001becoming my with my t-shirt yeah what do you want ladies and gentlemen it is seven o'clock so I am going to call the meeting to order and we are going to you're all set [Music] oh what the hell oh it's you're all set thank you foreign oh my God thank you so much we are going to move straight to our superintendent's report good evening everyone uh president Burke members of the board our retirees our community um first I would like to say it's great to see so many of our retirees on our Zoom call this evening um I've been in Warren for about 17 years and and some of you um trained me very well at the beginning uh so thank you and congratulations to all of you if I don't get a chance to
002say it later on um it's been a busy month lots of meetings um obviously preparing for the opening of the 2021 school year I know our community and parents and students are wondering about what that's going to look like and we're still working through those plans as information changes we do have an upcoming meeting on Friday June 19th with the Marion County Health Department the Marion County superintendents and the mayor's office to review let the last month's data we should have some clear guidance after that meeting it's my hope to share our plans with our students staff and families by the end of June um today and yesterday have been really great days we've been participating in the in-person graduation over at a Warren pack I think we've graduated about 500 students at this point
003with the remaining students will graduate tomorrow it's been a real nice Personal Touch I do want to give a shout out to Mr shepler uh the graduation commencement committee and all of his team for putting together a first-class experience for our students and Families um this Friday I shared in my Wednesday call that this Friday Warren Township and all Marion County Schools will be honoring George Floyd and setting a light on a dark place of social injustice in our society all of our football stadium lights will be turned on at 10 14. will be eliminated for eight minutes and 46 seconds the June 19th date is recognition of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation also known as Juneteenth the 10 14 time signifies the date that George Floyd was born in the eight minutes and
00446 seconds represent the time the amount of time that officer Chauvin had his knee on Mr Floyd's neck as a unified group all Marion County schools are taking action against social injustice and intensifying our efforts to Equitable access and outcomes for our students today we posted a video on our website I encourage you to look at that and we will be sharing this on our social media platforms as part of our action plan I want to take a moment to recognize Carol Graham uh Carol is not in the room right now but Carol is also retiring this year and I want to thank Carol uh for training me these last two years as a new superintendent and I want to thank her for the 39 years that she has dedicated and given to Warren Township
005and with that that is my report thank you so much Tim we really appreciate it um I will be moving on to board comments and um I will be starting with Gloria please Gloria you're muted there we go I mute it we built all the way down can you hear me can you hear me yes can you hear me yes we can hear you okay great hello everyone Pierce is a difficult time for the black community for our families that have lost loved ones due to police brutality and the devastating tragedies occurring in our country America however we are glad to see other communities reaching out and standing up to support us one song writer wrote he wrote the song God bless you realizing that we need God to help us through these trying times
006no songwriter wrote a song to encourage us a long time coming But A Change Is Gonna Come thank you thank you Gloria Lynn hello good evening everyone um this week I have had the opportunity to go over to the PAC Center along with Dr Hansen an Administration helped pass out diplomas to our 2020 graduates and while it is a different from different from what we're used to doing I have to say it's just still a wonderful day of Celebration as we all know things are a little slower right now but what this allowed us to do with that traditionally large ceremony was to make it more personal as Dr Hanson mentioned earlier and for the first time this year I was able to see the individual families that came to watch their student graduate and
007I saw signs and flowers and balloons and I saw real tears from families of joy and happiness and I think that that is one of the things that I'll really take away and really remember from this kind of non-traditional graduation ceremony but it just definitely was a truly enjoyable experience and we get to continue tomorrow with graduating some more of our seniors so I'm just welcome to everybody and I'm so excited to hear from our retirees as well this evening so thank you thank you so much Lynn Randy well um excuse me welcome everybody and especially the retirees this evening um each year I always start with saying boy everything that you've done through the school systems you will be rewarded not only now but the years to come and I always give the examples
008and remind people my mom and dad were both in Warren Township school I'm sorry my mother was in Warren Township Schools my dad was an IPS teacher for 35 years and to this day other than during this quarantine when I'm out with him I'll get all the time somebody will come up to him and say Mr George here is what you meant to me and I you know they'll leave and my dad will just smile I say dad you know Well Done dad you know so with all you teachers Cooks whatever you are I'm sure you made a big impact a lot of kids a lot of people throughout the years what kind of occupation profession can you get in and say that it's very unique um and then also um I want to commend
009everybody like Dr Hanson said and Mr shepler they did great jobs the speakers Did excellent job in the virtual ceremony and you know Brian Walker I think was his name he really stuck out to me you know he was he was saying at the end there he said hey he says it is what it is you know what are we going to do about it we will always be remembered as the class of 2020. we made history and he made a lot of positives out of negatives and I really like that and the other speakers too so again thanks for Tyrese and everybody for attending tonight thank you so much Randy Julie yes welcome everybody um I too helped at the graduation today and it was a lot of fun um what I think we
010also got out of this one is a lot of our exceptional Learners who don't normally get to participate in a uh regular graduation ceremony we're able to take part in this ceremony and it was really nice to get to see some of those kids walking across the stage it brings us together as one and it was just amazing and prior to our board meeting starting and I hearing everybody chatting and talking to each other it's nice to see that everybody has this opportunity to see each other once again and because you're all out there in different places right now so um when you're done contact each other and get together on zoom and just have some chats and enjoy yourselves so I want to thank you all very much for everything you've given to Warren
011Township you are amazing our kids benefit from everything you have done so thank you very much thank you Julie Harry good evening everyone I see we're all surviving quarantine um just want to say thank you to all of our retirees I know personally that some of you many of you who are on this screen have either worked with my children um and I really appreciate that um I know the Grassy Creek teachers you'll be proud to hear I know have a nurse in the Family Madison graduated with her degree and Mason has his forestry from Purdue so you guys have touched lives and made a difference and helped kids not just mine but as I've gone through the community these last couple of weeks and seeing the signs in the yards of our 2020 graduates
012and I've seen children I know that all of you had a piece or a part in their lives in just thank you so much for everything you've done for Warren Township we appreciate you um you are what makes our kids amazing you are what make our kids amazing so with that so that's it thank you so much Terry um I would also like to Echo what Lynn said earlier participating in graduation over at the high school has just been a really meaningful and wonderful experience um you're not really sure what it's going to be like until you get there and you see it and then just as Lynn mentioned you see the individual families and their tears and their happiness and and the woohoos and um the fact that they that kid and student I
013guess now adult really gets that moment um to be on that stage and get their diploma and kind of rain and Limelight quite literally actually um and so it's just been a wonderful experience and so I am incredibly grateful for the township for being able to work that out and the graduation committee um as other people said many people on this phone call I recognize um some of you I knew when I was a little girl in the school system and um it as much as it breaks my heart that you are leaving um I'm incredibly happy that you get to start a new chapter of your life and so um I hope you all just have a wonderful retirement and that you are able to enjoy it too its fullest um next on our
014agenda we have board correspondence and my understanding is we do not have any correct Julie I do not have any no um and then we have yellow cards and both Dr Hansen and I have checked our emails and we did not have any either and so I am going to turn everything over to Brian Simpkins so that our retirees can be honored good evening everybody um Dr Hansen president Burke members of the board uh Warren Community it's my pleasure as always during the June board meeting to honor and recognize our retirees and to congratulate them we certainly deeply appreciate all your years of service and I know from talking with many of you you also frankly get up every day and do what needs to be done to do right by your families I know
015you many of you care about your families deeply and I know that's a big part of it too so that's to be commended so congratulations we really wish you all the best I know many of you have lots of plans exciting plans and some of you don't have any any plans which is cool too um so um at this time I'd like to um uh read off everyone's names and these are retirees who go back to um just after last school year but before June 30th uh before July 1st 2019 and then every and then from July 1st 2019 to just recently so when I when I read off your name um feel free to do a little wave and you're welcome to say a few words if you wish so without further Ado I'll
016get started um Bonnie Jones uh Food Service head cook there she is it says Lawrence but yeah yeah we're on we're on his his uh emails so that's what's going on there congratulations thank you uh Meg McNamara teacher uh Pam Reynolds bus driver Bill Reynolds bus driver uh Angie Wilson teacher hey hi everybody foreign Robert Tom Baker Jr custodian uh Tim bewley bus driver Ann Bowman school psychologist Deb Bova teacher Audrey Bush I saw Audrey Audrey teacher um Bill Bush teacher Sherry Camacho there you go I see you on my screen Sherry congratulations teacher Beth Campbell teacher hi Kevin hi Kevin Kennedy teacher Becky Carlton teacher Danita Charter's teacher Jackie Coleman I saw I see her Jackie Coleman teacher congratulations and Daryl craddick uh teacher uh Sherilyn Dixon uh permanent building guest teacher very loyal
017employee congratulations Susie Evans instructional assistant uh Deb first teacher uh Alberta frutro bus driver uh Marcia Glazer media secretary and of course Carol Graham Administrative Assistant congratulations Carol pleasure working with you uh Melinda gutschel custodian ham Hearn principal secretary Betty hurdle hey Betty registrar Linda Hill custodian Sandy Hutchison instructional assistant oh Kathleen heimes instructional assistant uh Jane Jackson teacher Denise keyburn bus driver I saw you Denise way to go um Anna Lander instructional assistant Elaine Loftus I saw you laying there you are teacher Marine Mahoney teacher Luanne Marshall speech language pathologist pleasure working with you Luanne uh Kate Miller teacher there she is uh Brenda Owen director of adult education Christopher Pollock teacher Diane red is bus driver I don't know if I see Diana um and ranahan teacher Sheila Shimmer shine teacher I saw
018Sheila oh wow there she is Don steimel teacher and Jill Tudor instructional assistant and that rounds out our retirees congratulations once again to all and you can certainly in in the near future expect a Memento coming from us and so uh best wishes to all of you congratulations [Music] I just wanted again to thank everyone for your years of service um it I have them sitting in front of me and the total number of years of service for people that are retiring this year is 1 129 and a half years um there is a lot of value there that it cannot really be easily put into words I know that each and every one of you has touched so many children so thank you so very very much we are so appreciative for your efforts
019and um we all I think I can speak for the board and say that we wish you the happiest of retirements thank you because I'm here so thank you so much we really really appreciate it okay so less exciting things we are going to move on to the consent agenda um to get my screen sharing going um the consent agenda consists of the approval of minutes the financial report and payroll claim the claim registered and electronic payments the year-to-date summary of fund balances sorry just one moment um the human resources report an addendum as well as the contracts section so do I have a motion I'll make the motion okay Terry made the motion and Lynn seconded it um we are going to do oral votes and so I will hand that over to Julie
020Harry yes Rachel yes Randy yay Lynn yay Gloria yes and I'm a yes passed unanimously okay the consent agenda passes unanimously and with that I'm going to turn things over to Tim real quick thank you board as part of the consent agenda approval you have approved our new head boys basketball coach at Warren Central High School it is my pleasure to introduce and welcome to the Warren Family the Davis family uh DeAndre Davis will be our new head boys basketball coach and um DeAndre and karlundy the W looks good on you and welcome to Warren and if you'd like to say a few words we we would be uh we would welcome that well I just want to say thank you to everyone for your muted uh I'm muted which is the problem there we
021go sorry about that coach no no worries I just want to say thank you for allowing us to be a part of the one nation and and uh welcome welcoming our family to your family thank you so much um for joining us Mr Davis we truly appreciate it and we are looking forward to having your entire family here good um I am now going to move over to um Bob horwin with our Chartwells report thank you thank you Rachel if you give me just a second I will get it shared okay there we go sorry about that okay okay well thank you for having us um Paul Kendall is with me Paula can you hear me I'm here awesome uh well thank you board president Burke Dr Hansen um as you know on the regional
022direct quick chart Wells and was uh you know about this time last year we were talking about the contract and opportunity to get uh here which uh and speak to you more often um but you know this was a crazy year like no other um but a great um that I'm here now and get the opportunity to talk to you about some of the great things that happened uh during this uh school year pre-covid and then uh I led Bob talk to us about some of the things that happened during covid and and leading up and what looks forward to next year so excited about that and if you could go to the next slide we'll just quick agenda um is which kind of year in review and uh the the information I'll talk about
023is kind of pre-covered um talk about student choice uh the covet at Food Outreach and then new initiatives for next year and go ahead and move on to the next slide please so these are some uh some great results and I couldn't be more excited to share these with you so when we were in front of you last year we talked about the need to continue to impact Your Community Feed more students um and so I think uh together we kind of jumped into a new adventure um two things we we did is really focused on food quality uh and then jumped into cep as well so uh the the results are are really uh great in my opinion so in my role I get to see uh districts throughout the entire state of Indiana
02432 districts we partnered with now in the state and I have to tell you you're among the best if not the best in the state in these results and I'm super proud of the work that's happening it's uh it's a joint effort I have to say your leadership team uh your principals your teachers they all Buy in uh to the Chartwells program and help get students into the cafeterias and it it's really making an impact uh some of the the things as we've already had great breakfast participation numbers but even those increase year over year which I think was quite impressive because we were already doing a breakfast in the classroom program we made some enhancements this year uh did some hot options uh which were new and and really focused in on High School
025breakfast um and we've seen some great results up uh you know some significant 13 increase in high school is astronomical in my opinion and I can tell you 38 percent of participating at breakfast in a high school when it's not breakfast in the classroom is really really not happening uh anywhere else in the state um it's just only we've seen an increase in each category elementary middle and high school which uh again I'm I'm super proud of I think these results were going to continue to grow as we moved into March and the latter half of the school year uh and I'll say what I think also makes these even that much more impressive is these don't take into account for Ada so so this is an average daily attendance this is results based on
026your building population so these numbers and participation daily are even higher than this um so it doesn't mean we're satisfied and uh doesn't mean we there's not continual work to do uh always want to continue to look at the the menu variety and and drive initiatives into the buildings I think we have some great things you're going to see later in the slides let Bob talk about those but I think the uh real exciting is that the new uh servery coming together at the high school which I think is going to be a wow factor and can't wait for your students to be able to see that um and so I'll turn it over to Bob for him to share some of the details of what's been happening at Warren yeah thanks Paul um thank
027you for the next slide um so we continue to launch student Choice um from high school we expand we expect all the uh Middle School uh intermediate schools um this is of course a program where the students get to taste test options and vote and the winning selection gets chosen um to be in their cafeteria for six to eight weeks um so we we did we did that uh again we were ready to do it for the second time this year but um you know something called the coronavirus happened um but we will continue to Market this this is a huge way for students to get to have a say in what they want to have served in their dining rooms um and the the options continue to grow uh as far as variety our
028culinary team is constantly working on New Concepts for us to roll out so um much more to come on on student Choice once we get back to um whatever normal is going to be I'll figure the next slide um so uh as you all know we quickly switched gears in March with the um Community Food Outreach um it was just on a I mean the team I couldn't be more proud of my team for Switching gears in a matter of a day um and rethinking how we serve the community we have seven School locations um Tuesdays and Fridays serving meals two locations on Wednesday evenings we're serving suppers uh Tuesdays and Fridays we also went to four apartment complexes every day on the buses and we worked so well with Transportation their support and and
029continues to be just wonderful we We are continuing to do this through the summer um and up to date nearly 300 000 meals have been served uh doing food Outreach at these locations some new initiatives we have coming um of course to me the most exciting thing is the high school remodel that picture you see is a real live picture of uh the where we're at today at Warren Central High School it's about 85 complete um this is something I've been working on for two years and I'm so excited what it's going to bring to the kids as far as variety and speed of service and just a wonderful place to eat so there's a if you haven't been to the high school there's a preview of it um if you remember what it looked
030like before you probably can't even recognize the space um from new paint um and all the new the new fixtures so the TVs are yet to be installed we'll have digital signs um artwork on the walls is coming and uh we're gonna be ready to roll um when the kids come back at the end of July um some other things we're going to continue to do is the student paired surveys two times a year student focus groups we we started that and then had come to a halt um principal one-on-ones three times a year I was earlier in the year before the coronavirus and just was extremely beneficial got some great feedback from principals so we want to do that three times a year I mean with the principles one on one to to see
031what we can do different do better how we can help them um and increase many variety again the students was as it continues to grow it's just going to continue to expand what we can offer to the to the students uh one thing I want to point out I'm sorry go back and I don't know if you can see it but on the very back wall uh We've brought we brought cooking out front in our pizza and Valley section uh so the kids will actually see us cooking fresh cooked the trash before but it was just in the back so when you when you stop by the high school you need to check out the equipment we've added to the front of the house that's going to just expand the quality and freshness and variety
032to the Deli and Pizza areas out front thank you next next slide please um and just in addition to us feeding the kids every day over 21 000 meals and snacks a day we are just so intertwined with with with the community and and are thrilled to be so intertwined with Warren Township and these are just some examples of all the things that we do and just want to make sure you were all aware um of kind of behind the scenes what we do besides just feed kids every day and we love doing it we love outreaching you know we love to to get you Grand dollars and we love to support old Buffalo Food rescue and et cetera Etc the list goes on you can see them in front of you but just thought
033that was a a fun thing to share with you today and with that said I'll turn it back over to Paul thanks Bob appreciate that and board uh I appreciate the opportunity Dr Hansen to to be able to speak to to you this evening um you know the partnership has just been so successful uh for us uh and and we see the results in Warren Township and we really appreciate the consistency of the administration and the board to challenge us to not be satisfied with status quo and to continue to elevate our um our game and so we think it's a mutually beneficial and just wanted to see if there's anything I can answer any questions you have uh but also thank you and also say congratulations to the 2020 graduates that you're having uh
034today and and tomorrow and also to the all the 2020 retirees uh I look forward to that day sometime myself probably not in the near future but uh you know um hope not too distant future but I'll take any questions that Bob and I can hand again say thank you so much for the partnership hello I I don't have a question this evening for you but um I do want to just commend you and your team I volunteered several of the food distribution sites and I just didn't know what to expect when I arrived but it was very organized very safe and it just it was a good experience and I felt like the families sincerely appreciated all the effort that was put into that delivery system so thank you for for Reinventing how to
035deliver food to people so quickly and that it's making a difference for our community so thank you thank you we're extremely proud anyone else on the board have any comments that they wanted to make I'm sorry I wanted to make one more comment will we be making arrangements to come by and check out those pizzas like in person once that line gets going absolutely okay all right well I had to be the one to ask that so okay I got you covered all right Gloria you had a comment oh I just want to congratulate them on the distribution of the food uh to our young people during this difficult time I just really think that they did an awesome job thank you Gloria thank you absolutely okay so thank you Paul and Bob we really
036appreciate your time and as I've said we've really appreciate your efforts on just turning instantly in one day and all of a sudden um figuring out how we could feed people best so thank you so much thank you we are going to move on to action items and our first action item is um gifts and grants um and so I would like to entertain a motion to accept gifts and grants was that Gloria yes okay do I have a second I'll second and Terry seconded it um so is there any discussion if not Julie could you take a vote Terry hey Rachel yes Randy yes Len yes Gloria yes and I have to abstain so it passes unanimously thank you so much Julie the next item on our agenda nope that's the item after that
037the next item in our agenda is resolution 580.20 um it is a resolution that authorizes the suspensions of policies and procedures that are in conflict with current law um this is a resolution that isda and our attorneys have recommended that we pass in regards to this is um very specifically in regards to the current crisis that has to do with coronavirus going on in our country and just to make sure that we are following of course the laws and emergency orders that are coming out first so do I have a motion I'll make a motion Lynn has made the motion do I have a second awesome um I Heard Julie first so we'll go with Julie is there any discussion um I wanted to ask um discuss about suspend all policies and procedures that are
038in Conflict when any waivers or extensions granted by the the governor can you uh talk a little bit about that Rachel so I I my first guess and I'm going to have Tim correct me if I'm wrong is one example like that would be [Music] um the governor waived the 180 school days and set into motion that we would use a certain number of virtual days in last year's calendar um and so it's in regards to situations like that and is that correct yes for us it would also be testing um executive orders that remove the expectation of State Testing and we don't know what's going to be down the road so this kind of protects us down the road as well so Gloria does that answer your question well I'm still a little unclear
039about it but you know I'll just abstain until I can get further clarification okay well um in that case if there's no other discussion Julie if you could call about Terry yay Rachel yay Randy yay Lynn yay Gloria it's abstain and I say yay it passed with one abstention okay thank you so much our last resolution um but not our last action I am for the day has to do with affirming black lives matter um the resolution was presented to the board earlier today I'm sorry about the delay we've worked pretty hard on this um do I have a motion I'll make the most Randy go ahead awesome okay I've got Randy making the motion and Julie's seconding it do we have any discussion hearing none Julie could you take a vote Terry yay Rachel
040yay Randy yay Lynn yay Gloria yay and I'm a yay it passes um unanimously um I'm going to take a moment of personal privilege here and um thank everyone for voting that on that and thank Gloria for helping me put it together I really truly appreciated your efforts Gloria if you wanted to say something feel free sorry I didn't mean to cut you off and I am so happy uh you stopped me because thank you so much for that um but I um feel so awkward right now and I am so sorry uh when I took a deeper look at what you were saying uh about the um resolution prior to the you know about the suspension is it my understanding that it is saying that regardless of some of the different restrictions that we
041had the you know if the governor give us um permission to do certain things then we will be gladly accept or or are we saying that if the governor suggests us that we will fight what he's saying no it is that if the governor passes or puts out an emergency order saying something such as the emergency order that um removed testing from the end of last year that we would follow it oh okay well I apologize to all of you have a clear understanding that's why I should stay but I would like to change mine to a yay I've got it okay thank you so much um and again thank you sorry thanks to everyone for both of those resolutions I feel that they are both very important dealing with the two crises we currently
042have going on in the country um and I just Truly Deeply from the bottom of my heart thank the rest of the board for their votes today and with that sorry about the awkward lead in Allison I will go to you heard it all um president Burke Dr Hanson members of the board and the community um I'm here um while I was here last month to talk about the Student Success handbook and there have been a couple of changes um that should have been shared with you since I last talked I know um Lynn shared with me I have a spelling mistake on page nine so that will be corrected but we also have our attorneys reviewed and based on your input um from our last meeting we have a couple of considerations for you
043guys to look at tonight so um you asked for some information about attendance um our attorneys provided us with this statement for attendance which really opens up attendance to be more than just sitting in a classroom physically in a brick and mortar building so if we are doing e-learning days if a parent chooses um to do an online school and that all of those can count towards attendance as well and whatever the participation is of that schooling that that would count the second one is a statement about where updates can be found um both that we will communicate through school newsletters and also on our website I felt like more than just posting on our website we should be sharing that through school newsletter so families can see that as well um and then here
044are two recommendations from our attorneys they recommend that we switch the residency verification and then the residency guidelines that it would be clear for our families to understand what was required for residency and then how we verified it and then we were really excited to change the word Guardian to caregiver um but there is in a couple of scenarios um for example in FERPA I believe it was um where um you have to be a legal guardian to be able to access certain things and so this will just be a statement that we'll put at the front of the book probably um with that update area um just saying that really caregiver encompasses that a parent Guardian encompasses all those things and um and how it's defined so we can continue to do as caregiver
045and we don't have to um the other option would be is that in every single one of those areas where we had to really clarify it we'd have to clarify that separately in a number of different areas so this is more of an overarching option um so those are the only changes in addition to the recommendations from last time so I'm happy at this time if you guys have any questions or comments about any of those things so I can see people sorry um do any board members have any questions or comments I just want to say thank you Allison for all the work you've put into this it's a lot of work um Lynn thank you for for telling her about that spelling I caught it too but I hadn't caught and contacted her
046yet so but you do you guys have done an amazing job that is a lot of work and you do it every year um to keep us straight and right and and everything so thank you so much for all your work yeah I have a great team that works on it and I'm proud to say that and we have a number of other school districts that use um ours I've come across a couple in the last year where I opened it up and I said wait this is ours no I I'm proud that people are using ours as an example that's good so Julie I have to say poor Allison just happened to pop in at the graduation the other day and we had a lull for a minute and I saw her and I
047go running over to her to tell her I said I haven't emailed you yet but I'm so glad that I got to see you so thanks Allison for all your hard work on that it's appreciate it and I would like to say Allison I appreciate uh your hard work uh what really inspired me was to see the word caregiver because we have so many children that may not have their natural parents to raise them but there are people that love children and they step in and they assume the role of trying to provide care and love to them so I'm happy that they will not have any conflict when they come to the school because they are the caregiver of the children so that was a great choice of words thank you absolutely foreign could
048I have a motion that specifically includes the changes I make a motion is there a second okay so that's Gloria making the motion and Terry seconding it is there any further discussion seeing and hearing none I'm gonna hand it over to Julie Harry yay Rachel yay Randy yay Lynn yay Gloria yay and I'm a yetu and it passes unanimously okay well now you get to make all those updates permanent [Laughter] um so thank you so much Allison for your time I really appreciate it um we currently have no discussion items on the agenda being sure from the faces in the room that that has not changed okay we're good um and so with that we are going to go to closing comments and I will start with Gloria well I I'm so happy I'm first
049this time I would like to first of all thank Rachel our president uh many of you might not know that she does a lot of work behind the scene and before we have these board meetings and I just want to thank her for all of her hard work and um just wanted to know that we see you and we appreciate you and um also I would like to thank um all of our retirees for doing such a great job all these years we're going to miss you but we know it's time for you to enjoy your life so we would say enjoy yourself and make up for all the years that you can do a lot of things this is your time to really do what you want to do right now and to our
050graduates oh my gosh congratulations uh we are so proud of you and I want you to make sure that you make all your dreams a reality and remember that sex success can be yours if you just believe thank you foreign thank you so much Gloria and thank you Gloria on a personal note thank you Lynn Lynn you just muted yourself instead of unmuting yourself I think I know how to do this by now I apologize sorry um so um I've been you know really quiet on social media about a lot of the things um that are going on right now but I just want to say um just something 19 years ago my husband and I made the decision to move here to the east side of Indianapolis knowing that our children would be attending
051Warren Township Schools um the diversity in our Township is incredibly amazing and I'm confident that this diversity has made a very positive and profound impact on my family as a board member a member of this board I just want to make this promise that I will do everything I can to eliminate racial Prejudice within Warren Township and please know that when I make decisions regarding important issues in all of our schools that I will treat students and staff and parents and administrators equally and fairly so I just kind of wanted to say something about that and again congratulations to all of our retirees and our graduates I look forward to attending again tomorrow we'll miss you but you'll always be part of the Warren Family so again thanks for joining us tonight and good evening
052everyone thank you so much Lynn Randy uh ditto Gloria and Lynn both of you well done good job um again I want to congratulate all the teachers the uh everybody that's retiring all the uh Cooks janitors custodians everybody well done and go on and be proud and listen and smile when everybody tells you great jobs and what you meant to them and then also the uh the food outreach program great to the whole Warren Township I mean everybody that's been involved I know you guys have done great great jobs continue to feed and and be there and it just makes me proud this Warrior Nation that's why Lynn said she's been here 17 years I was thinking I've been here really I graduated 82 and then I went to college and everywhere else I came
053back in 95 and with my wife and I married her and we stayed the east side so we're very proud and it will continue thanks again thank you so much Randy Julie I'm going to be a little wordy I have been doing a lot of thinking on this and and I wrote out some comments and thoughts um and I'm normally when I talk at comment time it's to you know the teachers and the administrators and board members and even the children when they're there um today I want to talk to you board members um it feels like a very long time since I've seen you all virtually even though it's only been about two weeks ago in our last meeting um who could have ever imagined everything that's gone on in the last three to
054four months and I have been trying to process all of it the facets all the facets and there are many I think for some of us it is very cut and dry but for other others of us and I fall into this category it just feels so so involved um as a child I was sheltered by my parents they gave me the gift of a childhood one that I can remember playing Kick the Can with my friends out on the streets of the neighborhood without a care in the world I attempted to carry on this with my children I sheltered them and I hopefully gave them the same gift of a childhood that my parents gave me and I see my daughter doing the same for my granddaughter I believe that is every parent's right
055whether they take that opportunity or not is up to them but they should at least have the ability to do this when I was growing up my parents weren't Rich by any means but I would say my childhood was very rich in the same time I hope this is true for my children it breaks my heart when I see stories on Facebook of parents who probably like me shelter their children having to talk to their black and brown Sons when they start reaching puberty about things like if you're going out in the evening do not walk in anyone's yard do not carry anything that might resemble a gun or a weapon well there just went there that little boy's ability to go out and kick dirt and toss sticks around and then as they get
056a little older the conversations about it become if you get pulled over make sure your hands are on your steering wheel and so on and so forth and the children in these examples just lost their gift of a childhood when their parents out of necessity had to talk with them about these things at Young and tender ages what does that say about us as a society I think as we need I think as a society we need to have some very serious conversations and then take some appropriate actions to break down systemic racism that abounds and this is where it gets tricky though because with all that being said the ones being criticized the most are our police officers and I do believe we have some amazing amazing officers I know the police officer who
057helps every Wednesday at our food distribution at Moorhead we have our very own Warren school resource officers that Pride themselves on building relationships with our students and I know there are a lot of caring impd officers out there that do their jobs with amazing care and compassion one of which who just recently lost her live was loved by many many of us on the east side but that doesn't mean that racism doesn't exist in those entities you know when we moved into Warren Township like Lynn we were very deliberate in choosing our district there were two main reasons one I won't go into that we chose Warren Warren Township because it really has nothing to do with this but the other was for the diversity I knew that this would play a very important role
058in my child's growth into amazing young adults and I wasn't disappointed all three of them are amazing young adults and they look back at Warren as as being a time they are proud of we and Warren have never complained about the obstacles set before us we are resilient we adapt and we overcome challenging situations and in fact it's this resilience that is one of the skill sets we want our students to learn on the Journey of a graduate if there is any group of people that can overcome and Conquer this it is our Warren Township community but we as school board members need to play a significant role in the leadership of this daunting task we need to start considering community dialogues that will encourage everyone to take part in this and take ownership in
059it because I don't believe it can be done if we don't include and listen to our community members we really need to do that we need to make sure our actions are constructive we can we can be passionate about a topic but we need to remember not to tear down our team members and cause hurt feelings because that will only get in our way of doing what needs to be done systemic racism is an emotional topic for all and everyone is coming at it from all different directions based on where they come from and their Walk of Life we have a lot of work ahead of us but as I said before Warren has never complained about obstacles set before us we in this time in these times of a new normal will just have
060to make it a new new normal one where we can feel our children are both safe health-wise and as well as social emotional wise I hope very soon that when I see a parent on Facebook talking about having to have that talk with their child that is growing up it's not about how to stay alive but about the other talk the parents dread having and as I said before we ask ourselves is it in the best interest of the children I ask you now is it in the best interest of all the children of Warren Township if our minorities including our black and brown children do not have the same advantages and opportunities as our other children just one last thing to say can we take this on because it is inevitable that this is
061in the best interest of all of our children thank you so much Julie Terry um Julie you took some of what I was going to say and you actually when I was thinking about what I was going to say um you brought me to tears but um speaking from the heart and being an inner city any inner city teacher and being on our board and I want everybody to know that we are committed to change and equality for all of our students um I feel like it's important for us to break down the barriers and to be present in today's society and start making the change and stand up in our community and support our community um I just love Warren we moved here for lots of reasons and I I'm not ashamed of where
062I come from and where my kids come from I wear the W with pride thank you Terry um that leaves myself um so I wrote some stuff and then I got rid of it and I wrote some stuff and I got rid of it so hopefully this will be okay um like Lynn and Julie I very specifically chose to move here as an adult like Randy I went to Warren schools as a child and I moved back to make sure that my children would grow up in a world and go to school in a world that reflected the world around them that was purposefully diverse I believe that that was one of the greatest gifts I could give my children um but I am unique on this board though not unique among residents of this
063Township in that I attended Warren Central in the 1992-1993 school year um which was the year that we had the riot it was the year that we did not have school on Friday because every Friday school we did have school it would cut it closed really early so that teachers could receive professional development on race and race relations um and many many things have changed in those 27 years but we are not where we need to be and I don't think there's anyone who would say we are um what we know is that systemic racism has occurred in this country for at least 400 years um the first slaves were brought over on a ship 401 years ago and ever since that moment and in fact before that moment racism has existed here in a
064very deliberate way that has and it has continued and there are innumerable things between redlining and purposeful districting that you can look at that have continued that have made that systemic and generational um what we know is that since the Menendez decision um students are still separated by what language they speak and we know statistically that since Brown versus Board schools are actually now more segregated than they were when Brown was originally passed by scotus years ago um in the education system we have an absolute obligation to make sure that we recognize within the system what racism exists and fight to get rid of it and fight to make things better and fight for our children that is the absolute obligation that all Educators have and as a board that is the that is the
065obligation we must take on and we must Embrace and we must be it must be in our faces at all times um Julie took some of what I was going to say about Community dialogues we need to really make sure that we are listening and talking to parents and students and finding out how we can help them make sure that their child has the best educational experience possible we need to go to them and we need to get those questions answered and they are not questions that we can answer um two more things it's important to name names um Tim actually opens the meeting by naming names um I just have a few we need to remember Trayvon Martin and we need to remember Brianna Taylor we need to remember Richard Brooks and Sandra Bland
066and Eric Gardner and Annie Mae Collins Ricky avoid philandro Castile and George Floyd and there are so many more names but we need to remember the names and we need to say them because there's power in admitting what we're fighting and we need to do what we do for all of our children for those adults and for those children and um okay I can get through this it is June and June is pride month and so the important thing I think that most of the pride Community has embraced about this particular June is that the Stonewall riots were started by a black woman a black transgender woman started the Stonewall riots which has really led to the great change that has happened in this country Australia lgbtq community and they have really set aside June
067to look at combining black lives matter and how black people have really affected the LGBT community and so I would like to thank both of those communities for their hard work and for all of their protests and please know that you were being heard and um with that I'm going to stop the meeting sure can I say one last thing I just want to say that you know I feel good um about the comments that I've heard from all of you because you know as a black uh representative on the board it's good to know that you understand how we feel in the black community you understand uh the problems that's facing us and you understand that there need to be a change and you understand that you know instead of just words it's time
068for us to put action behind our words and that's what I hear you saying and you know on behalf of the black community that's the step in the right direction and I want to say that I appreciate you for um understanding and having compassion on us and trying to work with us on trying to come up with a solution to put an end to this you know systemic racism that's going going on I would like to say thank you very much okay and with that board members that are online I'm going to send you a text message you have some paperwork you need to sign so remember that um and I will see you all in a couple of weeks thank you