00166. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. We got to miss. Yes. [Music] Okay. You need to suck this in. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. If we could stand for the pledge of allegiance. Good evening everyone. Again, thank you for coming. And with that, we're going to go to the superintendent report. Good evening, President Burke, members of the board, our community. Thank you for being here tonight. Um, so last week we celebrated Kim. Um, and this today we get to celebrate Kim again and I want to recognize all of our administrative assistants as we recognize them on their appreciation day. So Kim, we appreciate you board. Just a couple highlights from um since our last meeting. As you know, I've been doing a series of coffee with the superintendent this school year. Over spring break, I invited many
002of our faith-based leaders here on the east side to meet with me and um the folks at P30. Uh it was a great turnout. We had great conversation. Um the folks there took us on a tour of Volod and um you know, our focus really was just on how we can continue to make the east side thrive. Um some great connections were made and it was a great event. Um, I also met with Katherine Basham, who's our PTSA president over spring break. Um, I invited Katherine to come in and meet with our district leaders last week. Um, as we try to engage with our families um, you know, working closely with our PTSA and our PTAs um, at the K4 level. Um, she was able to to encourage us to think some of some things
003differently. Um, so that was a great opportunity. U, many of us attended NSBA and I know that'll be in your comments. It was a great conference um this year in Atlanta. Um our students in grades 3 through 8 uh began iLearn testing this week. Um so please send all your positive energy and um thoughts their way. In talking with a few principles, uh things are going well so far. So um we'll keep that up. Teacher and staff appreciation week is coming up May 5th through the 9th. Board, you should have or will have those activities. We invite you to attend as well to help celebrate our staff. I want to highlight Kimberly Bautista. She received a $200,000 scholarship. She's a senior at Warren Central High School. She'll be attending the University of Memphis in the
004scholarship um is from the Naval Academy and she hopes to be a Marine someday. So, congratulations, Kimberly. Um I know some of us attended the top 30 senior banquet. Um that's such an amazing event where we celebrate our top 30 students at the high school. Um, for those of you that don't know, each student is asked to identify an adult or a teacher throughout their warrant career that that has made an impact on them. And um, since he's in the audience tonight, I have to acknowledge that Mr. Butler was his son's um, special person. So, congratulations, Mr. [Music] Butler. Um, but what a great event. Um, we have some amazing kids doing some amazing things. Um, going forward, um, I attended our district math bowl last week. I want to give a shout out to
005all of our math bowl coaches, our math bowl students, um, in Brookview for hosting. That's one of my favorite events. And then I attended the, um, Sunny Day community partner um, reception um, a couple Saturdays ago. Uh, they did recognize Warren Township and MCRC as a a significant partner in the work they do and and the impact they have on the community. And that's my report for tonight. Thank you so much, Dr. Hansen. And with that, we are going to go to Mr. Butler and Hawthorne Elementary School's presentation. Press it while I talk. All right, perfect. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm gonna try that again. Greetings. I'm Mr. Brother, proud principal, Hawthorne Elementary. Uh, if you have a u a red pom pom, can you put it up for me? All right. All right. So,
006the rapper said, "When I move, you move what?" Just like that. All right. So, come on, y'all. Be with me. So, when mine goes up, yours goes up. All right. I am so proud of my school. I am proud of um my my township. Uh my teachers are back there. Uh they said you love to see children. So, I have a video here to talk about some of the things that we've done. And then after that, I want to do some celebrations and we will put these into play. At Hawthorne Elementary, we believe that strong communication skills are the foundation of lifelong learning. Swirl is an acronym for speaking, writing, reading, and listening. These provide a structured approach to language development, ensuring that students engage in comprehensive literacy practices daily. Research shows that when students
007actively develop speaking, writing, reading, and listening skills, they experience significant improvements in comprehension, critical thinking, and academic performance across all subjects. Additionally, by making learning more engaging and interactive, this approach helps students retain knowledge more effectively, ensuring that skills stick for the long term. We encourage students to speak as a means to articulate their thoughts clearly. This happens through structured classroom discussions, presentations, and peer collaborations by engaging in activities such as think pair share, debate exercises, and various topical discussions. Students develop the ability to express their ideas with clarity, logic, and confidence. And soon when it all dry, then I will add my coat. These interactive experiences not only enhance their ability to communicate effectively in academic settings, but also foster critical thinking and active listening skills. While verbal expression in the traditional classroom is
008essential, we also recognize the importance to refine speaking skills in all learning environments and social settings. Engaging in conversations outside of the classroom helps students grow confidence, improve articulation, organize thoughts, develop arguments, and communicate effectively. to change the world. Writing is integrated across all subjects. Writing allows students to strengthen their abilities to organize thoughts, develop arguments, and communicate effectively. Journaling, creative writing projects, and structured response activities help build fluency and confidence. The process of writing also improves a student's ability to recall information, make connections between different concepts, and synthesize information in new ways. In effect, writing isn't just a tool to access learning. It also promotes it. Okay, we're going to write a sentence. We're going to start with a capital letter. What are we going to start with? As far as engagement, CS Lewis
009highlights the boundless creative potential of writing. With words, one can conjure worlds, characters, and scenarios, bringing to life anything the imagination can conceive. Reading doesn't just prepare students for tests, and assignments. It also shapes how they think and interact with the world. When children read, they're not just decoding words. They're building cognitive skills that help them analyze, problem solve, and imagine new possibilities. We strive to create a literacy rich environment that fosters a love for reading. We incorporate guided reading sessions, independent reading time, and crosscurricular literacy initiatives to ensure students develop strong decoding and comprehension skills. As we all know, today a reader, tomorrow a leader. Mercury. Mercury has a solid or rocky surface. Mercury is the first planet closest to the sun. Mercury just needs 88 days to make one orbit around the sun.
010Venus. Venus is the second planet from the sun. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system. Venus was named after the goddess of love. Listening is the foundation of learning. It helps our students absorb information, follow instructions, and make connections. Whether they are grasping a new math concept, understanding a story, or collaborating with classmates, strong listening skills set them up for success. Beyond academics, listening builds confidence and engagement. It turns passive learners into active participants, fostering curiosity, critical thinking, and meaningful discussions. Without it, students may struggle to keep up, but with it they soar. By prioritizing listening, we empower our students to reach their full potential. We are excited to share the positive impact of our squirrel focused approach along with a more consistent focus on essential standards. Since implementing these strategies, we've seen
011measurable growth in student achievement. Assessments show higher literacy scores and students are more engaged in their learning. Even more importantly, our students are growing in confidence, expressing themselves more clearly both in speaking and writing by making learning interactive and enjoyable. They stay motivated and retain knowledge longer, setting them up for long-term success. After all, who wouldn't want their child's daily learning experiences to be as engaging and meaningful as possible? Hawthorne Elementary is committed to equipping our students with the communication skills necessary for success in school and beyond by embracing the power of speaking, writing, reading, and listening. We are shaping confident, articulate, and literate learning. Additionally, by making learning more fun and engaging, we are fostering a love for education that will benefit students for years to come. Thank you to Hawk Nation for all
012the efforts to make this vision a reality for our Hawks. All right, so those are my proud loved ones right there. And I I can't say enough about the work that they put forward. I'm trying to be clean. There it is. All right. So, we're going to celebrate a few things here. Like I said, when I move, you move just like that. On the right corner, we always want to start with our students and our staff. I think our staff has done a great job. Our counselor, Miss Freriedman, while that's the award you see, she's brought back several awards to our school. So, let's cheer for them. Yes. All right. As we know, um, I learn is not and I read or not to third and fourth grade test. They are K three and four
013tests. So, it takes everybody whether you teach 5 year olds or 10 year olds to make that happen. If you look at that data right there, we went from 26% to 35% from 20 pastors to 26 pastors. Let's go. All right. This is the bigger change I want you to see. 34% to 59% people. Let's go. 20 pastors to 53 pastors. Now, I don't know who adjusted how this works, but over the next uh couple weeks, our second and third graders will have another chance to pass. So, those numbers will go up. The ultimate goal for this year, I believe, is 82% for our board with the ultimate goal of being at 92%. I am so proud of not only Hawthorne, but Warren Township. You see us closing the gap on the state. So, let's
014give it up for Warren Township SH. Let's go. All right. So, as we move, this one's a little bit different. The goal is to be at 975%. We know that it doesn't matter how well we teach if the students aren't in our seats. So, if you look at the line on the bottom, that was two years ago, and the line above there is the line for this coming year. We moved from being in the 93% to 95%. people. Let's go. I circled this one as well because one of our lower days still beat the average of the previous year. That is the dedication of not only our counseling staff, our fantastic liaison who calls people to the point where the parents say, "Please don't let that lady call me no more. I'mma get them to
015school." So, it's working. But remember, we can't teach them if they aren't there. So, I'm proud of our parents and our staff for getting them there. Now, this one's a little bit different. This one talks about our chronically absent students. These are students who are consistently absent over time. We know that if days matters, hours matters, minutes matter. So the goal is to be less than 10%. The ultimate line is right there. This is like golf. A lower number is a good thing. At the top is where we were two years ago. That biggest number right there at the top is 21 is over 21%. That means that two out of every 10 kids was chronically absent. If they already struggle, that puts them behind even more. That's where gaps open up. We closed the
016gap by closing the attendance gap. So, let's give it up 11% people. Let's go. Now, we know after chronic absence, we move into truency. You hear a lot more about truency as they get older. But those habits start when they're young. I'm so proud of Hawthorne. We went from 12.6% to literally cutting that in half to 6.3%. People, let's go. All right. Now, here I know the numbers are small, so I'mma talk you through them. The bottom one is two years ago, our first full year fresh out of COVID. So, our numbers bottomed out somewhere in the 89%, but you see that year, the following year went up to 93. But this year, y'all, 95%. Let's go. And if we look at the number of students who are chronically absent, we went from 81 to
01751. We cut 30 kids out and we getting them to school. All right. So the rest of this I want to celebrate our family communication. I'll stay in the mic. I'm sorry. I want to celebrate our communication. So on the board here, our liaison and our counseling team has put up this parent board and parents can leave kind notes. And I'm so thankful that you can see the heart that the parents have for our staff. And I also want to give a shout out to our parents. We're stocking the lounge. So if you're seeing this online, feel free to send those things in for teacher appreciation week. I promise I'm putting the snacks somewhere else so I can't get to them before it starts. On the right side, these are posted or postcards. I believe
018this is a district-wide initiative where staff are writing postcards to students and then they're sending them out so that when the child opens the mailbox, there's a positive message there for them. So, let's give it up for positive communication. All right, the next one is homegrown. So there is someone with the last name Butler who attended Hawthorne as a student and that who came back to become a teacher and it's not me. This is Dana Butler. They have a program inside of Yeah, I got you with that one. Um there um they have a program wherein our IAS can go back to school and become teachers. She literally was with me the day I became I hired her two days before I became a principal. And I've seen this lady just give and give and
019give to our kids. So, she is now closing her first year as a uh as a teacher. So, I want to give it up to the board for sponsoring that program. So, let's give it up. I believe that people can love kids all over the place, but there's something about that homegrown cooking that makes it last a little bit longer. And I want to also give a shout out to this is one of our student teachers. We're we love her. She has been doing a great job. She is now finishing her second year. Her mentor is right back there. So, I want to thank her for recruiting and thank you for opening the door. Let's go. The next I want to celebrate the board and my awesome staff for living through almost two years of
020construction and we were playing whack-a-ole with rooms and moving things around. We dealt with water being shut off. We dealt with uh heaters going out and all different types of of madness. But it has been absolutely phenomenal. the board through your wisdom allowed every place in our building to be touched. So, let's celebrate Hawthorne. We got us basically a new school. I am so thankful to all the different um opportunities that are given through this. Our families are now able to come in in multiple places and do a lot more activities. The last one, this is the future hawk. Okay, I'm gonna say this. It says that the act of teaching is the ultimate um belief in optimism. They said that on Monday. So teachers are optimistic. So right now this little guy, he hasn't
021started at Hawthorne yet. He'll start at Hawthorne next year. She is already at Hawthorne. All right. Somebody is optimistic about this young man. Somebody's optimistic about this young lady. Then look at these folks. They have now went through Hawthorne and we're still optimistic about them. All right. Present, future. Okay, we keep moving. This young man, well, he's mine and he's he's on his he's on his way to Purdue with almost a full ride scholarship. So, who knows what may happen. You go to Purdue, you come back and become a teacher, and then you might ultimately come back and become the principal because it works. All [Music] right. So, I want to end with this by saying thank you. I want to say thank you to the board. I say thank you to superintendent. I want
022to say thank you to uh Dr. Anderson, Mr. Russell for supporting us in our classroom, for everyone in the teaching and learning team, operations, the whole nine. Nothing happens in that building without without you all. Uh it was said to me that some people work miles away from the building, but you matter too. So together we make it happen. All right. Our our belief at Hawthorne is together we can make a difference. So what I want to do is end with this. As the southern pastor would say, I'm getting ready to close. That right there is a picture. That little man in the middle, that's my son as a kindergartener at Hawthorne. All right. In 2012, that man to his right was my first teacher when I was uh a first grader at Hawthorne some
023so many years ago. All right. And then that is me my first day of teaching fourth grade. All right. What I'm saying is we walk these hallways at 8301 East Walls Avenue with optimism. Because of our optimism, hope springs eternal. Okay. So, here's what I'll say to this. I'm the proud principal of Hawth Elementary. As a father, I am thankful. As a parent, I am thankful. As a principal, I am thankful. As a community member, I am thankful. But forever, I am optimistic. You have a good night. [Music] Come on, let's take my cheerleaders. Good job. Good job. Well, next stuff keeping up with the optimism. We are going to go to our student council representative, Chanasia. That was uh that was a great presentation. Very cheery. I wish I would have brought some pom
024poms. I that was uh by far very very energetic and I loved it. Um but good evening, President Burke, Dr. Hansen, members of the board. Um so as we're nearing the end of the school year, many things are happening both club-wise and academically. So I mean like usual, I'm here to tell you all about it. Um, as Dr. Hansen touched on briefly, we uh this past Monday celebrated the top 30 students of our senior 2025 class. And from what I've seen, it was a wonderful night and it was lovely. It was beautiful and a great ceremony overall. Um, May 7th, we will have the tri senior recital and that will be taking place at the high school to honor the seniors and for them to earn their cords. Uh, which if you guys haven't seen
025them, they're really pretty. They're the pink cords and that's just for our uh triumph. So, our national music honor society essentially. Um, also happening in the pack will be the spring play, the 12 Angry Jurers, and that will be May 9th. And I'm pretty sure there's some other dates, but I only remember May 9th. Um, and then we'll also have the choir concert for all the vocal ensembles, so not just the advanced groups, but also our beginning groups as well. and that will be on May 15th. Um, recently we've opened the officer applications for student council, national honor society, and TRIAM. So, soon after the interviewing processes, um, we will have our elections and then we will end up having our 2025 2026 um, officers and they will be put in place. Um, prom, as
026we all know, uh, is happening this Saturday, and that will be from 6:30 to 11:00. And, uh, speaking of which, as you all may or may not have noticed, I am very dressed in very fun and spirited attire. Uh, as we're currently in the middle of our prom spirit week, and today was character day, so, here I am. Um, and then also, um, just a quick congratulations to our prom court candidates for making it into prom court. So, uh, Kayana Jackson, Amaya Patterson, and Rihanna Warren, they will all be our, uh, prom court for our queens that we can vote for. And then Harris Barker, Wilfred Fusing, Keith Jackson, and Carnell Jones will be our king candidates that we can vote for. Um, this past Friday, the AP art students were able to go on
027a field trip to Chicago, and I had the great honor of being able to tag along. And, um, I would say it was really fun, very educational, and I think overall it was a wonderful experience for both my peers and I. Um, also upcoming, the dreaded AP exams as usual. Uh, they will be happening in the beginning of May. Um, we'll also have senior signing day happening May 14th. uh senior spirit week in general will just be happening the week of the 12th and then our end of year banquet for the set a good example awards otherwise known as the sage awards and that'll be happening May 19th. Uh my hopes at our next meeting is that I will be able to introduce you all to my uh future president as well I guess um
028and who will be basically taking over for me as the future representative uh for our students. And hopefully I'll also be able to tell you all a little more about how prom went if I'm not having too much fun. And uh I'll also possibly be sharing a little more information about some things happening around the school. So thank you. Thank you so much, Miss Brown. Um next we're going to move on to the um mayor's neighborhood advocate, Jenny Males. There she is. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Jenny Manales and I am the mayor's neighborhood advocate for this area and I will be sharing some city and county updates with you guys. One of the first one is that Indie Parks is hiring still. Um, they're looking for pool managers, lifeguards, cashiers. They currently have
029a up to $500 sign on bonus that ends May 5th. So, if you know any young people or older people, any people that are looking for a summer um part-time seasonal job, check out your local parks for those position. You can go to parks.indy.go gov to um do that application. Some updates from IMPD. They are having their East District Community Day on Wednesday, July 9th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Brookside Park. This is an opportunity where different community resources come together. um the different specialty police units put on a show, the SWAT team, uh the horses, everybody's out and they have um free food. Just a great time if you want to um connect with different officers from East District and just have conversations with them. Um just finding ways to unite the
030community outside of when tragedies happen or when unfortunate situations occur. Again, that's July 9th, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Brookside Park. Last time I was here, I gave a quick lesson on potholes, how they form, and all of that. If you were here, you remember that. Well, just a little update for you guys. DPW crews have filled over 27,000 potholes using over 545 tons of asphalt. Now, if you've fallen in one, you might you might feel a certain way that the one you fell in was not closed, but they are working um extended 10-hour shifts multiple days a week to get those filled in. And what we need from everyone is for you to report those. The more they get reported, that's how that's the data that they use to um know where the
031potholes are to go fill them. You can do that using request indie. You can call 317327 MAC um and be able to fill out those that way. And then if you are someone that loves trails and greenways and things like that, if you feel like the area might be missing some or you have ideas on how we can improve, um DPW's greenery department is having a few public meetings. The closest one to here would be on Tuesday, May 6 at Frederick Douglas Park Family Center. That's 1616 East 25th Street from 5:30 to 8. You can go and share ideas about um our trailways. They are currently making plans for what the next few years of trails in Indianapolis looks like. So, this is a great time if you care about that and want to have
032an opinion to be able to go um and make suggestions and hear more. And then lastly, on April 25th, there's going to be a second chance expo that um is aimed at justice impact individuals. There's going to be resources, job opportunities, and things like that. That is April 25th at Martin University from 10:00 a.m. to 400 pm. And that is 2186 North Sherman Drive. So, if you know or you are someone that has been impacted by the justice system, this is a great opportunity to find what resources exist and that you can take advantage of. That is all I have for you guys this month. Any questions? Thank you so much for your time. And with that, we are going to go to board comments and we will start with Gloria. Hello everyone. I will
033be very brief. I am just so amazed at all the reports that have uh come forth and I was just so excited about the school presentation. You know, it makes me feel so good when I see great things happening here at Warren. So, I just wanted Oh, you know, I love cheering because you know, I'm always going woo. So, that made me feel good. And I will keep this pom pom. so I can cheer at every meeting, you know, because I believe that if we can cheer at the sports game, we need to cheer each other for our successes. So, um I just want everyone to uh enjoy the rest of the school year. Uh great things are still happening. Be safe. And Howard, just want to say uh it's great seeing everybody. Um we're
034we're uh we're approaching the the end end of the school year. As a matter of fact, what about 30 some days left in the school year, something like that. And uh things are starting to ramp up. All the assessment testings and those kinds of things are are going to be available for us to review how well we've done over the year. So I'm looking forward to that. Uh, I just wanted to say uh the Hawk Nation. I didn't I didn't know that Hawthorne was saying use that term but about themselves, but that's that's that's super. Yeah, Hawk Nation and uh all of the great uh communications uh and I read uh results. Uh very very very good. Ah, here we go. We got kids think saying things like uh meaningful communication. You know, where does
035that come out of a kid's mouth? You know, that means that the kids are really learning more. They're really forwarded, you know, they we doing some critical thinking now, some of that kind of stuff in the school. And uh we're talking elementary skills kids, you know, and uh they're just just rapid learners and are picking up on all of the all all of the those kinds of things. But uh that culture over there at Hawthorne, no no question about it. uh full of energy and uh I was really impressed. I was really impressed. So, uh the future looks bright and uh uh we're going to wrap up our school year here very soon. Julie, hello. So, I want to um tell you a little bit about robotics. I'm in that season. It's actually ended. Um,
036Indiana had 12 teams that were allowed to go to Worlds. Um, we were 11th in the state, but that doesn't necessarily mean you get to go. Um, we did not get to go because of the order they do it. Like for example, rookie of the year um gets to go to worlds. Um they are they were lower than us so they got to go um and couple of winners of the championship were lower and they got to go. It's fair because everybody gets an opportunity. The the younger kids who have never um been to something like that, their eyes are opened. But I want you to know Indiana is very competitive in this. So, um, of the 12 schools that went, three of them made it into the playoffs. Now, that doesn't sound like a
037big deal, but you got to understand there were 3,700 teams that went to compete. Um, and each, uh, division played off, had a playoff. So then the 64 best teams of those 3,700 played off and then the winners of each of those came together at the Einstein division and did the final playoff. We actually Indiana had three teams in the final eight alliances that were able to that's that's good. and one of the teams, one of the alliances that won had an Indiana team on it. So, congratulations to the Mavericks 4727 I mean 47 4272 um from uh Lafayette, Indiana. So, yay, but it's it's very competitive and you can tell that you you should go sometime. Um they don't cost anything to go to them. um they're throughout the state and um a lot
038of fun. So, and your kids will really enjoy it if they get involved in it. But I just wanted to let you know that. So, and I hope everybody had an amazing spring break and hang in there. We're on the last leg of it. Keep it going. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. Terry, good evening everyone. Um, great for the robotics. That's awesome. Always love Hawthorne. Um, it was nice to go back to their re um the reopening or the celebration of the new um renovations and the learning spaces and the opportunities that are going to grow for our children there. Um went to Atlanta for national school board meeting. Um a lot of us Howard was there, Gloria, Lana and Kevin. Um, one thing that amazed me, um, besides having the collaborative conversations with other
039school board members, learning what's their best practices, sharing your best practices, learning about federal laws and how they're going to impact us with the new presidential election stuff. Um, I was amazed to see students coming with their school board. Um we value our student voice and we thank you for your service. But um seeing young children go to conference and present on what they're doing in their school, how they um see the future and see things just inspiring and um we've had a lot of conversation. We've started conversation about maybe taking some of our students at some point. But it's honestly um a fabulous professional development for school boards. And then you get to meet different people and they're like, "Oh, how many kids do you have?" And we have 400. And I'm like, "400?"
040But um and then you tell them our numbers and they're just um baffled. So, um, appreciate the opportunity to have that professional development and I'm very glad to see all of you here and I hope that our teachers are celebrated next in May. Um, we celebrate our administrative assistants and everyone, but it takes a village to raise a child. So, thank you everyone in the village. Lanna, find my mic. Good evening everyone. Um, I hope you enjoyed your break as I did traveling. Um, Atlanta was great. Thank you for the district for affording us the opportunity to enhance our professional development and to be able to um, talk to other board members, see what they're doing and bring back to the district. And actually, we got to brag a lot on um what our district
041is already doing compared to others. So, thank you. We are only as strong as our district is. Um and I think that's it. I um continue working with MCRC, working with our families, um providing alternatives for those um scholars who may have some attendance um issues and knowing that we are a district that is not punitive in that measure, but have alternatives to be able to support. So, I do want to stress that if you have um any scholars or any of your friends that you may know may have some attendance um issues, please reach out to MCRC. There is support. We know there's a lot of barriers and reasons for attendance and we want to help you overcome those to be stronger. Teachers, enjoy your break. You're almost there. um enjoy your little touch
042of um summer vacation that you may get and I will turn it back over to our Oh, the gayla is Friday for Waith. If you have not already gotten your ticket, sorry, sold out. Good for us, but not good for you. But continue to support WA. Um we do a lot with um supporting the schools and the teachers with many grants that go a long way to help with supplies and materials. So um please look up on the W website and see what all we do. And we love for you to come out and support the golf outing. Yep. Is in June. So come out and see what you can do on the tea. Thank you, Kevin. Well, everyone has u pretty much touched on everything. Um, also I'd like to say it's great to
043continue to celebrate the success in our children and the pride that we do have in our community. But one thing I would like to um touch on number one with me being the the junior member of the board, my board is my much more seasoned than I am and talking with other board members in Indianapolis and with the opportunity to do conferences across the nation. It's a lot of things you take for granted that you don't know how well you have it. And believe me when I say we have a lot of great things going on in War Warren Township. A lot of people can try to tout the shiny flashy things, but the substance and the care and the the um nurturing and the people that's really involved at all levels, I mean top
044to bottom that are truly involved with the township, with the students, and with the school systems in general. It's it's pretty unique. It is really unique. A lot of school systems are a nine-to-five job. It's not a community of people that are invested the way Warren is. And I I don't think you know that until you reach those other people. And it it really is something special going on in here in Warren. And you know, even the people here, we can take it for granted because we think all school systems like that, but it's not. It's not. Believe me when I say it's not. So, that's one thing I think we really need to to understand. We really have something special going on here in Warren. Thank you. Um, as for myself, um, I've attended
045several track meets and I will say those runners, I mean, it is freezing cold or it is raining or it is really hot or it is somehow a combination of all of the above. Um, and they're out there doing their thing. Um, and it's just really, really impressive. Um, I want to shout out Raven Park for um going to state and how they did this [Applause] year. So, I could not attend, but you have to picture me one of the final four games is going on. I'm sitting in an airport and I'm holding my phone up to my ear listening to the awards ceremony. It was it was kind of wild. Um, but it was it was great and I'm so glad that they were able to do that. I also attended the top 30
046ceremony um which is just always absolutely wonderful every year. Um if you ever get the chance to go, you should. Um it will make you ball your eyes out. Um so I'm going to do a little story time that's going to tag on to what Julie said um about robotics worlds. Um one of the interesting things about worlds um this was the first year in several years I did not head ref the very end of the event. So, I got to sit in the stands and watch it. And we had teams from Indiana knocking out other teams from Indiana, which is kind of one of those sad things that happens like in order to get to the final one. Um, and it's interesting. So, we have cross town rivals. So, imagine we're playing against Bed
047Davis in a thing and they're both there and they both make it to worlds. And we have not necessarily cross town rivals, but those people you're still always going against. So, Lawrence, right? Um, are also there. And all of these computer team, all of these robotics teams are there and they're at finals and they're sitting together and they are cheering united for the team from Indiana that made it to the playoffs, like the final to best two out of three and they lost the first one, so they had to win the next two in a row. Um, and the thing that was just absolutely amazing is you could tell where the Indiana kids were in the crowd because every time they would get announced as you're waiting for scores, they are cheering. I mean, we
048had the teams from Mexico looking at us like we're crazy because we're not sitting. We're not wearing the appropriate gear for the team that's on the floor, right? They're just a team from Indiana. And even looking at the chat, because of course that means world of social media, right? So there's like four or five different chat things going around from coaches from Indiana and volunteers from the state of India and they're all like, "Oh, we are this close. We are this close." Right? And the excitement was just universal. So, it didn't matter that it was one team's cross town rival that was about to win or another team's school that they're it didn't matter that that team just knocked you out. As a state, we were able to come together and cheer and everyone burst
049into tears and was jumping up and down when the confetti w fell and an Indiana team had won. And what is important about this, especially this time of year, is the remembrance that as much as what goes on downtown this time of year tries to segregate schools. So, you're a charter school, you're a private school, you're a traditional public school, and we're going to divide up the funding this way, and we are going to make winners and losers out of everything, and we are going to try really hard to pit you against each other. In the end, what is important is educating all students in the state of Indiana. And what is important is being there for all students in the state of Indiana, which is the thing we do well. And it's the thing
050Hoosiers do well. I mean, we were there. We were united. And just to keep that in mind as we discuss things like property taxes and how this cut of the funding is going to go and everything else, in the end, what has to be important is educating all students and caring for all students. And if we can keep that as the goal, and if we can keep reminding our elected officials that in the end, that has to be the end goal that we care about, then we can come together and do great things. And I will step off my soap box, but I'm going to thank Julie for setting that one up for me. And with that, we're going to go to board correspondents. And I know we have some Kevin. Yes, we do. We
051have one. Uh, this came in via email and the email states that uh, my name is Chester Chester Joy and I have been a licensed tour guide in Washington DC for 16 years and over that time I've conducted more than 1,200 tours during that period. Well, his letter goes on to state that he has never written an email of this type before, but he was moved to do so because the three days he spent with the Rangers of Raymond Park, he was adamant about that and the uh way that they conduct conducted themselves. He said, "Over these years, I cannot recall a group of students behavior, attentiveness, attentiveness, curiosity, and kind treatment towards supervision, guidance, the inspiration models of their chaperones and each other." And he goes on to continue to comment how it is
052unbelievable that they had these these the the behavior, the maturity of all the um of all the children he had. And he's so impressed that he has never seen anything like that before. and he said it must be the outstanding leadership of those Raymond Park Rangers and the focus and the politeness and engagement that came through through these students that he has seen. It was so impressive. And he said he wished every group of of students that came to Washington DC could exhibit the same approachment and demeanor. And he just wanted to share these words of great appreciation that all his 16 years he was so impressed with the students of Raymond Park. And he goes on to say, "There's often criticism of young adults and young people in America, but these students from Raymond
053Park this week renewed his faith and um belief in the future of our students is in good hands." And he was so honored to have uh our students there. And he was so touched that he wrote this letter. [Applause] Well, thank you, Kevin. Um, do we have any blue cards? No, we No, we do not. Excellent. You know what? So, it's really good when we can continue to get good So we all should be chatting. With that, we are going to move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of the approval of minutes, financial report, payroll claims, financial report claim register and electronic payments, year-to- date summary of fund balances, the HR report, field trip quests, um, field trip requests, um, permission to accept grips and grants, change orders, contracts, use of school
054property. Do we have a motion to accept the consent agenda? So moved. Thank you, Julie. Do we have a second? I second. Thank you, Gloria. Is there any discussion hearing? And seeing none, we will go to a vote. And the con consent agenda, easy for me to say, passes. And with that, we are going to go to Matt Park. We're going to go to Matt. Um, this is slightly off the agenda, but still not quite for a specific legislative report on SB1. Uh, good evening, President Burke, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, community, Hawthorne family. You all did an excellent job tonight. Lovely energy. U, I don't normally speak during the legislative portion of it. Uh we're we're living in a really unique moment as it pertains to to the world that many of us
055operate in, all of our students learn in, and that's um school funding. This legislative session has had a unique focus on financial matters that are going to impact our students. Uh and one of them is Senate and Ruled Act One. So Senate Enrolled Act One has passed. It's been signed. It's it's the law at this point. Uh it's complicated. It's it's a bill of of several hundred pages. Um the the genesis of it or the idea behind it is property tax relief. And to balance what I'm going to say, it did provide property tax relief. That's um that's what was achieved. But property taxes fund uh local governments and school districts. And this creates a new moment for us in terms of how we operate and and some of the decisions that we're going to
056have to make. So just to summarize some of the pieces of Senate Enrolled Act One, it's very technical bill. Um, it most immediately provides um a property tax credit for um for homeowners for up for 10% of your bill up to $300. Uh it changes homeowner deductions. It introduces new deductions for rental properties and agricultural property properties capped at at 2%. Um importantly for MSD Warren Township, importantly for school districts like us around the state, charter school sharing um is the new reality. um that's that's sharing property tax dollars that would have traditionally gone to the local public school system um will be shared to a greater extent with charter schools moving forward. We're already doing a degree of that here in 2025. We estimate a little over $100,000. Um it really ramps up in
0572028 and becomes fully implemented in 2031. Um a lot of controls in place about about debt service. um all local governments, all all school districts at least, um fund our building construction projects through debt. That's the only mechanism that we have. Uh and there's new controls in place and there's a there's a pretty good chance it's going to have an impact on the type of construction projects we can take on in the years ahead. Counterintuitively, the bill is likely to increase property tax rates. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean it increases property tax bills um for homeowners especially, but it's likely to increase property tax rates over the next handful of years. Um, we're still early on understanding the impact. Most likely that's going to mean an increase in circuit breaker, a property tax cap credits,
058um, which is going to provide revenue pressure for school districts like us, local governments across the state. Business personal property is entering a new era, um, where we're personal property put into place in 2025 and beyond is exempt and there's some changes for personal property already in place. the the summary of all these pieces, the collection of all this is um our operations fund, our operating referendum fund, our debt service fund are going to be meaningfully impacted by what passed in Senate and rolled act one. Now, here's what I will say. Um school board, and we've covered this in many uh board meetings over the last few months, over the last year or two, we're strong financially. We're strong in many ways. Strong academically, um we're strong in terms of our culture. We're in a
059strong place financially. Um, so we're going to be okay. Um, what I'll tell you is that we're resilient as a school district. We're resilient as a community. Um, we have a culture under the school board's leadership of proactively addressing the challenges that are in front of us. And again, we start from a strong place uh because of a lot of disciplined decisions that that board under your leadership we've made um in recent years. We're in a strong place financially. Um, but it's going to be a new challenge. Um, Senate Enrolled Act One is going to create a new challenge for school districts around the state and for our school district as well. I'd be happy to answer any questions or certainly in the weeks and months ahead as as we digest this and more comes
060out. Um, we'll we'll certainly be working together. I just wanted to say yes, we're in a good place because we have a great person like you that's helping us by watching it and and taking care of the finances. So, you know, without you being in place and making sure everything is okay, you know, things might not be as good. So, I think we need to cheer for you too. Everybody, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you everyone. Okay. And then we're going to veer back onto the agenda with the rest of the legislative update with Julie. And I'm going to keep my part short tonight because I think we want to do wait until after the complete season is over and give a good final update on everything in May. But I do want to
061say that um House Bill 1001, the budget bill, um was moving right along. Um not necessarily greatly, but um it was moving along. And then um the April forecast came and it seems we're going to be uh about $2.4 billion uh less than what they were planning on that budget. So now the uh legislature is working hard trying to figure out what they have to cut and they're hoping not to cut education, but education is a big part of the budget. So, let's keep our fingers crossed that they can come up with other ways to get around that. Um, but we'll tell you more on that later. Um, and then Senate Bill, I'm going to talk about this one. Senate Bill 287, which is the school board um um partisan bill that's out there. Um,
062it's been on the calendar for a couple of days now and uh they just keep passing it. Um they adjourned today and have done nothing with it. They are meeting again tomorrow and I just checked a few minutes ago. They do not have their calendar up yet for what bills um will be um talked about. So um I'm watching that close closely to see. But it's important to understand that um we should not be partisan. We should be here in what is in the best interest of our children. Um there shouldn't be any um Democrat Republican stuff. It's all about the kids. It's all about taking the uh bills that they pass into law and us making it fit and work for us and and following that law and doing what's best for our kids.
063Uh we don't have time to play politics because we're um doing that constantly taking care of our kids. So, and I want to reiterate one thing Matt talked about towards the end there. Um, our district district is very resilient. So, even though there's a 2.4 billion shortfall, um, he's right. We're going to be okay. We're going to be strong. We are tough. Um, how many times has a um, Warren football team or basketball team um, pulled it out in the last minute? Um, we we work together. We are a great community, familyoriented community, um, that truly cares about each other. And when you have that, you can do just about anything and we will we'll work around it. Just know we will make it work and and everything will be okay. So, thank you, Julie.
064And with that, we are going to go to yellow cards, of which I know we have several. Um, yes, we do. We have seven. Okay. Excellent. Um, I will actually just do the blanket reminder now for everyone. Um, so yellow cards are for comments for items not on the agenda and comments will be limited to three minutes. Um, so there will be a timer. Yes, I'm getting the nod on the screen. Um, and so you will know and then when your three minutes is up, if you could wrap up your sentence. We're not going to mute your mic, but if you could wrap up your sentence and get your thought done so that we can move on. Okay, with that, may we have Miss Carrie Sheper first. Okay. Bear with me. This is my daughter,
065Ava. Yep, it is on. Okay. Um, good evening members of the board. My name is Carrie Shepard and I am as um here as a concerned parent regarding the proposed change to reduce middle school electives beginning next school year. Under the new model, students would be would have to choose between valuable courses like foreign language, choir, orchestra, band, art, and even STEM. Many of which the foundational which are the foundational for high school success for students in acceleration reading program. The choice becomes even more limited. It's either the support class or no elective at all. While I understand that the guardian and the child will have the ability to make the decision to keep the student in reading acceleration program or remove them and enter them into an elective class such as music, art, or
066any other elective at this time. This isn't ideal. Statistics show that music alone can help improve education, specifically reading and math scores. Let's continue to offer both. While I understand and appreciate the intent behind adding AVID to support high ability students with study skills, my concern is that making it an elective course could unintentionally push out performing arts by making it an eitheror. These programs aren't just fun classes. They develop discipline, collaboration, creativity, and confidence. I've seen the benefits firsthand and how it can do all of the above. My two oldest children, who were part of the high ability program in middle school and continue to take AP and DC classes and remain at the top of their class, had the opportunity to take performing arts classes in middle school alongside foreign language and other
067electives. Those experiences helped shape their academic and performing arts paths and prepared them for more advanced opportunities in high school, including continued involvement in band and orchestra and even higher level language courses. I personally watched my middle child blossom into the young man he is today. He always has been an academically gifted student. But while being highly high ability, he struggled to find his place with his peers. Without going into too much personal detail, I can tell you that Mr. Gay at Raymond Park Middle School is a huge reason my son is out of his shell. You see, in fifth grade, he picked up an upright base while making the decision or by trying to decide on which elective to take in the future. And that very moment, as he plucked the string of that
068upright base, he knew that that was the instrument for him. And Mr. Gay supported him every step of the way. He also had had due to that, he'd also had the privilege of playing with the Metropolitan UK orchestra as a first base chair. And I can without a doubt tell you that had middle school orchestra as an additional elective not been an option. He wouldn't ha he would without a doubt not been part of my or better yet he wouldn't have had the camaraderie of his peers that he has now as a part of the high school orchestra and the gold brigade marching band. his brother, who is a junior and also a two-time state back-to-back champion, uh, with the gold beret, gold brigade, uh, plans to go to college and minor in music. Who
069knows, by this time next year, he may decide that would be his major. My point is, none of this would be possible for getting them involved if it wasn't for getting them involved and intrigued at the middle school ages that they were. They are so set on their academics. Am I done? I'm sorry. Okay. Sorry. [Applause] Trish Shahila shows and I apologize. We're trying to fix the clock issue as quickly as we can. My countdown clock. So, I'm Trisha Hyo, proud parent of a 10th grade student, third uh third year gold brigade, second year wind, and first time uh board board attendee, and an enthusiastic supporter of music. Um, I attribute much of my success in life to a band director who saw more in me than I saw in myself. and I'm uh enthusiastic
070about making sure that all the students have access to the things that I that I did on an unbelievable level here at Warren. Um I see the environment and the directors at Warren having the same positive impact on my daughter's growth and I want that to continue for her for my seventh grade son who will be coming into the program and for as many children as possible in the future. Um I'd like to speak to you about two topics uh both related to the music program. You're going to hear a lot um from the parents in this room about obviously the middle school changes and obviously I'm very passionate about knowing that musically if students don't start early they don't grow that over time they do not gain the access and the skills to those
071what what I call fringe benefits beyond just learning an instrument. There's so many of the things that come along with it. Um but not growing that and not giving people the opportunity early will stagnate the program and all of the things that have been built over time um will will go away uh and the amazing level of achievement that the program has. Um I'm going to let them talk more about that, but I'm going to talk a little bit more about second issue. Um our students are competing on an elite level um and deserve an unwavering support from the district. We are certainly aware of and appreciate dollars allocated towards the program. However, when it comes to transportation issues, a few areas fell short in the past two years I want to make you aware
072of, talk to the group about um two items specifically come to mind. Um the last two years after being crowned state champions, [Music] um the group is invited to an award ceremony to celebrate their achievement and the ability to go to that performance has been in jeopardy for two years because we didn't have transportation or had limitations around transportation which our directors were able to solve. But I don't think that that's something that our students should have to worry about um in achieving such a level of achievement. Secondly, uh recently our Winter Guard uh percussion and winds ensembles qualified to perform at a national competition uh in Ohio and Kentucky over the last couple weeks. Uh due to district restrictions on access to buses for out of state travel. Um there were issues with trying
073to figure out travel until the end. Our directors actually had to get certified to drive buses. Um, our directors are amazing and they are highly dedicated to our students and they went through and did what they had to do to do that. Um, but I ask how much sense it makes for a director to spend a whole day um at school all day, direct a practice in an evening, get on a bus and drive two hours to Dayton, have a competition, and drive back. Um, I just want for you to take a take a look at that one and make sure our students have the support that they need. Um you're gonna hear a lot of details from the group on sorry um accolades and skills. I want to just put I put a quick
074reference. Thank you Trisha. [Applause] And we have Mr. Ted Franklin. Good evening, board superintendent. Um, I'm going to be a lot less structured than both of them. Um, they did homework. I did not. So, building on on everything they've said, it's in the last several years, we've taken steps forward with performing arts and this the the curriculum changed to eighth grade. There's so many tears to this that I won't cram in two minutes and 45 seconds remaining. But starting at the beginning with moving the PCC class down from freshman year to the eighth grade year. The I have four kids that have gone through the district. My fourth is going to be a senior next year. My granddaughter is just started the Liberty Park. So I'm still vested in this. Um 10 years in the
075marching. This will be my 10th year coming up in the marching band. Um percussion guard marching band. We we took strides like I found out was five years ago. We added sixth grade to the opportunity to have the elective to pick performing arts in in the middle school which has helped build our program back into a state champion backto back two times in my tenure now um with the opportunity for them to get sixth, seventh and eighth grade in. So and in seventh and eighth grade they're contributing to the marching band and then color guard etc. they had this opportunity to do these things and now we're taking a step back by eliminating the opportunity in many many cases ESL students the kids who have different learning plans not being able to actually have these
076electives in front of them many of them are in marching band many more so adding the the extra blocks for uh language or English and math uh I think the math was in the top 30 10 students are in performing arts orchestra band um choir um 10 of them were marching band kids. So the the academics, the kids are smart. They have to have the math. They have to have the the I can't site read music. And my kids learned how to do that, you know, from seventh grade on up in in amazing fashion. So we're taking away opportunities that they have in this and then addressing that PCC class as a whole, talking to my junior and then my recent graduates that are still in the house. That class by itself maybe needs to
077be evaluated before it's pushed down to the middle school where the kids aren't they're not even ready to decide what they're having for lunch today, much less the stuff that comes up that would come up in that class. But the best example, my junior, she said what she retained from that class was the ability to she was able to um figure out how to build a footer in her email with her signature and her the school she was writing from. That's what she took from that entire class. My recent graduate um said she got to play Sims a lot in that class. She took nothing from it. So, it's a study hall for them more than anything else. I don't think the middle schoolers need another study hall or a class that has no enforced
078curriculum upon it where they actually learn something to prepare for college and careers. It seems just to push it down like that just seems kind of a waste. um it's not a it's not a class that's worth anything to the kids and pushing it down to the eighth grade kids where they're, you know, trying to build things to get into the high school, much less decide what they're going to do in high school just seemed it seems a little over the top for what they need. So, I mean, give them the choices they need, all of the choices, and not just forcing upon them the one they're allowed to pick a language or other. That was well timed. Well, thank you, Ted. Maria Gouty. Okay, you'll have to bear with me. It's been a while
079since I've um had to do any public speaking. I was actually on the central speech team and graduated to 2006. So, and I actually reached out to Coach Black um to help me with some of this information because I just couldn't figure out how to put this all into words. So, having said that, Warren Central Performing Arts is the crown jewel of the school district. There's a story about the world champion boxer named Jake Lamada. Robert Dairo played him in the famous movie The Raging Bull. In the film, Lamada is strapped for cash and he takes his world championship belt and a pair of pliers and he begins to pluck these jewels from the belt to sell. He brings those loose jewels to a jewelry store and explains that they came from the world championship
080belt. The jeweler tells Lamada that all the jewels are virtually worthless without the belt itself. While I understand budget cuts and making up a deficit, I feel as though Bourne Township is trying to pluck the crown jewels from its own championship belt, just like Lamada did, rendering it virtually worthless once all is said and done. My two daughters have found love and passion through the music department at Warren and through Stony Brook. Next year, my youngest daughter will not be given the same opportunities as my oldest daughter, who was a part of the Warren Central Marching Band Championship team. next year. She will not be given the same choices. And they are not alone. Many of these students rely on these programs to discover who they are and where they belong. When we strip the
081arts and music from the schools, we don't just cut funding, we cut futures. So, please don't trade away the crown jewels of our children's potential. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Maria. And on a personal note, it's good to see you again. Kevin, Chris Walthers. Hello. I'm Chris Walthers. Um, I don't have anything planned uh organized to say. What I wanted to share with you is what I heard discussed this evening um about the robotics championship and my daughter did the robotics championship and we went to Lucasall Stadium and we celebrated it was like three days before they closed everything down for co remember well my same daughters have performed four times six times on that field in band and color guard to the point that now it's like, "Oh, we're going to Lucas Oil again."
082And you talked about the confetti flying and how everybody was so proud and everybody was cheering. I just came back from Dayton at the World Championships. Our Warren Central World Guard was seventh in the world. That's profound. [Applause] and been there four times now because my daughter started in sixth grade in the world championship team. And that experience, the confetti flying on the floor, everybody, 14,000 people cheering and screaming for all these performers. You can't match that. Warren is so awesome. I talk it up everywhere I go. I'm so proud of the school. I want you guys to be proud of our performing arts teams because they are doing unbelievable successful things out in the world. We go all over. People are so excited to meet us. We were just in Dayton. We were the
083star of the uh of the world class show. We got the most applause. Warren Central High School. I was so proud. I want that to continue here. We need to keep building. My daughter started in Prelude in fifth grade, went to cadet, went right to worlds. Prelude started it all. It's no different than band or any other music organization. We need this. We need to have this access especially for those who are in marginalized uh communities. They need to have this because it builds their team. They or they're a part of a team. It builds their confidence and we can't take that away from them. We have to have that for them. So please consider that. Thank you Kim Wther. Thank you Chris. Kim Worth. Good evening. Uh, thank you Dr. Hansen and the board.
084Uh, Chris gave away some of my speech, but that's okay. Uh, my name is Kim Walthers. My family and I have lived in Mor Township for 20 years. We currently have two daughters at the high school, 11th and 9th grade. My husband and I have been very involved in their education experience from field trip chaperones, classroom assistants, PTA boards at every school. They've gone through council PTAs, sunny day fundraisers, and the multiple multiple trips, feedings, assisting with extracurriculars. We've been there since day one. I'm here before you this evening to speak about the upcoming eighth grade changes to the schedules that I've been recently made aware of. I believe restricting the number of electives for all eighth grade students will be detrimental not only to those students but also to the phenomenal performing arts program
085in this district. One thing that has always impressed me about this township is its ability to find and foster talent at such a young age. Whether it's sports, music, art, whatever, the directors and coaches are always on the lookout starting in earnest at the middle school level. My 11th grader has been involved in music and performing arts with the Gold Brigade Marching Band and Winter Indoor Percussion since her freshman year. A close friend talked her into joining marching band at the end of 8th grade and she hasn't looked back since. My ninth grader has been involved with world guard or with color guard since fifth grade and received an invoca invitation to perform with the color guard in sixth grade with every intent to continue this throughout high school. This will make her one of
086the program's longest running world guard students in its history. She has also been a part of the gold brigade marching band. As busy as the two of them keep us, it's nice to have them in the same place at the same time for almost half the year. Because of the success of these programs, both of our children hold not one but two state championship rings along with several medals to show for their accomplishments. If you couldn't tell, I work at Eskenazi Hospital where I will celebrate 27 proud years of employment and service to this city. Many will speak tonight about the benefits of the arts, especially at the middle school level where social and emotional development are crucial. I'd like to take a moment to highlight some of the measurable benefits that we see in
087our music therapy department at the hospital. It's been shown in countless studies that music is known to reduce stress and anxiety, help with mood regulation, help process trauma, grief, and other challenging emotions, improve confidence and self-esteem. It also helps with pain management, the reduction reduction of muscle tension, helps with memory and recall and attention and focus. all all attributes that 12 and 13 year olds would find beneficial. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. And Yavon Holland. Good evening. My name is Yavon Hollands and I am the proud parent of a member of the Gold Brigade and other various War Performing Arts groups and a graduating senior at Warren Central High School. Research has shown that including music and performing arts programs in education leads to numerous benefits which include improved academic performances, enhanced cognitive skills, teamwork,
088time management skills, positive social emotional learning, positive character development, and enhanced problem solving skills. Many of these skills are exactly what colleges and employers seek in potential candidates. Yet, the current proposed changes to the middle school scheduling severely limits students access to music and performing arts programs in Warren Township. Currently, Warren Township Schools sit in the 99th percentile of all music programs in the country, has been a national best communities for music education recipient for the last 10 consecutive years, and has won 15 state championships since 2015. All of these accolades, I might add, have been accomplished without sponsorships from major companies or corporations that other school districts have been afforded. However, by restricting or significantly limiting access to music, performing arts or other electives at the middle school level may simply eradicate these distinctions
089as early as 2026 27 school year. We have to invest in the whole child and offer students opportunities to explore all of their options at a young age and not put them on a limited career path in the eighth grade by reducing their access to music, performing arts, and other electives. I stand before you this evening with my graduating senior son who is a two-time championship winner with the Gold Brigade and who has earned a $10,000 school scholarship to college based on his talents and skills that he has developed while participating in music and performing arts programs of Warren Township since 7th grade. not just his academics as my son is more than just excuse me a standardized test score. Without access to music and performing arts, my son would have had a very difficult
090time in finding success outside of these test scores that we measure um as a student success. While the state tells us what we must do, we have the option of how we must do it. So, I'm asking you to reconsider how you are looking at scheduling for middle school students and their access to music, performing arts programs, and other electives. The current plan has equity issues which restrict access to significant numbers of students. Thank you so much, [Applause] Kevin. That's it. That is all. That's it. Okay. Um I want to thank everyone for their comments tonight. Um I know that I'm gonna point out Ryan Reynolds um is going to be reaching out to everybody. Sorry. Um and obviously we are also available via email, but we appreciate your input. Thank you. And with that,
091because it's always and with that, we are going to move on to action items. And speaking of Ryan Russell, President Burke, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, uh tonight I bring for I bring forward to you an action item. formally it's named 1003 flexibility waiver. Uh I'll I'll remind you this is not a new conversation. Um this is specific related to the school start time changes that you guys approved last year or last month I'm sorry. Um and then also related to uh the school calendar that you had previously approved um last semester for the following year. Uh this aligns with uh two specific uh board and strategic plan focus areas. Invest in academic excellence and student achievement and invest in our people. So, I referenced the school calendar because there's a real tiny arrow
092here or it's tinier on my screen, but um I'm really referencing the waiver that we are requesting with the state board of education uh specifically for this day that you already approved which be which would be for January 5th, 2026. So again, this calendar's already been approved. We had brought forward to you the inclusion of another professional day for teachers um on the immediate Monday following winter break. Um as you know back in September you approved a policy for us to report our calendar to the DOE by instructional minutes and not instructional days. So, I'm going to walk you through just uh you've seen a similar slide in a few previous presentations, but I just want to walk through the numbers and um address uh add any clarity to any of these components. Indiana code
093requires if we report by instructional minutes for students in grades 1 through six to have uh a minimum of 54,000 minutes and students in grades 7 through 12 to have a minimum of 64,800 minutes. These student start and end times uh are reflective of the student start and end times that you guys approved last month. Um the way we calculate instructional minutes, you have to subtract lunch and recess from the instructional minutes. So, uh six and 3/4 hours for every student regardless whether they're K or kindergarten through 12th grade. Uh the K4 schedule because of our model of K4 elementary schools. we subtract that lunch and recess minutes. So you get those actual instructional minutes that are calculated per each day we're in school. Now regular school days uh for as long as time has
094been measured or school days have been measured, we typically talk about 180 instructional days. Bear with me. On the calendar that you approved, we have 176 regular school days. three days are still dedicated to what we refer to as asynchronous e-learning days. The state board of ed uh permits those days to have a maximum of three of those and they can only be calculated at 300 minutes per day. So if you take the math of five and 3/4 hours from the K4 example, 176 days plus the 900 minutes where you add the e-learning days, that equates to 179 days or um 61,620. If we would add an additional or if we would go to school on that January 5th date or sixth date, um that adds the the total would be 61,965. So, you're really
095talking about we're asking to wave 375 minutes in the scheme of 61,620 minutes for the sake of providing additional professional time for teachers to work on professional development and take care of uh significant task with that. The state requires the board to adopt a resolution in support of the waiver which is what the action item is for tonight. The waiver submitted has the information that I'm showing to you on this screen. What our times are, what our instructional minutes are, what they would be with the waiver, what they would be without the waiver, which is why I provided this information for you tonight. Um, additionally, so we are asking for them to wave 375 minutes, which is equivalent for us to one instructional day for the purpose of professional development. Again, I know I'm being
096repetitive. Um but uh you approved that policy for us to be able to even submit this waiver last September and um we updated the calendar with the school start start time changes last month after that presentation. So with that I'm happy to answer any question. Again the action is for you guys to adopt the resolution which we would have you guys sign tonight so we can submit that waiver um to the Department of Education uh which is due soon. Happy to answer any questions. Do I have a motion to adopt the resolution? So moved. Um, do I have a second? I'll second. So the motion was moved by Julie and seconded by Terry. Is there any discussion? I just really want to point out that we are way above the state instructional minutes requirement. Um,
097which I think that's important for families to know. Um, even with the waiver and cutting out 300 hours or whatever. Um, just knowing that we are well above what the state requires us to do. 375 minutes, not hours. I'm sorry. We're not going to cut out 300 hours, Terry. And it's I'm sorry. It's been a long day. But, um, just the idea of just knowing we're above the state average is very important to me and it's a tremendous support for our staff, teachers and staff as well. Hearing and seeing no other discussion, we'll go to a vote. While we're waiting on the computer, I just want to say I think this is good uh for our teachers because, you know, we look out for our students, but we have to also take a look at
098our caretakers. And so this will allow them to collaborate together to try to uh come up with um additional things that they can do to help the students, you know, because I believe working together works. And so I think this is a great idea to give our teachers an additional time to try to do what they need to do for the students. Okay, that doesn't seem to be coming up. Thank you, Gloria. Sorry, I'm trying to pay attention. We can take a voice voice vote and it does not need to be called because everyone is here present in the room. Oh, never mind. I I say that just to give us enough time so that the vote can pop up. So, if you could vote online instead. I apologize. It just needed a little bit
099of time. And the motion passes unanimously. And we have your signed resolution for you. And with that, lots of fun federal grant money discussions with Matt. Good evening again, everybody. Um, we have seven policies that we're going to ask the board to adopt this evening. Um, these are the same seven policies that um, we discussed in some depth at the um, at the March school board meeting. So board, I I'll offer just a quick summary as a reminder on what um each of these uh policies are and the changes we're making and then of course I'd be happy to answer any questions anybody has. Um the first policy for consideration tonight is policy 6110 grant funds. Um a variety of wording updates in this policy revision um including language specifying that um federal funds may
100not be used for construction, renovation, or repairs except for authorized under federal law. Um we also have a new section indicating that um any uh federal grants in excess of $1 million are subject to an audit. We do that today through the state board of accounts. Um it formalizes that in schoolboard policy. That's policy 6110. President Burke, would you like me to go through all seven or stop individually? I think considering that they are all basically federal procurement policies, we're going to go through them all and if we have any questions then we'll take those out separately. Sounds good. Um the next policy for consideration is a new one. It's one of two new ones, policy 611. Um the the policy title is internal control standards and procedures um for accounting school district or otherwise
101um internal controls are are fundamental to what we do and one of the core things that auditors look for. Um so a few things just to highlight key provisions in the new internal controls policy. Um internal control should provide reasonable assurance of the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, reliability of reporting and compliance with laws and regulations. Um safeguarding against loss, damage, theft, fraud. Um we have a provision specifying consistent with state law that losses must be reported um to the state board of account and the county prosecutor at a threshold of $1,000. Be happy to answer any questions on new policy 611. Okay. Um, the other new policy for this evening is policy 6112. Again, we discussed it last month. Um, this policy speaks to the way that school districts, including MSD Warren now, must
102request reimbursement for federal grant funds. This policy also has a provision that today won't apply to anything we do, but perhaps someday could. Um, speaking to cash advance, cash advances on federal grant funds. All of our federal grant funds are are reimbursement based as opposed to advance-based, but we have the language in there if we ever are in that position. The fourth policy for this evening is policy 6114, cost principles. Again, a lot of clarifying language, um, wording revisions. Um, among the most important principles is is the prudent person principle. And so the idea is that when we spend money as a school district, it must be consistent with what a prudent person would do if they were spending uh money in another context. Um definitions around cost for federal grant purposes. A cost must
103be both reasonable and necessary to be valid under a federal grant award. The policy also speaks to direct costs and indirect costs um for grant funds. The next policy for this evening is policy 6250. Um 6250 is the revisions are entirely technical. Um it's wording revisions for ADM. That's average daily membership. That's the the semiannual count of students who attend um school districts and the basis for our state funding. Um specific wording around fall ADM as opposed to September, spring ADM as opposed to February. Uh the sixth policy for this evening is policy 6325 which is one of our primary um purchasing policies. Um board you'll recall that within the last handful of months well probably around a year ago we made revisions consistent with state law that dealt with the bid threshold for um
104for local dollars. Um the quote threshold for things spent with local dollars, that's property taxes, um but also state funding, is $50,000. Bids kick in at $300,000. Federal law or federal regulation was amended in the fall that allows us to move the quote threshold from the current 10,000 to 50,000 and then to set a $250,000 simplified acquisition um threshold. The the main benefit of this policy revision is better alignment with the ways that we can use um local and state tax money and the ways that we can use federal tax money. Uh it'll make us more efficient in our operations. Finally, policy 6550 has comparatively minor revisions pertaining to travel payments and reimbursements. Um there's new language specifying that travel costs may include transportation, lodging, uh and related items incurred by employees or travel status.
105And then clarification in the policy that commercial airfare costs in excess of the basic least expensive class of travel is considered unallowable. Board, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Say that last part again. Please explain that one again. Sure. So, so the the wording in it is that commercial airfare costs in excess of the basic least expensive class of travel is unallowable. So really what this is getting at is that um the school district can't pay for um first class travel for instance or if it's cost-effective to fly directly from destination A to destination B um we're not going to pay for you know a longer route that also happens to cost more in practice. The way this plays out we do periodically have people that they want to take an extra piece of
106luggage they choose to upgrade their airfare. What we end up doing is reimbursing folks at that basic reimburse that basic amount and then we'll work with people that that have a unique need or or interest to to have them cover the additional cost. Okay. Can I have a motion to accept the policies as presented? I'll make the motion. I'll second. Terry making the motion and Julie seconding. Is there any further discussion? Know where that came from. Hearing and seeing none, we'll go to the vote which just popped up all friendly like and the motion carried. unanimously. Thank you. And now discussion items. Everyone's favorite graduation requirements. Good evening, President Burke, Dr. Hansen. Uh tonight for discussion, uh and I want to clarify this is graduation requirements, but it is nothing to do with the graduation
107requirements that we had talked about previously. If that's not confusing enough, we're specifically talking about students in the class of 20 um sorry 2028, 2027, 2026, and 2025 currently for that. As you know, we presented uh I'm getting my months mixed up mixed up. I apologize, but a few months ago about the new Indiana high school diploma and the changes. Well, those changes are valid for the class of 2029, which are current eighth graders or or incoming freshmen for next school year. That being said, there is some uh what I would refer to as some policy cleanup that we need to do under the current graduation requirements, which these things are already in practice, but they're not in policy. Uh so, I'm going to give you a few highlights of those, and I'd be happy
108to answer any questions. Um, so it does require the completion of a graduation plan um for students um for them to identify their pathway, identify if they're going for something like an academic honors diploma or something like that. Um it requires the communication and the existence of FASA to all 12th graders, which we do, but uh that wasn't in current policy. And then it adds some clarity language about students specifically with disabilities um in practice. um actually in um statute already, no more than 1% of a corporation's cohort can be warded awarded the alternate diploma. So those are students with our most severe disabilities. That um 1% of the corporation's total cohort gets capped for graduation rate purposes. If we exceed that, we still award those students the alternative diploma. That being said, they don't
109necessarily count as graduates for the sake of federal and state reporting is all that list. Um, and then it uh states in policy that we are not required to add additional graduation requirements for students uh of disabilities. Um, an example of that is the core 40 diplomas based on 40 credits. We've always had a 42 credit graduation uh requirement here in Morren Township. If a student earns 40 credits as a student with disability, we would not be able to deny them a diploma because they got 40 and not 42 credits. Uh it defines that in policy, which again is already in practice, but it wasn't in policy. Um and then a um policy cleanup. And then the certificate of completion for any student on the diploma track um can be determined by the case conference
110committee. So if that student um the case conference committee comes together and determines as that governing unit that that student should earn that certificate of completion the case conference committee has the authority to award as such. So again all of these things are currently in practice and things that we do but it is a policy cleanup really for the next three years and one month I guess I would put it. So for the class of 25, 26, 27, and 28, um all incoming freshmen class of 2029, um we'll have a new graduation requirement policy at that time because there will be new graduation requirements which the state board of ed had already approved in December. So happy to answer any questions if you have them. If not, I'll be back next month asking for approval.
111Thank you, Ryan and Marcus. With four more policies regarding school safety and weapons, President Burke, Dr. Anon, members of the board for discussion tonight, I bring you seven policy revisions. I'm disappointed that Dr. Hansen and Kim didn't give me one more because I would surpass Matt Parkinson's record. of seven, but I'm going to have to settle for the the tie for now unless something transpires before May. So, uh the the seven policies, five of which are closely tied together, and they all involve um a very serious um issue, not just in our district, but um in our community, and that is weapons. Um, specifically, uh, these policies will speak to the new Indiana laws that went into effect back in 2022 that made uh, made it a lot easier for for citizens to carry uh,
112weapons. But just to to preface this this this discussion with um going back to 2022, if you recall, Indiana implemented that constitutional carry law, which means individuals 18 years or older can generally carry a concealed handgun without a permit. Now, they uh really they kind of set some if you want to call um guidelines around what they call the the proper person requirement, which um speaks to um the eligibility is based on if individuals um I I should say it prohibits individuals with felony convictions, certain mental health issues, or those with restraining orders related to some type of domestic violence. So when they say or give that language around um who is eligible to to carry that proper person requirement is what they're speaking to specifically restrictions. There are certain places where firearm possession is
113prohibited including schools which we're going to discuss this evening airports and places where federal laws prohibit um the carrying of weapons. So the first four policies I want to address is um policy 55 5772 which applies to students. Policy 3217 which applies to certified staff and when we say certified staff specifically teachers and licensed professionals etc. 4217 applies to classified staff uh support staff non-eing personnel and policy 1617 applies to administrators, principles, APS, deans, etc. The fifth one which we will separate applies to visitors. So starting off with policy 5772 which applies to students and again this is possession on school grounds. All right. School grounds or um school during school activities for students. Part of this this this revision is zero tolerance for students possession on school grounds. Zero tolerance. There is one exception
114and that one exception applies and it's a a carveout specifically to JROTC. Okay. JOTC if and also they they talk about shooting teams. We we don't have any shooting teams um here in Warren Township. So really we're looking at Gerald TC and the process would require um permission from the building principal which they she would uh would forward to um our district office and we'd make sure that our board would approve that. And then in terms of how that um uh that weapon would be um stored um there are specific guidelines behind that. Um but again that is under supervision that's specifically re related to GROTC and just so you know um our kids don't take weapons home. Okay. Um but there's zero tolerance for for students. If we move on to policy 327, certified
115staff, you will see a lot of consistency with 3217, 427 with classified staff, and 1617 because now we're talking about adults. So with 3217 um with this with certified staff, firearms must be legally possessed, meaning that you can't fall under the um proper person requirement. But firearms must be legally possessed, authorized by the board, and stored locked in trunks, glove compartments, or out of plain sight in locked vehicles. That is the law as it pertains to adults that are over the age of 18 that are not classified as a student. Okay. And that is the same for again that's for certified staff under 3217 classified staff and 4217 adults not labeled or in the category as a student. Then also for that applies to administrators as well. So, if I could go back through those
116first four again for students um zero tolerance with the exception of a JROTC um uh situation that would require that for certified staff 3217 firearms must be legally possessed, authorized by the board and stored in locked trunks, glove compartments, or out of plain sight and locked vehicles. The same language applies to 4217 classified staff and to policy 1617 administrators, principles, APS, deans, etc. Next, I want to talk about you keep saying zero tolerance. Maybe I just can't read it. Thank you. But maybe I just don't see it. But where where does it say zero toler tolerance? Okay. So, if on the actual policy, if you read through the the description, it says there's no exceptions for for students. Um, it lays that out. That's your word. Yes. Your word. Zero toler tolerance. Zero tolerance. Correct.
117So, you didn't actually say it in here. Yeah. It's there's there's no it's they use the term no exceptions for students with with the one carve out for GRTC in terms of having a weapon on school grounds. Um, do you see whether that's do you see where it says whether that's on campus or whether that's during a you know an extracurricular event. Okay. Um, it's okay. I'll get back. We're not voting on this is just discussion and okay I've got I'm obviously not seeing it. So I'll I'll try and figure it out for students. Pull you aside later. Yes. Yeah, but again with adults it's they fall in a different category in terms of u what's allowed and what's what's not allowed. I looked in there the next policy is 7217 which applies to visitors
118specifically. The reason we carve this out because this one's a little different and just to be honest with you um I've had a conversation with chief and um over the course of the this month um want to engage our council on this because I just want to make sure that we are we are clear in our execution of this but um again policy 7217 applies to visitors and we define visitors as the general public volunteers contractors and non-enrolled students. Again, visitors apply to the general public, volunteers, contractors, and non-enrolled students. Visitors do not have the vehicle storage exemption for firearms. Yeah. Okay. Visitors do not have the vehicle storage exemption for firearms. So that means when they're on our campus, whether it's during school hours or during non-school hours, that law does not apply on
119school grounds. Again, being specific, that law does not apply to visitors. Yeah. Oh, I just wanted to ask, is that similar to I know when Officer Harris was here, um we went to uh an event and even though she was an officer here in Warren Township, they still had her to show her credential. She had to go through uh you know, because she had her weapon on her uh and she had to go through her credentials and things like that. And we I think we went down to um the fieldhouse and they made sure that she had to go through a process. It took it took about 15 20 minutes. So is that the process you're saying that if someone was in that position and they had a weapon on them coming on our school
120ground, they were an officer that we would also have them to go through that process. So, police officers, they they are not considered in that category where we talk about the general public. Um, volunteers, contractors, and non enrolled students. So, if a police officer, a certified licensed police officer were to come on our campus, that that would not um pertain to or be considered as a as a visitor, a police officer. thought that that was a great thing as far as safety is concerned because anybody can dress up in a police officer uniform and if we just assume oh yeah that's a police officer that could be somebody endangering our students and come in with a weapon. So I like that process that they had. Um and I think that we should adopt that too
121because just to assume is not good. We need to send them through a process too. And this is for added safety for our students because we're living in times where people, you know, they have mental issues and that could possibly happen. So, we just want to cover all bases. So, I really like that um thing that they did with her down at the and if they do it there at the, you know, at the center downtown, I think we as a school need to do that also. Yeah, I'm familiar with that that policy. Uh if you recall, we had graduation for years and we had to make special arrangements to to bring our our uniform officers there. Um as well as when we would go down there for state championship events, we weren't even allowed
122to bring our officers there in that capacity. So I know Gamebridge and Lucas Oil, they they have different um guidelines that they go by in terms of who they let in. I'm just saying for our imitate being an officer. We just look at them and say, "Oh, that's an officer." You know, and they come in and do bodily harm to our our students or our parents or our staff. Uh, I just would like for you to take a look at that and see what can we do to make sure that when the officers from the outside come in, we know our officers, but when officers from the outside come in, they should have some way of proving that they are actually officers before we just trust them. So, what what I can share with you
123because that's a a great point. Um, and I can speak to, let's just say, extracurricular events where um the opposing school bring that they'll bring security with them either from their school district or whoever they contract with. Uh, we have a protocol where they notify chief um or principal if they plan on because that's part of the protocol. We'll ask them, do you plan on bringing security? days when we had um back when we had the war on dads, I would notify the um opposing school we were traveling to, hey, we're bringing five dads, we're bringing four officers, um two SSOs, whatever our detail was at that time, we would disclose that. So, um that's how we handle that. I know when we have our events, when we rent our facilities out, we'll have some
124groups trying to save money and they want to propose to bring their own security. we say no, you have to use our Warren Township um security. Um we don't allow outside security to come in to do that. Um so that's a a pretty common practice I know just within Marian County that we notify each other when we're bringing our own police detail to help provide um a level of support for our patrons. Any questions at all about policy 5772, 3217, 4217, 1617, or 7217. Um, I have a question. Um, it's pertaining to 5772. Um I know you said that there is uh zero uh% like acceptance to uh weapons except for uh the JOTC program. Um do you know anything of like how the protocol would go for like our students who are in ROC
125or like is there any screening or anything behind that? because um of course like Miss Williams was just saying um we never know what's going on through someone's uh mental state and so for our rootc program to have access um I understand that of course it's for their program um as it would also be likely to happening in the actual program when they you know get out butvious it would be obviously easier access for them to already have the weapons inside of the school and for them to already be there. So, is there any like protocol behind that to ensure that even though they are in ROC and ROT does have access that um the safety of other students isn't, you know, endangered or anything? I think that's a great question. Um, understand that our
126JROTC, first off, we don't use live ammunition. Okay? We don't use live ammunition. Um, they use like a rubber substance um type of ammunition. Matter of fact, we just recently had a conversation around that. Um, so just understand they don't use real live ammunition um in their range or in competition. Um, and as a district, we don't allow outside um, law enforcement agencies to use our range either. So, it's just limited to students. Also, they don't transport um, anything out of the the facility. They're not allowed to do that. Um I think what this um policy is trying to entail because there are school districts that have in rural areas that have shooting teams um where they will actually transport weapons to and from school just like our students transport their instruments just like they
127transport their um softball or baseball bats um to and from um sometimes. So, I think that's what they were more speaking to. But to specifically again answer your question, um we have pretty strict guidelines as it relates to our programs. They don't they're not allowed to transport anything out of there that's under the supervision um of our instructors. Um and also they don't use live ammunition. Thank you. In addition to what she just said, um do you um before the students arrive or before they are allowed to use the um weapons, do you check to make sure that there's no live ammunition in there that someone could have put in there prior to the rubber ones? Do you do a a safety check to make sure? So, we provide the the the the weapon they
128use and we also provide the ammunition. Meaning the district we we purchase that. Um to answer your specific question, we'll verify that for you, but um from what we provide, that's that's not the case, but we'll verify that for you. Yeah, I appreciate that because, you know, kids can bring, you know, ammunition with them, you know, and insert it. So I just want to make sure that we are, you know, kids are going to be kids. If they can get away with something, they will. So we just never know. We just want to make sure we double check. Thank you, sir. Okay. All right. 8400 is uh school safety information. Um I came to you um not too long ago with this with this policy. Um there are more revisions and I will touch on
129uh some of the most critical ones. Just um an emphasis on um collaboration amongst our school personnel, law enforcement, families and community as around safety. also speaks to the policies that um proposals that I just discussed. Um the weapons prohibition, make sure that we are reforcing that. Um safe school committees are mandated. I'm proud to say that not only do we have a a district um school safety committee, but we also have school-based safety committees. So, we're already um ahead of that. um compreh comprehensive safety plans. Uh plans that address a broad range of safety issues. Um discussion we had earlier today including bullying, violence, criminal activity, child abuse and hazardous conditions. Uh information sharing amongst emergency first responders. Um integration with drug-free schools act. We asked our our um schoolbased school safety committees to
130also integrate the the drug drug-free component into their um meetings as well. Um annual threat assessment to mental health partnerships um and appointment of um school safety specialists which we delegate those same responsibilities within our war police. And those are some of the changes or revisions to polic policy 8400. Any questions on that? The last one I have is policy 8420, emergency preparedness plans and drills. A revision of that. And again some of the um most important revisions uh are around um again comprehensive emergency preparedness plans which um we have our own emergency preparedness plan but um ensuring that the plans address um both natural and man-made um type of drills and procedures and protections. collaboration with public safety agencies, regular regular review of certification which we go through every fall through our um the
131IDOE process, mandatory drills with specific requirements and again we talked about man-made disasters and I actually sent some some guidance out um at the beginning of the year as it relates to our drills. We utilize Raptor and that technology to help us track our drills to make sure that every school building is in compliance student safety u during drills and this is probably one of the biggest changes but it prohibits projectiles or harmful sensory simulations involving students and it limits sensory components to non- studentent participation and outside regular hours. So therefore um we have to be um it's called upon us to be more um aware of our students with um sensory challenges and to make sure that we take the proper precautions whenever we um are involved we involve those students in drills. And
132again just to add to that um an employee informed consent for sensory drills. Staff must be informed and consent to participate in drills involving sensory or projectile components. Uh mental health considerations, um mental health support post drill for students that um may um that may suffer some type of um let's just say they may be triggered and and suffer some type of um situation um due to the the drill. Um accessibility and accommodations. drills must accommodate students with disabilities or special needs, which we do now. Um, and then also clear procedures for emergency response. Plans require clear actionable steps for evacuation, notification, and public communication. And at our last district safety committee meeting, we specifically talked about evacuations, school evacuations. Emergency if I could ask in in what capacity that's in to provide um to
133be a part of the the detail for That was number two. Number one, do they cond? So, I I can answer that. Um, and unless I don't believe anything's changed, but the 19 years that I spent at the high school, um, they're students first. So, whenever we have, um, an evacuation drill of some sort, um, their, uh, master sergeant and the other, um, adults in charge of the program, um, they understand that we have to evacuate those students just like we would evacuate all students. So, to answer your question, they would not be a part of the roles and responsibilities associated with that. And um I would need to verify um if they run independent emergency type drills as it relates to the preparation for their competitions and programs that they do. Yeah. Okay. We'll
134get that information. Um, please excuse my tardiness as you've already moved on. And also, please excuse my uh I missed any of this in your detail, but um going right back to uh 8,400 when you were talking about the school safety information, um you touched briefly on the bullying policies and the anti-bullying policies. Um do you know how frequent um that our middle schools and elementary schools are pushing uh anti-bullying awareness and such their students? So that probably probably a question for um uh probably Dr. Anderson in terms of the specifics of of what that looks like as it relates to the the policy in terms of what we need to include moving forward. um if we if the the board passes this uh next month um is we need to make sure that our
135um safety plans are comprehensive and also include um the programs and interventions we have in place around bullying. Um that's what we have to strengthen that policy to make sure that we include that um as well as other interventions around um either criminal or hazardous type of conditions. And this would um also be pushed in the high school too. Absolutely. Okay. This Yeah, this is a a a district policy that would touch all of our buildings. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, seeing no other discussion. Marcus, thank you for your time and we will look forward to discussing these again and taking action on them next month. And with that we are at closing comments which we can also cheer about. We will start with Kevin. I've spoken more tonight than I think I have in
136my whole time on the board. So I will close with thank you for each coming and thank you for our comments and we will uh enjoy everyone and have a good night. I will be um brief brilliant. I forgot to announce that um WA um MCRC Butler IU a conglomerate of um educators are doing an attendance conference. It is May 20th through the 21st. It will be held at the Marriott um East. So if you are interested, please reach out to um MCRC. We do have some um slots available if you want to attend and unable to um afford the cost, but it will be well worth it. We have um um national researchers and educators coming in. So um if you want to attend, please um reach out to MCRC. Um, good night. I
137guess go home and have dinner. What's the dates of that again, Miss Gloria? Hold on. It's May 20th and 21st. May 20th through the 21st. It's a two-day event. Okay. And where is that going to be held again? The Marott East. Okay. And I'm going to forward you the information again. Okay. Terry, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for staying with us. um appreciate um the voices of our community really coming in strong. Um I will tell you I had a daughter in show choir. I know. Um Kevin, how you spoke about conference and really how when you reflect back on our district, we do pretty amazing things and we have amazing students and one of my highlights and um we have a state convention coming up in October. So, I'm really pushing ISBA to
138bring some of our performing arts and let us showcase our kids there. And I really am have been pushing and I know that throughout the nation so many kids um schools submit because at national convention every day there's a group and this time all the kids were from Chicago or not Chicago California. Um our kids are just as good if not better. So um I just always challenge our directors and stuff please send those Please send our kids, nominate our kids, put them there. Um, so we can celebrate them on a bigger stage. Um, but thank you for everything. Um, that's all I have. Can I pull a Gloria? No. The rule is no, but yes. Really quick, I just want to thank to all everyone that came out to advocate. your voice matters and
139thank you for um showing up. Without your voice, we would not be aware of how you feel. Um our goal is to always make the best choice for our students. So, thank you again. I was excited to see some people come up and talk cuz typically our board meetings are boring. So, thank you. She just stole my thunder. Um except for Julia. Except for Gloria. Gloria. Julie's next. Oh, she's Oh, okay. Good try. Um, I too want to thank you uh for coming and sharing your concerns. I at one time many years ago did exactly what you did and I walked up there and it's not easy to do and I had Peggy Hinckley sitting in that chair and that was scary let me tell you. But uh thank you. Um we're not allowed to
140comment on on them during the session. Um, but we do appreciate hearing from you and we just want to make sure you are aware of that. Um, you never cease to amaze me. Your honestly your questions your questions uh to Marcus were good. They were good questions and and it it was thought you had a lot of thoughtful things in there and I really appreciate that. So very I'm going to miss you. I yeah, we are going to miss you, but I really look forward to see what you do. I want you to make sure you email us and let us know how things are going with you. We definitely want to know college plans. So, I'm done. Howard? Yeah. I just want to say thanks to everybody. Presentations were really first class. Uh the
141thoughts that all of those folks who had yellow cards was was great. I appreciate hearing from you and u ditto what my uh um fellow board members had to say. Um do you have a safe trip home? Now it's finally my turn. Hey, they just stole my thunder, but I'm going to repeat it. Thank you parents for your input tonight. We value your input because we believe working together works. I want everybody to take a look at that wall that says, "Our vision MSD Warren will provide revalent learning experiences in partnerships with students, families, and the community to prepare all students for their future. That is our vision. So, thank you so much for your input. We care and we hear what you have to say." Thank you. That leaves me Um, really quick, I
142just want to thank you guys. I talk more everywhere I go. People have no idea that we have a career center. I talk to people in Florida. I talk to people in New York. I talk to people all over the nation. They don't have that. I feel like every time that we're here, I feel like we have won the lottery because it was so awesome for our kids here and I don't think you guys get as much credit as you should. It really makes a difference to have you guys here working as hard as you do. And I know I appreciate it. That's why we've lived here for 20 years. We chose this area. We wanted to live here. We love it. And we love it because you guys help us keep our kids active.
143engaged academic excellence. I just can't say enough. I wanted to tell you all that because it really is important and we do get talked up all over the place and I think that is such a testament to how wonderful our community is and our students, our faculty, our staff, our teachers and our school. Thank you. And I will just let that be my closing comment because I already preached. So have a good night everyone.