001They graduated because they all went through the middle school. No, not yet. >> Okay, stand up. >> Stand up. >> Follow the leader. >> Just kidding. They love >> Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome. We have a full house tonight, so I am happy to call the meeting to order. Um, if everyone could rise for the pledge. >> I can do that, but I can't stand up. >> Thank you so much. And with that, I'm going to turn everything over to the superintendent for his report, Dr. Hansen. >> Good evening. I don't think we've ever had the room as full as we do tonight. Thank you guys so much for coming. Um, a few announcements. I see some musical instruments uh in the house tonight, so it's appropriately that that I recognize um director
002Ed Meccus. Board, if you recall, our gold brigade qualified for state this year and they finished in the top 10. So give them a big round of applause. [applause] Staff and families. Um hopefully you are aware that we are going through an enrollment management redistricting process right now. In my Wednesday call today or Wednesday message, there is a survey in there that I'm encouraging um you to fill out related to boundaries. Um, one of our goals is to balance our elementary enrollment, which is going to require us to draw some new boundaries. So, if you could give us your input on that, um, we would greatly appreciate it. Um, board on Tuesday uh was organizational day for our general assembly. Um, as a reminder, we host our annual legislative forum. We are making that date
003January 10th this year. uh families and community and staff, you are invited to that. More details will come out later. Is Dennis Jarrett in the house? All right, Dennis. Um I want to recognize Dennis Jarrett. Um last a couple weeks ago, Cafe um recognized Dennis Jarrett and the Indie Far East magazine as our community advocate of the year. Congratulations, Dennis. On Friday of this week, and it's appropriate that Liberty Park is in the house, uh the Indiana School Counselor Association will be recognizing Brooke Tapper. Is Brooke here tonight? >> All right. [applause] Brooke is the Indiana Elementary Counselor of the Year. And we they will also be recognizing Laura Buckright, who's also in the house, as the director counselor of the year. [applause] Congratulations to them. Last but not least, uh, congratulations to our Warren
004Central High School varsity football team for defeating Center Grove last Friday. [applause] It was their 10th regional championship and they will take on Brownsburg at Brownsburg uh, for semi-state. So, good luck to our Warriors. I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and um, that's my report. Thank you so much, Dr. Hansen. And with that, we have our school's showcase. That is Liberty Park Elementary and Miss Hench. [applause] [cough] >> Just a moment. We got a lot of folks to get up here. Guys, scoot all the way down. I know. You stay there. You scoot all the way down this way. Let's go. Let go of your streamers. It's on the floor. Not yet. Well, yeah. Yes. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> balance out your hands. Starts off. They're off. Okay, thank you for being
005patient. I apologize. Just a little technical difficulty. See, the kids did a great job coming up fast. Um, I am Kathy Hench. Um, Dr. Hansen, President Burke, and members of the school board. Thank you so much for having us here tonight. And thank you to our community for coming out to support our Liberty Park students and our Liberty Park school. So, tonight I'm going to talk really quickly because the main event is on the floor in front of me. Um, today I just want to talk a little bit and share about how we are bringing learning to life at Liberty Park. So, we are centering our learning experiences around our schoolboard goals and our strategic plan focus. And I want to share a few of those things with you tonight. We are super proud of
006our academic achievement at Liberty Park. Last year, our I read three pass rate was 82.8%. Our second grade I read three pass rate was the highest in the district at 59% of our second graders passing every [applause] So super excited about that progress. Also, our attendance rate right now is 95.7%. So, thank you to our families and [applause] our students for making being at school every day a priority. Um, we do a lot at our school to celebrate attendance to make sure that our students want to be at school and are at school and enjoying learning each and every day. So, we have class incentives where each class by having 97% attendance or higher each month can earn a reward. So, in this picture right here, you can see some of our kids um enjoying
007what we called a freeze dance party, which was a dance party on the playground with popsicles and lots of dancing. Um we also give monthly perfect attendance awards. Kids are excited to receive those. And Mrs. Tapper, our school count counselor, holds an attendance club for those kids that need to need a little more help feeling that sense of belonging at school. Um, wanting to connect with others and wanting to be at school each and every day. So, we are excited to share that news. Also, um, we are super proud of our career days at Liberty Park and this year that is plural. Um, we started off, Mrs. Tapper created this experience for our students. It was a one-day experience and has now expanded to two days um where we bring in members of the community
008who get to share their career with our students and our students get to explore those careers through creative play. So come on over this year. We do it um the week after spring break on Thursday and Friday. We'd love to have you there. Um we also love to celebrate our staff. Um Dr. Dr. Hansen, you've already mentioned Mrs. Chapper, so we're proud of her, obviously. Um, we also love to create experiences for our staff so that they can connect with one another and feel that sense of belonging to our school. So, we do things um that range from pumpkin decorating contests and we are very competitive um canvas painting um with our amazing art teacher, Mrs. Gatis, um lots of experiences. And we also as a staff do a Christmas outreach every year where we
009are able to provide gifts and clothing to anywhere between 75 and 100 children each year and we get together to wrap those gifts so that when we give those to parents they can take those home and they are ready for Christmas. We are also big proponents of investing in our families and our community. Last year we started a a partnership with Rise Indie where they came into school and they did parent workshops uh to teach parents about the science of reading and what that means for them at home and how they can help their students. We also have evening events where we have family literacy nights, STEM nights, family movie nights, lots of opportunities for our families to engage in that process. And new last year, um, we formed a partnership with Old National Bank
010where they come in and do a financial literacy workshop with our fourth graders so that they can learn all about budgets and saving money. Um, so don't forget that parents, they they're learning how to save. And then our the last thing I wanted to talk about is how we are bringing reading to life through our related arts classes. So this year we have a new reading program. It's called CKLA. And our kids are learning lots of new concepts, lots of new things. And so our related arts teachers are bringing that learning into their classroom. And today you're going to kind of see that come alive with our fourth graders. Um but just some examples in STEM, the kindergarteners read the three Billy Goats Gruff and then they got to build bridges and learned about the
011science behind that. in art. Um they did an extension where they illustrated their own gingerbread people. And then our art teacher, Mrs. Gatis, brought an author and illustrator in to talk with the kids um about her brand new book that's coming out, I believe, next week that is Gingerbread Diva. Um so look for that book. And then last but not least, um I'm going to bring up our fabulous music teacher, Miss Mullenex. This is her first year in WARREN TOWNSHIP. [applause] SHE has really been working with our students on that music and reading connection. So, I'm going to let her tell you. They're excited. They see themselves. I'm going to let her tell you a little bit about this process and then they're going to perform. >> Thank you, whoever did that, cuz I was
012next. Oh, fourth grade. We are at level zero. Our ears are listening, our eyes are looking, and we're ready. Thank you so much. Yes, I am Holly Mullenix and I'm incredibly excited to be a part of Warren Township and especially Liberty Park Elementary. We have had a blast since the beginning of the school year. Um, and for us it's been all about the process. Um, when fourth grade was working in the classroom with their um, classroom teachers, they were doing a poetry unit. So, we took that across the hall into the music room and how can we bring that to life? And so the first thing we started with was brainstorming our journey of a graduate and what are we going to do to get to to graduate and to go into college. And so
013we started with the drum piece and then they said, "Oh, well, we need to add some xylophones." So we learned a xylophone piece. And then they said, "We're missing something. We need some dancers and can we add dance?" Absolutely we can add dance. And so a lot of what you see here is completely created by the students and which we're incredibly proud of. They have um they asked me to share with you that they've put in a lot of hard work. But it is a non audition group. This is every fourth grader was invited to come and share with you today. And uh we hope that you enjoy what we have prepared for you. Thank you. [applause] Let me know when you want me to start. >> Actually, can I go get my paper? At
014fourth grade now we stand up tall with curiosity through it all. Our minds are bright, our goals are set. Our journey of a graduate begins you. streamers down. Get out. >> I am a leader. I play football. I am a doctor. [singing] I'm [music] a astronaut on Mars. I climb my mountain. The angle. Hey by myself. I can lose myself by myself. >> [applause] >> Go. We think, we question, dream and try. >> Our determination reaches high. In the pages of a book, we can find new paths and take a look. >> We are walking to college. to college to college. We are walking >> [applause] >> I messed up. With preservation and our strike with family teachers by our side will climb step our hopes tonight. >> Our dreams will shine like stars at
015night. Our dreams will Our dreams will shine like stars at night. Ready and go. >> [music] >> Why? [applause] >> [snorts] >> So cheer us on. We're on our way. Tomorrow's leader starts today. College bound. You'll see us shine. The journey of a graduate. >> It's mine. >> We now take a look. OUR FUTURE STARTS IN EVERY BOOK. >> Ready and Y [applause] [clears throat] >> hold on. You're going to shake hand. >> Great job. >> Don't talk. >> Don't shake hands. Somebody else can't [laughter] go. >> [crying] >> How many are going to be great drum? Excellent job. >> Over a week. You did a great job. Somebody in the >> audience touch your belly instrument. Need some more. >> Fabulous. >> Great job. >> Nice job, guys. ribbon. >> They can come tonight.
016Great job. >> You did an excellent job of being bridesmaid by the way. That's all I can think of. >> You need one more partner. >> Yeah, that was fun to watch you in action. >> Thank you. >> Great job. Great job. >> It's a good distraction. [laughter] Janiah, >> I'm not saying that's a hard act to follow, but that might be a hard act to follow, >> but we are here with you to support you. >> So, my friend, if you could update us on student council activities, we'd appreciate it. >> It was up to you, my dear. >> What's happening? That's a lot of I don't think that I can beat that, but I do have some highlights from last board meeting and today and further on. So, I'll try. Good evening, President
017Burke, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, and attendees. I've got some positive highlights from student council. A quick look from today's JA Career Ignite Fair and an exciting look on upcoming events. Today we had the JA Career Ignite College Fair for our juniors and seniors. And it was a great opportunity for students to speak directly with college admission representatives about programs, financial packages, and a wide range of career paths. Students were able to ask questions, explore their options, and get real guidance tailored to their goals. Overall, it was a meaningful experience that left many of them feeling informed, confident, and ready for their next steps. For a brief a brief recap from our last October meeting, I mentioned our annual leadership retreat, and it was a great success. Students students were highly engaged and enjoyed
018the various activities we had planned. We were especially thankful for Miss Taylor's interactive speech, which truly illuminated what it means to be a leader at Warren Central. The retreat highlighted the retreat concluded with a powerful session where students reflected on their struggles and let them go like anchors. We extended our sincere appreciation to everyone who participated and helped out at the New Beginnings Church which served as a wonderful venue for the retreat. Also, we had the blood drive last Friday and it was an impressive demonstration of our students commitment to service. We saw a fantastic turnout from our community and a special thanks goes out to all the student leaders who stepped up to volunteer and run the event smoothly throughout the day. It was a meaningful way for our school community to make a
019positive impact and help save lives. And we truly appreciated everyone who participated. We had 103 donations which saves 103 lives. And our next major event is the annual children's Christmas party which is a very special event that we always have. And this is consistently one of our most fun and heartwarming events of the year. This event will feature different stations with engaging activities, plenty of games and fun crafts, food and refreshments, the presentation of presents to children, a special appearance by Santa Claus, and the opportunity for volunteers to serve as a student buddy, which is a crucial role where our students are paired with a child to guide them, help them at stations, and ensure they have a safe and wonderful time. It's a great chance for students to earn points, spread holiday cheer, and
020make fantastic memories. And we've already had more than enough student leaders sign up and make this a smooth and memorable experience for the children. Thank you everyone for listening. And that is all. [applause] Thank you so much, Janiah. Um, is Sydney Sparks here today? There she is. I just said you always hide at the back of the room and I never can see you. Thank you so much for joining us. >> It was also a packed house. So, >> good evening everyone. I hope everyone's having a good day today. Um, I have a few updates for you all. So, to jump right in, the Office of Public Health and Safety, OPs, they've been having a number of uh November food events, popup events. So, they extended their list. The next one is tomorrow. um which
021is the 20th and it's with Indie Peace. It's at 18:25 East 20 25th Street um from 4 to 6:00 p.m. And then there's three more events after that. Monday the 24th, Tuesday 25th, and Wednesday the 26th um coming up as well. And then um I have an IMPD update. So they do have coffee with a cop coming up. So that's November 25th. They did have a date change on that. So that's November 25th, 9:00 am to 10:00 a.m. at the Dunkin Donuts at 4404 East 10th Street. And then I also want to mention they had their last task force meeting of the year um last week went really well. Uh Chief Bailey came out and spoke. A lot of great information there. Um I can share the new schedule um for next year's uh at
022the next meeting and I also will include it in my newsletter as well um to transition off of that. So, the Far East Side Quality of Life Plan Kick Kickoff Celebration is also happening next week. So, it Oh, this week's my apologies. Friday, November 21st. Um, and it's at P30, which is 30 3039 North Post Road. Food, music, great way to connect. Um, creative and fun things to do for all ages. Um, this is something that I'm a part of. Um, and we're meeting tomorrow as actually, but um, super interesting. Um, definitely would like a public comment. um period. They do have a QR code that's going around. Uh there's a brief survey and then they also have a more like extensive one as well. Just what you like about the far east side, what
023could have improvements, your input, it's very necessary and needed. Um you can find it on the far east side community council page as well. And if not, you can always email me. I've been trying to spread the information about this as well. And then I also want to remind that the leaf collection period is still happening. Um so it doesn't end until December 5th. So that's what DPW um the leaf collection program 40 bags of leaves per week for free pickup on your regular pickup day. So that is still going on and happening. And then also this is an event for December but I want to make sure I mention it now. So, the Warren Township Trustees Office is um partnering with Congressman Andre Carson's office and they're having um a constituent service event um
024for people who have questions with or have issues with federal assistance or federal agencies. So, that's December 9th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and that's at 501 North Post Road, which is the trustees office for Warren Township. I also do want to um shout out Indie Parks as well. There's a lot of different food programs that are going on. Um I know they have their afterchool meals, food pantries, d drive-in dish. Um they've been super um helpful with explaining um different dates and times. If you have particular questions, I definitely recommend going to um Indie Parks um their website or you can also subscribe to my newsletter as well. I plan to have my next newsletter out hopefully the first week of December. There's been a few changes in certain things that I want
025to make sure I include like winter contingency and a few other things as well. But has there are there any questions for anything that I brought up so far? [laughter] [clears throat] Alrighty. Well, thank you so much. And if you want to subscribe to my monthly newsletter, my email is my name. So, it's sydney.starksindy.gov. Thank y'all and happy Thanksgiving. >> Thank you so much. Happy Thanksgiving. [applause] And with that, we will go to board comments. We will start with Kevin. >> Like to welcome everyone back and once again we thank you. Our children did a great job in their as they always do bringing presentation. They're the highlight of our night. Um also our student council, you follow that thing up pretty good there. always proud to see our uh high school students represent and
026they always represent well. Uh once again, well, we're approaching a new holiday season, so hope all goes well and wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving. And with that, I will pass it on down. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, it's been busy with the holidays. I just want to give a shout out to our superintendent, MCRC, um, to, um, Jennifer, I'll forget someone's name, so please don't be offended, but everyone who came together, all of our social workers to assist to fill in the gap for food insecurities. When I say I am so proud of how Warren has showed up to ensure that none of our babies go hungry, it warmed my heart. Um, thank you um, superintendent for acting in a speedy way and um, putting it as a priority. So, I really do
027appreciate that as SNAP benefits have begun to come, our families are still behind because they had to struggle up until now. So, let's just continue to pour into our families during the holidays um su suicide ideiations increase. So, let's just wrap our hands around our staff as well and just keep your eyes out and be a good friend and a good listener and a good support and to know even for our um what are you guys called? The cabinet. [laughter] We know your job is very stressful and you help the superintendent carry the weight of the district on your shoulders, but please reach out to for us as well for resources. We need you strong. Thank you. Good evening and welcome everyone. Um to follow up, I loved Kevin's opening remarks and Lana's. It's very
028important. Um as we get into this meeting, I just am very grateful that we had our students. It's been a long time since our boardroom has been so packed in the parking lot has overfilled. So that was nice. But our children did a great job and I love the connection that's going across um all of the special areas and things that they are embracing the new um curriculum. It's been a busy month. Um looking forward to this last meeting of the month because we've had several um nights where we've been together and it's like you're never home. But um welcome and I'm looking forward to um helping out at Lakeside this coming Wednesday as they start their community Thanksgiving outreach and then going to Morehead to help um with that community outreach. Um I'm sure
029if anybody else would like to donate time or anything, Lana will be glad to help hook you up with a spot. But everyone welcome and I hope you stay and enjoy our meeting. No, thank you. >> Gloria, would you like to go next? >> Yes. Hello everyone. Sorry I cannot be there in person, but I would like to say that I enjoyed the student showcase. I enjoy seeing our students anytime they come before us and I commend them for a job well done. I want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. As it has already been said, this is a time for us to reflect over the good times and enjoy our family, you know, and don't focus on the problems that's going on around us, but this is a time to be thankful for what
030we have. Um, one of the slogans that I always say is we have to accept the things that we cannot change and change the things we can. We may not be able to change the things around us, but we can change our attitude and how we deal with it. So, in this Thanksgiving season, I want everybody to give thanks and just eat and fellowship and just have a good time. Thank you. >> Thank you, Gloria Howard. >> Let me just say first off, uh, Dennis, congratulations. uh a a reward an award welld deserved for a job well done. You've been major impact here. No question about that. Uh want to also say um um hopefully the Warriors will do well well this uh Friday. I know they're going to go ahead and and knock some
031head over in Brownsburg. Uh I'm looking forward to that and uh and actually going to uh to state. Um I was at the wrestling tournament, a girls wrestling tournament this weekend and uh past weekend and um it was it was outstanding. Uh not so much the I mean the tournament was great. There's no question these girls are really, you know, world-class athletes and uh and and and and did a lot of good stuff. Uh but uh what I was impressed about was the uh the facility and how they were able to make that uh uh get the u uh the gym ready for for for that uh for that event. you know, I went there right at nine o'clock just to, you know, check in and see how things were. And I said, "Well, I'll
032be here about 10, 15 minutes and uh going home." I end up staying till 2:30. And uh I tell you what, what what what threw me off was I forgot how long uh you know uh wrestling tournaments last. You got to go through all the weight classes and you got to do a whole bunch of stuff. And next thing you know, it's noon. I said, "Wait a minute. I got some stuff to do." But anyway, uh and I had I did I had some stuff to do. I had I had some stuff to I wanted to watch those girls do what they were doing and it was a ton of them from all over the county. So, u the other thing I want to say is um I had a chance to speak with um
033uh to American Legion group um and and and Dr. Hansen, I appreciate you inviting me uh talking to them about u well these guys were the American Fruit Legion 391 over in Fortville and had a chance to talk to them about uh you know um our business partners providing uh assistance to uh local schools and the kind of support we were getting for our our business partners. And I just want to say that, you know, um, you know, it's nice getting a lot of money from the state and that sort of thing, but, you know, you need a little bit more than that. And I think our, uh, business partners kind of, uh, uh, fill in the gap a lot, especially for kids and providing monies and funds and donations and stuff all the way
034around, scholarships and things of that nature. So, uh, I really enjoy having a chance to chat with them and, uh, it was really a nice, uh, affair. Uh, I'd like to also say that um u uh happy Thanksgiving as we approach uh the the week next week and and uh and Thanksgiving. So, um uh that's all I've got. >> I'm going to make this short and sweet. Happy Thanksgiving and go Warriors. Um, I I think everyone knows the day before Thanksgiving when we give out all of the things and do all of the work for all of our families across the district has always been my favorite one. And so um I particularly in this season of need, I'm um incredibly grateful that we as a district and as a community step up together each
035and every year to make sure that that continues. I was at a um nonprofit training that was um held by some Lily consultants a couple of weeks ago and I did not realize but there are more Indianapolis has more nonprofits than any other city in the United States and we have the highest rate per capita. Um we are a community that reaches out and gives and cares for each other. Um and as we approach the holiday season and all of the things that come with that um that's a wonderful thing for us. It it it's good to know that we live in a community where caring is really kind of part of the bones of who we are and what we do. Um and so like Lanna and everyone else said, if you have help,
036if you need help, if you need services, if you need food, if you know of someone who does, um if you need mental help, whatever it is, reach out. Um we have counselors in every building. We have people that are well trained to get you to the services that need you need so that you and your family can be whole. So please do that. And with that, Kevin, do we have any board correspondents? >> No, we do not. >> Thank you so much. Do we have any blue cards? >> No, Madame President, we do not. >> Okay. And with that, we will go on to the consent agenda this month. The consent agenda consists of the approval of minutes, various financial reports, human resources report, permission to accept gifts and grants, change orders, contracts, the
037use of school property, and conflict of interest forms. Do we have a motion? >> So move, madame president. >> Thank you, Terry. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Julie. Is there any discussion hearing? And seeing none, we will have to have an oral vote. >> Kevin, >> Miss Williams, we'll start with you. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dorsy? >> Yeah. >> Julie? >> Yes. >> Madam President? >> Yes. >> Miss Terry? >> Yes. >> Mr. Shana? >> Yes. and I will be a yes to so. >> Thank you so much. That motion carries. Um pulled out from the consent agenda, we have the financial claim register and field trip requests. Do we have a motion to accept those? >> So moved. >> Julie made the motion. Is there a second? >> I
038will second. >> And Terry seconded. Is there any discussion on this item? Do we need to >> or we just both abstain and move on with our lives? I we can do them together, I think. >> Do you mind? Yeah, >> I Yeah, we've got enough people. I think we can just do them together. Sorry. >> All right, Miss Gloria. >> Yes, >> Mr. Howard. >> Yes, >> Miss Julie. [clears throat] And M. >> I'm abaining. >> Abstaining. >> And Miss Terry? >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Sha? >> Yes. I'm abstaining with Rachel. >> And I'm a yes. >> Which still puts us at 50, which the motion still carries. So, thank you so much for that. And with that, we are moving on to our reports, including our college and career readiness report from
039our awardwinning friend. Thank you for joining us. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening, President Burke, Dr. Hansen, board members, community. I feel like I didn't even plan that, but Liberty Park I felt like had walk up music for me. I wish I could have saved the go to college little chant. That would have been great. [snorts] Um, but I am very thrilled. I'm Laura Budrite, director of college and career readiness, and I'm just thrilled to be here tonight and share with you an overview of our initiatives and the amazing things we're doing in our district um in the area of college and career readiness from our earliest of learners to our graduates. So, sorry about that. Okay. So, college and career readiness really is central to many of the goals that this board has set
040out, but truly we're investing in that academic excellent and excellence and student achievement, investing in that journey for our students and meeting all of their needs. And I greatly appreciate the acknowledgement of this community that we look at all of the needs of our students. Um, and that speaks very much to my heart. So, thank you for that. And investing in family and community engagement. College and career readiness is something that just continues to grow and develop and people see the value in that. And [snorts] our mission here in Warren is really to ensure that every student has access to that meaningful college and career preparation experiences from our preschoolers through graduation. And we hope that this comprehensive approach that we take is building skills, knowledge, confidence for that postsecary success. I've shared with you
041before the continuum of college and career readiness. It really begins with that career awareness with our elementary kids moving into more of that exploration, learning more about themselves and careers and making those connections. moving from middle to high school where we start engaging in experiences, preparation, [snorts] and training. And then as we go into high school and beyond, we all know that that education and training continues. Whether you're enlisted, you're enrolled, you're working, we're continuing to learn and train and gain in that. So, it's really it's [snorts] really a lifelong experience continuum. I cannot possibly well I could but I would you all would be here even longer if I highlighted all the amazing things we're doing in college and career readiness. There's so many things I could talk about with work-based learning and new
042graduation requirements and all the things that we're doing tonight. I've chosen to highlight the connections and experiences that we are providing our students. Um, I think it's important that you see where we're really putting careers into the hands and the hearts and the minds of our students. So, I'm really focusing on those connections tonight. So, as we look at our preschoolers, our early our earliest learners, um, as Miss Hench mentioned, you know, our little kids learn through play, [snorts] right? So at the early childhood center they have their miniature town and they can dress up and play in that creative learning as well as we celebrate college go week at the earliest level with spirit days and that and so sharing um in that journey very early at the elementary level we have many different
043things that we're doing. One of the things I want to highlight is our partnership with junior achievement. Every one of our elementaryaries at by the end of this school year will have provided some hands-on career awareness [snorts] activity in their building. Um, Lakeside had one this week. Grassy Creek and LOL have had their experiences. LOL had career on wheels and their parking lot was filled with different trucks and um different like police and ambulance and I think they had a food truck and that. So really bringing various vehicles, equipment, and professionals. And the kids were able to be out in the parking lot. They had drones. Um just bringing those industries to life. Grassy Creek had their junior achievement day where they have JA in a day. They bring community members in. They come into
044the classroom. They share their professional journey as well as engage in learning activities in the classroom. I have two LOL students that want to share with you their career on wheels. This one we may need to turn the volume up a little bit. It's hard to hear. >> In career on wheels, I learned about how to fix tires in the end. >> I also learned that at the police car, there was a lot of things to learn about. There was a cool drone flying in the air. >> So, if you didn't hear, he learned how to change a tire and she learned about all the things that were in the police car and they really liked the drones. So, that was really cool for them. I'm very excited that we are bringing back our fourth
045grade visits to the Walker Career Center. [snorts] This is something we've done for several years. Um, we had to put on pause under construction, [snorts] but we're planning to return to this in the spring. I think our fourth grade teachers enjoy it as much as our fourth grade students. They come over, they spend um a a field trip experience with the junior and senior Walker Career Center students giving the tours. These are some pictures from previous years where they get to be in the TV station. They get to um use the virtual welding and and uh virtual car painting and different things. So again, [snorts] we are putting connections and experiences into the hands of our youngest learners and they may see older brothers, sisters, cousins, and we're giving them a glimpse of what's awaiting
046for them when they get to high school. So really exciting. The teachers come back saying, "I had no idea we were doing this." So just a great experience for all. So as we move into the intermediate middle school grades, we're really starting to do more of that exploration and we're having students connect what am I good at? What are my skills? And how does that relate to what I'm going to do beyond? So [snorts] in fifth grade, one of our guaranteed experiences for our students is BisTown. Junior [snorts] Achievement provides a simulated city where students take on roles as business owners, um, employees, citizens, and basically they prepare for their role for several class lessons before going and they run the town for the day. Each business produces a product and then that um business
047gets to sell those products at the end of the day. Students earn a paycheck, they go to the bank, they deposit the paycheck. We all know that that happens electronically now, but they still have to go to the bank. So, they get the idea of that's where it goes. They [snorts] do get a debit card. That is pretty cool. And you can see the ATM. Then they use their debit card to scan and pay and buy their product. So, for example, Lily in the science lab at the Lily business, they created slime. So, they had to build their slime, create that, and then they sell it, and then students can buy that. So, great experience. Again, they're learning through that doing. And if you know of anybody that's an adult and went to Bistown, they
048can still tell you what their job was in fifth grade at that experience. I have almost 30 year olds and they can tell you. [snorts] Um middle level as we continue um another uh Walker Career Center. I I refer to this as their road show. Um in the spring, we bring Walker Career Center. All the programs, every program is represented. Juniors and seniors pack up their their hands-on displays. They go to the middle school. They set up in their LGI or in their gym and they bring the sixth and seventh graders down to talk to the junior and senior students, learn about again what's waiting for me when I get to the high school. This is great for not just the um middle school students, but this is a great experience for our juniors and
049seniors. They're building those skills of learning how to advocate for their business, learning how to entice middle schoolers to get them interested. Not always the easiest thing to do. Um, and so just it's a great interaction and we focus on sixth and seventh grade as one of those experiences. Depending on the schedules, we all will expand that to fifth and eighth, but we always make sure sixth and seventh are guaranteed that experience on that day. Eighth grade is Job Spark. This is every September again through Junior Achievement. They bring this year over 8,000 eighth graders to the state fairgrounds over the course of three days. And the students after preparation again they go through classroom lessons leading up to this. They [snorts] have an opportunity to engage and explore every career cluster is represented. And
050I have no idea hundreds of different jobs are are there for them to see. So [snorts] this is a young man from Raymond Park who's going to share with you what that experience was for him. my experiences at Jobspark. Uh they really expanded how uh my limited options of career. They they did a really good job of allowing you to experience all types of careers, not just like a doctor, not just mechanic, not just farmer. They allowed you to experience like a lot of the different types. And I really liked how a lot of the activities were um like you were allowed to get involved in it. I really like um that aspect so that you could um really see what the job was about and it really made the learning about the job enjoyable
051and I liked how it wasn't just one career cluster there was a whole bunch so you got to um be involved in all of them and it really like broadened my range of um what I wanted to do in the future. >> Pretty much sums it up. It's a great day for them. So, we are also helping our middle schoolers, our eighth graders specifically, get a head start on high school. So, we've offered Spanish and algebra in the middle school level or an eighth grade for credit um for several years. This year, we added preparing for college and careers into the eighth grade where they can earn another high school credit and a course that is geared specifically for preparing them for high school, learning about themselves, exploring careers, all the pathways, enrollment, enlistment, and
052employment. and Zello is a key part of that. One of the things that's going I'm very excited about this year is that all of our eighth graders, not only do they begin to plan for high school and they get to pick out their high school classes, which is a really exciting time for them [snorts] and can be a little overwhelming, but this year they are also going to map out their entire high school career. So, we're going to help them plan what they're going to see and what to anticipate in not just nth grade, but look at 10th, 11th, and 12th. And they're going to do this in a combination with our preparing for college and career teachers, our school counselors together. We spent three hours on our JAG day in um November really mapping
053that out to make sure we can give those eighth graders that experience and those teachers are familiar with the new diploma requirements. So, [snorts] I just wanted to give you a quick visual of what that looks like. So, in Zello, students are going to be able to map out a course plan. So, they will look at this. This is nth grade. It's a new Indiana diploma. And it walks them through. So, it tells them you need to take an English class. They go in and add English. They select from the English classes. If they click on the title of the class, it pulls from our course guide. So it has the description, has prerequisites, all of that's loaded, takes them through the different requirements. They add math, their science class, they all take biology and
054that. So basically, for the sake of time, you get the idea. And then once they're done with nth grade, they go on to 10th and then they'll add that on so that you can see the progress there. And then ultimately they have mapped out their electives and that. So they fill out their requirements, tells them how many of the electives they have left. It will tell them if they don't have a prerequisite and that. Now, I recognize some of these things may change. I recognize they may not know in 9th grade if they're going to take dual credit or AP. But what we want them thinking about is knowing you're going to take English, you're going to take math, are you thinking about college, then you need to be taking these rigorous classes and talking
055about what that looks like. [snorts] So, yes, we wanted to look as close as it can, but it will also just help them see what that is. It also will tell them if they're on track for their seals, for the enrollment seals, so do they have their foreign language, um the additional math class that they need for that. So, just excited about the opportunity for them to be able to visualize that and talk through that at length. Um and then and additionally, our freshman in um freshman seminar are going to do the same thing. And then as we work with our upper classmen to schedule, they're going to start adding that into Zello as well. So just another tool to visualize that that plan. So high school again could be here all night, but I
056won't. Um want to just highlight some great experiences. So go um STEM Goes Red is a program hosted by the American Heart Association. They [snorts] recognize women, especially women of color, make up a very small percentage of scientists and engineers. they sponsored this vent event to bring in high school girls um to experience and expose them and get them excited. So Amy Mccclure who's one of our counselors at Warren online took a um group of students to that and they had just great things to say about that. College go week we celebrate every year spirit days we have a fast event we have a college and career fair that week at the high school. What I want to highlight is every year we do a college application day. So, we know that just submitting that
057college application is one of those first barriers. We know so many students say, "I want to go to college," but it's that taking that first step. And we know once they take that first step, then we can get them to the next one. So, our goal on application day is to get as many seniors as we can to fill out a college application. This year, we went into classrooms with um our staff and our counselors from and the journey of a graduate staff. And as of the two college application days, because we did one on black day, one on gold day, [snorts] we had 735 of our seniors had either already submitted an application or submitted an application on that day. That's the highest number that we've ever had. I think we've hit close to
058500 in the past, but very excited that we 735 students at least have said they've sent that submit and have taken that first step. So very excited about that. If you've seen social media, our freshmen are visiting colleges. Uh we are able to get all 900ish of our freshmen on college campuses. We have two visits this week. Our last visit will be the first weekend, our first week in December. >> [snorts] >> Um, so basically we take a team of the freshman learning center and we put them on buses and we send them to about five or six different college campuses throughout central Indiana and they get to see what it looks like, what it sounds like, and what it feels like to be on a college campus. And there really isn't anything that you
059can do um, you know, virtually or talking about it. I mean, you just being on that campus is really important. So excited for that opportunity to connect our students. Um you heard our uh student council representative talk about we had a busy day today. We had career ignite today. We [snorts] had I think almost 70 different representatives through industries, apprentice, local business, colleges, all the military, all the all the people were there and um the students come down by groups. Chris Mcclache, the assistant director of the career center, did an amazing job. Great organized. the kids I felt like were more engaged this year [snorts] um talking and gathering things and and so again connecting those students to those opportunities and letting them see what's that future hold for them. We take advantage of the
060Indiana Latino Institute education summit and college and career fair every year. [snorts] Um it happens in either September or November every fall downtown Indianapolis. This year we were able to take 45 students. This event is specific for our Latino students and families, helps connect them to supports, scholarships, and other opportunities that are available to them. And it's always been a really valuable experience for that. So, we're excited to partner with them and participate in that every year. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the amazing Walker Career Center and all the work-based learning and experiences that they're providing there. So we currently have over 500 students that are getting work-based learning experience embedded into their classes and then we have 54 students that are out doing a um technical internships with employers out
061in the community and as we know that with graduation requirements and those honor seals and that we're going to continue to expand those workbased learning opportunities. Have to highlight the journey of a graduate center. Many of you were there for our grand opening in September. Thank you for that. Um, we've had some great um, media PR for that. We've had the opportunity to be on a couple um, uh, TV stations and some articles and that. So, Journey of a Graduate, the Hub and the initiative that we've been able to do through the Richard M. Fairbanks College Matters Grant. Um, so we have two full-time staff, the outreach vans, it's in the media plex. We support our 21st century scholars, our college reps, military career [snorts] cafes, campus visits, and financial aid. Lots going on. I
062want to highlight one thing. Um, Warrior Launch, we were able to provide a program last June to 38 of our graduates that were 21st century scholars that were headed to college in the fall. Our goal being we wanted to prepare them to go from graduation to their feet being on campus and being prepared that fall. So, 38 students came for a week. Each day was a different focus. Their families were involved. We talked about financial aid, um, admissions, housing, um, budgeting and that, but one of the things we also focused, we spent a whole day talking about mental and physical wellness on a college campus for so many students. This first time they've been out on their own. So, we um, brought in um, one of our directors from community and she spent the whole
063morning talking to students about how they what are signs to look for and where they can go for help and building kind of a plan. So, if they need help, um they had games. They won things like fans and electric cords and phone chargers for their college experience. And when they successfully completed all five days, which all 38 did, they [snorts] each got a $500 um scholarship to go towards their um college for that fall. Was just a really great week for them. We're going to continue to do that again next year. You've heard me talk about our van, how we get college and readiness out in the community. We have our passenger van. We have our mobile outreach van. We've been at um a couple football games. We're We have some plans for upcoming
064events at the schools. We know right now in the winter it's kind of hard to have them outside and try hard to get parents to stand outside in the cold to talk to you, but we're still be visual. We're going to get kids out in the community. But [snorts] love to see the the van out there. We always talk about 21st century. Want to highlight with auto enrollment that started with the class of 2027. So you can see we jumped to 70 to almost 90% of our students qualifying for 21st century scholars. Um we do reach out to any student um in 8th grade that did not was not autoenrolled. We send them an application so they can apply if they did not qualify. So we want to make sure we're not missing anyone and
065give everyone the opportunity. Um the average tuition right now is at about 115. So, this scholarship's worth at least $46,000 and as these kids graduate, we know it's not going to go down. Um, and so this really is um a huge um opportunity for our students. One of the things we're able to do with the Jog Center is with our staff, we are able to meet with every scholar every year and remind them of the scholarship, review their GPA, u make sure they're completing those annual scholar track requirements to remain eligible. I would love to see if we have 720 scholars that we have 720 scholars that are still eligible when they graduate. Um, so that jog center really allows us to provide that individualized personal support for those scholars. Just a couple numbers, over
066a thousand kids have been served through the jog center in one way or another. We've had 200 kids down there um hearing from colleges and military reps. We had sent 185 students onto a campus, but you're going to add 900 to that by December because all of our freshmen. Um, and then we've had almost 120 students and families at our financial aid events. I've talked before about our H.B.CU tours. The grant allows us to provide um the opportunity to send students on various H.B.CU tours. Some have been one day, some have been multi- multi-day, multi-state tours. So, in the past year and a half, we've sent 166 students to visit an H.B.CU. [snorts] Um, basically free of charge at no cost to the student or family. So, again, I can be on a campus and
067see and feel and know and what it sounds like to be there. Here's three of our high school students that want to share that. >> My name is Bailey Barker. I am a senior at One High School. And this college tour has impacted me by most definitely opened my mind to other possibilities except for staying in the Midwest, especially on the East Coast and things like that. >> Hi, my name is Jay Swells. Going on this tour impacted my life because it opened up many opportunities for me to see how student life is on campus and to see actually where I will want to go. >> Hi, my name is Jace Folks. Uh, the HB.CU see your tour impacted me by allowing me to meet new friends and many connections. >> Okay, wrapping up here.
068Zello. Uh Zello is that career college and career platform that really runs the course. It weaves itself through everything. It stays with them. At the elementary level, you can see visually appealing. They have lessons that they complete. Um this year we've started kindergarten through 8th grade students engage in Zello on a weekly basis through core connect. So we're seeing more and more opportunities for those students to explore careers and learn more about themselves and those connections in 6 through 12. It becomes more personalized and more in depth. I highlighted our the course planner. It has the career interest inventory. It matches their learning styles and interests and it does resume builders and experiences. They can research any career, college, major, pathway. And you can see here they aren't limited to just college. They they are
069able to explore two-year apprenticeship, entrepreneurship, military. They even have gap year on there. There's probably some parents that would prefer that's not on there, but they do include that because that's what students talk about, right? So, um, really the opportunity if they want to know more about it, it is in this platform and we're seeing the numbers more and more of students taking advantage of that. conclusion. Um, we really want to make sure every student has that meaningful college and career opportunities. I am grateful to this board and this district that for the investment in that and ensuring that our students are having those experiences through our community partners, through the investment in school counselors, through supporting uh pursuing grants, um listening to some of our crazy ideas with the Jo Center and the vans
070and transportation putting up with me calling them about the vans. um all the things that are allowing us to help our students experience and just see and the potential of what is there for them. We have strong partnerships. We're removing barriers. We're personalizing that support and our goal is that every student graduates prepared for their chosen path, whatever that is. Um and that we have a system that's built for every single student. So, I appreciate your time tonight and if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer those. >> I just want to ask the question. Do you have any data on how many of our students are being successful with technical careers? And are we um getting a lot of students that are being introduced to those technical careers uh before they graduate from
071high school? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um I know that the career center um has some data on their students that they track because of the CTE credits. Um but yes, um we have I think like I said over 500 students in the career center, but like our career cafes and different things that we're exposing through the jog center, we're focusing on apprenticeships and the two-year programs. And at the career fair today, there are several represented. So, yes, we we know that college is not the only um route for students and we just want to make sure that no matter what path they're taking that they're prepared and have the training and education that they need for that. >> And the reason I'm asking uh in your video, the one young man, I think it was in
072the video um where he was saying he was happy that he learned how to change a tire. It's it's really amazing that we do have a lot of young people that don't know how to change a tire and how to just take care of a car and usually that's the first thing they want to get when they're in high school. So that's why I'm saying uh learning uh things that's going to help them with their life skills such as that, you know, um hopefully we can uh get more students just like that young man that can do life skill training uh in technical careers and things that's going to help them. >> Absolutely. It's important. >> Okay, I have a question. Um actually, this is wonderful. I really like all of this. Um, one question
073I do have though with Zello when they're in eighth grade and they're planning their schedule out. Do you have any time that parents are involved in that? >> Yeah. So, actually we have been um engaging conversations about the communication that is going to go out to eighth grade parents um from the high school um telling them about the new diploma requirements. Um there's um going to be opportunities for the students to be at the high school and that there is also the component that parents can access their Zello account and so once they've completed their plan and that the parent can actually go in and approve it. So we do have that access. So absolutely and I can tell you personally because you know me personally even beyond here um that um I had her
074son just giving you a little context there um that parent connection is key and um in fact it's funny Dr. Sullivan and I were having this conversation just today that with these new graduation requirements, with work-based learning, with all the SEALs, we can't do this without everybody being part of the conversation. So, it has to be the counselor, the family, the teachers, the dog center. Everybody has to be involved in this conversation. So, yes, we are making sure that our parents are involved. they have an opportunity to be part of that conversation and they know where to find that information if they have questions. So, absolutely very important. >> Thank you very much. >> And I would like to just commend you on uh focusing on preparing our students because we want our students to
075be prepared when they graduate from high school to be able to be survivors in our world that we have today. And in order for them to do that, we have to make sure that we prepare them. Um, with uh you covering starting with the elementary school, focusing heavily on the middle schools is the key. And so when they get into high school, they'll be ready. Um, hopefully uh I I believe that this is a great start and hopefully we can continue to incorporate new things that's going to benefit our students in this area. But we're we are starting off. That's a great start. I want to commend you for a great start, but there's still a lot that need to be done. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Gloria. >> Anyone else? Okay.
076Thank you again for your time. >> Thank you for your time. We appreciate the information. Um, next we have the teaching and learning KA update. Dr. Anderson. >> [clears throat] >> President Burke, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, thank you all for letting me speak tonight. Um, I am bringing you an update from the K8 department, continuous improvement, results, and the road ahead. This presentation will focus on four of the five areas of the strategic plan and your board goals. Those four um pillars are invest in academic excellence and student achievement, invest in the Warren student journey and meeting the needs of the whole child, invest in our people, and invest in family and community engagement. I want to bring you an update on AVID. Um, AVID is advancement via individual determination. And the philosophy
077of AVID is AVID teaches essential skills to students that they need to be successful in school but in beyond school. Some of those school uh some of those skills include but they are definitely not limited to study skills and academic habits, critical thinking, organizational strategies, time management skills, effective questioning and student empowerment. These are things that all students need to have. And so when we're teaching them these things, they not only contribute to their academic progress, but they also contribute to their life. How many of us knew how to take notes? Somebody had to teach us that when some when the professor or teacher gets in front of the classroom, how do you know what to write down? What is important? Because what is important to you may not be what is important to me.
078And so being intentional about teaching these skills. so that students can transfer them not only from their AVID class to their English class, to their math class, to their social studies class, to their college classes to their classes in the military because you have to have training at that level to their classes at a um trade school because there's classes in that area as well. Everything's not hands-on. There's always a learning component as well. So being intentional about the skills that we are teaching our students so that they're not only successful in the classroom but they're successful in life outside of the classroom. A part of that is at the AVID philosophy is to train all of the teachers in these skills ensuring consistent implementation and expecting and expectations across across classrooms. The AVID teacher
079is not the only teacher that has been taught these skills. There are content area teachers that are also including the same skills in their classroom. So if a school decided on a notetaking strategy, let's say they focused on Cornell notes, the AVID teacher is teaching Cornell notes, the ELA teacher is using Cornell notes, the math teacher using Cornell notes, social studies, science, and so they're using these skills in all of their classes. So AVID is just one piece, but it actually permeates the whole building. um the alignment of AVID skills and our jog. So, as we think about our jog skills, how does it align with what students are learning in their AVID classes? Critical thinker, they're really using inquiry, high order thinking, students asking questions. Sometimes they don't know what they don't they don't
080know what they don't know. What is the question I should be asking? Sometimes, think about our students these days. Sometimes you look at them, you ask them a question, and they just kind of look at you. They don't know. Sometimes they don't know what to ask. So, being intentional about how do you ask questions? Engaging in tutorials, reflecting on their learning. What did you learn? Summarize what you've learned today. How do you pick out the important parts? Because everything, if everything's important, nothing's important. And so, how are you picking out the important parts? If we think about compassionate collaborator and community contri uh communicator, they're doing avid tutorials. They're helping each other. If I know it, then I need to figure out how to teach it to you so that now you know it as
081well. They work together in groups. They're problem solving. Um they're building discussion skills. They're having that dialogue so that they know how to communicate with each other. Adaptable learning. We're explicitly developing their toolbox so that they know how to do their academics. They know how to be successful. Sometimes it's not the what is the how. And so be really being intentional about how you're learning, not just what you're learning. Resilient leader. Um it puts them through rigorous academic challenges. They're goal setting. They're managing setbacks. Oh my god, I got a bad grade. Okay. Well, how what's the action plan around it? How are we going to get that grade back up? Because we know these setbacks happen. Everything in life is not smooth. And so really being intentional about how do we get through when
082the times get tough, when we get a bad grade, when things aren't going our way. Really being resilient and having effective strategies to utilize. and then a community contributor their service service learning opportunities college and career readiness and preparation to contribute meaningfully in society. I want to highlight our avid teachers. We had Lisa Summers at Cresten, Kristen Bales at Raymond Park, Yolanda Smith at Stonybrook. This is a picture of us. We took a trip to um San Diego for the AVID Summer Institute this summer to actually get training um myself and Pam Griffin who is kind of my backup. So, shout out to Pam because she really does help me a lot with our schools when I when I can't always be available. But really getting prepared to launch AVID this school year. Our three
083principles went along with our three teachers. Now, we know we can't afford to take everybody to San Diego and so just being so our other teachers, our content area teachers, they went to AVID, AVID Ignite, which was the virtual portion of the conference. And if you see the counselors went because how are we what students are in AVID? How are we deciding who gets the AVID elective and who doesn't? Um, but also what are we doing to make sure it permeates the building? um the three ELA teachers from each of the building also attended and nine math teachers because there's a math teacher. We did a math teacher at sixth grade, fifth grade, and seventh grade. So, nine math teachers, but that team continues to grow each and every year because we're adding on new
084teachers. So, then it permeates the entire building. In July, we had a meeting because we had all that professional development in June. And so we got together to really decide on a plan of the roll out, the launch, um, review, make goals, um, create them, calibrate instructional lenses because after all that PD, what you see and what I see may have been interpreted differently. So we want to make sure that our teams are all on the same page. In August, we started ongoing collaboration. Our team meets together weekly via Zoom during their standards align collaborative planning time on Wednesday mornings. The AVID site team, the building team meets monthly. September and October, we had quarterly check-ins with the district administrators, myself and Pam, we visited, we had a half day with each of the teams
085to really do a check-in. We wrote goals, but we wrote goals in July, so before we even started the program. So, going back to our July goals and seeing did did that even make sense? Is that what we're really focusing on? Do we need to revise or and review our goals just to make sure we we set these goals before we started, but now that we're in it, does that still make sense for us? And addressing any implementation concerns? Um what troubles are you having? How can we assist? Um are we doing it across the grade level? Are how are we involving the content area teachers? How's the counselor involved? how is the site um site um team ad administrator just trying to make sure we have everybody continuously on the same page. In November,
086we hosted a professional development for site teams for our actual um district and so all the avid schools in Marian County came here last week. We hosted a PD with them. So, we kind of made some connections. Um, we have a date set up for our next e-learning day, um, for us to go visit some already established AVID teams so we can see what they're doing and make sure we don't kind of make some of the same hiccups. Um, we know that launching any program is difficult. So, we want to make sure we're leaning on our counterparts who've already paved the way. We do have a site team coordinator meeting followup because again, we had the professional development last week. We're going to meet again before the end of the month to make sure that
087we calibrate lenses as a district level team. Fifth grade, fifth and sixth grade implementation of AVID. Every student receives AVID in fifth and sixth grade as a related arts. Um, this is approximately about six weeks of a of a related arts rotation. Seeing as though it's only six weeks, we can't focus on everything. So we have to figure out what was most important. So we focused on organization because sometimes we know students don't turn in work just because they simply can't find it. And so really being intentional about how do you organize yourself? How are you goal setting? Are you writing down your assignment? So how are you using a binder or a planner and how are you goal setting? What is your goal that you're trying to reach this quarter, this semester, this school
088year? We also really focused on reading, focused notetaking, marking the text, and using graphic organizers because we know everybody doesn't think the same way. So, really being intentional about how you organize the reading that you read to make sure that you can interpret it and you can break it down into chunks to make sure that you have access to it. AVID implementation in seventh grade is it is an elective class and so we do have a class and they focused on all of the wicker strategies which wicker stands for writing inquiry collaboration organization and reading and so they're getting all of those in the AVID elective class which is a full school year. also college and career readiness. They talking they're talking about colleges going on college visits and also they're going to visit the
089Walker Career Center so we can make sure we're getting exposure to our students to what we offer as a district and then what's beyond high school. How you do what you do today affects some of the things that you can do tomorrow. So really being intentional about making that link with students. some impact statements from from our Warren students. AVID has helped me in so many ways like writing properly, getting a better idea of the career I want, what schools I might want to attend, and I very much appreciate that. Thank you, Mrs. Summers. Another student from Crestston. This year, AVID has helped me become a stronger, more organized student. I learned how to use my binder and planner to keep track of my assignments, and Cornell notes help me understand lessons more clearly. AVID
090also taught me better study study habits which makes it easier to prepare for tests and quizzes. So that's showing us how our AVID strategies are really impacting them in their core classes. Next step with AVID, we're in the process of planning our field trips for the spring. Again, we're going to a local college or university and Walker Career Center. Um, we're looking forward to rolling up AVID and expanding next year for the eighth grade AVID elective. So, next year everybody in 58 will get AVID at some, well, not everybody, but there will be a band at every grade level. Um, possibility of multiple AVID elective classes for seventh and eighth grade. We know the eighth grade students will roll up. So, do we want to have a year one AVID in eighth grade as well?
091Do we want to have multiple AVID seventh grade classes depending on interest? for really being intentional about expanding our AVID program. Continue was continue professional development after year one training. Just because you get training in year one doesn't mean you won't continue to get training. We're just going to grow our group. And so being intentional about making sure we are including those content area teachers so that it's continues to to live throughout the building and the again the expansion of AVID train content area teachers. Our next partnership I really wanted to highlight was AET Achievement Network. They're working with us to create a math framework. We've done a lot of work in ELA and now it is time to make sure we don't let up the gas pedal on ELA but also include math. And
092so I wanted to take a quote from our own Ryan Russell. Our partnership with AED has focused on building long-term internal capacity to improve student outcomes. We are currently in the process of developing a math framework and equipping leaders and teachers through targeted professional development and coaching. We've done this with ELA and now it's time to turn up the heat and do a little bit more with math as well. What we've done so far with AET in August, we started with some initial walkthroughs. We selected three schools, Low, Crestston, and R um and Pleasant Run just to so they can get a feel of what math looks like in our district. Had a lunch meeting that same day with the district team so that they could hear about what we desire for our district. What
093are our goals? What are we trying to achieve? A weekly virtual meeting started with Ryan and myself so that we can start to build that pathway so we can get to that framework that we love that we can implement and that will raise our achievement. In September, we had professional development with coaches and principles really bringing them in because we have to start there. If they don't know what they're supposed to inspect, they can't inspect it. And so starting with the starting at the top of the building, what is math what do we want math to look like in our buildings? In October, we started with some we continued our collaboration. Um our AET coach was identified. The principal and coach had one-on-one meetings at the 58 level. Really being intentional about what math looks
094like at 58, how what do we need to improve, what trends are we seeing, what's a one-off, and how can we improve? We also started a math working group that included teachers and district leaders. They gained some professional development because we're going to start with that targeted group and then reach out after we get some momentum going. In November, um we had math visits at all three of the IMS buildings. We were there all day. We saw each and every math class. Every math class got a visit. Um with the AET coach, we provided coaching tips, collaborated lenses. We had the grade level administrator in there as well. So, not just the principal because we want our grade level administrators at the IMS level to also be involved with the academics. And so, really being
095intentional about involving our entire administrative staff in those buildings. Our next step with ANET, we're currently working on developing the math framework. Um, there are three tiers to that. curriculum architecture, instructional design, and resource alignment. Really being intentional with those three and going forward with all the schools on the same page. Continued co math coaching at the three um intermediate and middle schools and continued professional development for all involved. I really want to highlight some attendance as we talk about the whole child. This is our every school in the in the KA area where we looked at attendance. It was uploaded last week, but as you can see, all schools are trending at above 95% at this time. Really being intentional because we know that we can't teach students when they're not here. And so
096I appreciate Allison's group and all of them for all they do with our attendance, James and MCRC as well because we can't do this without the the village, the team. E-learning day. How are we investing in our people? I put this up here because I want us to I want everybody to know that as we think about our e-learning days, everybody is getting something. It's not just the teachers, it's the instructional assistants. Doesn't matter if you're an gened instructional assistant, uh, functional academics, you're in a life skills classroom, you're a counselor, family liaison, AVID, PE, everybody is growing on these days. There is no group that is left out because we really want to be intentional when we say invest in our people. We're investing in all of them. our November 4th professional development day.
097This is a picture of our fourth grade teams really focusing on CKLA because we know that is a new curriculum for everybody and as many times as we can touch it, get in front of them because we want to do it and do it well. We want to do it at a high level. And so that means we have to continuously train our teachers, train our staff so that they can further implement in the classroom. This is our math group on the same day. We're really being in inside reveal math. We know we've had it for a few years, but again, everything we have to continue to improve. Just because I taught it last year doesn't mean I teach it the same as I do this year. So, really being intentional about I have a
098new group of students. I have a new group. They need different things. They don't always need what the students need last year. So really being intentional about developing our teachers for the students that they have today, not the students they had yesterday. But we also took some time to develop our IAS with CKLA as well. We want them to be able to run efficient and effective groups using our appro approved curriculum. And so we want to make sure that when we hand our students off to IIA our IAS, they know exactly what they're tasked to do as well. And so being intentional about the questioning you're asking, why are you asking it? How are you scaffolding so that our students have access to grade level text? Being intentional with our IAS. As we look at
099our satisfaction data from November 4th, professional development day, over 90% said it was either somewhat valuable, valuable, or highly valuable. So really being intentional because we're very cautious. We don't want people in professional development just to be in professional development to say we did professional development. We want it to be valuable to what you're doing in the classroom each and every day. And the relevance to your position. Again, we had over 450 sta respondents and that's also over 90% of it went very well, somewhat well or well when it comes to today's structure, content, support and collaboration and relevance to your role, how engaging was it? How did it make you feel? Were you recharged when you left? Were you ready to tackle a group of students to say, "I got some more tools in
100my toolbox." So really being intentional about what we schedule on those days to ensure that everybody is being developed in the way that they need. Family and community engagement. We have a lot of partnerships going on. We as you all saw our our response tonight. We had a house we had a house full. When we ask them to come, they come and they show out. When there's something for their students, our families really do show up. And so we appreciate all that they do. And so looking at trunk or treats, um, cultural events, all the things that we've had throughout the school year to really bring our families in and build our community partnerships, rhythm and reading. We saw that from Liberty Park tonight. This was in partnership with Rise Indie. Bringing bringing in drums.
101How do we do reading with rhythm? How are we putting it with music? being intentional about who we're bringing them bringing in and why we're bringing them in. Career on Wheels at Low. That was a partnership with Ed Martin Automotive, Seals Ambulance, UPS, IFD, Dignity Memorial. Yes, there was an actual hearse out there and Warren PD. So, what kind of careers are on wheels? How are we exposing our students to these things? Because they're jobs and people have to fill them. Las Padas in partnership with families at Sunny Heights. Um a cultural event bringing families in so they bring their culture into the building. Movie night in partnership with Waif and Bone Dry Roofing Roofing. They provided the big screen so we can sit outside and have our movie movie night all free of charge
102to the school. just getting our students in the door with their families to have some time together to build that school community bond. So, thank you so much and I will be happy to entertain any questions or comments. >> Yes, I would like to go back to when you were talking about Abbott. Yes. Um you know um we I did not hear the parent component you know as you know uh the parents are very important to any process and uh do you have any parent workshops uh so that they can uh learn and be trained in order to help their students. And the reason I say that is um you said that one of the some of the students um in their training you know through AVID have to may not be able to find
103their homework. But in my experience, when I had my niece, she just didn't want to do her homework and I had to go over to the school to try to learn how to use the parent portal and I didn't know how to use it. And so there may be other parents in the same situation as I was in and they cannot. It's very important that parents follow their students, be able to see what they're doing when they come home on a daily basis because students don't always do what they're supposed to do. And if parents can be involved in uh monitoring their uh child, it would be very very helpful for that child to be successful. So I'm finding that many parents may need the same training that I had to get. So is there
104a my question is do you have any training workshops for parents so that they can learn how to monitor their students and support their students in this AVID program? >> We did not do that for AVID but we can um but we did on parent teacher conference days and at our school event nights we do have technology set up computers and work and work with parents to log into parent view um and check their students grades. So we do have that in other avenues but not through AVID as of yet. Oh, and so my suggestion would be uh that we include that because you know like you said it's going to take all of us working together and parents are a very very important component of this and like I said in my experience it
105was I had to learn since I had this child how to help and support and without that help and support from home is going to make uh the teacher's job even more difficult. So I would just like to suggest that maybe you can incorporate some parent trainings uh and try to uh allow parents to learn how to monitor their children >> in in the AVID program. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Well, thank you. >> I think we're Thank you so much. >> Deep I saw the deep breaths when we stood up. Okay. Enrollment management and redistricting. Mr. Clayton. Good evening, President Burke, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, and to our Warren community members that are here in attendance. I want to provide a brief update on our enrollment management and redistricting [clears throat] initiative. So
106again, we always want to make sure we remind our community what exactly what this initiative is uh grounded in and it's um you know, as we look at our both our strategic plan focus as well as our our B board goals um many of which you've heard shared tonight. Uh but as it relates to invest in our academic excellence exc excellence and student achievement um as we go through this enrollment manage man management redistricting initiative we want to ensure um you know one of our many objectives is to ensure equitable class sizes and resources across elementary schools. This evening our focus will will be on our focus groups uh that we started this month in November and you we'll be able to share more about exactly what that process looks like to achieve that. We
107also want to invest in the Warren student journey and meeting the needs of the whole child. And our goal is to reinvigorate the fifth grade experience. I'm going to say it again, reinvigorate the fifth grade experience. And Dr. Ant, you might ask, how are we going to do that? >> How are we going to do that? >> We're going to do that by being intentional. We're going to do that by being innovative in order to help our students become more inquisitive and independent learners. That's how we're going to do it. You're going to hear that a lot over the next few months. So, our focus has really shifted in a sense slightly from we're going to focus on what that experience is going to consist of. Um, we've spent a lot of time talking about
108where that experience is going to take place. But regardless of the final destination for our fifth graders, our focus has to again be more intentional and center around what that experience looks like. And that's that's where those four eyes come into place. We're always going to continue to invest in our people. We understand this process will require us to utilize our staff expertise and considering the impact of changes on teachers and administrators and uh Mr. Simpkins spent time with his focus group uh having that actual discussion. We're continue to invest in our family and community engagement by prioritizing community feedback, neighborhood continuity, and family schedules. I had the opportunity to work with my focus group that centered around school boundaries and we talked a lot about just that that neighborhood continuity and we'll we'll touch
109on that. But I want to emphasize one thing that the feedback again that we received through this focus group is what's going to drive this conversation board. you have asked us um quite honestly on every initiative that we've brought to you over the last several years to make sure that we engage the community and use that feedback to inform and drive the decisions that we make. And um I'm happy to say as we I we have the opportunity to share out not only just some of the the the b the brief summary I provide tonight um but as our uh focus group leads and facilitators as they have opportunities to share out over the next month uh they will be able to show you exactly how that feedback is driving this discussion. And finally, invest
110in the safety and operational excellence, optimizing facility use capacity management, which we spent a lot of time on, as well as our transportation logistics, Dr. Sullivan, across all nine elementary and middle schools. We put together a timeline of exactly what's taken place the last few months. Uh what you'll see here, this is um our ability or the time we've had working with Walpert as well as some of the collaborations we've done. The goal represents our community outreach and board engagement opportunities. I just want to draw your attention to this month. Um again, I touched on our emphasis and focus on our focus groups. Um, and I'm happy to say that um, all seven of our focus groups have met um, this this month um, as well as the survey which I believe Dr. Hansen went
111out today. Um, that's part of the feedback that we continue to collect. Um, and that this is the most recent survey, but as as you recall when we started this initiative um, we put out a um, a survey as well just to get feedback. We use um surveys as well to help um provide opportunities for our um community to sign up to participate in our focus groups. And then as we turn to December um we'll have an opportunity to uh board to meet face toface with uh one of our representatives from Walberg in a in a work session to have specific discussions around school boundaries which I'll touch on um a little bit later. So again, our November focus has been on um as it relates to our enrollment management redistricting initiative has been on
112our focus groups. Um they convened this this um the past couple weeks I should say and as always they're connected to the strategic goals and upcoming next steps to the overall project. our facilitators um all in attendance today um Miss Allison Woods I'll say Miss High achieving Allison Woods because her focus group has already met twice making us the rest of us look back um again she is leading our high ability group and I'll just share some some of the objectives and some of the outcomes from her first um focus group um but she just recently um a couple days ago had her second focus group and um really leading a highly motivated group of parents that that really want to make sure that they have a voice in terms of what this looks like
113moving forward. Our innovation 6 through8 group is led by Ryan Russell, our invest in our people group, Brian Simpkins. Our fifth grade experience to reinvigorate that experience is Dr. Tierney Anderson. Uh starting end times in transportation, as I mentioned, Dr. Sullivan, enrollment management, Matt Parkinson, and I have the opportunity to lead the um school boundaries group. So, again, just briefly, some medium meeting objectives starting with Allison's group. She is working with a group of um of parents that um have a high degree of of interest and and want to provide voice in the discussion as it relates to high ability and dual language immersion. just some of uh the meeting objectives that Allison shared out um as they approach this discussion is to ensure equitable placement and staffing of specialized programs across um K through
114five schools considering capacity impact and student access. Some of the key outcomes from and reflections from our first focus group meeting. The group defined uh core priorities like maximizing academic rigor, ensuring equitable access and fostering student well-being and belonging. And they looked uh from a model analysis standpoint reflected on the current service model of our high ability dual language emerging programs the strengths and weaknesses weaknesses and explore various alternative models and analyzing potential benefits and challenges. As I mentioned, Ryan Russell led our sixth grade innovation. He's met with his group and part of one part of their meeting objectives is to develop the vision and operational plan for the new sixth grade middle school model including programming facility use and schedule innovations. Some of the high priority ideas more elective choices align to the pathways
115relevance real world connections uh PBL inquiry crosscurricular opportunities avid based student organization skills as Dr. Anderson presented on tier 2 supports for all grades, life skills, dignity, uh, literacy, digital literacy, uh, block and flexible scheduling models. And then as it relates to core instruction, strong themes including relevance, PBL, real world connections, crosscurricular opportunities, and the ownership of learning, mastery based models. Again, Brian Simpkins led our invest focus group. their meeting objectives to address staffing allocation, professional development, and human capital logistics associated with the fifth grade experience and potential school shifts. And their group, their focus group brainstorm established four key discussion areas. Criteria criteria for fairly determined staff uh potential sta staff transfers, reassignments. Number two, a fair and consistent process for transfer reassignments. Three, appropriate timeline for staff to learn of any changes to
116the 202627 school year assignments. And number four, information, resources, and PD needed to support impacted teachers. And HR is already collecting data on current teacher placement and lure. The fifth grade experience led by Dr. And Anderson. Um her group met um I want to say on Monday and the group received a critical overview covering the historical placement of our fifth grade uh students, analyze uh analysis of the current instructional model and its impact on student performance and a regional review of how other Marian County districts organize that fifth grade instruction. Key outcomes. Participants provided valuable input. I believe they did a gallery walk. Dr. Anderson um on instructional, operational, and student well-being topics. All feedback will be analyzed by the leadership team starting in times of transportation led by Dr. Sullivan. Um and I know
117transportation um Lindtorm and her team played a intricral role in that as well. But they evaluate the impact of various bell schedule scenarios um high school, middle school as well as elementary on transportation efficiency, family logistics and alignment with academic research. Program priorities established. The group defined core priorities like maximizing academic rigor as mentioned equitable access and fostering student well-being and belonging. And the model analysis reflected the current service model strength and weaknesses and explored various alternative models and analyzing potential benefits and challenges. Matt Parkinson led our enrollment management focus group. In their first meeting, they reviewed the demographic projections and capacity reports which are still coming in from from Walpert. Then defined the target enrollment range and maximize capacity for all nine elementary schools. Some of the key outcomes and reflections um revolved around
118fifth grade support, universal agreement that fifth grade students would benefit from um just us as a district really focusing on again being intentional, innovative, which will create that in inquisitive and independent learners. um some of the uh concerns that some of our stakeholders communicated um uncertain about elementary building capacity, which again we're working with Walper to to be um exact in in that um identification of our of our capacities as it relates to not just where we currently stand but our potential for growth moving down the road. Um as well as what that transition and some of the challenges around that. Um multiple stakeholders talked about um fa uh grandfathering also referred to as phasing. In other words um you know will certain grade levels will they be able to stay um within their um
119their school will they have to move and just some of the suggestions they gave around that which was also covered in the last group uh school boundaries and our meeting objective. Uh we looked at um some uh current data maps, one of which or two of which I'll show you briefly after this and gather feedback on key questions and concerns in regards to the process to inform the creation of initial draft boundary scenarios. As you can imagine, board we December is going to be about boundaries and that's going to really elevate the level of discussion because this will have an impact on all of our families one way or another. Um, so part of the discussion and outcomes and reflections of that our first focus group meeting, we have our second one scheduled for December
1203rd and the reason we scheduled it um not quite a month out, but at that time we should have more boundary information from from Walper. Now that we have a direction in terms of where we're going, the focus will go to our school boundaries. So I expect that next meeting to be um well attended. But we talked about the the transfer policy review discussion center around um what we do with our out of district students as well as our intrad district transfers. Um phasing or grandfathering. Again, what are the considerations? Uh what came from the initial night of discussion with that group is that we should consider just allowing the fourth graders. That was their recommendation from that that that evening. uh guiding principles. We engage in robust discussion weigh in priorities. Um and the
121two things we talked about was should the focus when we look at our boundaries to would it be a compact and efficient boundaries or neighborhood schools or b should we use a balance of incorporating and factoring in socioeconomics um at acceptable levels um that will um maintain the diversity of all of our our buildings. So board, I want to share with you two maps. This is our current uh Warren Township School District map. And the as you can see the the different uh color coding. This represents each of our our schools, elementary school districts as well as our middle school districts um and exactly where they're located. Now, the reason I want to to share this with you because um we're very happy to have an accurate map now. Uh but secondly also um I
122want to make sure that we're all ready for what this discussion is going to look like in December because as you will see on the next slide the way that our um in not I'm sorry not our enrollment but the way that you know our families are spread throughout the township really speaks to some of the inequities in terms of our enrollment balance which is the first part of this init initiative which has made it so challenging in terms of where our families live at. So, this is a student density map. So, as you can see, if you just look at the the the key down, the the darker red areas are our most heavily um dense areas in terms of where our families reside. So if we just use right in the middle here,
123East Washington Street, as you can see, there are dis a disproportional number of families that live north of East Washington Street compared to south of East Washington Street. So what does that mean and what other factors are we looking at? All right. So, those of us that are familiar with our with our our school district and our communities, we know that north of East Washington Street, um not only do we have a lot of our our older homes, but also we have a lot of apartment complexes that we serve. These tend to be our more densely populated areas. And then if you look south, um, not as many apartment complexes, a lot of of homes, but as you can see that over the years, this has been a challenge when it comes to school boundaries.
124Now, I'm going to throw something else in the equation as well in this era of open enrollment. This is also had an effect on exactly what this this layout looks like. And to be specific, just some of the discussion that we've had here recently. And I want to draw our attention to two areas. And we're going to refer to these two areas as phase one. Okay. So, you have this little island that exists right between the Pleasant Run area and and the Lakeside area. All right. This is again when we talk about Warren Township, Warren Township goes as far north as North 30 or 38th Street. It goes as far and again Warren Township goes as far north as 38th Street. It goes as far west as Emerson. It goes as far east as Carol
125Road. All right. And then it goes as far south um well past Brookville. So that's Warren Township. Now our actual school district, as you can see, we have a few islands or some cutouts. Those are considered IPS school district. So when I talk about phase one, I'm talking about this island and I'm talking about what we refer to as this L area. All right. So again, this area, we can all agree just looking at the the density map, is our most heavily populated areas in terms of where our families, where our students come from. And this represents where our students come from. Okay. But in those two areas, those IPS districts, we serve 238 students, out of district students from those two areas. Again, this is Warren Township, but that is IPS school district. What
126we've also learned is that we actually serve more I more IPS students that are Warren students now that are out of district than what IPS serves. IPS serves 124 students in this area. we serve uh 238 238 come from those areas and again this is Warren Township but it's IPS school district. Now this next area and you probably I'm not sure if you can see my my cursor there. Um coming back okay you got this L area here. Now we're going to go back here. All right this is post road. We're going to go back to the east going back towards German church. Right. So this is just just west of the Stony Brook area uh uh Sunny Heights area um and just north of this Lakeside Warren Centura but this area here. All right.
127We also have a number of out of district students again Warren Township but IPS considered IPS school district. We serve 164 students just in that area. All right. That's more than what IPS serves in that area. And again, I'm sharing this with you because this has to be part of the discussion when we're talking about redrawing our boundaries. All right? Because most of the focus has been on our our boundaries as it relates to our school district. But in the era of out of district students and again the majority of students that we that we serve that we provide these opportunities to come to Warren Township to I'm sorry Warren Township schools they live in Warren Township is just IPS school district. Those of us that have been around for a while, I remember in
128the days when I was assistant principal, families would move in and they would say, "Hey, I want to enroll at, you know, at I was at the high school and we would pull their address up and we say, "Well, you actually can enroll here at the time." This is before open enrollment because um you were in the IPS school district. Well, they told me I this is Warren Town, Warren Township. Yes, it is Warren Township, but it's IPS school district. Fast forward to today, those opportunities present themselves. But again, you're talking about over 400 students just in that north part of our township that's part of those IPS sections. The one the last thing I'll share with you when we talk about we go as far west as Emerson, if you look back west, the
129western part of Warren Township, um we serve 170 students that live in that portion of Warren Township. All right. So when you combine all combine those numbers, that's over 500 students that we serve that we provide opportunities to to attend our schools just in our our near or surrounding areas that are part of Warren Township. So with that being said, as we prepare for the what I would say the options that will be presented to you in December board is somehow as we set out at the beginning of this initiative. We know it's a priority to make sure that our elementary schools are better balanced. I mean that's what we're talking about when we talk about enrollment management and part of what we have to do. And if you look at a school like Pleasant
130Run, which has the most students out of all of our elementary schools, they have about 550 students. Well, let's think about how it got there. All right, it got there when we have 238 students that live just north of Pleasant Run and IPS school districts that are coming here open enrollment. All right. So, and if you provide choice, it's no secret and it's, you know, a heavy elementary population or middle school population. It's it's no secret why some of those imbalances exist. So again, I'm not a demographer. I just play one at board meetings. But if I had to guess, if I had to guess, if you look at a school like Hawthorne, which has slightly over 400 students, somehow they're going to have to recapture a piece of what is now belongs to Pleasant
131Run, because they'll have to factor in that, you know, as long as we're allowing out of district students, particularly in Warren Township, which I think families that live in Warren Township, yeah, I think those are families we should work with, but we have to factor that And so there's a chance one of the options that we'll we'll provide and this is just one example. Hawthorne will have to capture some of that Pleasant Run area to help balance out the numbers that that exist there. >> Can I ask >> I'll stop there for a second questions. >> I'm sorry. Um how's that going to affect our um Spanish immersion? Is that going to hurt that at all >> if we if if we move that the boundary there? >> Are are we are the kids that
132are in Spanish immersion still going to be able to do that at Pleasant Run? >> Yeah. Well, and and that's a a connected yet separate conversation because part of what we still have to find out is exactly where are those families reside >> because they they could be spread throughout the district, >> you know, just to come just to be a part of that program, right? >> So, we'll have to, you know, we'll have to identify that. But what I would say, Miss French, is when um we have that discussion next month, that's when we we'll really have to, you know, as a team kind of break down and look at, okay, exactly. Um, you know, because the other part of this too that we're going into, do we want to create more neighborhood schools?
133Do we want a student that lives in Bell Haven, which used to be Washington Point, do we want them to get on a bus and go all the way to LOL? right now. We know that provides opportunities because like all of our elementary schools, LOL's a great school, but at the same time, what does that look like in terms of um involvement? Do are we um you know, in terms of families providing opportunities to be involved in their neighborhood school? Is that more of a challenge when they have to go from you know, right down the street from East Ridge to Low for back to school nights or, you know, whatever school initiatives that we have. But again, those are those are discussions that we will have collectively once we get all this information out.
134But again, I just wanted to share exactly what this looks like because this this is going to be challenging if you just look at where we're at. Now, you know, I would also say just in in closing is that we do have a lot of growth south of East Washington Street. A lot of homes um you know, particularly in that that German church area near Crestston. um going back down. Um Prospect, we've, you know, we've had homes pop up. Um but we've also have growth on the north end, too. We have uh some sort of housing development going up right on 21st Street, um right down the street from from Lakeside. Obviously, we've had, you know, growth going back down on the um uh north end of of German Church just over the past few
135years. So, um, working with our, um, you know, our demographer team from Walpert will help us make projections for the next 5 to 10 to 15 years just so we can start having a better handle of exactly what this looks like. But um again, I just want to make sure we're prepared that the um re the the redrawing of our boundaries. It's going to be a challenging discussion, but again, we're going to let the feedback we we received from our our parents as well as the the the data that we received from Walpert help inform us so we can we can make some decisions around that. >> Marcus, um couple things. Thank you for the presentation, [clears throat] but I want to also make sure because I'm not really seeing that focus on on this
136presentation. Um, I see where we've labeled the fifth grade, the fifth grade experience. Are we still focusing on because a part of how the demographers and everyone got in is to be able to move our fifth graders back to our elementary schools. So focusing on the elementarymentaries, making sure that we are still staying focused on that and see how to prioritize that. And again, y'all switched some terms on me with the fifth grade experience made me think, where are you giving them the experience at moving them back to the elementary or what does that look like? because I've heard a lot but I haven't heard the key terms of where we are with moving our fifth graders back and that's what we put out to the community and I want to make sure that we're
137not losing focus on this with all this other great information that we're receiving. >> Yes, that's that's a great question because and you know I I commend just some of the work that that Tyranny's done and just the the conversation we had cabinetwise. The first I would say um piece of our strategy that we had to use um and our methods was the capacity study >> and that's what we've been working closely with Walpert on is to take a look at all nine of our elementarymentaries look at the actual space we have in each elementary understanding that um some things have changed over the years um we've just had uh five renovations at um five elementaryaries um and what I would tell you Um uh Leanna is that where we're at right now is we're
138still working with Walpert to make that decision. Now what we will present to you as a board will present options. There will be an option to move the fifth graders back to the elementary schools. We will give you the strengths and the weaknesses of that. There will be an option to leave them currently where they're at in the intermedi intermediate schools. will give you the strengths and weaknesses of that because those two options are still on the table as it relates to capacity wise. Is this something we can do and still provide that experience? We want to make sure that we equally focus on part of why we're we want to move the fifth graders and that is that experience that we have to spend just as much time on that as you know are
139they going to be here? They're going to be there. But right now, we will present um a couple options for the board to review and critique and um you know, we'll make our decisions based on the input we receive from you. >> You're in the you're in the hot seat because you're the presenter. So, um one of the things that our community lose trust in us before we started this process, it was clearly stated, we have the capacity to move the fifth graders. So now that you know we brought Walford in, the community has put their input in on the demographers and we've explained to them the importance of the demographers. To me, what I hear is that's getting walked back a little bit. So I won't go into full depth in this meeting because
140we don't have enough time. The hour is late. But I really would like to um put my eyes on what they're saying and what stage they're saying and I'll get a meeting with um you know Dr. Hansen and Tierney whoever is on that team because we want to make sure that we are being true to what we put out and also be mindful before we put things out and we can't support that or have to walk it back. You know, we owe that to our community. We owe it to our um families. A lot of the families were uh very excited about the fifth graders moving back um for various reasons. So, we just want to make sure that we're being mindful of the time and the feedback that we're getting um from our families.
141So, >> absolutely. >> And what what I can guarantee you there will be an option for both. >> Right. You're giving me an option for both. Um, but I never knew the option was to keep them where they were. I thought the option was where are we moving them to in the district for redistricting? So, it's a new option on the table that I wasn't aware was in play. So, we'll meet and just get that all cleared out so I can have a clear understanding. But, thank you for all your hard work. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions on the maps? >> Yeah, I got a question. It's in reference to when you want to you're going to have this review. Uh you said you're gonna have this review. I'm going to offer it
142to the board. When you had you plan to do that? >> We have a work session scheduled for December 15th. December 15th. And we'll actually have um Karen Jackson from Walbert. She will travel here and be on site. Um and at that time we will have some of the boundary options that she will prepare for us to have a discussion with the board. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Next steps. We talked about our focus in November December board work session with Walbert as I just mentioned uh present draft options to the board um and the community. Um and again working with our Walford and as well as our our focus groups. That'll be an opportunity for our focus groups to share out um specifically around you know the you know the school boundaries enrollment management
143um as well as our high ability and just the feedback that again will facilitate and help drive this conversation. Then as we get to January, we'll continue to gather and review our final uh feedback um present a final redistricting plan for the to the board. Um and that will be driven by our focus groups as um leads as well as our superintendent. Any other questions? >> Thank you >> as always. Thank you so much. >> Maybe get that in a video next time. I might um some of it might blow over me. [laughter] >> We aim it, please. Do we have any yellow cards, Kevin? >> No, Madam President. We do not. >> Thank you so much. And with that, we are going to move on to our action items, starting with Brian Simkins. Okay,
144President Burke, Dr. Hans, members of the board. Um it's November. So now that we have the new teacher collective baring agreement agreement over the finish line, uh I have before you recommendations for what I'll call um extra compensation for other employee groups, starting with our uh support staff, our classified staff. [clears throat] In terms of investing in our people, um I seek your approval for a one-time stipen of $500 for all full-time classified staff. That's hourly and salaried. um which will be provided in December. Um and then um also to maintain our loyalty bonus um next next month we will um uh like we usually do recognize folks who um have 20 or more consecutive years of full-time um service in Warren Township. We'll have that $350 loyalty uh bonus that will be provided in
145December as well. And uh also uh somewhat similar to the collective bargain agreement for teachers, we will provide for uh in the case of immediate family bereavement leave extend 3 days additional bereavement um for support staff with regard to loss of a spouse or child. And last but not least, and talk about being thankful for Thanksgiving, uh we will be also um uh holding the line on premium health insurance premium rates for um all employees, but certainly classified staff as well. There will not be an increase in the u support staff share of u health insurance premium costs for 2026. Should I go to the next one or do you wanna >> I think we can probably do them together. >> Do them together. Okay. >> The next one is for our administrators. Um investing
146in our administrators. Um, so, uh, I'm recommending, uh, approval for a one-time employer contribution to the health savings accounts of, uh, administrators, all administrators enrolled in Warren's Health Insurance, uh, specifically a $1,300, um, contribution. Um those administrators without an HSA will um similar to teachers get the equivalent amount and a one-time stipend uh what we're call employer health insurance stipen of course less tax withholding in retirement. Um like similar to teachers uh administrators who have a health savings account will be allowed the option to uh elect to take the stipen instead. So that'll all that'll apply as well. Again, administrators like all employee groups will not see an increase in their health insurance premium rates in 2026, which is a blessing. Um, and so um that will be done um um probably so probably mid
147to late January through March 1st, we'll allow folks to make those options. And we also want to give time for people to sign up and enroll in health savings accounts if they haven't already. And then uh um sometime in March uh likely we will be able to get those uh contributed. Also for administrators similar to teachers will be a uh 401A retirement account employer contribution um based on years of service in Warren. So $1,200 for 10 or more, $800 for um five to nine and $400 for administrators with less than five years of war in service. And those will be contributed uh by the end of January. Can I have a motion for the two? >> The only other thing I'm going to say is that uh I apologize. >> This has always been the
148case, but I'm putting in writing for the record that uh the leaves uh changes that were uh applied to teachers in the new agreement specifically with bereavement, personal leave, and parental leave all applied to administrators as well. I triplet. >> So move that we accept the employee statements for classified staff and employer contribution for administrators. >> Thank you. Lanna, is there a second? I'll second. >> Thank you, Julie. Brian, I apologize for not Paige Downing. >> It's all right. >> Um, is there any discussion >> hearing and seeing none? Is Gloria still? She's not. >> Yeah. So, we should be able to do a >> Yeah, we should be able to do it online then. >> She's not logged on. If she were logged on, we couldn't do it. >> Yeah, we don't have the
149option if she's logged on. And the motion carries. Thank you so much. >> Thank you for supporting working people of Warren Township Schools. Appreciate it. >> And with that, the most exciting part of the evening, class editions. Good evening, President Burke, Dr. Hansen, members of the board. Um, I'm disappointed Gloria is off now because we're talking about adding career center pathway classes, but um we'll be sure to update her. Tonight, I have three courses uh that we're seeking for approval. Uh these specific courses um these series of courses add a human services career cluster pathway to our career center. Um they are sequential. Uh that being said, the course titles are community health worker, um fundamentals of human services, and then the social and community services capstone. So uh in spirit of what Laura spoke
150to tonight, just providing more opportunities for students uh to grant uh to earn a pathway and then be exposed to numerous uh career clusters that fall within that specific pathway. Happy to answer any questions, but seeking your approval for all three at this time. >> Not seeing any questions. Do we have a motion? >> So moved. >> We have a motion made by Julie. Is there a second? >> A second. >> And a second with by Terry. Is there any discussion or any further questions? Hearing and seeing none, we'll go to the vote. >> Thank you. >> And we have added a new course cluster. Okay, so we are on to discussion items starting with Dr. Hansen. >> Board, I bring to you tonight three bylaw revisions, all of which are a result of legislative
151action. The first one for discussion for this month is pol bylaw 142 um which is titled election and eligibility to serve. Two things that um are key to this revision. One, it lowers the age of eligibility from 21 to 18. And the second one, it requires candidates to indicate their political party affiliation, independent status, or a statement of no party affiliation for ballot purposes. Board, I asked uh Kim to include in your board packets tonight, timely ISBA sent out a FAQ today in response to this is Senate enrolled act 287. So, they did a really nice job. Um, it's in your black folder. So, if you want to take a look at that. Um, so that's the first bylaw policy revision. The second one, 144.1. This one deals with board compensation. The re this revision
152reaffirms that board members may receive a basic compensation set by a board resolution at the annual organizational meeting which for us is in January. New statutory language restricts that this amount may not exceed 10% of the lowest starting teacher salary in the district. Um then there's some other language in there that just is reaffirmation of the bylaw that we already have. The second um I'm sorry, the third bylaw is 167.2. Um we've been actually exercising this one already, but this one provides um new um provisions for the open door law under the executive sessions. So, new subsections that have been added um include employee health care options, employee handbook changes, review of negotiations on publicly bid contracts, and discussion regarding solicitation of proposals for goods and services. Board, as you know, um you know, there
153are certain reasons we can hold executive sessions and there are certain reasons we cannot. It just um also reiterates that final action must incur in a public meeting. Executive sessions cannot be used to circumvent open meeting requirements. Minutes must include a specific reference to the statutory basis of the executive session and certify that no other business was conducted. And then last, the policy retains the optional se section prohibiting board members from disclosing executive session content. Um, be happy to answer any questions over the next month and we'll bring those back for approval in December. >> Mr. Senkins, we missed you. >> Okay, President Burke, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, I have a series of uh policies for discussion. Um, this this this should not be quite bad as it looks, but uh we're going
154to go through them. U and uh in general, all of them have to do with protections with respect to non-discrimination and anti-harassment um in one form or another. Um it's coming from an HR perspective in particular. It's uh you know um um discrimination and harassment can be devastating for uh obviously students and employees. And so um it can really impact one's academic progress that impact their um interpersonal dealings with others and frank frankly their own personal selfworth. So we take these seriously. Um they all have procedures for informal and formal complaint investigations. A lot of that is untouched but I do have a couple highlights for each of these policies. So uh beginning with uh 2260 that's non-discrimination and access to equal educational opportunity. uh with not dwelling on it too much, I think we're
155all well aware of the current administration's stance on um on gender. Um but uh with respect to the parenthetical language with respect to gender status, sexual orientation or gender identity, uh that recommendation for removal will not be made. We we will keep that language in this policy. Um they also have updates with respect to the office of civil rights being moved from Chicago, Illinois to Denver, Colorado. I bet you didn't know that. And then um frankly uh as part of the investigation uh with respect to changes to Indiana code made by house enrolled act 1483 which had to do with bullying in 2023. If a compliance offer such as myself as investigation right as I'm in the investigation process if um if there's any concerns about bullying for instance um the investigator can take action
156to make sure that there are supports and protections in place immediately upon investigation as that goes forward. So that's one of the key changes. Okay. 2260.01 that's section 504 uh ADA which is Americans with Disabilities Act prohibition against discrimination based on disability. Um so again that also incorporates uh the bullying component with respect to um uh investigations and allowing the school to prioritize the safety of safety of a victim of bullying if that's what's at stake in the investigation. So um obviously some forms of bullying may amount to discrimination uh in this policy based on disability. Um so uh that is the key uh distinction as well as again mentioning the office of civil rights change of location. Okay. 2266 the essentially title n um that's non-discrimination on the basis of sex and education programs
157and activities. Um there is a from June of 25 national incidentbased reporting system definition of fondling had changed and that's actually in the policy with the term officially as criminal sexual contact contact and there's further descriptions defining what that looks like [clears throat] in the policy. Um again we're going to maintain our our language with respect to um gender status sexual orientation and gender identity. Um again the change of location with the office of civil rights and also again the bullying component uh as part of the investigation to protect victims from bullying who are part of investigations. 1422 non-discrimination, equal employment opportunity, anti-harassment. 1422, 3122, and 4122 are uh word for word the same thing for administration, professional, staff, and support staff. And um they again also so the these policies um are super policies
158that incorporate other ones. Um so in addition to the ones that in addition to the um uh definition of fondling being changed and the term officially being criminal sexual contact as I just mentioned in addition to the parenthetical language about gender discrimination and such. Um this policy incorporates non-discrimination based on genetic information of an employee um which has been rescended. So that was 1422.02 02 with the genetic information of employee that's been incorporated into this policy. Policy 1662 on anti-harassment is also absorbed into this policy and that will be rescended. Likewise for 31 um 3122 um that will um rescend 3122.02 02 which is the um the corresponding genetic information of employee part being rescended and then policy 3362 anti-harassment being rescended and again for 4122 the exact same thing. Uh but that will um
159rescend um it replaces and then causes for uh the rescending of 4122.02 02 and 4362 anti-harassment respectfully. If there's any questions, uh be happy to take those or certainly in the coming month um I'll be happy to research anything or answer any questions related to those. Thank you. >> Hey, Brian. >> Yes. >> Does this put you ahead of Kent and the number of policies in one evening that we'll be approving? I don't know. Does it? [laughter] >> I'm gonna put some argument in for Kent. We're technically rescending three, which is padding his numbers. >> Yes, my numbers are padded. I admit [laughter] >> I think I'm counting 12. >> Yeah. When I first got the stack, I was a little concerned, but we took a few off. Yeah. >> And that Good evening everybody.
160I have two policies for discussion for the board's consideration this evening. Um these are both revisions to existing board policy. Um board policy 6320 is our broad purchasing policy. Uh, and there was language that was passed in the general assembly this past year in House Enrolled Act 1198 that provides an option for school districts and local governments to use their own workforce uh to complete public works projects with a value up to $375,000. We have a lot of really talented individuals um that work for Porter um that have the capability to carry out projects. And so um this is an option that general assembly gave to us that we didn't have before. And so our recommendation is to incorporate this uh into our our purchasing policy. It would essentially let us take on small projects,
161maybe medium-sized projects um using our own work source as opposed to outsourcing it. Um the other policy I have for discussion for the board this evening is board policy 7455, accounting system for capital assets. Um President Burke, I want to challenge earlier when you said that Ryan's course offerings were the most exciting part of the night. I know that when we amend capital asset accounting, that's truly the most exciting thing we do at a school board. >> That was the most exciting thing we voted on. This is the most exciting thing we're hearing about. >> Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Um well, built into this policy revision is two changes. Um neither of them are they're not different from what we do today. Um when we establish values for capital assets, we have to keep a
162record of capital assets in the school district. Um there's language we're building into the policy that says we'll follow guidance from the state board of accounts and the department of local government finance. And then we're also adding a section that um that tells us that the the cost that we're meant to incorporate for capital assets is the construction or acquisition cost um along with including any reasonable related fees such as legal costs and design costs. Anybody has questions between now and next month, I'll be happy to work with you. >> Thank you so much. And with that, we are at closing comments. And as we have regained Gloria, I will let you start. >> All right. I am so sorry I got disconnected somehow. I don't know what happened, but I feel that we have
163covered a lot uh this evening and um I just want to wish everybody again a happy Thanksgiving and thanks for to everyone that presented tonight. Thanks for all that you do. Howard, happy Thanksgiving. Don't eat too much. >> Happy Thanksgiving. Have a great holiday. I failed you last month for 9:30. We are now at 212. So, we're doing good. What if we don't know military time? Happy Thanksgiving. Eat as much as you can on that day. It's your cheat day. Enjoy yourself. Have a good night. Drive home safely. Um, thank you everyone for the reports. It was great to have our children. Um, happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Thank you everyone who works in our district. No matter where you are, we appreciate you. Um, I also want to take a moment to wish Leanna a
164happy birthday later this week along with Miss Rachel Burke. Um, and I'm really looking forward to um, Wednesday, a day of service and Thursday um, spending time with family and more importantly this Friday cheering on our warriors to states. >> Well, thank you Terry. I was actually going to also mention that Terry's birthday was yesterday. This is this is that week for us and we always spend it with you. Um [laughter] so, um happy Thanksgiving everyone. Yes. Um hopefully when we come back we will have at a minimum gone to the state game. The pressure is on, but I think we're going to do excellent. Um I hope everyone has some wonderful time with their family. And with that at 9:04, we're going to call it good. Angel's birthday is Saturday. >> Friday.