day. Um we are growing readers. We are building confidence at Circle City Readers. We could not be more thankful for the opportunity to do this work and especially to do it at Pleasant Runs. We want to say thank you to Mr. Kumler for inviting us to speak today and thank you to the board for inviting us to be here also. Thank you so much. >> Circle City Readers team and tutors. Thank you for all of all that you do for Pleasant Run. Our students are lucky to have you. Thank you again. >> Next, I would like to highlight the literacy focus within our dual language program and the support that we provide for our ML students. At this time, if
020our ML team would come forward, Mrs. Thresh, Miss Williams, and Miss Haw. These three ladies provide support to over 200 students at Pleasant Run on a daily basis, utilizing language studio to preview vocabulary, retach important concepts, and to reinforce listening, speaking, and writing. Let's give these three ladies a round of applause. And now for the fun part. Within each CKLA knowledge unit, there is an overall theme. Our dual language students have taken these themes and developed class poems that they would like to share with you guys this evening. Please note that they will be reading these in English and then in Spanish. So, uh, in our first grade recently, they studied animals. So, first grade students, if you would make your way forward so you can share your poem. There you go. Follow us. Nobody
021wants to come. All right. >> Count the tree. Okay. This animal world and Monkey so sweet water every day in their article. Hello. You are you I am not God. All right, excellent job. First graders, you're just going to head over by Miss Williams over there. Second grade's focus was on insects. So, second graders, please make your way forward. I will quiet your friends. Go this way. There you go. All right, second grade. Nice and loud. butterfly as an egg and it is so hard to see. It gets bigger and fatter. Do you believe is complete? Thank you. All right, third graders, please make your way up here. Third grade's focus was on the solar system. Next time don't All right, our third graders will be reading their poem on the solar system in Spanish
022only. I am sister. Wow. All right. Awesome job. >> And then finally, our fourth graders. Their focus was on the American Revolution. >> So, fourth graders, come on up. Okay, great. Where's Jiggle at? All right, fourth grade. Nice and loud. >> From war to hopeful land on papers. Super together we liberty and we learned the Americans. Americana. All right, if we could give everyone another round of applause. Excellent job. Board members, community members, as always, we appreciate your your support of Pleasant Run and we hope everyone has a great evening. Thank you so much. I just turned into animal butterfly insect butterfly and insect. I know. >> Second one. It wasn't right there. >> Little chicken. I got less. over the banana. Okay. On you. Second grade follow that way. Follow Send that out to
023you. Following this line right here. That's >> candy. There you go. >> Okay, you guys ribbon. Everybody >> are up here. >> First grade. >> Keep those feet on. Excellent job. >> Great job twice. You did a good job. >> Like frogs. >> Good job. >> You did a great job. Good job. >> Shake their hands. >> The one that you're right your next boy Yeah. Speaking of >> You got too much. >> Oh man. doing a great job. ribbon. >> We've been knowing each other. baby now. >> Awesome. It was awesome. >> Great job, you guys. It was awesome >> as always. Thank you so much. >> Oh my god. Fire marshall system. Great job. That was awesome. >> Thank you for all you do. It's good to see you. >> Good job. >>
024I'm good. Thank you. >> Amazing. so much. >> I was staring at the baby. >> Thank you to you, too. >> Was that your Take that. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Congratulations. >> I know you. >> Thank you so much. Did you >> know you like >> Great job again. >> That's awesome. picture. I just wanted to make sure they got you guys all done. Thank you. Did amazing. Where's your parent? >> That little girl right there. Thank you very much, Pleasant Run. >> We are now going to move on to our superintendent report. >> All right, >> you got one. >> Thank you. You guys left. I'm happy. Thank you. >> You'll have them for the rest of the year. I sold all of mine. So I was like,
025>> President Amos, members of the board, uh, community members, my report can't follow Mr. Kumler in Pleasant Run. That was amazing. It's been an incredibly busy um 2026 and since the last time, I've put a lot of my activities there. Just real quick, kind of a 60-cond highlight. Yesterday, the Indianapolis East Rotary had its scholarship lunchon where we recognize six amazing seniors. Um, the scholarship was for $1,000. And since Rotary has been in existence since 1989, the club has given over $250,000 in senior scholarships. and the six young people we met yesterday. I think half of them were going to IU, Purdue, and University of Maryland. Um, so we got to hear kind of all the activities that they're involved in at the high school and then future plans and their families joined us as
026well. It was just an awesome celebration. Want to give a Warren well shout out to all of those that were involved in the district STEM fair. One of the things I love about that event is when you think about our journey of a graduate skills, all of the skills come to life um during that experiment and the presentation and and just from start to finish and listening to the young people explain kind of what they were trying to do with their projects. And um we do need to challenge our boys though a little bit because I think they were outnumbered maybe three to one. Um the girls the girls are winning right now. Um but congratulations to Stony Brook. I know that they participated last weekend um in the district regional fair. So good luck,
027congratulations to them. Want to give some uh Warren Wall shout out to LOL. Um over the time I was able to attend three of their events. Their PTA won a grant for Ready Tech Go and it brought in families to really learn more about social media, screen time, really some of the things that you can put in place to help limit that for our young kids. Uh we attended their 22nd kindness and justice celebration uh which was amazing where they give money to our early childhood center, the American Heart Association, Riley Hospital and um a local humane society and then they had a night of night at the arts last week um where they showcased all the student art and I want to give it up to Mrs. McLaclin because she, you know, we have
028a new reading curriculum this year and she was very intentional with coordinating her art projects with the the stories that the kids were reading in in um in class. Um so love that that coordination. Want to give a shout out to Early Childhood Center for their annual Rhythm and Hughes. Uh you could not find a parking spot there. I'm sure our Jane Paulie neighbors uh saw that um last week. Um get want to thank our our partnerships. We were fortunate to have Jay Huff from the Indiana Pacers. Uh the Warren Arts and Education Foundation helped organize that for our kids at Crestston. I mentioned Indianapolis East Rotary and the work that they do for our scholarships. Um Sunny Heights is going to receive a new playground thanks to uh an organization called Kaboom and a
029fun a local funer uh called Lids Inc. Um so that's going to happen here in over the next couple months, but we're really excited and thankful for that. I happened to um have the opportunity to go to a artificial intell intelligence conference uh last Friday um up in Noblesville at the new uh innovation mile and during one of the breaks this young man comes up to me and um it was DJ Ward uh he's a class of 2023 Warren grad he's attending Marian University and he's studying computer science and for me just to interact with him at that level was was awesome and I said, "I got to get a picture of you, DJ." And um his dad is actually a teacher for us, too, over over at Raymond Park. And um then I ran
030into his coach the next day. And um everyone's hopeful that DJ's going to have a great great year. >> Yes. Yes. >> Last but not least, um board, you know, and Mr. Kumler mentioned it tonight that I read is a one of our priority goals and I I want to give a shout out to our preschool, our kindergarten, first, second, and third grade teachers. We continue to move that um literacy trajectory in the right direction. Our second graders performed 7% higher this year than they did last year. Um amazing. >> And our third graders um performed 5% higher than they did last year. We're still not where we want to be. So the students will have another chance to pass um that test. Second graders get one more. Third graders get two more attempts. Um,
031but I'm really proud. I want to thank um Ryan Russell, uh, Cage Schwarz, Allison Woods, T And Anderson, all those that that raised the bar for the expectations, but then also put in all the support for that to happen. So, congratulations to them and we look forward to um, seeing where we end up there. We know that this is a demanding stretch of the school year getting from winter break to spring break. I just want to thank all of our staff, our students, our families. The weather has been I don't even have a word to describe it. uh the pressure of testing. This is testing season for all of our kids and just a really tough stretch. Um so we have spring break coming up. Um Friday is our last day and I just really
032want to wish everyone a relaxing and uh safe spring break. Um, at this time we are going to honor Janiah Bracken as our past student representative on our board. This is a token of our appreciation for your service as a student representative from the high school. Um, we're going to miss you. We appreciate everything you brought to us, the challenges and the things that we can get better at the high school and just keeping us informed. So, thank you so much. >> Um, thank you guys so much for the opportunity to be on the board and just, you know, speak, learn, just carry all the skills that I've learned here with me to college and eventually become the lawyer that I want to be. Thank you. behind you. >> Janiah Janiah, I have one correction.
033The lawyer that you're going to be All right, we will now move on to city announcements with Miss Sydney Starks. Good evening everyone. I hope everybody's having a good night tonight. Um, so I do have a few announcements to go over, not too many. So the first one would be the upcoming Coffee with the Cop. So it will be on Tuesday, March 31st from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. It will be in Irvington. It's at the Sleepy Hollow Gourmet Deli and Cafe, but that's at 5612 East Washington Street. Great opportunity to connect with local law enforcement, FaceTime with them, and be able to ask any um questions that you may have as well. Um, so I'm still promoting Project Indie. So, we are targeting the age groups of 16 to 24. So any of our
034high schoolers or students that are coming home for the summer, we've been promoting jobs with um some indie parks as well as um a couple different other programs under project indie. So for more information, you can visit projectindy.net. Um and then I also have resources as well, different questions that you may have, I can always answer those as well. Um, still promoting the IMPD East blood drive that'll be coming up um April 17th. That is a Friday. It's from noon to 6 pm at their headquarters, 2011 North Shadellin um with the American Red Cross. I still would like an amazing turnout for that to honor um late officer uh Brienne Leaf. And then this Saturday, we also have the IMPD Community Engagement and Outreach Bureau. They're throwing the Easter egg hunt. Um it is bring
035your own basket, but um they're asking um it's different age groups. So it's at the JTV Hill Center, which is 1806 Columbia A. Um they are um looking for registration, but it is there. They are having the event Rain or Shine. Um hot dogs, bouncy houses, face paintings, different vendors and resources as well. And even the Easter Bunny will be showing up around 10:30 a.m. So if you want to take some photos with the Easter Bunny, um they have different age groups for different times. So 2 to four years old is 11:00 a.m. 5 to 8 years old is 11:30 a.m. 9 to 11 years old is noon and then 12 to 13 year olds are 12 to 12:30. So those are the different hunt times. So hoping to support them there. Um, and then
036another update, the IMPD East uh, task force, their next meeting is April 8th, and that's from 6:00 to 7 PM at 2011 North Shadellin. Um, the next one after that is May 13th, and I will be giving a presentation there as well. Um, on behalf of the mayor's office, so I will be there. Um, another event going on this, uh, Saturday, there's two events I want to talk about. So, they have the, um, community electronics recycling day. So, I know they had one at Butler University. um not too long ago, but they do have one um at 16 te tech the um amp. And that's going to be uh Saturday, March 21st from 9:00 am to 12:30. Um all items are free to recycle except TVs and refrigerators. So different um items are allowed. I
037have more information on that, too. And then I do want to promote um a tree planting that's going on in East Warren. Um it's a it's a collaboration between uh Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and the Interfaith Tree Planting. So that's at East 21st Street. Um and that is this Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Um they also would like people to register as well. Uh free event. Um super awesome. They do have a um goal of how many trees they'd like to plant. They're hoping to achieve 130. I hope we can get them there. If you have any questions about that, please let me know. Um, I believe it's going to be a beautiful day on Saturday. So, I think it'll be a perfect day for that. Um, and then something I do want to point
038attention to that will be coming up later in the year. They usually have it around this time of year, but things change. So, um, with the INRC, um, the Indianapolis Neighborhood, uh, Resource Center, they're having their neighbor power indie, which is, um, a really nice initiative that they have where neighborhoods can come together, learn more, um, open forums, different things of that nature. So, they are having a save the date. So, registration will be open um, late May, but they're shooting to have it for Saturday, July 25th, and that'll be at the University of Indianapolis. Um, it used to be held at Martin University, so change of venues, but still a great thing. Um, I'll be updating once we get closer to that time, but wanted to make sure I put that on people's radars.
039Um, other than that, those are my announcements. Would anybody have any questions or would you like me to repeat anything? >> Yes. Um, the Easter egg event, when is that again? >> Yeah, you said when. Where is it? >> When? It's this Saturday. So, it's Saturday. >> Mhm. So, it's uh March 21st, rain or shine. Um Easter Bunny R arrives at 10:30 a.m., but uh the first I guess the hunt starts at 11:00. >> Oh, okay. And uh IMPD is sponsoring this. >> Yes. Their community outreach. >> 1806 uh Columbia Avenue. Yes. Is that a particular building? >> It's the JTV Hill Center. >> JTV Okay. center. >> Okay. And um also you said that if we had any other questions, do you have a contact number or something for >> Yes. Um you can
040reach out to I don't know their numbers on top of my head, but officer uh Stacy Rio and then also officer Roman uh Williams. I have all their contact information. They are the community outreach unit for IMPD East District. Um so I have all their contacts, too. If anyone wants to reach out, my email is Sydney sydney ey.starks sindy.gov.stark. Okay. Sydney Sydney.starksind.gov. iindy.gov. >> Okay. >> And you can email me about any other things too. Any other questions you have. >> Okay. Because I wanted to check with you about the jobs. So this is how I would contact you. Yeah. >> Um just email you. Sny sn Starks at indie.gov. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. I hope everybody has a great evening. >> Thank you as always.
041We appreciate you. Um, now we'll move on to board correspondents. Secretary, do we have any? >> No, we do not, Madam President. >> Madam Secretary, do we have any blue cards? >> No, we do not, Madam President. >> All right. We will now move on to our consent agenda um with our approval of minutes, financial reports, human resource reports, field trip requests, permission to accept um gifts and grants, change orders, contracts, use of school properties, special events and contracts, conflict of interest. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. I was sh >> It was Rachel and then Julie in the discussion. Mr. Howard, did yours pop up? Would you like to give your vote and um Kim can enter it for you? >> Thank you. >> All right. So, that passes. And with that,
042we now have a new officer from Chief Northingington to swear in. Madam President, Dr. Hansen. Distinguished members of the board, we're here tonight to swear in our newest officer, uh, Officer Eberado Escobido. Um, he comes to us from McCordsville. Uh, he's been with us now for approximately a month and his assignment going forth will most likely be Stony Brook Middle School. If you would raise your right hand. I state your name. >> I, Erdard Cabetto, >> do solemnly swear >> that at all times >> in the performance of my duties >> abide by the laws and constitutions of the United States of America >> abide by the laws and constitution of the United States of America >> and the Constitution of the State of Indiana >> and the Constitution of the State of Indiana. abide
043by the policies and regulations >> abide by the policies and regulations >> established by the board of education >> of the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township >> metropolitan school district of Warren Township >> and the Warren Township Police Department >> and the Warren Township Police Department. >> I will speak the truth at all times. >> I will speak the tr truth at all times. >> Act with impartiality towards others. with impartiality towards others >> and respect the rights of others at all times >> and and respect the rights of others at all times. >> I will protect life and property >> and endeavor to be a credit >> endeavor to be credit >> to the community which I serve. >> So help me God. Ready? Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, Chief Northingington,
044your safety report. Again, Madame President, distinguished members of the board, Dr. Hansen, it's my pleasure to share with you guys get into presentation. It's my pleasure to share with you guys a snippet of information regarding the focus and initiatives of the Warren PD for the 2025 2026 school year. As I begin, I'd like to take a moment to reiterate our board goals. I do this because I believe that our board goals require us to focus our attention on the most essential part of the war strategic plan which is actually our people, our students. Our goals invest in the academic excellence and achievement. Invest in the war student journey and the meeting the needs of the whole child. Invest in our people. Invest in family and community engagement. invest in safety and operational excellence. Here we
045we have a brief outline. Uh though my plan is to focus primarily on the school resource officer position. We'll touch on a little bit of the history of Warren Township, the police department. Uh give some information regarding our current staffing levels. Uh talk about the understanding and true purpose of the role of the SRO. Um, we'll also address uh the prison pipeline, the school to prison pipeline, and discuss some alternatives to arrest. Some of what I discuss will be a review. However, I believe that it's worth uh repeating as it is a reminder of the great work that we do with regards to safety and security here in the township. The Warren Township School Police Department was established in 2014. Uh some of you uh uh board members may have been here during that time.
046Uh Mr. Dorsey, I think I were you here during that time? >> Yeah. Um but during that time, at that time, the school uh corporation expressed a desire to create a professional personal personalized police department that had at the center of its mission student success. This meant intentionally leveraging opportunities to build relationships through student and community engagement initiatives, which meant SRO's would need to capitalize on lunch periods, school sponsored events, town halls, school safety drills, and any other opportunity to reach our young people. The school corporation and the board of education demonstrated its commitment to our students. uh and families when the staff increased the financial investment in safety in 2023 following the approval of the operating referendum. The funding allocation is currently at 100% of the dollars earmarked for safety and security and this
047reflects the integrity uh in our processes. we did uh and are doing what we told the community we would do and information regarding the funding allocations are here for your review. The board of education also uh and the district also expressed its commitment to safety which resulted in an increase in the total number of safety personnel and more specifically sworn police officers. Warren PD offer uh operates using a hybrid model which consists of school resource officers and school safety officers. Many districts have either or but not both. We've committed to having both school resource officers and school safety officers. The role of the school resource officer is probably one of the most misunderstood roles in education. The uniqueness of the position oftentimes is misunderstood by SRO's when they initially come into the position by other
048law enforcement officers and sometimes by the general public. Those who support the SRO role play a crucial role. Those who support the SRO role contend that SRO's play a crucial role in overall school safety. The other hand, those that are critics put forth that SRO roles in schools contributes to increased rates of disciplinary actions and referrals to the juvenile justice system. Again, for us, our mission is to leverage our area of responsibility, which is school safety, into an educational opportunity whereby we support all of our students. What that educational opportunity looks like differs from student to student based on individual needs. In general, uh, for training, SRO's complete 600 hours of training to be certified as a law enforcement officer in the state of Indiana. Following that completion, our SRO's complete an additional 40 hours
049of specialized training. That specialized training it was developed by the National Association of School Resource Officers with a focus on deescalation techniques, mental health awareness, managing students with disabilities and autism, legal education, juvenile law, and immediate response to violence and campus threats. 2024, we updated our job descriptions to reflect the required qualifications consistent with the expectations of best practice by NASRO. The NASRO triad model incorporates three distinct roles, the law enforcement officer, the informal counselor slashmentor, and the public safety educator. This multi-dimensional role continues to help us warn PD build a culture of safety that addresses campus safety and offers guidance and support to students and provides instruction in law related matters. 2024, we also under the guidance of the board and in collaboration with district administration and building leaders, we drafted the Warren Township
050Police Department, our police partnership agreement. This agreement helped further clarify the role of the SRO in managing day-to-day disruptions while leaving school discipline solely in the hands of teachers and administrators. There are some myths that are commonly associated with SRO's in schools and one of those is a police officer creates a culture of fear. The reality is for many students SRO's are a trusted mentor. Ours Warren PD we aim to provide a positive consistent police interaction that reshapes students perceptions of safety. For example, within the last 30 days, our officers, two of which are here, uh, one is officer Escobido and the other is officer Harris, our officers have, I wouldn't necessarily say, gone above and beyond, but I do want to give an example of what we do. We had uh a student who
051we were asked to do a welfare check on. We went to that student's house, 14year-old, found that uh he was being left unsupervised for long periods of time. Uh connected with the counselor who requested the welfare check who also then in turn contacted DCS. Uh, this kid's mom lived in Colorado and so we coordinated with the mom in Colorado uh to get the kid his belongings, get him to DCS. DCS actually arranged a flight to get him back to Colorado. That was one example of the types of work that we do. The other, um, there was a student that got into a bus fight and he didn't want to get back on the bus. There were several buses that tried to pick him up and bring him to school. He didn't respond to any of
052that, but what he did respond to was one of our officers. And this was not under the threat of punishment. This was simply by building relationships. Um, and then as early as as today, these same two uh a student, we didn't know it was one of ours. A call came out this morning. We didn't know it was one of ours of a student or young person down. They responded to the scene. Uh we got the students information, confirmed that he was one of ours. He had been in an argument with his parents, so he was fine. So he was disregarded. However, he didn't want to go to school or come to school. So he disappeared into a treeine. His mom later contacted us um told us that uh a member of his family had his
053location. His location was in Mount Comfort. He had walked to the highway, uh, hitchhiked, and went to a McDonald's in Mount Comfort. These two officers called me and asked me if it would be okay for them to go to Mount Comfort to see if he would come back with them. They went to Mount Comfort, the McDonald's, identified the student, talked with him, and brought him back to school. So that is just an example of what of what and how we employ this NASRO model that we follow to make sure that our students are safe, make sure that they're secure uh because this is a part of what we do. This is the uniqueness of our role. There are other examples that I could give um deescalation type examples um responding to things that we wouldn't
054normally think that police officers respond to, but this is what helps us uh embrace our students and this is what helps our students embrace us. Um in addressing the school to prison pipeline, uh we recognize the concerns regarding the criminalization of student behavior. We understand that the school to prison pipeline uh pipeline is a valid concern. However, through our training and embracing the principles of restorative just restorative justice, we seek outcomes that are rooted in what's in the best interest of the child. Emotional intelligence, cultural competence, understanding the students community, the students and the communities that we serve. This is what drives and helps guide our decisions when we use officer discretion. from this holistic approach and the proper application of the triad model expressed in in NASRO. This often times serves as a diversion
055to the criminal justice system. It often times serves as a pipeline block to that prison school to prison pipeline. In collaboration with MCRC uh and the high school, we're looking to develop a drug awareness program uh a campaign coupled with drug awareness that focuses on the negative effects of vaping, both physical and legal. We've also created a brief presentation for middle school parents and students regarding the potential dangers of social media. And our ultimate goal and outcome is to reduce the criminalization of youth behaviors that would otherwise be noncriminal. This is a part of WPD's prevention first initiative which is a carry on from the 2025 board goals and strategic plan. And this is where we oper uh prioritize safety and operational excellence. This is our team. Uh again, we've now got because of your
056forward thinking and progressiveness, we now have 10 full-time sworn officers. We have four part-time officers who are not pictured here. We have our 10 full-time SSOs and we have one part-time SSO. That would conclude my brief presentation and I'd be happy to answer any questions that any of you might have. Chief, I don't have u many questions, but I would like to make a statement that being trauma informed and going outside the box and making meaningful connections before corrections is always a pivotal moment to be able to make a connection during a crisis. So, thank you for being proactive with establishing the relationships with our students so when they are in a crisis and need a time to trust that they're not afraid of the uniform. So, that is, you know, one of my passion
057purpose areas. So, I really truly appreciate um you all because you do have the authority, but what good is the authority if no one is listening? So, thank you for utilizing the multi-dimensional model and keeping that trauma narrative and understanding that mentorship is where your leadership is most important. And then a lot of times you don't have to use the handcuffs because you can use your words to be able to make a difference. So, thank you. Thank you officers for going above and beyond. Um, and I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> And I would like to just say ditto to Lanna everything that she said. I was going to say and I wanted to ask, you know, many times our um students don't know how to react when they see officers. Do you run
058into that problem? Is there any um training or to students on how to uh do you get a chance to go and talk to groups of students about how they should react when they're approached by officers and how to interact with officers? >> Uh yes, ma'am. We we actually uh seek to make those opportunities. Uh we're working with the high school now. Uh, Miss Taylor has invited us to participate in town halls uh and some uh parent meetings at the start of the school year to put us in front of uh our students so that they are aware of who we are and that they understand that we are here for them. It's not our goal. It's not our mission to lock up our students. It's our mission to keep our students in school. And
059with that, I I want to express uh some thanks to uh Mr. Russell Ryan. I talked to him and uh he's his comment to me was to narrow your focus. And and so with that, at the center of what we do, at the center of everything we do is our students. And we do that not because we have to. We do that because we care. And I want to say thank you for taking that time out to go over and beyond the call of duty. You know, you know that you have the power to arrest and do all of that, but to and those two officers. I commend you and everyone else that's working under your leadership. is great to know that we have caring officers that care about our students and they try to
060do what they can to help, you know, and and go through whatever you can do. I think arrest is the last measure, you know, that you might have to go through. But it's good to know that you try to do all kind of preventive things to keep that from happening. So, thank you for your service. >> Yes, ma'am. And since I started the shout outs, Dr. Hans, I want to shout you out too. Thank you, sir. You've been very, very supportive. Uh, Marcus, wherever you are, um, you've also been supportive and who Dr. Sullivan, I saw you earlier. Uh, Dr. Sullivan has been supportive as well. Uh, very instrumental in us uh, developing uh, our drug program and trying to get that up and running. So, thank you all. I appreciate it. Thank you, Chief.
061We appreciate you. And with that, we are going to move on to our human resource report with Brian, Pam, and Lita. There we go. Okay. Just like that. See, invest in our people. >> President Amos, Dr. Hansen, members of the board. It's March, so it's time for the annual HR report to the board. Uh, invest in our people. That's our motto. That's what we're about. Um, and I am uh joined here this evening by uh Pam Griffin, deputy human resource officer, and Lita Keith, HR, human resources administrator. Uh, the MSD Warren Township School Board is committed to fostering a culture of belonging and continuous growth by investing in our greatest asset, our people. Uh, you've heard me mention, you know, many times that we are indeed a people business. And as Chief just showed, um,
062you know, sometimes folks think of a school district, they think of just teachers, but we have quite a widespread array of different employee groups that do all kinds of things. Um, it's it's quite impressive. Um, for years, the board has shared many of our same goals when it comes to investing in our people. A couple that I want to highlight tonight that are the focus of this presentation are um leveraging mentoring programs, colleges and universities and professional organizations to develop capable, driven leaders in the classroom and throughout the district and then to increase certificated employee retention rates to 90%. You'll see as we present tonight that um our investments in systems upgrades as well as mentorship and pathways for teaching um um directly support these priorities. Our strategic plan focus area invest in our people
063is one of the major pillars, one of our major focuses. Uh one of the major pieces of that, one of our major goals is to have a um 90% retention rate for certified staff. I'm happy to report that as of the end of last year going into the beginning of this year, we had a 90.3% retention rate. Um so that means approximately uh when school started this year, we had about 667 educators returning. And uh that is particularly impactful because uh as you can imagine when you're when you have high turnover um you know that's just a lot of extra time and money and effort to rehire folks and positions to fill vacancies. and the time it takes to retrain folks um is quite involved and it's particularly impactful now that we are committed to
064um our standards align curriculum and our high quality instructional materials. So when we have folks stay on board and continue to get trained uh and stay with it um it really does help and impacts our student achievement and that's ultimately the goal. This is our team. Uh, you know, we we have about 1,700 uh employees full-time and part-time. Uh, it's quite a quite the operation that we run here. Uh, we're one of the biggest employers on the far east side. Um, like I said, we have our own police department, technology, we have our own plumbers, electricians, HVAC, you know, uh, bus garage repair, you name it. It's it's quite the operation that we run. And it really is amazing how many great people we have just the right spots. It really is something from our
065perspective. Um and uh as a team uh you can see there for Halloween we were M&M's and uh this this particular picture was at the early childhood center. We have a monthly staff meeting HR and payroll and I am happy to say that payroll is al part of our shop. Um, but we uh once a semester take a field trip and go off off campus just so we can keep it real and and my staff can kind of see uh other people in action. Uh we've been to the career center, the high school, we've been to transportation and this particular field trip off campus or out of our office was at the early childhood center on Halloween. So we were relatively brave that day, but it was pretty cool. Um so there's a snapshot. Um,
066you know, the biggest thing with our staff, a lot of us have been together for a long time. And when you work together with people that have been around, um, um, you know, in HR, as you can imagine, it's rapid fire every day. You got people who want to work here, people who currently work here, people used to work here, and they all have questions naturally. And so our thing really is to just be responsive, be responsive and solve problems and um and um you know help people out whether they're retiring, having babies, you know, going through life, things happen. So we're there to support and figure things out. And I am very fortunate as a as a leader to have experienced uh team because I can't do it alone and I often have to
067uh seek co-consel on many issues that come our way. You've heard me say before, there's the two-dimensional black and white letter of the law and schoolboard policies and Indiana code, employment law, and then there's 3D human society, infinite pallet of grays. And so to to figure out those problems is just takes a team of people for sure. So these are some of the statistics that uh are um are highlighted. A couple of which Lita is going to uh mention in just a second. Um, I've also mentioned before in the past with payroll, we have just three people for this organization that's our size and uh they process every bi-weekly pay period thousands of transactions. So, just right there is just it's just amazing uh effort that's been put forth by this team. So, um without
068further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Lita. Uh over the years, we have um done a number of things to help uh automate certain processes. For instance, in 2022, we we finally automated uh benefits enrollment. And now with our frontline products, we have uh gone the whole distance with respect to um automating HR workflow and um the overall hiring process which has made us uh very much more efficient and effective organization and Lita has had a big role in that. So I'm going to turn it over to Lita. >> Hello. Good or good evening. I apologize. Um so I remember starting this journey um with u me just beginning in January and explaining the perspective outlook on where to take the district from paperless paper to paperless. So it's about the people and
069not about the paperwork. As Brian said, it's invest in our people and that's what our um initiatives showed is to give more time back to the first impression and why warn. So um with that um we have streamlined 10 HR processes um and this kind of goes on a little bit more for us the process flow with impacts. So employees now can initiate um a few different personnel processes which is updating demographical information, updating their banking information, their tax changes and now we have the benefit guide and insurance premium information there as well electronically accessible to all of them. So they can go in at any time and look at that information without having to reach out to Miss Cobb. Um which is a great thing. Um it takes more control for them to be
070able to do that. The next thing is the human resources team um and leadership empowers to become more efficient. So with that initiating the hiring um is now paperless. So no more coming in for on-site orientation and doing all of that paperwork right then and there on the spot. that is now done prior to getting to the on-site orientation. Um, also contracts now we did roll out this year are teacher contracts and they now digitally are able to be signed and they immediately go into the personnel files. Now we are moving on to reasonable assurance after spring break. Um, those are ready to go and they'll also be electronically signed and will go into the employees personnel file. Certifications are housed there. there are some more um areas of opportunity there with certifications and I'll
071be looking for those more pristine processes there. Um also the initiating of separation is paperless. So when someone goes to resign, it is now paperless and they just attach their resignation and that also goes in to their file. with the front line. It has definitely helped with consistent electronic policy acknowledgements which a lot of our onboarding has a lot of our policy acknowledgements within those packets. I have had the the greatness of working with and collaborating with a lot of different departments to customize some of their onboarding packets, making sure that it has a lot of their data and information that they need as a department to ensure that we are ready to go on day one for them and they don't have to spend a lot of that time going over some of those
072things that is proactively given to them. Um some immediate impact of digitalizing the process is fully digital secure personnel files for all staff. New hire orientation time minimized from 3 hours to under 60 minutes. That is a big deal. Um because it doesn't if it feels now more of giving more of the impression of why Warren is spending more time with those questions and making sure that all of their questions are answered. Um and it gives our principles, our supervisors more valuable time back where they don't have to deal with that. And we do it in HR. We centralized dig district forms and now we also created a more robust offboarding and risk management system >> guys have any questions for me. >> Okay. >> So proud of her. Um I should be I've known
073her since she was 12. So mentorship is her basketball coach and she of course went to college and did not play basketball. But um the next part of our um retention plan that we'd like to highlight um is our mentorship framework that supports our new teachers um when they are hired and they sign that letter of intent. It's very important to us that when we hire um any new person, but especially a new teacher um and they are a new educator to the field, we want to make sure that they are known, that they are seen, and most importantly, that they are supported and developed from the moment that they accept an opportunity here in Warren. That also goes for our staff who are not new teachers. Maybe they're just new to Warren and they've
074come to us from another district. Their success and how we get them started makes a huge difference when our students walk through the door. But more importantly, as we're moving through the school year, their success and their continued development as new educators in the district is very is very important to us. Um, which is why we have various components that we support our mentors through or our mentees through. So on top of the various components like the 30 60-day onboarding, guaranteeing that they have a mentor, but also making sure that they have robust access to a K12 resource suite that ensures that we're also supporting the achievement of all of our students. We want to make sure that every step that we take is aligned with our board goals, but most importantly um is supported
075through building leaders and through the district through professional learning. As we continue to invest in mentoring, um, we're not just helping our teachers stay. We're also helping them grow into the excellent educators that we know they can be and they want to be and in turn turning into those excellent mentors that we know we're going to continue to need to develop their leadership skills in because they will have an opportunity hopefully to mentor a new teacher as well. Retention through development. Um, for those of you that have um known, we've started this journey about four years ago. Uh, Dr. Anderson started it. Um, and then when she transitioned um, I've been managing it for the last two and a half, three years. and the associate teacher pathway is thriving and it's growing and um I'm
076so glad that Pleasant Run was our school so show showcase tonight um because uh three of our associate teachers um were here with their children their class and one of them said to me it was my first board meeting as a teacher I was so nervous Mrs. Herrera. And um I don't know why because I've seen her in action multiple times and I've seen her teach and educate and care for children for many years, but in her own classroom, like that is her domain. She's exactly where she's supposed to be. This is one of our most powerful investments that we're making right now in long-term staffing. Right now we have 23 associate teachers that are serving in 10 buildings across the district and over half of them are placed in high need areas like ML,
077EL, um STEM positions and special education. Um a majority of our associate teachers are completing their education through IWU stepup program, but we do have one math teacher who is um with us from Western Governor's University. and we are continuing to build our relationship with the IW team IWU team and now we are making an additional contact. Uh, Math Tracks has been a partner of ours for a couple years in supporting our math teacher residency program, but now they have been accredited through IWU and we are now adding an apprenticeship layer on top of um the program that our particular teachers are in which is going to um decrease the amount of time that they will be spending to get their degrees. Yesterday we met with 11 teachers. um one teacher is going to accelerate
078their ability to graduate by one point one year um one and a half years I think it was something like um 18 19 months um and the smallest amount was 6 months and the apprenticeship portion of that program that they are bringing to us we've been working very closely with Kate Schwarz and teaching and learning um it is because our associate teachers are apprenticing right now they are teaching and learning and going to school to learn theory and the foundation of education. But the apprenticeship portion of it um rather than taking um anthropology, their apprenticeship is actually going to be embedded in um the work that we're doing here in Warren. It's going to be in our curriculum, the work that's happening in their classrooms. It's going to be about the problem of practice within
079our own communities and our community of learners. um using our terminology about our curriculum and it will be based in um micro narratives, reflections and um how we're solving the problem of practices within their own classrooms within their own community. So the teachers at Pleasant Run, their experience will feel very different in comparison to Brookview because it's two school communities, but the umbrella of their experiences will remain the same because they are in Warren Township. And because of that, we'll be able to um accelerate their pathway to their um degrees. Um we're very excited. We will be hosting um a celebration here in April for our IW candidates. They like to do one every year. Um this year we'll have it here in Warren and we're very excited. We had two teachers who have fully
080graduated. Um so my program moved from 25 to 23, but that's okay because they're teachers and um they got their licenses and it was a very exciting time for us. Um lastly, you know that we like to end our presentation just kind of with a little snapshot of some of our hiring events and um Lita's been all over >> is ISU today. IU Bloomington yesterday. Um, Grassy Creek Community Center tomorrow. Um, Mrs. Smith and I were IU Indie this week or last week. It's just a heavy recruiting time for us. And one of the oddest things to say is when they want to know how many jobs we have and we're standing next to other school districts, we show them our paper and we're like, "Well, we have two." And they're like, "What?" I'm like,
081"Well, we'll have some retirements." Like, "Well, we still want your applications." But it's a very proud thing to go to these hiring events and to be collecting resumes and they're seeing and they're comparing and they're looking at the other schools and they're seeing how few positions we have in comparison to some of our um the districts around us. Um and then the um feedback we're getting from our student teachers is just excellent. Not just from the student teachers, but also their adviserss. They're so proud and excited to have their students come through our schools to learn. Um, many of you know that one of the things that I am the gatekeeper of is workman's compensation. Um, your principal at the high school, Dr. Sullivan. She stresses me out. Every holiday season, especially at Christmas, I
082have to show up at Warren Central to see what they're doing. What you can't see in that picture is almost half a roll of duct tape and two 25 pound weights that the strength and conditioning team put up there for her because she wanted to slide down the stairs in a photo op as the elf. Um, she did let me know when I arrived. She had signed a waiver. But um >> all jokes aside, um as I see some of the new faces and we heard from Chief and we saw from Pleasant Run, um Warren is a very special place to work and with the investment that we continue to make um in our community and in our um in our people. We know that um that specialness will continue to grow and we're very
083excited about the things on the horizon. Are there any questions we can answer for you? >> I was just going to say about Frontline. As a user of Front Line, >> I absolutely love it. It's just so easy to access your records to put in for guest teacher for every little thing. So, I'm glad that we have it here. I think >> I put a lot of ease for our teachers. the the internal HR automata automated workflow alone but but the also on the uh new employees experience has just dramatically changed. So yeah uh you guys have heard me say that uh you know in the past decade or so there's been a substantial decline in the enrollment in in college in the te traditional teacher preparatory programs and so what what Pam uh just
084finished talking about is also a major gamecher for for a long time there's a lot of kind of one foot with traditional and one foot just a lot of experimenting but we're in an era now where we're locking in things that work and this is working and so you have to grow your own and and develop pathways because you know uh there's a substantial decline in the number of of you know college students that go and major in education. So we've had to get creative but now we're in an era where we're kind of locking into things that work and I'd mentioned the 90.3% retention rate a big part of that was because of the 20 at the time 25 associate teachers that would have been 25 teacher vacancies but they're in there um as
085salary non-certified folks working towards lensure and and learning on the fly. So, it's been it's been great. So, >> I just want to say uh thank you guys for your hard work. I think that we have a good HR department here in war. >> Thank you. So, now we'll call on Miss Katie Ding for her budget report. Glad to see you. Uh, feeling so much better. >> Table. We don't get a table. >> Mobile wheels. >> Oh, no mobile wheels. >> Um, board members, Dr. Hansen, thank you for having me tonight. I'm sure you didn't anticipate having another budget presentation, but I appreciate your um I don't even know what sympathy for the fact that I was ill and allowing us just to cover um the legal components of the um budget meeting. I won't
086go to screen. All right, we're gonna go. I'm sorry it's not in like I can't put it in presentation mode. >> Katie, if you want to go to the very top middle you're it's a Google slide deck of very top. >> Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Top. Keep going up. I'm on the wrong. Thank you. >> Needed your table. >> I know. I needed my table. technology is great if you know how to use it. Thank you, Justin. Um, some of the slides here, I know you guys really are all excited because you want me to go through every all of the 52 slides in detail. Um, but the presentation is developed with the idea that if a community member were to go online and look at this, it would have enough detail for
087them to be able to assimilate even though they weren't in attendance at the meeting. So, I'm not going to go through all 52. I know I'm going to go through them, but not in detail. I know you're very sad about that because I know you wanted to to hear all about it while we talk through the budget. So, um, this is our overview for the fiscal year 27 budget. As you guys know, um the board goals, all of them, as well as the strategic plan, focus areas are what drive the budget. The budget touches everything. Money, you need money to do anything in this in the in any school corporation. So, those are part of every decision we make. Everything that's built into the budget, um that's always front of mind. Um key dates, public
088hearing, we covered the legal remedy, the legal pieces we had to cover. We're just doing a little update on the non-legal portions um so that we can make sure everybody has the information they need. Um we'll see you again um on Monday, the 24th, I believe that's Monday for Tuesday, excuse me, for the actual adoption uh meeting. So our district profile, last count in the fall, 11,14. Um you can see the averages as well as the split of where students kind of are. That's not too different from prior years when I took a look at it. And we have 20 20 unique buildings, 3.1 million square feet under roof, and over 500 acres that are maintained. This gives you a breakdown by grade level of our enrollment. Um, it's very common at this point that
089we're graduating larger classes than we're seeing enrolling in kindergarten. That is the trend nationally. That was the trend in the last census. Um there's four funds that the board approves for us. Education, debt service, operations, operating referendum. Um we're one of two corporations that does a fiscy year budget and not a calendar year. Um and so our budget year will start July 1 of 26. Um education fund, state tuition support as its primary revenue comes through monthly. Um property taxes, all which all the other funds receive, come through twice a year. Um so we're doing a budget now for something that won't technically be certified until January of 27th. So, it's we're way ahead of the game compared to the calendar year. Um, we're not required by statute not to spend more than we have.
090I would say the budget is permission to spend. You can have permission to spend appropriation but not have the cash. You can also have the cash balance and not have the permission to spend. And so, that's what we're always managing. It's why we monitor appropriation as well um as cash flow. um and how we account things where we pay for elementary school teachers out of account 11100 that's mandated by the state of Indiana through the Indiana State Board of Accounts. So we don't decide what can go in education or what can go in the operations fund. The state determines that for us. Um these are sort of the plates in the air I would say as we work through the budget but also I think every financial decision we make. um you know, property tax
091caps and assessed value because that obviously impacts our operations fund. It impacts our referendum fund. Um our early child care center through no fault of its own um when the state essentially reduced the vouchers um that caused us to have a revenue hit there. And so I just met today with Miss Woods and um Ann Marie and talked about what are the other revenue options. So that's something we didn't anticipate like you don't know that's going to happen until it happens and that's what we're working through now. Um revenue sharing which is new um that we haven't had to do in the past. The fact that if you know there's been a reduction in when I say state grant revenue terms of if we have student drop we lose revenue for a budget we've already
092planned. Um my favorite is always the things we learn later like oh by the way in is increasing your pension contribution amount. Um, and so we're all supposed to be um doing more with less, but meanwhile, Impers gave us an increase of about 14%, which wasn't really appreciated, but it is what it is. Um, Senate Enrolled Act One, which I think you guys have heard everyone talk about ad nauseium. And then our student enrollment, the focus, Dr. Hansen's been very clear about its retention. We need to keep our kiddos as well as recruit, you know, the ones that are in our boundary that aren't here. Um these are the various budget forms, the the line items for budget revenue. I know um you will see a form four at your March 24th meeting which is
093what you'll approve and each of you will sign um in blood. I don't know if that you knew that's a new requirement this year. Um so our budget strategy, we have a couple. One is to maintain fund balances. This allows us to essentially not need to borrow. So we're not using taxpayer dollars to borrow for tax anticipation warrants and pay interest. We're maintaining cash balances so we can sustain that internally. Um these are very similar um to what we have seen in prior years. They're a little bit higher just because the student fluctuate student population fluctuation we need to be able to protect against. Um focusing on efficiencies. Uh we're we're just looking a lot at how we're maximizing capital investments to reduce recurrent expenses. As I was putting together the fiscal year 25 just
094the electric bill and saw it was 4.3 million for a year. Um how how do we what can we do about that? Um where we make staffing adjustments. And I say adjustments because it isn't just cuts. you know, you might need to make a reduction because you saw loss of students, but you also might have more kids coming in um with IEPs into kindergarten out of early childhood. So, we need to add another program class. Those are the things that we're always looking at. And then leveraging our ability to spend because of our size that we're maximizing that as best we can. Um, one of my um, tasks I guess I would say for us and myself and the business office is that we need to develop people outside of the business office that understand
095their budget and what's in it. So that's my teach all to fish sustainability. I can't possibly know every single nuance to every single person's departmental budget. So we need to do a better job of educating staff. So, for example, chief secretary, Miss Diane, to work with her, train her how to go in, here's where the budget is. That way, chief doesn't have to call me to say, "Hey, Katie, can I do X?" No, because he has someone there that can get his budget appropriation. It's in line with what's appropriate. He goes ahead and follows through. We need to develop that sustainability. We don't want people to always need to come to us. We want them to be able to self- sustain. Um, and I think another is always just the cost account that we're booking
096things to the right account from a pay perspective to make sure those expenditures are in line. Um, the education fund certified budget for this year, current year is 98 million. The proposed fiscal year budget is 97,230,000. Um, again that is a decrease um mostly due to the change in student population. Um notable shifts, staffing adjustments as we mentioned, um those additional costs and pension contribution. We did lower the education fund operations fund transfer um because of lower student results. We wanted to preserve that. So essentially there was no distribution um in December and we'll finish the year at about 12% instead of 14 and a.5%. Um and curricular materials. So everything that Mr. Russell needs to purchase along with his cohorts are all included within the education fund as well. Um this is an example
097I I think for me to get on my soap box about we talk about state funding. Um we have a great multilingual program here. Um, but just to give you an idea, the revenue that we receive is 1.190 million for that program, but our mo multilingual program to serve our students who I believe I've heard were over 50 languages, I think it was, and I I wrote those student counts down is 3.8. So, that's an example of how the state funding that they allocate for this is just not sufficient. And that's what those other education fund dollars help support because we couldn't sure provide adequate service to our students that are multilingual on a $1.190 million budget. This is just some ADM numbers for you to give you a five-year comparison. we were, you know,
098steady, but we did see a dip um which was somewhat predicted, I believe, um especially with the demographic study, but we're working on uh different how we communicate uh with our community and our stakeholders to see if that will help that number. Um I'll I will confess I when I first saw this slide, I said to Dr. Hansen, I'm like, I don't even understand what this slide's for. He's like, well, you know what Matt was trying to do was to show there's a tailwind. Um, what it shows is you can see our elementary student population is really helping us out. I think we all know that we see a dip in that 5'8 and then we see it pick back up in high school. Um, but just to give you an idea on the averages
099for those grade levels. Um, education fund budget is everything we do within a school building. Um, with the exception of basically custodians. Um, but it's everything we operate again mandated by the Indiana State Board of Accounts. Um this is the breakdown of the the budget that's been advertised. The wages and benefits as you can see are the biggest component of what we do. Um and that is how it has been since probably the beginning of time. But the total advertises 97.2 million. Um this is the reduction I spoke to about the education to operations transfer. So we are reducing it. We have reduced it and we'll go lower even for fiscal year 27. debt service fund. Um the fiscal year budget 22.7 million. Our proposed 27 budget is 28 million. We already know that's going
100to be certified lower. Um we advertise high because we don't know where the anticipated debt is going to come in yet because right now we're trying to advertise a budget for debt I'm going to issue in November that won't get certified for taxes until January of next year. So that's why we give ourselves some space in the advertisement to make sure the tax rate and levy cover what we need to spend. Um this is all lease payments and principal and interest payments. Um this is all of the debt we currently have um outstanding within the budget and you can see that 11 million number that includes the $75 million um the board has already approved for the 2026 A bonds and the 40 million for the 2026 Bonds. Uh the next thing you will see
101us for will be general obligation bonds in the fall um for our annual an annual issuance to support our operations department. Um this just sort of reviews the budget. We're going to be paying off some debt um essentially and then like I mentioned there's no tax anticipation warrants and we no longer levy for unreimbured textbooks which used to be within debt service fund operations fund overview. Um this year's budget is 39 million. The proposed budget for next year is 37.1. Um notable change, we were able to shift 1.1 million in bus driver salary and benefits to the referendum fund to provide some much needed relief on the tax caps as well as the revenue losses in the operations fund. Um we're adding a new revenue which is indirect cost. The food service department will budget
102and then pay an indirect cost to the operations fund that we estimate to be around a half a million dollars um to support the activities the things we pay for that really are generated by food service. Um I mentioned we reduced the transfer and then the property tax credits that were introduced that are going to cost us additional revenue in the operations fund. Um some highlights for you guys when people when people say, "Well, what have you done to cut?" Well, um we did um analysis. We save $170,000 annually in fuel by using propane buses. Um last before I was here, Mr. Parkinson executed an RFP for property casualty insurance which saved the district $550,000 which was huge within fiscal 26. Um and just recently u Mr. Simpkins identified we could get the same a
103similar product through a service center to save the district $15,000. So I would say I think we all think through like how much does this cost? What is it going to impact in every thought because we're looking at saving a half a million or 15,000 it all counts. Um and I think this team does a is very good at that and I can't take that credit because that was developed long before I was here. Um the operations fund budget is exactly what it sounds like. Everything operations uh related. Uh this is the breakdown for that 37.1 million where 18.7 million of that is wages and benefits. Utilities is the next largest cost. Um well and all other expenditures which is you know everything else. But um again, there isn't a lot of funding available for
104capital work, which is why we leverage debt to do some of that those things. Um for operations, the thing we're really watching is the revenue reduction. I have a nice slide to show you. It's there's a lot of red in it, but don't get excited. We're working through it. Um we'll be bringing to you next month. Uh we found an opportunity where we can get a better sewer rate because of cooling towers. And so it'll save us $223,000 annually, which is we have to share a little bit of that, but still it's a positive. Um, Miss Carrie Taylor has been evaluating like trash and uniform service. We're monitoring overtime. Miss Griffin and I had a conversation about that this morning. So, it's literally almost like a total quality management that we're going through to just
105look at everything that we do that is not happening in a classroom that we can reduce. Um this is the impact of SEA1 for us if you look at the 2026 estimates. So SEA1 added an additional almost 1.5 million in tax cap losses um essentially for the district. So that you that is the impact that we talk about not just the increase we're seeing in regular circuit breaker but circuit breaker on top of that's another 1.5 million. Um, and so that's what I think you hear a lot of units of government and schools talking about because it impacts everybody. Um, not just schools. It's hitting everybody. Um, our levy growth is limited. This is just a property tax overview with SEA1 and how it impacts the operations fund. Again, this is one of those if
106a community member went through, they could follow my math. um referendum operating fund. The proposed budget for TW fiscal year 27 is 14.5 million, but we expect that budget to be more like 13.6 million. Um just so you know. So that's what our spend our plan spending is. Uh this I think you guys are all familiar safety and security, staff retention, recruitment, benefits, transportation, middle school and high school counseling as well as student and staff devices. January for board of finance. We did a review for our last segment of expenditures and they were in line with our overall plan. Um and we do have to report that to the state. Um this is our spending category. So you can see um safety and security, staff recruitment, the techn the transportation piece that was significantly increased
107student learning and then technology. those adjustments as we as I mentioned, one had to do with the referendum fund took on 1.1 million in transportation salaries that it was able to afford. Um, and then technologies adjusted its replacement um timeline its replacement for student devices so that we needed a little bit less funding within the referendum for that. Well, that was redundant. I apologize. um the referendum operating fund. Our rate is always capped. It's a rate controlled fund. Um so essentially, we don't know quite yet how Senate rolled act one will impact that, but we know it will have an impact. Um because if you lower RSS value and your tax rates constant, you're going to have less revenue. It's pretty basic. So we're sort of all anxiously awaiting that first tax distribution to see
108um what it looks like for us. Um I think we've talked about this. The big thing I think we all need to remember with the operating referendum, and it actually was an interview question was about um the revenue sharing that we're going to be required to do when the district renews its operating referendum. It will basically we will lose a million dollars right off the top to to charter revenue sharing. And so for us, that 30 cent rate is going to generate a million less dollars automatically. And we know that going in. It doesn't affect us right this second. I say that because 2030 it'll be here before we know it. And so I want it on your radar because you're going to hear us keep talking about it. Um because again, we didn't factor
109that in when we did the the repeal and replace at 30 cents that we were going to lose a million dollars to charter revenue sharing. Um our budget and our levy amounts. And this is not I don't think it's new. We always advertise high. Dr. Hans and I just talked about this at our one-on-one. He's like, you know, I know why you do it, but I just don't like it because you give it gives people the idea that like we're advertising high, so they think the budget's bigger. And so, it's not. Um, we always manage the expenses and so we're going to do uh make an effort to communicate better with departments about what those actual numbers are. Um, we will continue to make adjustments to leading up to the fiscal year um to keep
110doing all the things that you know that the district does, investing in our students, maintaining responsible balances, implementing efficiencies, and then recruitment and retention of our students and our staff. Um, and we will adapt our plans for any legislative or revenue expenditure changes after the adoption of this budget. So, it's truly a living, breathing um document. This is just simply a breakdown property tax overview because I know you all want to figure out what your tax rate equals with when you take your levy and divide it by your certified net assess value. Um the levy for debt service is totally needs driven. So it fluctuates based on how much debt we are issuing. But we try to keep the tax rate flat when we consider increases in assessed value. Um, I mentioned the operations is
111capped. Um, the circuit breaker. I can't say this some enough times. I figured you in communication I've heard you have to hear it seven times to retain it. So, I figured the more times I say it in the presentation, the more people will remember it. Um, and again, that referendum rate is capped at the voter approved rate. These are the proposed budgets by fund in summary, the proposed levy, and the proposed tax rate. These are the current the calendar year 2026 tax rates. So our current tax rate in Warren is $110 1.1079. And you can see here what we the certified rate our proposed rate for 27 as well as our anticipated rate going into after we get certified which would be in late December early January of 27. Um, this is just simply a
112budget timeline. I did not add my little amended dates for this extra budget meeting that I know you guys are all excited to have. Um, resolutions. At your March 24th meeting, there will be a form four, which is the resolution to adopt those same appropriations that we reviewed in tax rates. We reviewed at the public hearing the capital projects plan, the bus replacement plan, the referendum spending plan, and then there will be the resolution to authorize the transfers from education to operations. Those are all things that y'all have seen in prior years as well. Um, I am, if you don't mind, going to sort of fly through those because we did talk through them last week. Um, I made an effort, I don't know if anyone noticed, I know Dr. hands of dead. I put
113a bunch of everywhere I could fit a kid picture in here, we did because that is something um we talk about is that we got to keep that the main thing the main thing. Dollars are dollars, but that's not how we make decisions about how we serve students. Um and I wanted it to be reflective of that. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback tonight, please, please feel free to share or share with Dr. Hansen and I. I know I'll be working with Miss Asbury to get all of your documents uploaded for the March 24th meeting so that you'll be able to review those in advance. And that is all I have. Kathy, thank you for that um report. I do have a question. U you answered it because I didn't see the um
114budget yet. I was looking for it. So, thank you for that. That's one. And then you mentioned about our um department. So, every department now has their own line item for um their budget, their expenditures. >> They have their own they've always had their own line item if you will by location depending. So every school or every department so like the operations department Porter has its own budget um that it monitors, but I'm not sure that everyone has access to the financial system and that they've been provided training on how to generate those reports. I think that was driven by the business office as opposed to them being able to go in and look those things up as they need to work through things. >> That's good. I like the empowerment. And then for our
115budget, when you're doing the budget, um will there still be um a distinction where our alternative programs where there is a value, a number there? Yes. um because sometimes that gets swept under something else. And I think it's very important as our families see that we're invested in our high ability that we're also invested in our children that may need some additional alternative um programming to be able to ensure that they're just as successful. So I just wanted to make sure that that is a clear line item. The budget estimate for the form one will be broken down by major account code and you'll be able to see those that'll be some of the materials you get. So you'll see them that's account alter all ed is listed as a state fund state account number.
116So it's in there and we do classify it because we want to know what it costs to truly operate our program similar to what we showed you with with the uh with the ML with our ML program. >> Absolutely. Thank you. And thank you for making it um simplistic for our community to be able to look over it and understand it if they're not watching. So I um I heard that and it kind of stood stood out with me. So I think that's very important. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I wanted to um ask you said something in reference to uh people can um use their monies the way they want to without having to come to you. How will you ma how do you monitor that and make sure that they're not misusing
117it inappropriately? >> What what I mean is for example um a department head shouldn't have to come to me and say Katie what is my balance in my supply account. We should have given them the tools to be able to go in say okay I have this balance left that I can spend and I'm going to make this permissible spend. Now, that doesn't mean we're not going to review the purchase order to make sure it's compliant, but they don't have to rely on me to give them what they have available. They can look at it, know what what they have available, figure out how to spend those funds. We just had a example of that today with uh with Missa at the high school and reallocating some of their supply funds to be able to
118support a $20,000 purchase for the drum line and they needed new equipment. And so we did that out of her existing accounts. Um, but in the future she would be able or her Lisa, Miss Lisa, her assistant, would be able to run that report and say, "Hey Katie, I have X and Y we want to move around and we're going to do this." So like it just allows them to own it a little more and to utilize those funds. You know, sometimes how they set the budget out, the year doesn't go exactly as planned. Um, and it gives them that flexibility. So we still review it. So it's not anything. >> Okay. It's not candy bars. Okay. Just so you know. >> I just wanted to make sure. I just wanted to check and make
119sure. And my second question is you said that uh is it 2027 that we would lose a million dollars? >> No, it won't be until it technically wouldn't be until 2031 when it expired. So 32, but we'll have to go out to renew I believe in 2030. >> Okay. Is there any way to rectify that where it won't be so much? Is there any way we could start now trying to do something about that so that in 2030 we won't have to come up with that much? It's legislated. So the legis the Indiana general assembly mandates that and how it's calculated. What I would say is um the work that I think the district's doing to add provide additional communication to families and engage with them, you know, to sort of why we want you
120here and we want you here, that recruitment piece that in theory lowers the number of students you might have that are living in the boundary that go elsewhere, which then will change that number. And I think I would say we're already working on that. I mean, I'm not personally, but I know Dr. Hansen and the comm's team definitely are. Thank you, Katie. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate this. All right. Do we have any yellow cards? >> No, Madam President. >> So, we'll move on to our action items. Um, we're going to start with behavioral health with Allison Woods. Good evening, President Amos, Dr. Hansen, members of the board. I'm here tonight to talk about um the process and the recommendation for a new behavioral and mental health partner for uh our township. Uh this aligns
121with uh the Warren student journey and meeting the needs of the whole child. Uh and I want to give you a little bit history of why we're here. Um community um we have referred to them as Galahu. They used to be called Galahue. So, we use those terms um interchangeably, notified us in December um that they were ending their school um partnership with providing u mental health supports for for not just Warren students but all students um in in that space. Um and that was going to end in June 30th of this year. Um they currently have we have therapists and life skills specialists in all of our um buildings with the exception of Warren Online Academy. Um they weren't able to provide services in that area. Um and then we had an additional contract
122with them for our intensive mental health program. So that is um our special education classrooms. We have five of those for students with more significant mental health needs that provides a higher level of um service and support to those students. uh community we have been with for a really long time. I think I've been here over 23 years. I think we've been with community that whole time. So, um they've served us well. They've supported our students and families and um although this is um sad that this is ending, um this gave us opportunity to really look at what services and supports we need to meet our student and family needs in Warren Township. Um why we look for a new partner. So here's the timeline that really takes us to today. We put out a
123request for proposal uh in January. We had an optional pre-proposal conference where they could ask the different um applicants could ask questions. Um there was a deadline to then submit written questions that we responded to in February 12th. Proposals will do on the 20th. Um we uh have a evaluation committee that I'll talk about here in a second who reviewed those proposals and then we had um vendor interviews on the 6th. Um and then the final date is tonight coming um with you for a proposal. So our scope of service. So I I talked a little bit about really looking at what do we want for our students and families in Warren. So one really important thing is aligning with our current systems. We have counselors, we have social workers. you have heard throughout the
124years of um how we have built those different programs, our social work um MCRC. We want to make sure that our new partner is going to work with our current systems. There is so much collaboration that needs to happen when we're looking at whole child and whole family support. Um and so making sure that we're collaborating with those different groups that um we have good clear lines of who is responsible for what, who you can refer to for what services. Um so that was really important for us. Um making sure that all buildings were included in including Warren online academy. Uh we have a lot of students at Warren online academy. We want to make sure that they are also able to access um services if they need them. Um life skill clinicians were one
125thing that was really important. So we have um the therapists that work directly with the students and then we have the life life skill clinicians that support with that skill development. So they sometimes work with a student more often. They sometimes push into the classroom, pull out for small groups. It's an additional layer of support for students that have higher needs. Um and especially we see at our elementary and middle schools where these life skill clinicians really make a huge impact. Uh it was also important for us to have crisis support. Um our students are not here in our buildings all day. They are home with their families in the evenings and on weekends. and we wanted our families to have access um if they had a crisis at home to be able to call
126and get support. Um summer and break programming u again mental and behavioral health needs happen all year round. So we can't just go on a school where we go on spring break and we you know don't service and support students and families at that time. Uh another important piece was a direct person to provide um oversight and communication at a district level. Um so making sure that we know if somebody's out what that coverage plan is. Um you know working with Laura and I to support district needs uh was really important. Um supporting with district crisis response. So, I know that um Laura's presented before, we have done a great job in Warren under Laura's leadership with building a team that can um respond when we have a crisis in a building, whether that be
127a student death, a staff death, something that is going to impact a large number of um of you know, kids or staff. Um and in the past, we have worked with community to provide additional support. There are sometimes the events are bigger um or we want that, you know, person with that specialized training to be able to support. So that was um an important um need for us. And then district data um we did not have how many people were kids were accessing service. Um how many people were in or students were in the queue to receive services? So having some better data to be able to monitor is what we're doing effective. Do we need more support? Do we have schools that we need to have um greater support or more referrals? Um also
128transition planning. So that continuity of care, making sure that you know we have some um employees to community who have been here a really long time who have relationships with our students and families. So we have a you know a hope that we can keep as many of those as we can. Um that we have students that don't have a gap in services through this change is another really important piece. Um student and family privacy protection. So how are parents accessing records? Um how are they protecting student information? Um and then what's that intake process for new families and new referrals look like? Uh we want uh we don't want to have a long period of time where we identify that a student has a need before they can actually get support. And the following
129u or that final one is that intensive mental health support. Again we have a separate contract currently with community to provide a higher level of support through those classrooms. So we are also wanting to continue that higher level of care. So, um, our committee consisted of, um, these people here on your left, um, Julie Aldridge, who's an assistant principal at Lakeside. She works with that care team with the counselor and her um, therapist and life skills clinician. They meet weekly. Um, really is in invested and involved in that community, has um, unfortunately had experience with needing crisis um, support at their building. Um, Jacob Hawk is a counselor at Crestston. Um, he used to work for community, so um, having him on the team was really great. He had the experience of being that life
130skills clinician. Um, was able to ask questions about the experience that, um, they have and that connection with families and students that was valuable. You guys know Brie Brown, our associate principal at the high school, who is our director of counseling. um and Laura um our director of college and career readiness who oversees our counselors um and myself um reviewed the proposals. Here are the proposals that were submitted um or the different groups that submitted proposals. We had a lot of proposals to review uh which in talking with some other districts um did not have as much interest as um what what we uh got. So I'm really glad that we had choice and we had a lot of different um groups to look at and consider. So from that list um we identified three
131final candidates that we brought in for vendor interviews. Um adult and child health, Jame Paulie community health center and um Sandra Esenazi Mental Health Center. Um and we asked in those meetings for some additional information in in these four categories along with some general questions. Um in the proposals um all these different all these groups had different ways they were meeting these things. So summer programming, what that looked like really varied from um one organization to the next. Um some of them could service Warren online, some couldn't. So we wanted to dig into that in more detail. Um staff retention, how we were going to keep um the great staff that um are already servicing our students and the um make sure that they're competitive salary and benefit-wise. And then what the intensive mental health
132program and services look like. So, um, from that, I'm bringing forth my recommendation that, um, our committee, um, has, and I'm I'm super excited, uh, for this opportunity for our Warren students, families, and schools. Uh, when we're looking at meeting the needs of the whole child, I think that, um, a partnership with Jane Paulie is going to bring us um, to a whole different level than where we've been. Um, one thing that is great is we have a huge pediatric office here in Warren Township that a lot of our families access um that can now make school-based referrals. So, if they are going to see the doc their doctor and the doctor recommends that that's a need, they can refer directly to our school-based support. Um, they have access to dental, vision, nutrition, pharmacy services.
133Really looking at that whole child, whole family need and being able to meet that. Um, one thing that we've struggled with, um, in the past years has been some insurance barriers. So, depending upon who the therapist was, they could only accept different insurance type. So, it may be that they accept Medicaid, but they can't accept private insurance. So, we had students that could not get school-based services depending on the building they were at. Um, this is eliminated based on the structure that Jane Polly has. All of our students will be able to access school-based services. Um, they're also providing um on-site medical management. So, they'll have a a psych psychiatric nurse who will be able to come to the schools, do med appointments, so families will not have to make separate appointments, take kids out
134of school, travel to an office to be able to do that at school. And then for our families that struggle with getting to the pharmacy, they have pharmacy delivery options. Um so again looking at how many more barriers can we remove for our families to support our kids and keep them in school. Um one of the really unique things that Jane Pauly um has is um some support around substance use disorder. I know we've talked about vaping and um some concern with um our young adults um having both relapse prevention support groups and resource packets for our administrators to be able to give families um and students when they have discipline events that are related to substance um misuse or substance use at school. Um there's flexibility with service delivery. Um having um the Jane
135Pauly um and this is going to get technical and I'm not that technical uh um with that but the um how they operate is giving more um opportunity for how they can service kids. spending less time doing paperwork, more time working with students, and being able to do that in some unique ways that uh I think the service providers are going to love. And it's going to be um really excellent for retaining staff and also better meeting our student needs. U and then another big win is they're going to support our intensive mental health program with no additional cost. So we're paying about $100,000 a year. Um, so that's going to be a cost measure savings for us um, with this partnership as well. Um, not all of those three finalists would were even willing
136to support this program. So the fact that they're willing to support it and are going to do it um, without additional cost to the district is um, fantastic. So, you know, I really believe um that this is going to only make us better. It's going to um be a huge win in this, you know, growing partnership and a new partnership um that is going to support our students and families um in Warren. And I'm happy before if you guys have any questions. Um I'm happy to answer those. >> Thank you. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Thank you for that um presentation. I do. I have a lot of questions, so you may not have the answers to them tonight, so I'm okay with you getting them to me. You answered one um since we actually
137didn't like see a portfolio or anything. Um what stood out with um Jane Paulie versus the other last finalist. So, you answered a few um you answered that. Um, but what insurance barriers? I'm still confused on what insurance barriers will be removed if the family does not have any insured insurance because you have the insured, but what are they going to do for the uninsured? Um, and how will that be streamlined that um our families are still able to across the board receive services? So, oh, do you want me to answer them or do you want to do all You said you had a lot, so I'm afraid I'm not going to remember. >> Okay. >> Um, I know that they have a sliding scale and they may be able to answer that. They do
138have a sliding fee scale. Um, I know with their um, you know, whole support of how we can connect and we have folks here that can help connect and get families connected to Medicaid. The biggest barrier that I was talking about was um our our families that have private insurance um and not being able to access schoolbased service. That is what we are seeing currently um as being a as a huge barrier that um the majority of our families have uh Medicaid um but the ones that have private insurance are not in most cases able to access schoolbased services. and some of my questions because I'm not familiar with their motto. Um so this is um informative educating myself. So again I would like to know for what about the families with no insurance and
139during that bridge period um I know they may have case managers to assist with that but during that period what services will be provided to our families since they are coming on as our mental um health um providers. Um, will there be homebound services? >> Yes, we will still be able to um support students that are um either homebound or expelled or out of school. They will still be able to support >> and doing breaks as well. >> Yep. >> Okay. Um you answered that. So um you had mentioned about MCRC And one of the things that stood out, I was looking at the committee and I didn't see any like the social workers. I know Jessica does a lot of referrals and streamline a lot of things. So, will um Jane Polly be working
140with her that those referrals are more streamlined and that she can be a part of the process? Because if we have an in-house, if we're voting tonight on an in-house provider that's going to be able to offer all of the um to meet the needs of what we need in the community, then a lot of it don't have to be outsourced. But if she's not familiar with that and not streamlined, then she outsourcing a service when it can be insourced if that is what we're voting on tonight. >> Absolutely. And um one of the things that I've already talked with the Jane Poly team about is that we really are going to have to clearly communicate to all stakeholders in Warren, including MCRC, how our families and students can access those services. So, what does
141that look like? What does that referral process look like? um they um I know that um I meet with Brenda and Jessica every week um for attendance and so um we've had some students recently that have needed referrals that we've been referring to Jane Polly um so yes absolutely they will be included in that >> and I may be putting more on her plate but I think it may be beneficial to have her a part of the team because I see you know you have the principles you have the counselors and um life skills But I don't see any social workers and they're a big part of this. Um, will you have a running committee that will be like monitoring? Is this committee a standing committee or was it just for the interview process? >>
142Yeah, that committee was just for the RFP review. So, um, yeah, that will not that that group is not coming back together again. >> Okay. Will you have a will there be an advisory group or a group um working with Jane Polly? I just know it was a lot of gap areas with um our previous providers. So will there be a group to help um ensure that those gap areas are covered because as you said we're trying to elevate and get better so we learn from >> Yeah, we can definitely um look into that right now. So, um, we have meetings set up with them with Laura and I on a weekly basis to talk about this transition. So, we're just at the very, um, at start of that, but yes, we can definitely look
143into that. >> And this is my last one, and um, you probably don't have this tonight. I just for my own knowledge base, and I probably should ask this beforehand um, because we're voting tonight. What percentage of families do Jane Polly kind of service um, in our district now? Is it broadly utilized? >> I don't know. I don't know that. I'll I can talk to them and see if that's something that they can get, but I will find out. >> And will there be any benefits? Um if we're bringing them in in partners and they're within our community, are they going to be any um benefits? I'm just going to say hypothetically. Um, and they may already do this, provide a certain amount of um, free services for family. I guess I'm really advocating for
144the uninsured right now. Um, is there any kind of um, programs that they offer right now currently for families um, that they could get free services? And then what is that uh, percentage like if it's a certain amount or how that looks? I um I have that down as a followup as to what what their supports are for um with families without insurance. >> Thank you, Allison. >> Yeah. >> Well, I am really excited that we are trying to get a lot of support in place for our students and families and that's a great thing. I applaud you for working with um oh, let's see, Jane Paulie, am I pronouncing it right? Yes. because all of the services that you talked about are greatly needed and I know the families will appreciate it. And I
145I wanted to ask I recently had an opportunity to visit MCRC uh with James Taylor and he has a program there that helps students that are getting ready to be expelled pre-expossion >> ESP. this would be an opportunity and I hope that maybe you guys are working together because I'm all about prevention. I noticed that in your report you said people that were vaping or kids that might be vaping or drugs. We have had students to be expelled because of that. And I'm about keeping kids in school and not putting them out of school because there's nothing out there for them but the streets and jail. So therefore, I want to hear that we will be able to work through uh uh James uh Taylor's program so that if we have children that are on
146drugs or vaping instead of automatically expelling them out of school, they would have to be mandated to go through Jane Paulie to get some help because you know they need some help. If they're they might be addicted, you just don't know they need some help. So if they can be mandated to go through Jane Paulie to get the help that they need that may keep them from being expelled out of school. So hopefully can we have you thought about you know working with him uh James Taylor and his program with James Paul. >> Um I I collaborate with James a lot. You know definitely the substance use disorder opportunity is something for us to explore and see what you know programs and opportunities are available. um you know absolutely it's a it's a need that
147we have. >> Yes. I would like to hear that you guys are working you know um along with him to provide services to these students. So it needs to be a partnership there. >> Absolutely. >> Try to check on that. >> Miss Gloria, I would like for the record to make a clarifying ESP is all optional. We do not mandate the families. We provide the options at the table and then the families have the option to choose. So just the structure of the program we recommend but we do not mandate. >> So let me clarify. We would say to the parents this is a great offense. Your child has a problem. You have two options. You know you're up for exposure or you can go through James Pauling. So yes we're giving them some options.
148So they have either or >> so that's not the structure is they take the recommendations as a whole and just not one piece. >> Yes. >> Or they do know they have the option to go to ESB but we cannot just say you know if you don't participate in Jane PI you are going to be expelled. It's the recommendations as a whole because we don't just look at one area we look at all areas. So it's a holistic program instead of just one focus. So they do have the option to take the recommendations as a whole. Um and Jane Paulie could be at the table during those discussions to offer their services, but we also have other providers that are there and the families do have choice. Um and I'm assuming you're Jane Paul there.
149I see head nodding and all that. Okay. Hello. I'm talking about you and you're the room in third person, but um So it may be another fit for the families for mental health or behavior support that Jane Polly may not meet that need. So that's why we don't mandate. Now we do say you have to have a mental health provider, you have to have academic support, but we do not mandate a specific provider because it everyone may not be a good fit. Um so that's why we do that. So, I kind of understand what you're saying, but we can't just specify to say Jane Polly. Um, is that And I forgot one more question. Will there be staffing in each building? >> Is there coverage in each building? >> Yes, there will be staff all
150of our all of our buildings. Our students will have access to receive um services. Yes. And will there be someone housed at MCRC to cover those students that are there um during the day through our ESP program? >> So there won't be somebody housed there, but if we have students um that need services that are attending there, we have included that in um their authorization to make we included MCRC. So if they needed to serve kids there, they could. >> Okay. So, we'll have a life specialist and a mental health um provider, which will be a licensed clinical clinician, healthcare clinician or licensed social worker or combination. I see heads on both. It'll be a combination, but it'll be a licensed clinician. And that will deter that will be um how many days they will
151be there, what level of support is going to be dependent upon how many students are receiving services in each building. And that will adjust um you know depending upon what referrals and needs look like. >> Thank you. >> And I just want to ask Tim, I don't know whether this should be something you can answer or chief because I don't know how you guys handle this. Uh when a child is caught with drug possession or vaping, are they automatically expelled or do they have an opportunity to receive services through ESP? I I I'm not clear on how that's handled. Or are they arrested? I I don't know. >> They are not automatically expelled. They're not automatically arrested. Okay. Depends on the context and the situation. >> There is a disciplinary component to that and there
152is a support component to that. So, it really just depends on on each individual situation. Okay. But no automatics. We have we don't have zero tolerance on on that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Alison. We appreciate this. >> Allison, one more question. You guys can tell this is my area. I am so sorry that I should have met with y'all way before this. Um is there already a um system in place um model that you all are already using within schools or is this already in schools and they have a smaller footprint than some others but they're um they are in a school district they've been for 10 years so they do have experience in that space Alexandria right yeah and I and I did call and talk to the Yep
153they sure One last question. Um, if a child is exhibiting uh behavioral issues and the mother wants to have them evaluated, is this something that Jane Paulie could do instead of them having to go to their local doctor or is this a intervention piece? >> Yeah. So, I think that evaluation there's lots of um that's a lot of different things. You have a student who's maybe in crisis who needs um evaluation um to determine do they need to be hospitalized. You have a student who needs to be evaluated. Could they have an IEP? Um so yeah, I mean yes, there's definitely a place for um Jamey um and a student to be evaluated through there. I guess there's just so many different types of evaluation. So making sure that we direct families in the correct
154way. Ladies and gentlemen, we have this up for a vote tonight. Do I have a motion? >> Motion. >> Do I have a second? >> I second. >> Okay. The motion was made by Julie, second by Gloria. Any discussion? >> Yes. I would like to say thank you Jane Paulie for offers offering us your services. Thank you so much. and thank you so much for involving them. You guys working together because we're always looking how we can um better provide services to our students and our families. So great. Thank you so much. >> And I would just like to say I thank thank you for the proposal and the things that did stand out. Um, but I would also, Allison, when you get it, like just see what model they're using, just so I can
155be more knowledgeable and informed as we're working with our families. Um, I don't want to be talking and not clearly understand what behavioral models that you guys are using or what I know you have an evidence practice, but just what that is. I may already be familiar with it, but if not, I would like to educate myself on it. I get that for you. You waiting on me and Gloria asking all the questions. I got stuck. Thank you so much. Oh. >> Oh, do you need to say it passes before I say thanks? >> It passes. >> Thank you so much. I'd love to invite the Jane Paulie team to come up and introduce themselves. Um, >> while they're doing that, if I could It's Terry knows it's been killing me. I've been staying my
156hands. I am so very very excited. I um sit I abstained. I sit as the chair of the Jane Polly Community Health Center board. I am so excited. I know the good work that we do. I am I am so incredibly excited that the good work that we can do can now spread to Warren Township and that we can continue to do really amazing things for our students. So, thank you. >> Yeah, I uh I ditto. Uh I abstain as well. Uh, I've been with Jane Pauly for a very long time and u that's all I got to say >> and I will say I didn't know any of that while we went through the RFP process. So um that's a happy accident on the end. But J Paulie, if you guys want to come
157up >> while they're coming up, I I just want to add that since the since the very beginning of Jane Paulie and our community, uh, I've been associated with them and it's uh, well, that's all I got to say. I will say that Rachel and Howard, I do know that you work closely with them. So, I am not familiar with Jane Polly. So, my vote was on the strength of you guys didn't say anything and I was watching your facial expressions that we can trust the process with you all being our um new behavioral providers cuz I was looking and you kept that straight like militant face. You didn't, you know, good gang face on. So, I'm like, "Okay, are they going to say anything?" But with the absence, then you have my yay. But
158it's it's time to get to work. This is a very um serious um portion. We we've had Jane Polly in our schools for a while now. For quite a while, since Peggy Hinckley was here >> in the school, in the large builds, at Billy, I'm not saying you haven't. I'm just not familiar. So that doesn't mean anything, but I would just like to be more familiar with what's going on. Thank you. >> Yeah, we're honored to to be here and be able to offer the service. Uh my name is Mark Hack and I'm chief executive officer for Jane Poly Community Health Center. I've been with the organization for 14 years and uh have helped start two other organizations, been in the model for about 30 years, and we've got a great team here. I'll let
159them introduce themselves, but we've been a strong partner, as as you've heard, with uh the school district for a number of years. Uh uh if you don't know who Jane Paulie is, she's a Warren Central grat and she's still uh broadcasting on CBS uh Sunday mornings. And so we're named after her and just honored to be able to offer the services uh that we do. But I'll let the team that really is going to do the work introduce themselves. >> Hello, I'm Dr. Laura Joko. I'm a psychologist by training and I'm the director of pediatric behavioral health services for Jane Paulie. I've been with Jane Paulie for about four and a half years. my doctorates in school psychology. So, schools are at my heart. They're my passion, who I love to work with, and I'm
160looking forward to getting getting to know you and answer any questions um about what we can do and how we can collaborate moving ahead. >> I'm Dr. RF Kasum. I'm the regional medical director for behavioral health and been with Jane Paulie since 2025. Um and so excited and grateful to be here and um happy to have uh meetings to help uh understand our model and that piece. I will say we see individuals no matter their insurance status. That's part of what we are as a core of our organization. We're a safety net for the underserved, for the marginalized populations, and we're so grateful to be here. >> Hi, and I'm Dr. Karen Hill. I am a board certified internal medicine and pediatric physician. I am new to the team, been with Jane Paulie five months,
161but my career has more than 30 years in providing for the underserved and um dealing with uh the population we're talking about both school and in school and outside. So happy to be here and thank you for your support. Excuse me. Hello. I am Dr. Brendan Smith. Uh I am a psychologist by training. I am Jane Paul is executive director of integrated behavioral health. I've been with the team for about five and a half years. Um I just want to second what everybody said we are so very uh excited uh to support you all to support you all and and the families and and and the kids. Uh we are excited to get to work. So thank you for the opportunity. You guys are shaking a lot of hands. >> Hello there. Don't I know
162you >> seeing you here. >> See you tomorrow. >> Thank you. Good evening, Ryan. >> Good evening, guys. >> Here for social studies, >> uh, social studies world language adoption. So, President Amos, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, tonight I come to you looking for a curriculum adoption. This is specific to Warren Central High School's social studies department and world language department. Um there is I believe in your handout there is a table a list of all courses within the social studies partner or department with the um appropriate publisher uh the course that it's associated to uh and then the estimated yearly cost of that which is obviously dependent upon the number of students enrolled in that course. Um, as we're still processing through course requests at the high school, it's impossible to give an
163exact number. Point out a few things just for clarity as we move um into this vote. Uh, we're very intentional this year about thinking about especially from a high school curricular adoption, its connection and coordination uh with the new Indiana diploma and the everchanging need for those courses that may look different in future years. These are digital adoptions uh for that purpose. the digital adoptions can transform uh and change over time to stay relevant. Additionally, we can uh interchange those licenses. For example, next year if we happen to have double the number of students in US history, which we will because we'll be giving sophomores and juniors US history next year as we transition to the new diploma. Um we'll just dedicate more licenses to the US history part than we do the geography part
164next year. Um so those costs are um specific to publisher and for the online license. Uh the other thing that I would say uh the Indiana Department of Education does not have a high quality curriculum advisory list for social studies. Um so over the past six months we've been doing our own research uh associated similar to the approach that I shared with you last year when we adopted K8 reading curriculum uh looking at thirdparty reviews just for quality of curriculum and what that piece looks like. This is for a six-year term. Uh the benefits of the six-year term specifically for teachers uh they get to stay within that curriculum for a number of years so they don't have to go through uh multiple changes. uh there is an efficiency from a cost perspective as well
165when uh when we get a six-year term as well. Uh the courses are listed there. Um the only other thing that I would point out just as a reference point uh you'll see some classes like US history listed three times. We offer three different uh really levels of US history, regular US history, we have an AP US history course, and then we have a dual credit US history course. all are necessary and needed not just for the diploma but for honors diplomas uh things like Indiana College CPS uh in those aspects we are limited when we look at high school curriculum specifically at AP because certain publishers have a monopoly on AP curriculum so you'll look at the AP uh for BFW uh which is BFWorth um they own uh the rights to all AP
166curriculum right now with college board uh so we kind of get limited to u those select uctions. That being said, the other layer to this is some world language curriculum for Spanish and German. Uh these are online pieces that are interchangeable as well. They also would include any Spanish courses that we do at the middle school level because those are credit bearing as well for our students and we make made sure we were inclusive of those prices as well. happy to answer any question, but um happy about the process, the teacher, student, and parent involvement with this and seeking your approval tonight so we can start training teachers um soon after spring break for the implementation for next year and we can order materials because believe it or not, we order materials in March so
167they arrive in July. >> The materials that you have um especially when it's dealing with social studies, is it multicultural? Um I and haven't been able to see a sample of the curriculum. So, um it's going to be for six years. So, is it going to be covering different cultures? And can you explain what the curriculum consists of? >> Well, it depends on the course. Um so, there's not an ethnic studies or a multicultural class that's supported by the state of Indiana currently. Uh that's been removed from the Indiana course. the the course that is is in there, uh, US history, government, uh, geography, world history, uh, and econ are the ones specifically that we're adopting. >> So, you don't have to do it on the elementary level. They're not getting new social study books.
168>> So, this is just for this is just for high school at this point. This is just for high school. >> Yeah, good point. These come with physical class sets of books and online access. Perfect. >> So, there will be physical books in classrooms, but online access for all students. >> Thank you, Ryan. Do I have a motion? >> So, moved. >> Thank you, Julie. Do I have a second? >> Second. Howard. Sorry. >> Thank you, Mr. Howard. Any discussion? No discussion. We'll take it to a vote. It passes. It's unanimous. >> Thank you, Mr. Simkins. We have you for staff evaluation and teacher appreciation and outside activities. President Amos, Dr. Hansen, members of the board. Uh yes, I have a series of uh three policies up for approval. Uh number one is um 3220
169on staff evaluation. Recall this is really uh recommended language to in line with house enrolled act 1002 from July that took effect July 1st, 2025. Namely, giving uh no longer requiring certain things and making other things optional um in particular getting rid of the traditional four categories of evaluation um for teacher evaluations as well um areas where discussion was mandated is now optional um etc. Should I go to each one or do you wanna >> go ahead? >> Okay. >> Sorry. Um the next policy is um 3220.01 and teach appreciation grants. as I uh last month mentioned uh those are that is substantially changed and so this policy just gets that up gets us updated. They're no longer awarded automatically across the district to all eligible teachers. Uh it's an applicationbased grant. Stipens are no
170longer provided in December and they're now we get the money in April and disperse those um to no more than 20% of U certified staff uh no later than June 30th. And then finally uh for your approval is 3231 which is outside activities of staff. May seem rather obvious but it's just to make sure that uh any any um uh staff members cannot privately tutor a student that is a student in their class and taught in their subject area. >> All right. Do I have a motion? I Lanna triplet so move that we accept um policy 3220 3220.01 and 3231. >> Thank you. Do I have a second? >> Thank you, Howard. Any discussion? >> Yeah, I just want to ask a question. Uh on the last one when you said a teacher can't privately
171tutor a student, you know, she can't after school take a couple of students and and tutor them. Um in the school building, >> she can't tutor a student for money. >> Oh, >> that's their that's her student at that time. Like if I'm taking US history and I need help >> stay after, I'm not going to be forced to pay money. >> Okay. So she can't charge for it. Okay. Can't charge. Okay. I get Thank you. It passes. All three pass. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Clayton. >> Good evening, President Amos, Dr. Hansen, members of the board. Uh tonight for action, uh I share with you the revision of board policy 4162. Um if you recall from last month, this uh discusses the drug and alcohol testing of CDL and other
172employees who perform safety safety safety sensitive functions. This policy has been revised to ensure that our school corporation remains in full compliance with recent changes to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration or referred to as a FMCSA substance abuse policy. And part of these new standards and guidelines consist of the following. um a new clearing house integration where now the corporation is required to check this um this database to for all current and prospective CDL holders before they are permitted to operate corporation owned vehicles in terms of any past use or charges of drug or alcohol. um specific substance abuse testing. Um uh return to duty process as well as educational requirements that our transportation supervisors designated to provide to all employees with mandatory education materials regarding federal regulations and the consequences for positive tests
173and the definition of a refusal to test. So again, this applies to all CDL holders operate our corporation vehicles. Thank you, Mr. Clayton. Do I have a motion? >> I was triplet. So move that we accept policy 4162. >> Thank you. We have Lanna with the motion. Gloria seconding. Do we have any discussion? Seeing no discussion, we'll go to the vote. It passes. Thank you, Mr. Clayton. Miss Allison Woods. >> Okay. This is policy 5350, student suicide awareness and prevention. It's a replacement policy. Um it talks about res resources and supports that are available to students and families, how to access those um training for staff on suicide prevention um and response. um if there was um an incident of a student dying by suicide, how we would respond and support um students um in
174the building, families, friends. Um and then also um an agreement to have anou with a community mental health center or other certified provider um which you guys just approved. So we've met that one. You can check that off. Um so I'd ask um for your approval on this tonight. >> Thank you. Do I have a motion? I make a motion. >> Thank you, Gloria. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Kevin. With that, any discussion? Seeing now we'll move forward with the vote. >> It's unanimous Allison. Thank you very much. And with that, we'll invite Justin Osborne for first discussion items. Welcome to the podium. >> Thanks. Not fixing a computer this time. >> Uh Dr. Hansen, President Amos, members of the board. Uh up for discussion, we have uh two
175policies. Uh first one is policy number 7440.01 uh regarding electronic monitoring and recording. Uh the changes to these this policy uh mainly is uh policy modernization uh clarity of policy wording. Um it adds language to ensure we're fur compliant with the reportings that we do take um on our uh surveillance systems. That's our security cameras. Uh additionally adds a provision to authorize security personnel to use bodywn camera equipment while on duty. Um, happy to take any questions about that. >> What was the question about the camera? Can you clarify that? >> Uh, yeah. It authorizes the use of our officers to use uh bodywn cameras uh while on duty. >> That you're talking about the IT team. I was like, huh? Okay. >> It's 9:30. I'm sleepy. I was like, what? >> We won't be
176wearing cameras. Uh the other policy we have here is uh 7540.02 uh around digital content and accessibility. This is in response to a new rule in title two of the ADIA uh the Americans with Disability Act. Um, this requires that all uh websites and digital content uh be uh compliant with WCAG uh 2.1 standards um for uh Americans with disabilities. Uh that's things like high contrast um capability for a website to use a screen reader u keyboard navigation things like that. Um it also uh has the expectation uh that we have a uh personnel uh that is named uh the digital accessibility coordinator and it also outlines uh required training accommodations and auditing. How take any questions? >> Thank you. If anybody has any questions we will contact you. Um, I'll bring up Brian Simpkins
177again with background checks. President Amos, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, uh, for discussion, I have policy 8121, uh, personal background checks for contracted services. So, this just ensures that expanded criminal history checks are conducted for contractors and subcontractors that have ongoing direct um, uh, engagement with our students. Um, and it really just kind of makes sure that there's correct citations that match current Indiana code as well as getting rid of duplicate text. >> Brian, this may sound like a question, but we do already have all of our contractors and anybody who works in our school with background checks. Correct. >> Yeah, this is a similar policy to what we require with employees. So it also has the uh mandate to report arrests and those things within like within 48 hours. Um so yeah, same
178kind of drill. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Anybody else questions? >> Good. if more questions arise. All right, we know who to contact. That's >> right. Do we do an att testation form like um because I know the background checks are every um three or five years. >> Well, for for curtain employees, we do every five years. >> Five. So, do we do an att testation form in those um in between years to that they're attesting to um not have had any arrests within the last 12 months? >> No. But they but this policy does mandate that uh should that happen that they they are obligated to report. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Do they um do you require them to have drug testing? >> Uh no that's not a requirement. Um we do
179do that though for our own employees who anybody who um drives a school bus or any kind of district vehicle >> are subject to that. But people coming in contracting to work with our students, you don't require a drug test. >> Well, I mean, if obviously if there's a reasonable suspicion of something, um, then we're going to have to deal with it. >> Yeah. >> But the expanded criminal history check uh is is such that it it looks at all not just Indiana, but all federal and state. >> Yeah. I just was concerned because we don't want people coming in high and working with our kids and we don't know that. You know, a lot of times people don't apply for jobs because they know they won't pass that drug test. So, I'm just curious
180since we're talking about safety. Should we be having them to take a drug test? >> We're not the direct employee of a contractor. That would probably be the contractor. But if we saw something, we would definitely report it to >> for sure. Yeah. And they and they would have to they would have to deal. >> Yes. >> That employee would not if that happens, they would not be on our campus any longer. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, thank you, Brian. Thank you very much. >> And Mr. Clayton, environmental health and safety issues. President, Miss Dr. Anson, members of the board, I actually have two policies for discussion this evening. Starting off with board policy 84 um 05, uh environmental health and safety issues, indoor air quality, animals in the classroom, relax, Mr.
181Mrs. Triplet, relax, and idling vehicles on school property. Um Starting off with um uh the suggested recommendations for animals in the classroom. To ensure long-term hygiene and safety, no live animal may remain in a classroom longer than one semester. All animals must be preapproved, serve a specific educational purpose, and be non-dangerous. Indoor air quality. The corporation will now formally comply with some of the new regulations from the Indiana Department of Health um and their best practices. This includes adhering to specific recommendations for radon testing and maintaining strict standards for carbon dioxide humidity. Um and board just so you know um about two years ago we did extensive radon testing um throughout all of our buildings as well as the the next requirement um mitigation of drinking water. Um, and this is in line with Indiana
182code, but um, it um, it ask corporations um, to perform testing um, eliminate lead source or install certified water filtration systems that meet state requirements to reduce lead below the action level. And again, we did extensive um, water testing a couple years ago and I believe it's still in our website, Logan. Yeah, we put all that information on the website. So our um community can can see that. So that is policy 8405. Um President, if I could proceed to 8452. >> Absolutely. >> World policy 8452. Uh automat automated external defiills, automated external defiills or better known as AEDs. Um I want to say I stood before you in 2025. This was in conjunction with SCA 350 which changed uh the Indiana code 2034-8 but this speaks to um proactive planning rapid response to sudden cardiac
183arrests during school sanctioned activities. Uh some of the the minor changes made will continue to um require us to have cardiac emergency response plans which we work with our our buildings operations played a a significant role to make sure that all of our um facilities um where we host um events um large activities our our fieldhouse gyms um certain conference rooms where we host large events that uh we have our venue specific emergency plan that also also speaks to um in the event that we'd have to evacuate. But this is public information that has to be accessible and available now at facilities. Um also they talk about our threeminute response goal in terms of where we locate those AEDs. Um that goes into the into um our strategy. I'm working with um Kim Howard with
184that. Um again accessibility and placement as well as and this is this is the new portion of it mandatory drills and training. Uh periodic drills are required to prepare staff which at least with at least one drill occurring before the start of each relevant activities or each season of relevant activities as well as requiring head coaches, assistant coaches, marching band leaders, uh drama and musical leaders, any extracurricular sponsor that complete that they must complete um sudden cardiac arrest training um including AED use which again this is something that is already on file in the majority of our our buildings because we track this because that is a requirement to coach. >> Thank you, Marcus. >> Can I ask a quick question? We we are not lowering any of those any of our current standards. Correct.
185With this, we will not. >> Not at all. Okay. >> No. >> Okay. Just making sure because I know initially they were trying to take it completely out of the Yeah, it's >> Yeah. I think you probably have some districts that have struggled with the mandate just because the number of ads which now are more expensive than what they were 101 15 years ago when we when we started doing this in in the district. Um I think that was part of the the complaints that I heard. But the the main thing is ensuring that at our our venues that you have something posted and and listed. um whether it's you know what's your evacuation plan or specifically as it relates to the location of AEDs. >> I just know we've saved lives in our district
186because of it and >> yes >> I would hate to lessen something and then have something happen and if that makes sense. >> I do have one question. Go back to the >> animals. Yeah, I'll figure it. >> So will the classrooms that already have animals that they've been having in their classrooms, probably some for years, like the turtles and the things like that. Will they be grandfathered in or they have to get rid of they and I'm confused. >> So, you want to know if there's a grandfather clause for current and current >> cuz what will be the transition of them having to get rid of their animals? Like, it's emotional. If they're in an aquarium, they get to private. >> Yeah, we might need to talk do some research on that. >> Do
187the research. I would seriously to see how many um classrooms already have um animals that they've had. >> Yeah. I what what comes to mind when I when I look at this just working with with Allison and her team over the years, we've had some situations where we've had um you know animals that were allowed to be in classrooms to um either provide support to a student or in some cases like we have um I believe we still have at our high school um you know again for therapeutic support or in some cases educational purposes. So, um I think the main thing is that the process is that it's pre-approved and um you know and sanctioned by the school and the district. >> You find out how many animals are currently habitat in our classrooms.
188>> Yes, I will do that. >> Thank you. I would like to say I know I was excited um when you said that my son in high school he attended Warren and his science teacher had a python snake a long one and but it was in the cage and they would take care of it every day and when he retired my son walked in my house with this python he said my teacher gave them to me so I inherited a python snake so um you know it's amazing that you about the animals in the classroom. You just never know. >> So that means though that we can still have turtle soup and uh legs and threshold. >> No, the animals. >> I would like to ask you one other question. Um for the um AED
189defibrillators, are they going to be how how many do we have? Are they uh throughout every school? Does every classroom have it. How accessible are these uh defibrillators? Uh are you saying that you're going to get more? I just need a little bit more clarification on that. >> So, to answer your first question, yes, we have them throughout our district and in all of our buildings. Um we don't necessarily have a a unit in every classroom, but we have a unit in every hallway that's accessible um within they they say that you know the goal is to have a threem minute response. Um, and then if you if you're able to witness some of our um our standard center response protocol type drills that we do specifically when we evacuate buildings, you'll see some of
190our, you know, administrators or support staff carrying AEDs with them in the event we would have an emergency out in the parking lot during a a fire evacuation. Um, it's become part of our standard practice. Like I said, we've we've been pretty adamant for about 15 years. Um and every year I feel like we we continue to build upon what we've started and and now I think this um the new requirements just ensures that when we have think about how many outside events that we host here and how many spectators that come to our campus, it's important if they're um a spectator uh at one of our facilities for the first time that it's easy and accessible in the event of emergency that they know how to access an AED machine. Thank you, Marcus. >>
191And we'll move on to our last discussion item with Miss Allison Woods. You guys have missed me. Um policy 8462, child abuse and neglect. Um and this is update to align with legislative um updates. Uh it has updated language on mandatory reporting. You know, all of our staff um including coaches are mandated reporters. If they suspect child abuse or neglect, they need to um contact um DCS, law enforcement. Um it includes training requirement for employees um to on recognizing child abuse or neglect. So that is something that um we are already doing. I know I did mine this year on safe schools. um in addition with um requirement for identification and reporting of human trafficking. Um so it's training around those. I'm happy to um in the next month if you have any questions um
192beyond tonight reach out and I'm happy to answer those. >> Thank you so very much. Well board, we're to the end of the evening for closing comments. Um, I want to first take the opportunity to thank everyone for what they brought forth and we will start our closing comment with Gloria. Well, I tell you everyone, this has been a very rewarding evening starting with our student showcases. Uh, I was just so amazed at how the students and parents came out from Pleasant Run and just all the amazing things that we are doing here in Warren Township. I just want to applaud our superintendent for his guidance and his administrative team. You know, they work really hard. I, you know, I'm observing them all the time. I said, "Wow, they are some hard workers." So, they
193are always putting their foot to the grind and I just want you to know that you're appreciated. And not only that, but all of our staff here in Warren, you noticed that the teachers and everything and the principles that came forth, they were excited about what they were doing with the students in their building. And you know, I am just so happy to see that we are a happy school system, that we are really working hard. We have a great police uh department that's giving support to our students and not just arresting them. And you know, we just have so much to be thankful for here in Warren because you could look around and there are other districts that are having difficulties. But we are blessed here that we are working as a family. Uh
194and I always say working together works and teamwork is dreamwork. So I tell you I want to thank all of you for everything that you are doing, everything you have done and everything that you're going to do. And with that, I want you to enjoy your spring break. Relax and have a good time because when you come back, it's going to be some more work to do. Thank you and have a safe drive home. Great, Mr. Howard. >> I'm g I'm going to be real short. Like I had a laundry list of things here and I'll just individually contact members of the staff uh in in reference to some of these things like like like for example the police force. I has a lot of questions about logistics and and that's thing. I'll talk to
195Chief about that later. Um and also um you know the district STEM fair was was outstanding. Those kids were were were just super. So, if you didn't get a chance to go out there and see that and enjoy that, you know, we we got some kids that are really going to be some upandcomers here. So, I was I was really impressed with uh with all of that. I didn't I didn't judge this time, but I had a chance to go around and look at some of the uh I was I was what they call what a spectator. Is that what the term they use? I was a spectator this time. So, and I enjoyed that as well. Um circle study readers. Oh, man. What a program, right? What a program. Um, I just can't say
196enough about that that like like was in like was mentioned um one the lady said something in reference to um you know uh if you can't read you you know you don't you don't really have a future. You know what I mean? You have got to learn how to read at the at the really young level and improve your reading skills because you just got to be able to do that. So you know your future your future is is is stunned if you can't read and uh literacy is a big thing and ought to be maintained um at every turn. As you know, I'm on the uh uh Warren Township uh Development Association, and there are two there are two initiatives that are floating around right now that really affect us in our district and
197that is uh where Michael Paul Hart, is that his name? uh is uh u uh getting together some investors uh and they look like he's making he's really moving the needle on uh getting their participation and being able to bring Washington Square uh uh mall back in some form in a new form. So, you know, he's making some headway there. So, I just thought I'd throw that out there. And also, you know, right across the street pretty much from uh um um Lake Lakeside. I couldn't think of it. Yeah, Lakeside. Uh we're uh breaking the brown breaking the ground down on the VA uh annex and clinic. And that's going to be a major a major uh boon in our community as it relates to veterans who who who now won't have to go all
198the way downtown uh through all that traffic and all just to to to get themselves some medical assistance. Uh we're going to have an operation right here in Warren Township that's going to be able to support uh veterans uh for their medical care. So just thought I'd throw that out there because uh we're really excited about that coming. you know, wall is still on the books. We may still get that in our community, but I haven't heard a lot about that yet again. But, uh, this this VA this VA clinic uh, locally on 21st Street is going to be really really a good boon. So, just thought I'd throw it out there so a lot of people don't realize it, but if you're riding down 21st Street going towards Lakeside, uh, look to your left
199and you'll see all that little construction area right there. That's where it's going to be. So, uh, and if we didn't, if we didn't wrap our arms around Jane Paulie tonight, I think my hair was going to go on fire. So, I'm glad to see that that turned out to be something that was, >> hey, I was holding it down. What are you talking about? >> I don't even My limb my lips didn't tremble. I was just keeping a straight face, you know. I was I was cool. So, uh, uh, but we're gonna we're going to do well with that. Our our our kids and our families going to be in good hands when they when they come on board to provide that behavioral health thing. Uh, and that's about it. Hey, be careful out
200there. You know, we're going on a break. I don't know what this weather's going to be like. I'm going to catch pneumonia probably on Friday because the way it is that weather is 60 60 degrees, 30 degrees on on Monday and 70 degrees on Wednesday. Come on, help me out here. Don't be upset with me, board. I forgot a couple of things. Hold on. Uh, I just want to say Katie, uh, I commend you for coming in and working so hard. We lost Matt, but you are coming in on fire. You are excited about what you do. I want to thank you because you're you're you've got our back when it comes to this money and keeping our our district afloat. So, I thank you for that. And Allison, like he said with the Jane
201Polly girl, you were looking out for us, trying to get us the supports that we need. So, I just want to say thank you and I just want to make mention about um our photographers. You know, we've been reaching out and we had our professional photographer right here. So, uh I just want to applaud our photographer. I can't say your name. And um and also our magazine. We are so happy here in Warren. everybody. I'm I'm walking everywhere in all districts and they're saying, "Wow, you guys have a fantastic magazine, you know, that is circulating around Indianapolis." And that's only thanks to >> Say your name, Dennis. >> Dennis Garrett, raise your hand. So I tell you uh so we are just so happy uh that we have that and we're so thankful um to
202have all these resources in our district. Thank you so much. >> Okay, I'm going to be real quick, but I um I do want to say we Rachel and I went to Cosba this past weekend. Um absolutely wonderful. Um the people leading it were knowledgeable. um when you went into a class, you weren't bamboozled by finding out it was a vendor trying to sell you stuff. If it was a vendor thing, it was clearly marked. Um and the people leading the um PD classes were amazing. They were state level people. Um so I learned quite a bit, which I usually when I walk out from an SBA, I don't feel like I've learned as much as I could have. Um, so I it was very nice. So Julie stole everything I was going to say.
203That was really rude. Um, I also attended Cosbot, she said. Um, I Yeah, it was really, really good. Um, and I shock myself every time I say those words out loud. Um, it was definitely a worthwhile conference. The the classes that were offered were taught by subject matter experts who, like Julie said, weren't necessarily part of vendors. most of them were state level school board staff. Um we spent a lot of time talking to members from the Indiana um group that was there as well and it was just it was a really really well done conference which is not a thing I say a lot if ever. Um also yeah Howard was right. I actually like wrote a note I'm like this is hard. Um, as I said earlier, I'm I'm really really happy about
204um the fact that we're going to be able to partner with Jane Pauly. Um, I have seen a the good work that Jane Polly does and the good people that they hire. Um, and tomorrow when their vote board votes on it, I once again get to sit there and not say anything. Um, but it's just I think it will be a great partnership that will benefit both. And I'm really really happy that Warren was able to find a service provider that is going to take care of our all of our students. Now that the community um has decided to go other ways and I'm just really happy that that was a priority for um the district and Allison's group and that they put together those RFPs and got lots of really good responses and were
205able to come to a decision. Miss Lanna, >> it's 10 o'clock. Long day. Um, thank you everyone. Thank you Allison for your um work in gathering our um new partners and sometimes people think questions are bad things, but I think they're informative. So, thank you for taking the tough questions on the spot and being receptive to answering them. Um, knowledge is power. So, um, good night everyone. You guys have been wonderful. I see a lot of principal. Miss Griffin, you going to be in that bus car rider line in the morning? Okay. So, um, good night. Thank you for all that you do for our students and our district. So, drive home safely. >> Well, let me close it out. um echo everything that has been said. Um just always enjoy our our kids that
206came out perform and um the bilingual and I was telling Dr. Hansen u they their Spanish in second grade is better than mine. I was like I didn't read that well Spanish in high school. But it uh it's always a pleasure to see the kids and um I really love the officers showing us a a a different dimension, not just uh authoritarian perspective, something the kids can not fear but um have a a a unique relationship that they can actually aspire to, you know, because that is uh has always literally all of my life the relationship between law enforcement cuz I'm an inner city kid and inner city kids that has never been good and to see a relationship of cultivation of trust that is that is really a strong attribute. So thank you for
207that and good night. All right. So, last month we had the shortest board meeting and I think it is the longest board meeting. Um, I'm going to just kudos and echo everything that you guys said today. Also talk about the Rotarian thing. We had amazing students there. I sat with two gentlemen who are seniors who are just going to do something fabulous in this world. Um, and I appreciate them. But as we get ready, Friday comes spring break. So teachers, staff, everyone, take those two weeks, refresh, recoup, and we'll see you in April. My