February 18, 2025 MSD of Warren Township Regular School Board Meeting

001coming online. >> But you know, I got something I'm going I got something to study during that >> piece. Yeah. You're going to you're going to I'm going to open it up. >> I'll say we do have >> Good evening everyone. If you join me for the pledge, please for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Good evening and welcome. We'll first start with our superintendent report. President Amos, if you're okay, can we start off with the spotlights? Absolutely. >> And then we'll come back to me. >> Yes. >> So, at this time, we'll have JT Whitaker and Daryl Moyers. >> I don't need that. >> Um, first before JT starts talking, um, real quick, this weekend we're really excited. Um, three members of our wrestling team will

002be competing at the state finals down at Gambridge Fieldhouse. Uh, Jet Magguire, who's a senior, will be wrestling at 126 pounds. He finished second at last weekend's regional tournament. Donald Bowie, who's a junior, he'll be wrestling at 138 pounds. He also finished second. And then, uh, senior Jakari Marky will be wrestling at heavyweight and he also finished second place. So, we're really excited about those three young men. Hopefully at the next school board meeting, we'll have those guys uh celebrating state championships. So, we're really excited about that. Uh they wrestle Friday. Uh when they win their match on Friday, then they'll wrestle uh Saturday in the morning and then in in the evening. So, IHSA.org or tv.org, you can watch it or head on down to Gamebridge Fieldhouse. Uh there'll be a lot of uh

003Warriors down there. So, just wanted to mention that. Um, now I just want to turn it over to Coach Whitaker, our football coach. He's going to talk about a really um amazing young man who's been a steal a thunder, but just has done a great job with our athletes at the high school. >> Talking to this or >> All right, I'm here to talk about uh Chris Smith and he's been selected by the Clap. Clap it up for Chris. So, Chris was selected by the NHSSCA, which stands for National High School Strength Coaches Association. He's the National Strength Coach of the Year for the state of Indiana. So, let's clap it up for Chris. I wrote down a few things about Chris here. I'm just going to talk here if you guys don't mind. I

004wrote down a few things about Chris because I didn't want to do him a disservice and not you talk there. >> Uh I wrote down a few things to talk about Chris. I didn't want to do him a disservice and and not share many of the great things about him. But uh Chris is more than just a strength coach. He's a mentor to our youth. Um Chris starts every class with a word or a message of the day which goes beyond sports. It applies to life and it's life lessons that our kids learn daily through him. Uh his classes consist of the five A's of importance which are attendance, attire, attitude, attention to detail, and accountability. These are the guiding principles of his class. Co coach Smith is on the cutting edge of techniques and

005training regiments. He has spoken at several state and national clinics uh to talk about his program. The program he has created develops a complete athlete that can thrive in any sport. He brings a college style training to Warren Central student athletes. When talking about Coach Smith in our weight room, this quote comes to mind mostly for me. If you build it, they will come. It has a lot of meaning. First off, thanks to our district and their commitment to our student athletes by building a new state-of-the-art weight room. We saw an increase in students taking weights from last year, the old weight room, to this current year. with Chris with leading the weight room. We currently have 300 student athletes in our weight program. However, we are now projected to have 500 for next school

006year. That's an increase by 200 students. >> In his free time, Chris has started a middle school weights program where he is teaching 120 seventh and eighth graders the basics of lifting every Monday and Wednesday in the evening. uh because he wants to develop all Warren kids. >> Chris has been a home run hire. Combined with the new weight room, it has put Warren Township at the front runner for sports performance in Indianapolis. Chris is a great man of faith, a great teacher of our youth, a great ambassador for our athletic program, and is the perfect person to lead the next generation of Warren student athletes. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to work with him. And most importantly, I consider him family. >> Chris Smith. >> Um, I appreciate the honor. >> Appreciate

007the honor. Um, coming out. Um, I'm not a really a guy of like celebrations because I believe that you're either getting better or you're getting worse. You never stay the same. So, I appreciate you celebrating me, but it's more work to be done. Um, and it's when it's more work to be done, I just feel like I got to continue to keep hitting the ground running. Um, like I said, you either getting better or you getting worse, you never stay the same. Um, but as long as I'm here, as long as I'm with y'all, I'm giving everything I got. Um, and my job is to develop the mental, the physical complete athlete like coach JT Whitaker um, confessed to you guys. But, uh, I will also be speaking at, um, the PSM, which is in

008Fort Wayne, Indiana. Uh, I'll be speaking at that conference, um, representing Warren Township, um, which is where I went to college. I went to college at USF, won two football national championships up here. So just having that ability to um go back and give back and continue to further advance people to understand what we do in the performers world um is an honor. So, thank you for tonight. All right. >> Thank you so much. See you again. Let's keep the the joy going. It's my pleasure to introduce our next spotlight. We have a sophomore here this evening. Um a very talented, well-rounded student at Warren Central High School, June Shelonburg. Um June recently performed at Carnegie Hall. And that happened because one of her teachers submitted her name as a nomination. So then June had

009to submit a video um application and was selected and performed as a first chair viol violinist. Correct. >> Um uh February 8th. And as I was talking to the family, um, she arrived there and on Friday she had to practice for six hours. On Saturday she had to practice for six hours >> and then they performed uh on Sunday uh evening. She was one of 60 um or so students from across the country to perform. And tonight she's going to play us a piece. June, we would love to shake your hand and if you could bring mom and dad with you, too. So talented. >> We're so proud. We're so proud. >> That was great. Congratulations. That was awesome. >> Ready to go to sleep. That's relaxed. >> Good. >> Congratulations. >> That was absolutely

010exquisite. And now we'll move on to our superintendent report. >> Start every meeting that way. >> Absolutely. Just a reminder, um, in a couple weeks, our second graders will start taking iiread 3. I want to give a shout out to our teachers and our students u for working hard getting ready for this very important exam. Our third graders will take i3 the following week. So, we wish them the best of the best of luck. Board and community, just a reminder that tomorrow night is our Warren SC science and engineering fair at Cresten. Um, starts at 5:30. Next week, shout out to Dr. Simon in Stonybrook. He is hosting the first annual blackowned business spotlight. It will be from 10:30 to 1:30. It is for students and uh families. Um so if you have an opportunity

011to check that out, please do. March 4th, we have our teacher hiring fair, which will be in person here and or virtual. And as we transition our fourth to fifth grade um students next year, as we know, we'll have them in the intermediate buildings for one more year. I was talking with some of our team today and board and community and families. I want you to know that that we're going to give you the Disneyland transition this year. Um this will be the best transition we've ever had. And I I've told our team we have to take whatever we've done, make sure that happens, and then go to list B and list C. um we we have to make this transition as best we can. So, we're calling it the Disneyland. I don't know what

012that means yet, but it's going to be great. It's going to be great. It's going to be great. >> I like that. >> Um that will start with IMS visits to fourth graders um next week where our grade level um administrators and counselors will come down and introduce themselves to our fourth graders. March 9th from 6:00 to 7:30, we have our open house for fourth uh for fourth grade families and kids to come in. And then we will be having our fifth fourth graders visit the IMS um in April. Um but we'll be looking for a lot lot more um around that area. Um you heard tonight about the wrestlers, so I just want to give them a shout out and wish them best of luck. Um I and I just want to wish everyone

013a um and honor um Black History Month um in recognizing those who've made history and those who are making history. So uh happy Black History Month. With that, we'll move on to our student representative. Like to start >> big seat. It's up to you. >> I'll do it for you. >> Good evening, Dr. Hansen, President Burke, and members of the board and attendees. As many of you may or may not know, I have stepped down as my role I have stepped down from my role as semester 1 student council president. And it has truly been an honor to serve alongside such an incredible board. This may be my last speech as student council president, but it will not be my last standing at a podium or being up here. This experience has only straight strengthened

014my voice and wherever my future takes me. So, I'll carry what I learned here with me. This is the best board a district could ask for. So, thank you for your service and thank you for everything. And I want to pass it over to Leila Comm. >> Thank you so much. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Laya Colmes and I'm honored to serve as our student representative. Before I before I share our prom update, I would like to recognize some recent student achievements. This past weekend, our winter guard had an outstanding performance and won their competition. We are incredibly proud of their hard work and dedication. Our choir program also competed recently and each ensemble finished in their top four in their respective division. Additionally, we have the three boys wrestlers who

015will be competing at state this weekend. We wish them the best of luck as they represent our school at such a high level. Now, I'm excited to share an update about this year's prom. The theme for the 2026 prom is a night in New York. A night of class and elegance. We wanted a theme that felt timeless, sophisticated, and memorable for our students. Our vision includes a New York skyline backdrop, elegant lighting, and decor that captures the glamour and sophistication of the city. This year, we have decided to change the venue. Instead of hosting at the prom at the roof ballroom, which we have used for several years, we will be holding it at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. We are very excited about this change because it provides a unique and interactive setting that

016will make the night more memorable. In addition to the main event space, students will have access to several attractions throughout the evening, including the new Princess Tiana exhibit. Oh my gosh. exhibit opening in March, the Dinosphere, the car carousel wishes and dream, and the Treasure of Earth exhibit. We believe these experiences will add something truly special and unique to prom this year. We are currently in the process of finalizing decorations and bringing our New York vision to life, ensuring the space reflects the elegance and class our theme represents. We're looking forward to sharing more updates as planning continues. Thank you for your continued support of our student activities. >> Thank you and welcome. We'll now move on to our mayor's neighborhood advocate, Miss Sydney Starks. Good evening everyone. I hope everybody's having a good night

017tonight. So, I do have a few updates and announcements that I do want to go over and any questions I'm free to take those as well. Um, the first thing I want to bring up is the city snow buddy program. So, I'm going to knock on wood before I say this. I hope we don't need to utilize this until the end of the year, but um basically what this program is, it matches volunteers uh with neighbors who can't aren't able to plow or clear their snow due to disabilities, age, etc. And I will say we did have a really good start with the program, but when we had the historic snow event, um we had a lot more need than volunteers. So, it's the first year we were kicking off the program. So, we're just

018hoping to keep spreading the word about it, getting people involved. We've had different neighborhood groups come together, kind of make their own snow buddies. But, um, any questions about snow bunnies, you can go to indie.gov, um, and type in snowbuddies or you can call the mayor's action center. They can give you information that way and sign you up via that way as well. And then I do have um, an update just from animal care services, ACS. It is spay and neuter awareness month. And then just a reminder, another going to knock on wood again. If the temperature is 20° or lower, uh please be mindful of walking your animals salt being um down and around as well. There's a lot of different harms that that can cause. So we've just been pushing that information out

019to people as well. And then also we're kicking off the summer jobs program um at Indie Parks. Um so there's a up to a $500 sign on bonus. um many different positions. We've been pushing that out. Um any further questions or information, you can go to parks.indy.gov. And then I also have been promoting the INRC Spark session. So there's two this month um completely virtual um and they're free as well. So they have um the first one um which is tomorrow uh February 19th from 6:00 to 7:15 p.m. Um and it's about funding your neighborhood's vision. So, how to build partnerships to meet your community's goals. Um, they have a speaker, Miss Laura. She does a great job. If you're interested in that, you can always register via inrc.org and then it's just/spark sessions. And

020then they also have another event for February 24th at 6 PM virtual as well. Same way to register. And this one is um pertaining to investing in your future um leveraging your professional connections and maximizing your education award. Um INRC is an amazing partner um with us. They have their annual Jubilee. So I'll be giving a little bit more updates on them, but a lot of free um great information that you can utilize as well. Um and then some IMPD updates. So, um, they already had their task force meeting for this month, but the next one is March 11th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at 2011 North Shadlin Avenue. I believe I will be presenting at the April meeting, just to throw that out there if y'all want to attend um at on behalf of

021the mayor's office. And then there also is the annual um IMPD blood drive in honor of um Officer Brian Le. Um, that's also going to be at 2011 North Shadellin Avenue, but it's a little bit a ways away, but it'll come up on us before we know it. So, that is a Friday and that's April 17th. That's from 12 PM to 6 p.m. I'm going to keep um repeating this because we need more people to um sign up and volunteer and I believe after talking to some community resource officers, I think the stipulations to um I think to apply or to get your blood drawn is changed. So definitely if you feel like you've been turned away before, try again. Um we're definitely looking for more people to sign up. Um and then we also

022have our um annual 2026 Polar Pedal. Um so that is se that is Saturday, February 21st. Um so you can sign up uh via indie.gov. There is a new start location. Um, it is at Riverside Adventure Park, but to repeat the direct address, the start location is going to be at 2829 East Riverside Drive. So, they have been advertising. I know they'll have volunteers at the old start location to guide people, but I rather just give the new one out right as I have it. Um, and then the next thing I want to talk about is the Far East Site Quality of Life Plan. So, there was um an in-person existing um conditions briefing that was super nice. Um it was one of the last Saturdays in January. Um very interactive. You were able to

023um connect with neighbors and talk about different things going on in the far east side as well as being able to see um visuals and statistics which is also very important because sometimes when you see it in black and white it's like wow I didn't know that was what was going on in my area. Um but they do have a substack that you could you could subscribe to. It's kind of like a newsletter um where they put different flyers for different events that they're going to be holding, just different findings and information. It's super superformational. So, if you want to subscribe to that Substack, you can subscribe at the Far East Side Community Council's website. Um and then I also have it attached to my newsletter as well if you'd want to subscribe that way.

024Um and then an update with Indiegogo. Um nothing changed with the food and transit. I just want to keep bringing that to people's attention. It's another way, another food resource for everyone. So that's every second and fourth Tuesday from 3:30 p.m. at the Julia M. Carson Transit Center. Um so connecting just your neighbors to healthy and free groceries. Um and then I also have that on my newsletter as well. I just wanted to keep um pointing attention towards that. And then I do want to shout out Cafe, which is the community alliance of the far east side. So they always have a ton of events, um food pantries, different things. But I do want to uh shed attention, their next event with Gleaners will be March 4th and March 25th from 10:00 a.m. to noon.

025So they're completing SNAP um TNF and Medicaid applications. Um other resources will be available, but I just want to make sure people know that these resources are out there and they have two different sessions that they'll be doing in March for that. And they had two different dates. Um I believe the last date for February was today um at 10:00 a.m. And then also the Marian County Public Health Department. Um they're hosting um free diabetes education classes. So those are hosted on Wednesday starting at the beginning of this month. So there was one today. There is the last one will be on the 25th and that's from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30m. Um and then I also want to shout back out to Cafe. So now they have um the neighborhood Christian legal clinic. So they

026used to have them come and give people um free consultations and services um I believe once a month but now it's going to be um every second Tuesday or wait it was only Yes. Yes. Available every second Tuesday. I think they increased the amount of time they've had that. So, that's super amazing. Um, it can help residents understand the eviction process, just knowing your legal rights as a tenant. So, any questions you have pertaining to Cafe, I definitely recommend either stopping in over there or um just checking out their website because they do have a lot of um amazing resources as well. Those are all my updates, but if anyone has any questions, I'm free to take them. >> Very good presentation. Thank you. I wanted to find out who do I um uh get

027in contact with. There seems to be there must have been an accident right there on Franklin and Brookville Road. And it's been there for three days, all the debris from the accident. And it's really hard to make that right-hand turn because you're going to run right into it. It can damage your tires or whatever. But I'm concerned that they haven't removed all of that. Okay. Okay. And I didn't know who we can contact so that they can clean that um up. >> Typically, I would anytime you see um remains left over from accidents or this and that, you can always call in the mayor's action center. I can check at that location to see if there's already tickets there or if they're even if people are aware of what's going on in that area. So,

028illegal dumping, um excessive litter, those type of things. Mayor's action center is how we guide people to report those different things. It is right at Brookville and Franklin Road. >> Brookfield and Franklin. >> Thank you for that. >> You also mentioned um Riverside Adventure Park. >> Yes. For the Polar Pedal. >> For the um Polar Pedal. Yes. Let me pull that up. Yes. So, it'll start at 10:00 a.m. It's a 5 to 10 mile um round trip uh biking. I don't believe it'll be super cold on that day. I hope not. But I know in the past I know that's why they call it a polar pedal. Um I won't be there but I will say I do have some um colleagues who will be participating. So I hope it I hope people will go

029and it it'll be exciting. So thank you. >> Yep. Is that everything? All righty. Thank you much. All right. Miss Lanna, do we have any correspondence? We we do u Madame President for um Mr. Howard, would you like to do your uh correspondence? >> Yeah. Uh I do I do as a matter of fact. Uh can you guys hear me? >> Can you hear me now? >> Members of the board, Madame President, Dr. Mr. Hansen. Uh, I don't recall in the history of the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township whether we've ever had a sitting school board member get married on her watch. It is with great personal pleasure and joy that I surprise Gloria Williams Trotder by showing her recent nuptils in this small select collection of photos to folks who could not attend

030and return the memory to those who did. I want to show these pictures. I wanted to show these pictures at our January meeting, but uh she was on a Hawaiian honeymoon. I I really wanted her to see to see, hear, and glow in that special moment in that special place during that special event. It was cold and wet on December 31st and tough to get parking outside the Gabriel Missionary Baptist Church. on Norwald or Avenue here in Indianapolis. Please enjoy the photos of that event. I hope you enjoy Gloria's special moment. Thank you for your time. That's all I have. >> That was truly a surprise. >> Madam Secretary, do we have any blue cards? I do not, Madam President. >> Thank you. We'll now move on to our consent agenda with our approval of

031minutes, financial payroll claim, financial reports, human resource supplemental personnel reports, HR work agreements, field trip requests permission to accept gifts, grants, change orders, contracts to school property, and conflict of interest. Do I have a motion? So moved. Howard. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Howard made the motion. Julie second. Any discussion? All right. Madam Secretary, could you call an oral vote? >> Yes. >> Rachel. >> I. Gloria, >> I was so overwhelmed from I have no idea what she asked us to vote on. I was still overwhelmed. I'm sorry. >> You're on the consent agenda, Miss. I'm sorry. >> The consent agenda. >> The what? >> Consent agenda. >> Okay. All right. I guess. Yes. >> Howard? >> Yes. >> Julie? >> Yes. Terry, >> yes. >> Kevin, >> yes. >> And Lean is a yes.

032That passes unanimously. Thank you. And now we'll move on to our reports, which are legislative report with Julie French. >> Okay, we are coming up to the end of the session. Um I think it's February 28th is the last day unless something happens and then they extend it on. Um because it could technically go through March 14th I believe it is. Um but because of the first two weeks in December they've shortened it a bit. Um so for school board members um you will need when you if you are uh running again you will need to fill out a um an extra report. I think it's a CAN report and um I think ISBA is planning on having some type of webinar on that for you. Um but just a heads up on that. Um

033and then Senate Bill 78, which is wireless communication devices. Um our kids can expect to have a belltobell ban next year on cell phones, uh smartwatches, any personal communicative or uh electronic devices like even laptop or laptops or iPads or anything else like that. Um and uh it depends on what policy we decide upon um as to if they cannot even bring them to go to all or if they can leave them in book bags. But um we will have to decide that by next year and let everybody know. So, um, and just so you know, there's a Senate bill one, I think it's 159, which also, uh, does the, um, I don't know if this is it or not. Am I not Oh, no. It's Senate Bill 199, which is also it's there's a

034little bit for us, but most of it is on on um, social media. So, um, what we really have to look at and be concerned about is Senate Bill 76, which is immigration. Um, and most bills go into effect on July 1st. This one will be in effect as soon it is signed by the governor. So, you can expect to have something probably next month or the month after on policies on that one. So, okay. Thank you, Julie. And now we'll move on to our Lily phase two and phase three with Mr. Ryan Russell. Good evening, President Amos, Dr. Hansen, members of the board. I don't have a violin. I don't have wedding photos, but I have something just as exciting. Um um let me get here. Okay, so uh Lily, believe it or not,

035uh a year ago in fe February, we were in this room. Actually, not this room. We were actually over in the far end. Uh and we provided a Lily phase 2 update. It was before the application period for Lily phase 2 and we started to talk to you about some of the things that were in the Lily phase 2 application. I'll take you back even further before that. So that was 2025, February of 2025. Can't believe it's already February of 2026. But before that, in the end of 2024, we had a planning grant from Lily, which was Lily phase 1, where we conducted a community dinner at the Marriott East, if you guys recall that, where we generated a lot of ideas of just different ways we wanted to transform uh education in Warren Township.

036It was aspirational. Um, it helped formulate what phase two would look like. It certainly helped uh formulate what formulate what our phase three application uh would look like. And lo and behold, um, as you know, in December, uh, we were awarded officially announced and awarded the phase three application, which is a substantial, um, not only achievement, uh, but point of pride for Warren Township. So, tonight, uh, I'm going to give you I'm going to intertwine because phase one's over. That was the planning grant, but I'm going to talk to you about phase two and phase three. Um needless to say, but everything about um this endowment money uh connects with every part of our of your board goals, our strategic plan, um academic excellence, uh Warren student journey, meeting the needs of the whole child,

037invest in our people, family and community engagement, safety and operational excellence. And I'm going to provide more context to each of those today. That's the way this is formatted. Um and I'm really going to start by doing that with just a few key statements. Then I'm going to really tell you, if you remember last August, I gave you objectives when I came up here. So I really tried to tell you what I wanted you to know by the end of the presentation to focus that in there and we'll get to that. So all that being said, uh here's in a short summary of how we're addressing each of those in these four components of our strategic plan. So academic excellence and achievement, we're enhancing systems and structures for teachers around language arts and math. As

038you know, most of all of those goals really are around achievement, graduation rates, uh providing opportunities for students to earn certifications, college or career credits. The Warren student journey and meeting the needs of the whole child, uh engage students in state-of-the-art facilities that expand college and career opportunities uh that align directly to the high school and the pathway and certifica certification options that we have. Our people invest in our teachers and our leaders. so um they're able and to ensure that our students receive high-quality instruction every day. And then family and community engagement invest in both training and resources to increase family engagement in our schools uh in the supports offered in our schools uh and offered at Morehead Community Resource Center as well. So with that, here's really our objectives. It says agenda, but

039think of it as objectives. So Miss Williams, I'm going to ask you at the end if you can answer the second one just like we did last time. First one is a is the easy one. I'm going to present a very high level overview of the current and future investments through Lily phase two and phase three. You know, we received their award. I'm sure in some capacity you get the question uh what is Warren doing with phase two and phase three Lily money. You'll be able to answer a high level overview at the end of this presentation. Uh second and my favorite, the one that we're going to dive in deeper to tonight. Um I remember in January when we had the work session I I led the 68 focus group part of our uh

040enrollment management and redistricting and I know I believe it was Miss Triplet but she asked like can you tell me what a jog center is and I said there'll certainly be an opportunity to talk more about jog centers which is tonight uh on February 18th. So tonight I'm going to describe to you what a jog center is, why it will set Warren apart and how will it add value to our students and our community. Then I'm going to share an example um of some student programming that we may see within a jog center just to give it some more context for you. So high level overview, but let's get into the weeds a little bit with jog centers so we can really talk about um what that looks like. The last foundational thing that I'll

041really talk about is the whole Lily phase 3 application was built under the guide or under the um foundation of we want to build capacity. Uh the easiest way to sustain a grant is by developing capacity within. We want to build capacity with our families and community by comprehensive support systems and authentic partnerships. Invest in our community, invest in our uh families. We want to build capacity with our people through professional development learn uh leadership opportunities and we want to build capacity in our facilities through state-of-the-art learning environments that inspire innovation. Um, you know how much we've talked about the 68 or 58 experience, but for the sake of this conversation, the 68 experience, uh, we want to invest in that experience to set Warren apart so that we're uniquely different than those around us

042when they're going into those areas. All right, so here's where we're talking about uh, just high level overview of really what we're focusing some of that funding on. Most of this should sound familiar because it was really presented a year ago in February. I I know we'll need a refresher. Um again, this was targeted phase two. A lot of phase 2 is targeted specifically in the IMS building. So, increased instructional time in ELA and mathematics. Um instructional framework development. I've given previous updates over the last year about the work that we're doing with the achievement network and the developing of a math framework. uh we talked to you as one of our central strategies for improving student achievement uh was investing in uh instructional time. We invested to provide more instructional minutes with language arts

043and math teachers uh in that or 5 through eight um really seven eight but five through eight setting so students get more minutes in language arts and math than they do in those other content areas as a key deliverable. Uh last year we talked to you about adding AVID as elective to support employabil employability and skill development. Uh so AVID this year currently um has is in seventh grade as an elective course and there's some exposure courses in fifth and sixth grade for our students. Um and we will um transition that into eighth grade uh next year. Staffing investments. So academic acceleration specialists. We talked about having people um specifically formally uh known as reading interventions but really focused on the grouping of students to make sure that the students in the most need of

044academic support were able to get tier 2 and tier three remediation opportunities for that extended day learning opportunities which is a uh fancy way of saying tutoring opportunities for students to stay after school to receive additional support and then AVID specialists. So these are the AVID teachers specifically that are teaching those courses. All of those um again come out of Lily phase two what I would refer to as targeted support. So targeted support really looking at the supports that our multilingual learners need. Uh everything from resources um to curriculums to professional development to make sure that uh we're able to best meet the needs of that growing population in our district. Uh micro credentials is a new term that I'm going to dive into a little bit later. Uh but a big part of phase

045three is adding certification opportunities for teachers on an ongoing basis through the duration of this grant to get formally certified in specific academic areas. For example, the science of math, the science of reading and literacy, traumainformed care, which means it's a way, and we'll talk about it as a way to both invest in people and a way to invest in academic um excellence and achievement. uh we're going to have partnerships uh through throughout this and really in all of these areas but I mentioned this earlier uh achievement network for the frameworks AVID um and then I'll talk more about the credentiing as we move through okay jog centers so invest in the student journey and the needs of the whole child um a jog center is a guaranteed continuum of college and career experiences for

046students um as early as middle school. What we really want to do is give students exposure and the opportunity to engage in career-based opportunities, not only that what they'll see in the future beyond high school, but in the near future that they'll see in high school. I'm going to say this part a couple times because I I wanted to stick. A lot of times students miss out on getting certifications in high school because they don't know about them soon enough. So, if a student doesn't know about a certain certification opportunity in high school until, let's say they're a 10th grader, they have they may have missed the opportunity to take a principal's class as a freshman or something and not be able to get that certification in high school. Now, they still may want to

047get that certification, but they do so outside of our system, and they take on that cost themselves, which is a burden or a barrier for students to be able to get that certification. One of the central themes of the jog center is to make sure through exposure that we're exposing students early enough about the amazing opportunities that we have at the high school so that they can make more informed choices about what that could look like for their schedule. The reason we added the PCC course last year was a way to get students to think about their graduation diploma in 8th grade to start making more informed decisions about which course they're going to take other than what course are my friends taking. Um we're not asking them to pick a career at this point.

048We are simply asking to try to spark and find out what is their interest. Um, so they get they get exposed to that. A jog center is going to be a physical location where students can rotate through dedicated career cluster spaces that align to the high school. Again, it's about alignment, meaning that we are going to expose students in middle school to the opportunities that they're going to have in high school. I've heard um our I've heard our school district talk about the amazing opportunities. I've heard our school board talk about the amazing opportunities that our students have at the high school. I've heard us say that we got to make sure everyone has more awareness of those opportunities. This is one way a central way that we're looking to do that. Uh partnerships uh

049there are a lot of partnerships uh AASA is superintendent association uh to really try to make sure this funnels in in terms of a framework of what our student journey looks like from K to 12. Uh employee indie is a partner we've worked with a talentbound program uh really looking at how we can have someone help bridge uh real I'll say real workers we're real workers but we can find industry leaders to help inform what our middle school curriculum and these jog centers and our career center and high school curriculum look like so it's more relevant to our students and then many more to come and I'll give you an example of that this isn't all about jo centers but in four points that again I want to emphasize. What is a jog center? This

050is the picture we put in our Lily application. I think I would we've had a lot of conversation really over the past week just with some um architects in different parts about this key word is it's an innovative space uh designed for career exploration. Think flexibility. Um students have the ability to practice and develop jog skills aligned to six career clusters. The career clusters are important, but what's interesting about career clusters is they're always changing. The careers that are relevant today will not necessarily be relevant 15 years from now. But the theme line that goes through the skill development are those job skills. Regardless of what that career looks like, you're going to need to be able to be a critical thinker or a compassionate collaborator, effective communicator. So the through line is not the

051career specifically but those jog skills. Jog centers bring our jog or portrait to life. Jog center classes will directly align with future opportunities students will have at the high school to support pathway determinations determinations and diploma type selection. I can't emphasize this enough. As I talked to both middle school leaders, high school leaders, uh there has to be a handshake. We're talking about the fourth to fifth uh grade transition. Uh that eighth to nth grade transition is a critical one as well as we know and we have to make sure that the vertical articulation between what students are doing in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade directly leans into a better informed decision maker as a student when they go to high school. The last point again is the one I said I would I would

052drive home a few times. Many students develop career interest too late which limits their ability to earn credentials of value in high school. There are certain programs not just because of capacity but because of the amount of time that it takes to actually earn your certification with work-based learning hours and other components you have to know going in. And our students don't know going in if they've never been exposed to what those things have been in a practical real world way. All right. So, let me give you an example. We know jog centers are an innovative space where a lot of different things can happen. The way we developed our Lily application was really focused on a sixth, seventh, and eighth grade building. A middle school has three grade levels, two semesters each year. So,

053there's six different semesters for a student's experience in middle school. We if you look at the gold um titled uh category is what I'll call it. We're calling those career clusters. Those were initially developed uh off two different things. One was what do we currently offer at Warren Central High School and in 912 in general. The other was what are some upcoming career fields that we should explore offering at Warren Central High School or really Warren online anywhere. Um, so those go those gold headlines were there. We kind of clumped some together. Um, just to think of that the gray box would be a six-w weekek module linked to a career cluster. So there's two semesters in a school year, there's 18 weeks in a semester, you have three six-week modules. So, you have the

054opportunity to really focus on exposing students to 18 different um certification opportunities in middle school. It's a guaranteed experience for 100% of our students in middle school. So, they all get exposed to both collegegoing careers, militarygoing careers, um straight to the workforce careers. so they can start to see what they're interested in, what they may have a gift for, and then ultimately what starts to stick. Let me caution you, these aren't final. We have a lot to work to do over the next really 18 months to figure out ultimately what Jo programming is going to look like. So, I'm sharing this as an example just to help give a con conceptualize really what a jock center piece would be. These would be um potentially elective course opportunities that students took in sixth, seventh, and eighth

055grade. We're not talking about eliminating other electives. We're we're talking about how we include this into a middle schooler's experience so they get this um as part of that guaranteed experience. So, I want to narrow down and provide even more context to one example. Um, in this previous slide, um, I showed you the semesters and I, uh, focused in on this seventh grade, second semester. In seventh grade, in the second semester, we had drafted that it would potentially be a middle school, a seventh grade exposure piece about drone operations. Why would we expose seventh graders to drone operations? Well, drone operators is one of the fastest growing fields in our country. All of these industries are hiring drone operators right now. Right now, agriculture, construction, real estate, energy inspection. Just talking to our architects. They're

056using them to inspect roofs. They're using them to inspect power lines. Um, uh, police are using them for as like SWAT team members to go in and look at things for that. Did you know to actually fly a drone in a work capacity, you have to have a certain certification? Did you know that you can earn that certification as early as 16 years old? Um, how would you know that if you were never told or exposed to that? And do you think we would have some students interested in flying drones for a living? Perhaps. And not everyone has to. That's the great part. We're going to expose them to 18 different things. So, with that, I want to show you a video of just an example of seeing some middle school students kind of engaging

057in some fundamental drone practices. Look at this. >> Last flight. >> Might have done it a bit too much. >> And so we're taking off from taking off from Evansville. You're headed where? >> That particular activity they were doing flight plans around Indiana to make sure that the drones didn't crash to each other. Again, very brief overview just um supposed to show just an example of what it could be. So, let me try to drive this connection about why it's important this one example. So, if we provide an opportunity for every student in MR Township to get exposed to just that example in middle school, uh we talk about safety, flight fundamentals, aerospace concepts, mission planning. and we're giving them simulation labs um for them to do some of that work to see if that's

058an interest of them. And then we would offer that in middle school as an exposure piece and we would pair it at the high school with a specific CTE opportunity pathway opportunity. So when a student goes into the high school, they said, "Yeah, I want to be able to get my certification, my FAA part 107 certification because any one of these jobs I just talked to you about, it requires that FAA 107 certification um for them to be able to have that job." And again, you can get that as early as 16. I'm moving too fast. Sorry. So, in high school, at let's say they they go through that, they have the ability to take that exam at 16, they get that certification. Then, what we also know about the new Indiana high school diploma

059is they have to have so many work-based learning hours to be able to get an honors diploma. Now, it's not just students in CTE. Every student is going to have to be able to incorporate work-based learning opportunity into their high school experience in order to have an advanced diploma in high school. Whether you go to college, whether you're going directly to career, whether you're going into military, you're going to have to have it. And you can't get it till you have that certification because you can't work in that field or have be partnered with someone in that field till you get it. The other beauty of that is we'll have some students who say, "Great, I can go straight to the career. I can go straight to the workforce." Now, we'll have others that say,

060"I want to go to flight school. I'm going to graduate high school. I'm going to go to flight school." Um, and it's going to give them a leg up in that. We're going to have other ways there specific uh opportunities to join specific military um units specifically with those credentials and again or directly workforce entry. The concept of this that I'm trying to drive home is while that's one example of drone operations, we know that not every student's going to pick to be a drone operator and that's not the point. But if we expose them everything from health careers, the digital design to cyber security, the culinary arts, uh the business and entrepreneurship, we're going to be able to give students, adolescent students before they enter high school, a much better opportunity to design what

061their high school experience looks like than I know I did when I went to high school than I know what we currently have the ability to for that. And it's not just based on those career clusters. It obviously is, but the the centralized theme of that, why call it a jog center? Because that's where they demonstrate those job skills and dispositions. So again, these are 18 examples about what it could be, what the work ahead of us looks like is we're continuing to work with middle school teams, high school teams, the community to find partners who can help us develop curriculum in these six-week modules so that we can provide our students a just a really amazing middle school experience to better provide um I will say a hopeful future about what their career their

062career can look like. That's a jog center. That's the purpose of a joke center. >> I have a quick question. Is there a way that we can um share this information with parents to uh have like maybe I don't know each six weeks have something go out about that the particular thing the child is going to be learning >> 100% time. Okay. >> You know we were um uh we were in a meeting earlier. I'm looking for Marcus. Um, but there you are. Marcus and I, Alison was there, too. Sorry, Alison. But we were in a meeting talking about just uh some of the initial design architecture of the of the jog centers. And we were talking about the ability to put them the locations we're identifying to have certain jog center exposure nights so

063that people can come in and see what those are and then showcase certain things that are going on, whether it's every six weeks or different pieces. Um, I I truly think, and I know I'm biased to Warren Township, uh, this sets us apart, we don't have peers doing this in middle school, and we don't have peers making that middle school connection to the high school like this. Um, and, um, again, if done right, which is the focus of what we're doing, um, it really gives our 68 experience a leg up in a uniqueness that can truly be uh, we can shine a a bright light on. So, but 100% Julie, yes. >> Great. Because I I just think that's going to help our kids in the long run. Parents can talk to them, hey, what

064did you learn about? Tell us about what do you like about it, you know, and did you not, you know, whatever. But I just I just know as a parent, for me, when my kids were going through, I didn't know what opportunities they had at the career center either. So, >> absolutely. >> Yeah. This is a student programming side, meaning this is what we're exposing students to. There's obviously a what we expose family and community to. Part of the part is like finding partnerships in all of these modules and fields to be local industry people to come in to help formulate it with us helps with that communication message as well. But totally agree. I wanted to ask um like for instance in each grade level are you saying 100% of the students will participate

065in those things that are in the sixth grade for instance and then they will participate was designed for seventh grade. >> Okay. So like Julie was saying maybe the parents can get some kind of print out you know of what their students are going to be learning in sixth grade and the different areas so that they can be excited and work with them on that. So, that would be great. And looking at your module, um the only thing that I see that needed to be included is um our hands-on skills such as uh electrician, plumbing, construction. These are things that they need to do, you know, because um knowledge is power. Once they get that knowledge, they can even open up their own business, you know, and these skills are in demand, you know, uh

066and and they don't think about that. So I would I don't even know the category. What is it called? I I can't think of the word. >> Trade skills. Thank you, Dr. Hansen. We definitely need to make sure that our students are exposed to trade skills >> for sure. >> And therefore, so if they're not successful in going into some of these other things, at least they will have some kind of trade that when they graduate from school, they will be able to have that skill that they can take with them and earn money. One last thing. Um, I IA, you know, you heard on the news where a lot of people lost their jobs due to IIA. So, in AI, AI, okay, I'm sorry, >> I'm talking too fast. I mean AI, I don't

067know why I say I, but AI, >> we need to prepare our students for the future. We need to inform them about what jobs they need to focus on and not just let them go into anything. And we know that AI is out there. There's a possibility they can go into something that AI will, you know, eliminate that position altogether. So, we need to educate our students, you know, um thinking of black history. Uh one of our black historians said, "The future belongs to those who prepare for it today." And I think that was Malcolm X. And so therefore, we need to prepare them for what's going to, you know, develop with this AI and not they can't just do and take anything anymore. We have to inform them, okay, these are the jobs and

068things that you can prepare yourself for that you will not um be in um danger of losing your job because of AI. >> Yeah, 100%. >> Yeah. And again, >> go sorry. I'm still just a little confused. So, is this actually going to be an additional infrastructure? Like are you taking a space already within >> correct >> the um school and just transitioning it into >> Yeah. So, um we we are looking at all of our middle schools have previous um uh from years ago old industrial tech labs uh home labs uh believe it or not old school old home labs, industrial tech labs that are all I won't say centrally located, but they're all clumped together. Uh so Stony Brook has a specific area where the industrial tech and those labs are. Raymond Park

069does and then so does Cresten. So, we're looking at repurposing those spaces um to infuse opportunities for us to um have a lot of flexibility in what that spaces could look like. So, we could uh push in simulation labs. We could take out walls to have a bigger space to fly drones or something like that. uh it's not a it's a a repurpose of an old space to to utilize it in I would say a 21st century way. So, are we behind the the mark on because it still seems like this is in its infancy stage and it needs to um happen by when there are >> timeline. I I'll end with the timeline, however, but jog center programming uh is scheduled to start in the 2728 school year. So again, we're looking at we're

070working currently with uh architecture firm to design those spaces and do that. Looking at construction in those spaces being next year with implementation uh when the building is just 68 in the 2728 year uh with that potential schedule. How do we ensure that um all of the students will not just have access but will be participating in it and it's not just restricted on uh behaviors or you know um academic success that all of our students will be able to touch these programs >> because it's not an elective it's a requirement. So same way same way we guarantee every student takes math um every student takes participates in the jog center programming. Um if it was solely an elective meaning that if you want to take performance music you take performance music or if you

071want to take art you take art. Uh or we limit that based on other uh like well if you take AVID you don't have the opportunity to take this. Uh the way the schedule's being incorporated for the 2728 school year is every single sixth grader gets scheduled through these modules in the same way they would get scheduled through math or or reading class. >> It makes me want to shout. I think we're headed in the right direction. Um I am so excited that we are exposing our children uh to this. It's been a long time coming and I am excited about it. I think that uh like you know like Julie said once we get our parents involved and we develop this program we're going to see a great difference in our children and um

072and uh the graduates that we see they are going to be more prepared for the real world when they graduate from high school. >> So I'm excited about that >> for sure. And this is all about really that that last board goal in academic achievement of making sure that at least 80% of our students graduate with the certification. >> I know we want all of them. Right. But the the board goal specifically says 80%. >> Yes. >> We can't get to that 80% by doing the same things we've always done. >> Okay. That's right. >> Right. So we have to have that different exposure piece. and we're able to scale this at a pace uh because of the Lily money that we wouldn't been able to we wouldn't have been able to without. >> Now,

073one last question. I know presently um we have limitations on the career center. Once these children leave middle school and they go to high schools, um how can we make sure that they have the opportunity to be a part of the career center and the different opportunities that's offered there? >> Yes. regardless of like what LSA said, regardless of behavior or academic because we find that a lot of our students that are behavior they are very skilled and once we introduce them to a skill they will be some of our great workers and many times we leave them out because of behavior and they are not exposed to these opportunities. So how can we we don't want to drop the ball once they leave middle school. How can we make sure that they continue this

074through high school? Yeah, I don't know if there's a a perfect answer to that other than creating the jog center and the programming opportunities directly aligns to the career center. So, for example, and I talked to Dr. Rogers about this um over the past several days. Um you know, we're not going to tell students about all the great opportunities that they potentially have in precision machines if we're not if we don't have an accessible pro precision machine programming at the career center for students to go into. Like we wouldn't expose them to it if it's not an actual opportunity. I'm not saying like we're going to not expose students because we're not able to, but Jo Center, the physical location of that space is in middle schools and to um Mrs. triplet's point like it's

075repurposed space of old IT labs uh where we used to have band saws and ovens in um but that's the physical space but the spirit behind it is really what happens from sixth grade to 12th grade and within as students get older they yeah I mean you're not going to hear me disagree they have to have access to it they have to have access to it and that starts in middle school >> so when they get to ninth grade when they get to nth grade. So, they're going to be used to this structure where they're learning and being exposed in sixth grade, exposed in seventh grade, exposed in eighth grade. Once they get to ninth grade, what does that look like? >> Yeah, I would take it one step back. Uh I have more slides,

076too, but um I would take it um I take it a step back. The culminating experience in middle school is 8th grade where you create a a high school plan for graduation, right? like we have to create high school plans for graduation as eighth graders with informed decisions. So instead of getting into nth grade and saying I don't know if I want to take this principal class or I don't know if I need this principal's class offered my nth grade year or my 10th grade year because depending on the career opportunity depends on when those courses start. So some of those are going to take a pathway and potential certification opportunity outside the realm of the career center. It's not all about the career center. Some of these health health careers is not just about

077dental assisting and medical assisting. It could be about um nursing, doctor, uh physicians assistant, like it's exposing to a lot of those pieces. To be a physician's assistant, uh for example, we may encourage a student to get their medical assistant certification because to get into PA school, students have to have 2500 hours of patient care hours before they can get into grad school. And if a student doesn't have some kind of certification to start working in a hospital when they're in college, they're never going to get to that 2500 hours. Um, I'm answering your question, I promise. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, it's really about what what is your plan in eighth grade? So, Gloria, if you're interested in radio and video broadcasting, you have to indicate

078that and or not, you don't have to indicate that, you're going to indicate that through your high school plan so that you can be not only appropriately scheduled, but know what the requirements are for to be in radio and broadcasting, knowing if it leads to a certification or different other pathway opportunity. And you're also going to have a backup plan, right? Because what what does that lead to it? So, yeah, I can't tell you specifically about what a freshman will do after they've been through all these modules. Um, I can tell you they're going to be far better informed about the opportunities that they have and it's going to be more aligned than it ever has been >> and they will have opportunities in ninth grade to explore their careers. That's what I'm >> They'll

079have continued opportunities for that. Not every ninth grader needs to be in a principal class. Um, so there's they still take a freshman seminar class which continues to expose them to those um career opportunities. They still have access to a counselor who's going to help them through those pieces. Uh, for the students who need to get in a principal's class their freshman year to get on a certification part, they will be in that class. Uh, for a student who doesn't need to be in one of those classes till their sophomore year, they'll have that. Uh, again, we we haven't spent a lot of time talking about the new high school diploma. Uh but those are guarantees for all students that have to have that plan and are going to have to be able to work

080be on a trajectory to get work-based learning hours really by their junior year so they can accumulate them. I'll say yes. I just can't tell you exactly how that happens right now. One question about the modules. So, will they stay on par or in partnership with as programs be added and deleted to the career center so they don't get so separated that we're still with the modules we're just stuck in something that's no longer even available at the career center? >> Yeah, I see it be I see it being fluid to your point. If we're adding a new program at the career center, we're we're adding that it's a six it's a 612 program right now. when we add a program at the career center, there's no consideration to our middle school students because we

081don't intentionally expose them to that in any way. So, if we did add um some of these programs, a cyber security program, we'll use a different example, we're going to start making sure that one of those in partnership with a business or a cyber security expert in the community or in the business field somewhere in Indianapolis is going to help us develop curriculum to expose that and then also help us get, you know, to see what that program looks like. It's the same model that career centers do across our state of Indiana. They have advisory boards for those specific careers. It's just all limited to high school. And what we're saying is why limit it just to high school when a student their to Miss Williams point when a student doesn't know what those opportunities

082are and can't get themselves in that class by the time they are interested in it either they can't get themselves in the class or they have to spend their own money out of their own pocket to get that certification. Does that mean, Ryan, we're looking to change the eligibility criteria for our Walker Career Center? Because that is set at a higher standard or have more strict, let me rephrase that, it has more strict um guidelines to be able to participate in those classes. So then I'm seeing I've gotten to be on this journey of a graduate in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, but just maybe my behaviors are not all that um great. I'm still learning and making poor choices. Now I'm not no longer eligible to participate in this when at the Walker Career

083Center. How does that work? Because I'm still seeing that gap there. Because what you're saying sounds great, but >> is it gonna happen? >> Yes. Being a requirement in middle school and then it's optional or up to someone else's discretion if I'm approved. So, we went from requirement to approval. And I think that has to be um streamlined or this journey that you're taking me on as a middle school is going to really discourage me more. >> It's an unfulfilled promise without that. Yes, >> it's an unfulfilled promise. >> Hey Ryan, they're referring to when we close a class or when it gets to a cap and then there's a wait list. I think we have three classes this year. Is that correct, Dr. Sullivan? So, we're going to have to figure that part out

084because the popularity of those classes um both in district and um those other districts that we serve do cause that um tension where then kids have to qualify in behavior, attendance, grades are a part of that metric that they're all lined up. There are 75 slots. They number the kids by the ranking and the first 75 are then selected for that course. So right now we have three of those weight lists. All the other programming if kids choose it they're entered into it. >> For clarification, Dr. Hansen. Um not specifically just on weight list classes, but just the eligibility to be able to participate at the Walker Career Center that goes on. Um your behavior is u a part of that as well, whether there's a weight list or not. So again, that needs to

085be streamlined. >> Yeah. Dr. Sullivan and Mr. Russell, can you verify that for us and get that back to us because I in talking with Dr. Rogers, that that was not my understanding, but we'll we'll make we'll verify that. >> Can Okay. Because from what I've read and I think what you guys sent us in our email reply and I'll reread um I can >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> That's a critical >> piece. Yeah. I think I think what all this conversation brings up is there has to be 612 alignment of not just programming but procedures, policies, access and all that which yes. Do we have those answers? Obviously not. U but I obviously that's very good feedback for us to get more information for as we continue to engage in this. >> You know

086what? Um that's what I was asking you uh when I said once they leave middle school and we go to high school, what is that going to look like? Um we want to make sure that they have the support that they need. Once they leave 8th grade, 9th through 12th, they need that support in order to make sure when they graduate, they'll have we'll have our journey of a grand. When you say journey, it don't stop after 8th grade. It's a journey until they graduate from high school and 12th grade. So, we have an excellent plan for middle school where they're going to be exposed. But I feel that we also need to develop a plan in high school where it will be just as successful for our high school students as our middle school

087students. So >> I totally agree. I know um >> yeah I I know those conversations um I'm not going to put Dr. Sullivan on the spot, but I know those conversations are going on and I know that part of that is and as we continue to provide updates that can be the next again um I would ask what's a jog center? It's a physical location in the middle school, right? We know that and that's why middle school is getting the focus now. But the spirit and the purpose of the jog center is to better serve what 612 looks like so we can ultimately meet the board goal of making sure students graduate with certification um or college and career credentials or college credentials or military credentials as well. I'm going to move on to investing

088in people. Um, I told you jog center was the vast majority of it, but I do want to hit some of these other pieces and then certainly answer any additional questions for everyone. Uh, investing in people, we talked about it being a uh, building capacity uh, type of application. Um, one of the key foundations and this was uh, really generated under the spirit of um, what led to a lot of our success uh, with our dramatic increase in i3 achievement. Uh through that process, we deser we developed a certification process to quote unquote certify students in or students teachers in the science of reading. Uh we talked a lot about that. So what we're doing with Lily money is scaling that um in a lot of other areas as well. So let's let's certify teachers

089in the science of math teaching. Let's certify continue to certify new teachers or new staff new to us in uh the science of reading. Let's provide more opportunities to train everyone in trauma-informed care and get certifications for that. What a certification means is outside a teacher's normal compensation is when a teacher earns a certification, we can give them a $1,500 stipen um through Lily money. So, um we we have budgeted enough money in Lily to give 600 certifications annually to teachers. um we have to develop those certification programs and part of that's through micro credentiing which I said I would talk more about. Here's the beauty of micro credentiing. Um it's competencybased meaning we're not paying people to sit here and listen to my presentation. We would be paying people to do a per some

090type of performance task to know that they met the objective of the presentation. So it's not about seat time. It's about knowing and being able to apply what you learn and being able to prove it. Um, so specific demon specific skill demonstration and action. What we did for literacy certification was it wasn't just about taking that professional development class. Part of that certification for them to receive a stipen was to video themselves teaching that in action and submitting it for an outside evaluator to approve their um, competency with it. Um, so yes, we want them to sit and learn, but what's even more critical is their ability to be able to apply their learning and reward them financially reward them for that certification. On demand, meaning we're really looking to do both an online video

091bank, a combination of them being able to submit evidence on their own through an online portal. Uh, there's certain vendors out there who specialize in this. We're developing an RFP to look in more detail uh about uh a um really a repository of not only pre-developed content but for us to develop our own content as well with what that looks like to work with partners the the leadership development as well as just as critical uh 80 leaders which is really our uh mostly our administrative team uh through the Indiana um through IASP Indiana association of school principles they develop an empowering excellent empowering excellence Excellent s excellence series can't talk um and really developed that under a train the train model. So really infusing a lot of uh professional development uh for teachers the ability

092to earn additional compensation for demonstrating their proficiency within the things that they're learning and then investing in our leaders as well to be able to support um teaching and learning. Then family and community engagement. So, um part of Lily and what we've done with phase, um uh phase two and phase three, uh just the investment in social worker positions, not only the new ones from phase two, but being able to provide the salary benefit um uh for the social workers that were here before uh phase two. Uh being able to support uh family engagement leaison as well um uh financially through their salaries. uh really focus on family engagement, uh dual capacity framework. Um which really is just looking at academic supports, academic supplies, ways to engage families both at their schools, engage families with

093resources that they need, engage families with uh any type of supports or or help uh eliminate some barriers that they are uh experiencing. We get targeted with that support for Morehead Community Resource Center and the outreach efforts that they're doing. um focus on mental health, housing, food, academics, attendance, all those areas that we know uh that they do good work in. And then uh really just support for in increasing the integration of resources for our families in the community. Again, both through a student's home school in every school and then specifically at Morehead as well. So, um that's how those investments are looking. I mentioned the timeline. Um look uh end of 2025 in December we we found out about the award. We really because of the aggressiven aggressiveness of this really couldn't move forward

094till we found out about the award itself. We had our first initial meeting with Lily just to find out some logistics to it in January. So we're about a month into this which is why a lot of these things are in their infancy stage when you think about it. Um we've done obviously we've had some things previously from phase two that are there. Uh but specifically to the jog center uh 26 27 you're really looking at construction and program development. So really not only the construction the physical space but being able to uh develop robust robust programming for that not just at the middle level but in the connection to the high school. um uh increasing what AVID implementation looks like, increasing, uh or expanding family engagement efforts. 2728 is when Joel centers are operational

095in our timeline. That's when we plan to have the Warren certification program fully developed and for teachers to be able to start receiving those stipens. Obviously, continuous improvement through all of that. And then really by the the end of the grant period, the 2930, um that's when everything I talked about tonight will be perfect. Okay, no one's listening. They didn't laugh. But um that's when every that's obviously when we hope to be able to um really see the fruits full fruits of all the labor. So I know I was up here a really long time, but I would talk about this um for even longer and happy to answer any more questions that you have. >> I have a quick question on the uh the last slide before that one. um the teacher development, you

096said up to 600 certifications annually for that $1,500. Is that micro stip or credential stipen included in that 600 or is that above and beyond that? >> That's included that. So any credential we're calling any credential a micro credential. >> Okay. >> Um for that. So yeah. >> Well, I think that we're headed in the right direction for our middle schools. I'm really happy that we're focusing on trying to start there in our middle schools. Um trying to prepare them for high school. Um you know, we have to start somewhere and I think that's a great starting point and then hopefully our next stage will be to try to figure out what we're going to do once they get to high school. So great job. >> Thank you, Ryan. All right. Um, do we have

097any yellow cards, Madame Secretary? >> No, Madame President. >> At this time, um, we're going to introduce Jeff Quacenbush for our, um, preliminary bond hearings. >> Good evening, Madam President, members of the board, Dr. Hansen. It's Jeff Quac and Bbush. A pleasure to be with you this evening. And tonight is the first preliminary determination public hearing that you have on the 2026 2028 secondary and elementary schools renovation and expansion project. Um, we started this preliminary determination public hearing process back in December and then you came back and re-evaluated some of the uh approaches and activities that were going to go on on this school district across the entire uh geographical boundaries and decided to recalibrate some of the projects that were initially discussed during the December public hearing. So, we had to go back and

098actually revertise the public hearings and we're basically restarting this entire process this evening. But this process is very similar to what you've done over the last several years with respect to several of your uh significant construction projects across your district, both at your middle schools, across your entire district, beginning uh back in the early 20 uh 16s through 2020s, and then also going into some of the high school and Walker Career Center projects that you've done most recently. Um the public hearing has been advertised as uh required by Indiana law and then we will be advertising for the second public hearing that we will have on this. The first public hearing this evening you'll hear two presentations from uh Miss Dow on the um project itself as well as the financial parameters. I will tell

099you that the financial parameters have not changed from what you heard back in December. While the project scope has changed, the cost and the overall impact to the community as far as tax rate, etc. are consistent because the entire dollars have not changed from that nor the financing plan. Uh after the public hearing this evening and after those two presentations, then you will open it up for any public comment. And then at the end of that, you'll just close this public hearing. Then on March 9th, we'll come back with a second public hearing at 6 PM here in this uh uh room as well. At that public hearing, we'll have the same presentations once again. Then at the conclusion of those public hearings presentations, you'll then have public comment one more time. Then after you've

100closed the public comment, then at that point in time, if you decide to proceed, there will be a resolution presented to you all for your consideration that would preliminarily determine to proceed with the project as presented in the two uh presentations over the public hearings and the financing plan. If you adopt that resolution, then as you are well aware, we will then publish one more notice of that preliminary determination and then we will wait 30 days and after the 30-day period, then we will commence the rest of the legal financing process associated with both this project as well as the one that you approved for the high school and the uh other facilities on the high school campus that was approved in uh the spring of la spring and summer of last year. So, with

101that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have regarding the process or the legal uh steps that we'll be taking in connection with that. And if you don't have anything regarding those, then I'll turn it over to Miss Dow to move into the presentations on the project and the financing. >> All right, with that, I'll turn it over to her. Thank you. >> Good evening, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, I know you guys have just been waiting anxiously. I know Ryan stole the show with the jog centers, but um I'm going to be a close second by talking about the projects that we're working on tonight. Um the 2026B uh construction our preliminary determination hearing um touches these uh school board and strategic plan focus areas academic excellence and achievement the Warren student

102journey and meeting the needs of the whole child as well as family and community engagement. The 2026b projects are a total estimated cost of $40 million. The work covers classroom additions at four elementaryaries, a uh Warren Central High School indoor practice facility as well as the youth athletic complex which I believe is the ESSA fields as I've heard it um commonly referred to. Um first those elementary expansions so that we can accommodate our fifth grade students um in our current K4 elementary buildings for the school year. um classroom additions there estimated cost is 21.2 million. The indoor practice facility which is going to support football, boys football, girls flag football, unified flag, uh it supports all of our students wide array. Um estimated cost there is 17.4 million. And then the youth athletic compl complex

103um which is also in partnership with a $250,000 grant from the NFL. So the bond cost estimated as 2.75 but the total funds to expend on that site um is $3 million. Um, I gave you two t timelines just to be able to show essentially our elementary classroom additions are on a timeline to be ahead of the other part of this with the indoor facility as well as the fields which will require longer time. Before we get into discussion, if you don't mind, I am going to hit the financial terms um piece of this legally that we're required to Oh, boy. Well, not the end of it. Okay. The primary purpose of this hearing is to set the financial maximums um for the purposes of our units. So the maximum uh borrowing amount for this

104bond issue would be $40 million. Maximum repayment term is 20 years. Uh maximum total interest expense is capped at 7% maximum with a total interest expense of 45,558,42. Um maximum lease rental payments is 85,667,000. Maximum annual debt service lease rental payments are $10 million. The estimated increase over estim estimated increase over the 2026 debt service fund tax rate and levy is zero. So this is being um completed essentially by managing our overlapping debt. So there won't be an increase to taxpayers overall. Um our outstanding debt for the corporation and our overlapping tax units as compared to net assess value is 11 36% and the projected maximum annual payments um in comparison to net assessed value is 0.51%. I believe this would be the point according to attorney quaga that we would madam president open the

105hearing for any public comment. Do we have any public comment? All right. >> Hearing none, we'll move on. >> So, I didn't know if there was any questions on the presentation overall with regard to the work of the $40 million bond issue. Um, that I think I think we've talked about it a little bit, but uh if there's any discussion for the Dr. Hansen or the board or anything else that needs to be clarified. Anybody >> else? That was easy. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> I'll see you March 9th. >> Okay. So, we'll close that part of our meeting and we will now move on to our action items with Dr. Sullivan. Madame President, members of the board, Dr. Hansen, and community members, I would like to address the Neola policy guidance related

106to retaking courses for students who earn grades lower than a B in order to obtain credit hours towards seals associated with the new Indiana diploma. Uh after reviewing Yola's recommendation, our administrative team has intentionally opted not to update our current board policy 5462 retaking a class. We believe our existing policy already provides the necessary flexibility and authority to support students in meeting diploma requirements, including eligibility for certification and diploma seals while preserving appropriate academic standards. Our policy 5462 allows for course grade replacement under administrative guidelines, ensuring consistency while still allowing students or the schools to respond to individual student needs. This framework gives our school the autonomy to support students who are pursuing diplomacy certifications or post-secary readiness goals without requiring a rigid one-sizefits-all mandate. Again, it's our conclusion that policy 5462, which was revised

107on December 21st, 2016, remains both relevant and effective. And it in lines with our intent of a new Indiana diploma by supporting students progress and credential attainment while allowing the district leaders and school administrators to apply professional judgment based on individual student circumstances. Did you say grades lower than a B or D? >> A B. B as in boy. >> B as in boy. >> So they would have to retake that class if they make something lower than a B. >> They wouldn't have to. So it would be as if they wanted to make sure that their GPA remained at a certain place. So if they had a C, they would retake it and try to get something higher. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Do I have a motion? >> This is Rachel. So moved. >>

108Thank you, Rachel. >> Do I have a second? >> Gloria seconds. Any discussion hearing? None. Madam Secretary, will you please take a vote? >> Rachel, >> yes. Howard? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Terry, >> yes. >> Kevin, >> yes. Passes unanimously. >> Thank you, Dr. Sullivan. And now to our discussion items. And Brian, it looks like you're up for three of them. Good evening, President Amos, Dr. Hansen, members of the board. I do have uh three policies for discussion. The first of which is 3220 staff evaluation. Uh this is uh this is a Neola recommendation based on house enrolled act 102 from 2025 that changed Indiana code to namely remove and repeal the four category requirements from teacher evaluations. So highly effective effective uh needs improvement and ineffective. Um and then uh it also

109made certain components of a district's teacher evaluation plan optional although I've maintained all anything that was optional I've maintained. Um, in this recommendation, it also removed a requirement for every August, you know, uh, myself and Pam would come before you and just kind of share that the the team document, our evaluation plan, uh, before evaluations would start for a new school year. That's now optional. And of course, the language is also removed. Any requirements for discussion is that's no longer required as well. Any any questions with that or the second policy is 3220.01 and that's the teacher appreciation grant otherwise known fondly as the tag. Um Julie Wakeakeman and myself addressed this uh last month at the legislative forum, but it has drastically changed uh for a decade plus it was pretty much just uh

110awarded automatically to all eligible teachers across the district. Uh whether you're as long as you're effective or highly effective. Now uh based on House Enrolled Act 101 from last year, uh it's it's a applicationbased grant and stipens don't get provided in December anymore. Um, we usually would get that money in right around Thanksgiving time and you had like 20 business days to get that out. Now the funds are received April 15th to be dispersed uh no uh no later than June 30th. So that's a change. You also can't provide stipens to more than 20% of your teacher staff. Um and so um talk about building the airplane while flying it. was very new to us this year and we just last month finished kind of getting through the whole process and had submitted everything to

111the DOE. So um so quite quite a different process but I'll be happy to answer any questions if there's any related to that one obviously as you think >> how do how do you select that 20%. So uh you know first of all you have to look at our total total teachers that would be eligible. So anybody who was brand new this year uh would not be eligible automatically because you had to have been evaluated um because this tag grant is actually for the previous school year. Uh so for this year it was for the 2425 school year. So then out of that then you you figure out maximum what would be 20%. But then we h we had a um uh to start things off after providing FAQs and a answering questions and having

112sort of the general u instructions we provided in December an intent to apply survey because we actually developed an application process. Um so out of those who were eligible, those who um met the criteria uh to apply indicated so on an intent survey. We had 215 teachers actually indicate an intent to apply. So those 215 actually got an application and then out of those 215 we had about 103 actually apply and then out of out of out of out of out of out of out of out of out of out of out of those 10370 are going to be awarded stipens and we submitted all that to the DOE. Um so we had to review um I don't know if that helps but that was our process and uh actually so far it ended up

113working out pretty well um as we got through it. Um >> Ryan, how did you select the 70? >> Yeah, so primaril so just uh real quick the there's uh um the rules from the state, you know, this is money appropriated by the general assembly and the DOE administers this and they're very clear that um you had to show significant academic impact through a local, state or national assessment. So, um, myself, uh, Pam Griffin, and help from, uh, Ryan Russell and Allison Woods, we we went through all those applications multiple times. Uh, because there was an application that required a narrative in 500 words or less. You had to demonstrate as a teacher a roster of students or some kind of case load and then you had to connect that with uploaded evidence of the

114significant impact. So as long as you met all those things and you could clearly show that you did that then um then you were awarded the stipen >> right >> we didn't go >> ahead >> we didn't have more teachers >> correct >> than the number okay >> yeah 20% was like a between 125 and 130 teachers like I said we had 103 applications >> can you break down like um for middle school, elementary, the high school. Where did these where are these teachers from? >> Yeah. Uh if my memory serves um out of the 103, I think we had like 54 elementary, we had um I don't know like 16 to 20. I can get you the exact numbers, but like 16 to 25, 5'8 and or uh yes. And then uh a number

115actually a number um 20ome from Mike Walker in the high school out out of the ones that were awarded. So there wasn't 54 elementary that were awarded. That was actually out of the 103 that applied. But um so now >> but I would be happy to I have that broken down. I just can't I don't have it memorized. You said um based on academic, you know, their test scores, are you saying there were 55 teachers that said that um their classroom test scores were exceptionally high and the students achieved? >> Now, that was out of the 103 applications, there was about I want to say about 54 that were from elementary teachers. Um so um I don't know if that >> and and the um what when you awarded these stipens I'm saying are these

116ones that show that the students >> Yes. >> you know exceeded and and did very very well on these standardized tests. >> Yeah. It it it could depend, you know, uh we had um um um like career center teachers who uh were able to look at like their certifications and so um that was a very reasonable and um a great way to show um certain certifications they were getting um substantial percentage of kids over the finish line. Um so that was an example of something different. If you're a high school teacher, it could be it could be SAT. It could be um you know, because it could be a local, state, or national assessment. So, uh it just depended on what the teacher, you know, how they chose to, you know, um you like I

117said, you had to be very specific with a roster of students and you had to really make sure you connected that to um uploaded data. you had to upload actually data and and and just explain in a narrative how those things connected. Um so you know for an elementary teacher it could be something as simp like I read for instance or um but all the way up to high school it could be certifications and a career career >> elementary it could be what >> like it could be I read it could be iLearn you know those kinds of that kind of data it could also be uh checkpoint data um and and so there there was a number of of opportunities to include whatever whatever a teacher thought best to demonstrate that they showed significant

118impact Yeah, I was asking because we want to make sure that uh we're see seeing student achievement. >> Yes. >> So, you know, that's going to really motivate, you know, people to work harder because >> I think that's the idea. >> Achievement. Yeah. >> You know, >> we should see our scores and and we and our status going up in Warren if we if we do that. >> Yeah. Because the the stipens are sizable for sure. They're even they're even bigger than what they used to be uh when we when we spread it out. So, yeah. Okay. Final policy is uh 3231 on outside activities. And that's just a basic clarification that just says that you know if a teacher if a student is u um a teacher may not tutor a student who's uh

119outside of school if that student is in their class enrolled in their class and is also part of whatever subject they're teaching. So just a further clarification >> they can or cannot >> they cannot tutor them after school. >> Yeah. If that student is enrolled in their class outside of school I should say. I want to make sure it's so um we have tutoring which is an established program but independently privately outside of school >> talking financially. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Any questions? >> If anyone has questions about any of these discussion items, >> Yeah. >> please contact Brian. Thank you. Now move on to Mr. Clayton. President Amos, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, and our to our Warren families. Tonight for discussion, I have the revision of board policy 4162, drug and

120alcohol testing of CDL and other employees who perform safety sensitive functions. So for the sake of your discussion, I want to define what safety sensitive functions consist of. It includes um employees that are waiting to be dispatched, inspecting equipment, servicing, driving, loading, or unloading corporationowned vehicles, as well as repairing, obtaining assistance, or remaining in attendance upon a disabled corporation vehicle. And this term includes any period in which an individual is actually performing, ready to perform or immediately available to perform any safe safety sensitive function. This policy has been revised to ensure that the school corporation remains in full compliance with recent changes to federal laws under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration uh or the FMCSA um sub substance abuse policy. To meet these federal standards, it has been recommended the adoption of this revised

121policy 4162 as well as uh revision of our administrative guidelines that support 4162 uh with 4162A as well as 4162B. Key updates include the following. The establishment or the expansion of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration or again the FMCA clearing house integration. The district is now required to query the federal drug and alcohol clearing house for all current prospective CDL holders before they are permitted to operate a corporationowned vehicle. Len, you hear that back there? All right. Also, specific substance testing. The drug testing program identifies the presence of marijuana, cocaine, opioids, amphetamines, as well as PCP. Um, adulterance. Any determination by a laboratory that an adulterer has been added to a specimen will will result in the test being considered positive. The establishment of a return to duty process. Employees who test positive or

122admit to a violation cannot return to safety sensitive duties until all evaluated until they are actually evaluated by the substance abuse substance abuse professional. And then finally, educational requirements. The transportation supervisor is designated to provide all covered employees with mandatory educational materials regarding federal regula regulations as well as consequences of positive test and the definition of a refusal to test for discussion. >> Thank you, Mr. Clayton. And now we'll bring you Allison Woods. President Amos, Dr. Hansen, and members of the board, I'm coming to you with policy 5350, student suicide awareness and prevention. This is a replacement policy. Uh kind of the highlights of it are streamline streamlining streamlining recommendations um on different tools that are available to the corporation. uh making sure that we're meeting training mandates and um uh different training and protocols

123for staff on suicide prevention and also our response um if there was a student who died by suicide what um our response would be with that. Um it includes us being required to have anou with a community mental health center which um I will come to you with a proposal next month for that. um resources and support that's available to our students and community. Um and then again I I mentioned the training on suicide prevention and then um the response and counseling that's available to our um students. So please if you have any questions if I can help now or reach out to me before next month and I can answer those for you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you Allison. All right with that we're going to move on to our closing comments. Miss Gloria,

124would you like to start, please? >> Well, it's amazing that she was talking about suicide. You know, we have so many um people in our world today that's struggling and going through a lot of stuff. And uh this is Black History Month and Langston Hughes wrote this poem called Mother to Son. I'm g try to quote it for you, but I'm going to add to it. Instead of uh mother to son, I'm gonna say mother to son and daughter so that we're not only including the guys, but we're also including the girls. Okay, this is from Langston Hughes. Well, son, well, daughter, I'll tell you, life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it and splinters and boards torn up and sometimes no carpet on the floor bare. But all the

125time I've been turning corners and reaching landings and some can times going in the dark where there ain't been no light. So boy, girl, don't you sit down on them stairs. Don't you sit down on those stairs cuz you find it kind of hard. Don't you fall now cuz I'm still going, honey. I'm still climbing and life for me ain't been no crystal stair. Thank you. >> Thank you, Gloria. Mr. Howard, just want to say uh be very careful uh this coming week. The weather's changing back. If you thought it was tough two weeks ago or a week ago, could be a challenge this coming coming week. That's all I want to add. >> Thanks, Julie. >> Um, I want to say, um, thank you to whoever it is that keeps coming up with all

126these sweatshirts. I think I heard there might be one coming out for, uh, St. Patrick's Day. So, watch for the order forms and support. Is it the pit that we're doing this for? Let's support the pit and have a great evening. >> Miss Rachel. >> Hi. I just wanted first of all to um congratulate June again. June was one of my Science Olympiados, so it was great to see her out here um demonstrating different talents. Um, and then also science olympiad related, I wanted to congratulate both Warren Central and Raymond Park. They were both the second place schools at their science olympiad regional. We actually went to the same regional and sat together at awards. Um, this is by far the highest that Warren Central has ever placed at a regional. Um, like I said,

127they were the second school out of, I believe, eight. It It was amazing. They had a great day. They have worked so hard and I'm so proud of them. I'm so sorry, Madame President, but I have to add this. I want to thank Howard uh for that beautiful presentation. I tell you, it brought tears to my eyes. I was just so overwhelmed. That was so thoughtful of you. Thank you so much. And I thank all the board members, Julie, Rachel, and also Dr. Hansen for coming out to my wedding. I tell you, you know, it was a blessing to look out and see them in the audience. So, you guys don't know how much I appreciate you. I, you know, we just have a wonderful board. I just love all of you and thank you

128so much, Howard. You are so thoughtful. Thank you. >> I can't wait to run and tell my family. Miss Lanna, >> I just want to give an update for WAE. The gayla um is April the 24th and it'll be at the Marriott North from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. is our VIP. From 6:00 to 7, excuse me, we have um cocktail hour. from 7 to 8:30 is the dinner and the program and then um because people like to linger around for the last few years um we've always had the um after hour. So the afterparty is from 8:30 until 11:00. So, please support Waif if you can't um come even just by giving a donation because Waif does support all of our schools and our teachers with a um simple form to support some of

129their um projects, their classroom projects. So, thank you and be safe. >> What was that again? What was the name of that? >> Um it is our um annual gayla and for the school board members. If you are going to go, please reserve your tickets cuz if not, then we can release those to be sold. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Going to be again >> April the 24th. And it's plus one. You get a plus one, not a two or a three. So >> if if anyone wants to bring more than one person, you will have to pay for those tickets. >> Mr. Kevin, >> I'd like to start off by also congratulating our students. How many people you know have played at Carnegi Hall? >> Yeah, that is an outstanding accomplishment. >>

130Now, we can put that one on there. Well, we have students that played at Carnegie Hall. So, congratulations there. And also, we are wrestlers upcoming in state championship >> and we have our a national recognized coach. So, once again, Warren, we're getting it done. So that's what we do and that's what we're going to continue to do. >> Yes. Yes. >> All right. Well, thank you everyone. Um I just want to say um the Carnegie Hall in June just incredible along with our um performing arts accomplishments, our wrestlers. Um it's just going to be an amazing weekend hopefully for some of our boys. And good luck to our swimmers. I know that sectional is going on and things, but um with us tonight, have a wonderful evening and we'll see you in March.