001need to ask for approval as the the agenda has presented user changes. >> Okay, I do have a little bit of change but but it's not a vote. It's not a vote. Uh it's just I forgot to put on there. So it'll be under 3J under new business. That is next month's board meeting will be at 5:00 instead of 6:30 and voted on it last month but I forgot to put it on there. So I just wanted next month start. >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as amended. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Uh next we have the approval of last month's uh regular session meeting minutes. Are there any questions, additions, corrections that we need to make there? >> I'll move. We approve the minutes from today. >> All in
002favor? >> I. >> Uh next we will move on to item two which is in to a which is the routine consent items approval of reports travel monthly personnel uh bill list numbers payroll claims and donations as well as field trip requests. All of this is provided to us in our packets. Uh any questions or anything you can speak to? >> To approve the routine consent items as present. >> All in favor? >> I. >> And then next is not a voted item, but it is uh submission of monthly corporation extracurricular receipts and dispersements as well as the fund uh the funds reports. And this is just letting us know what we have available uh to the information we have available to us as far as the finances of those uh accounts. So if anybody
003has any questions we can ask now if not business. Uh we do have an introduction. I went through the um consent agenda and that is personnel. So, um, Craig Bel was voted in and welcome to the Trojan team. So, Craig, Craig is going to be the principal at, um, HA. And so, as you know, that's not just the principal, but it's also a virtual program. So, Craig's um, uh, past, he's lifelong educator. He's currently with Pendleton Corrections. Previous to that, it was Cornerstone, right? Cornerstone. Yes. Christian Haven earlier, but Bloomington graduation school in Bloomington for six years before and um and so uh also has a lot of uh virtual background which is really going to be good because we do have a grown virtual and as you know um is a residential and facility
004and a lot of there as well. So really glad bring Craig on and welcome to the team. Thank you sir. Thanks. you get to meet the rest of the administrators on Wednesday of this week. And then I know that Grant Fton is going to come back and we're going to do a little bit of collaboration. >> And yes, would you like to introduce anybody? >> And with me is my beautiful wife Sherry. >> I wouldn't be here without her. So >> So we're we're thrilled. Um, yeah, it's gonna be a good good thing. So, welcome. >> Thank you. >> Uh, next what I'll do is I'll turn this over to uh Joel uh for board reorganization. >> Sure. As you likely remember, each year you have to reorganize and elect officers to the board. And
005so, I will open the floor for nominations for board president for year 2026. >> Move to nominate Seth Lee for president for 2026. Is >> there a second? Second motion second Seth Lee of any other nominations present right hearing none. All in favor of Seth Lee serving as president for 2026 please say I. >> I will turn the meeting back over to you. All right. Next we will uh look for the nomination from the vice president. >> I uh would move to nominate NS. >> Second. All in favor? I >> and then we would uh need to do a a secretary as well. >> Does anyone have a nomination for that? >> I'll nominate Jack. >> Second. >> All in favor? [clears throat] >> All right. Next, we'll have the uh the approval date of
006time and location for our regular session meetings. And uh what we'll do here is uh decide what day, what time and date. I think we've discussed some of this a little bit. So, does anyone have a does anyone have that recommendation? I'll recommend Monday evenings at 6:30 p.m. at the CDC room. >> Monday. >> Oh, yes. I'm sorry. >> All in favor? >> And then next we have the board appointments. Um, we have the legislative layon and I think Anna's done that right. I would appreciate contin uh then we have the uh RDC that's something I've done and would be I have changes with travel I like to Okay. >> Okay. We just did this as a slave. >> Yeah. >> Uh vocational board. That's Jackie, right? Corporation treasure. Megan, uh, deputy treasurer. >> And
007then attorney, >> thank you. >> And then uh next we will have the Oh yeah. Okay. >> I'll make a motion to approve the board appointment slate as presented. >> Second. >> All in favor. [clears throat] >> Now we'll move on to the uh annual declaration of conflict of interest and I'll uh let Dr. >> No, that's okay. So, um, every year, and this is a requirement every year to have, uh, or do business, um, with the corporation in some capacity, uh, we always, uh, have the opportunity to fill out a a declaration of unfortunate of interest. I fill one out, um, because my wife can, my brother work for St. Vincent Ascension. It's one of the narrow network providers that we have for healthcare. Um, probably not necessary, but I'd rather do it better
008safe than sorry. And so, um, I always like to have that in the minutes and fill it out either Joel or, um, one of our staff members deal sometimes prefer. So, um, I don't know if anybody else has a declaration that they would like to. Yeah, I do. Um, so I work with Citizen State Bank. Citizen State Bank holds a large percentage of our accounts at almost all of them. Um, now Citizens has been the bank for 50 years or something like that and I've worked for Citizens for one. Um, so I announced that one and then I also do apparel on the side which I did previously before being on the board and I just continue and then uh I have a my wife uh is a is a paid uh middle school coach,
009but I always abstain from anything to do with that. I'm uh my sister is employed through Newcastle school through the Hubard. Uh my husband is on the board of directors of Miracle League which we have an MOU with and then I am a paid mentor for the Indiana Association of School Principles and I mentor one of our uh administrators at this time. I also the owner [clears throat] of McGawan Insurance and have worked with the school and we have for 50 years. Um, again only been on the board a year. Um, and then I also the volunteer assistant for basketball and softball. So I'll abstain when those things come up for the approval on the routine consent. All right. Uh the next will be letter F and that is board compensation. I'll turn it over
010to Dr. Sh. So uh last year there were two Senate bills that were passed. It was 287 and 1.6 that impacted um schoolboard members. And previously the the cap um for compensation was $2,000 for a school board member. can't be done yet. Um, our school board members receive $1,800 per year. Uh, and and I will say while I've got this opportunity, there there throughout my time here, there have been a few um, if not several of our board members that actually don't get the money back capacity. So, I think it's recognized that you don't serve for the money because the money is not great. Um, but what uh the new the new Senate bill did was it it increased the the cap uh to 10% of the starting teacher salary. Um, and so we we
011currently have a teacher starting salary of $5,000 or $50,000. Sorry. So 10% of that [laughter] you didn't get the memo. Sorry. So I got ahead of myself. So starting and we're very proud of that. We're very proud of the fact that our starting teacher salary is $50,000. And I'm just gonna mention that that's that's a higher salary than anybody at least previous to this year in not just Henry County but Hamilton County. So when you consider that's Westfield, Carmel, um, Noblesville, Fisers, that's a bright point. We've done a great job and you know a lot of work with the association. So, um it's a good partnership there that's produced those results. Um so, the 10% going back to the 10% uh and that is $5,000. So, my recommendation is not to go to the cap,
012but my recommendation this year our teachers received a $500 increase um in a [clears throat] $500 stack. So, uh what I would would propose is the board goes from 1,800 to 2,300. Um and then every year after that it would be um whatever the teachers get from a percent standpoint. And I've talked to some of the board members uh briefly about this in terms of my proposal. Um so that way I think there's a good there's a good precedent there and it's been well well received from the teachers association uh that any increase would be equivalent to the percent of an average teacher that resulted in serve. Um, so it would establish a new baseline, but the increases from there would be if the teachers get uh and it's the average teacher. So right now
013our average teacher I'm going to guess is somewhere around 58,000 something that's pretty close to that. Um, and so whatever that average teacher would receive then because it's different, you know, a percent is going to be different. The lower their pay, it's going to be a higher percent. higher pay it behind. >> I'm not confused, but I mean it doesn't mean that you're not. So I I did my best. I I kind of had, you know, had had hard feelings with this one. Um, and but in your explanation at that moment, it came out a little bit different. So now this is where I'm confused. Um the the uh what you say the average teacher I would say is in my opinion you know whatever the base salary it goes to for the lowest teacher
014because as you've said we're not in this for the money and I want as much money to go back into the classroom. Um probably and we can talk about that, but probably percentwise because teachers don't we really don't do percents anymore. Um and so what we did this year was it was a $500 for everybody. It was a $500 increase to the base, $500 uh for their staff. Um, so those at those at the lowest level would have actually gotten a higher percent increase percentage wise versus those at very top if that makes sense. I mean I would explain it but when you're talking about um percentages >> yeah the key is that never bumping obviously not taking it to the cap in a drastic manner which is what we've seen other things other entities
015have to do because they haven't properly done the things that are supposed to be done because these are not we sit in these seats so eventually we're going to be gone uh so when that happens um you want to attract other people, you know, in some way. So, um just let me give you an example. This might help a little bit. Um so, if we're at $2,300 for the base and it was a 3% increase on that base, it would be a $69 increase for the year >> until we get to 5,000 >> until we get you be on the board a long time. That's the >> I intend to be here forever. >> Okay. I I I think and I said this in our meeting that I've heard people say that you you need
016to make the compensation higher to attract better people. I tend to feel like it's the opposite to Seth's point and Jackie's point that um I don't think we want people doing this for the money. That's not I don't think that's the right thing. Um, so I think we need to moderate that to a point where you do get some compensation for the time, but like the people are doing it for the right reasons. And I think if the money is too much, then you might end up not getting people who are doing it for the betterment of our students and teachers. And so I think this is is reasonable. I was say is that we can always opt out less. I mean people have [clears throat] >> people and we can table it. I just
017I um there was a big change. I do know looking at the at the [clears throat] Indiana School Board Association notes. This is one of those times where um it's it's a logical time to have this conversation. Awkward, but logical. >> So, we need to vote on this table. >> Yeah. Well, I would move that we um accept advance proposal towards compensation. >> Is there all in favor? >> The next would be uh I'll turn this over to Dr. Shoemaker as well. This is easy business. music business. >> So, um what we've been doing the last several months is shining a spotlight on several of our programs, a lot of our new programs, um so that the board knows and the community knows some of the new things and exciting things that we've got going
018on. So, in September, we talked about after school programming. Um we talked in October about the achievement center. Um he talked about what we're doing to to support families with food uh especially those who have food food insecurity um or suffer from food [clears throat] insecurity. That was November. In December it was leader and me uh and this this month it's the music business program um or otherwise known as emerald records. So um I think one of the things and I I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Smith is this is really his baby and and um we're proud of him uh and we're proud of all of these great people for for putting this together. So, um, uh, I think the common theme that you look at is, um, great programs, they're great
019concepts, but it's the people that we're going to look and when you look at, you know, after school programming and Rachel Thornhill and Achievement Center, Vicky Madison, Mackenzie Jackson, uh, food support, Cherry Bergen, Leaner, all of the principles. Um, I think uh that's just a good segue into you're going to be able to brag on your people. I'm bragging on you at this point. And so I'm going to turn it over to one thing that I will say a little little foreshadowing is is that this is part of um our Trojan Enterprises. Um and Mr. McDaniel will do a presentation in the future as a spotlight on Trojan Enterprises. It's really cool. Um we're doing a lot of great work with community and um really proud of our staff. So, I'm gonna turn it over
020to Mr. McKin. Yeah, this has been a really neat experience to watch um so many um staff members um take ownership of this and understanding that the ultimate goal for us as an education organization is to make sure that our students are prepared for life after high school. Um we have students who are interested in a lot of different things while they're here with us and one of the areas of interest for a lot of our students is music. So they're in band or choir and but we know that within those programs they have opportunities to gain skills in work ethic and perseverance and those are all amazing experiences that they have. But we also know that because of uh their interest in music, we can capitalize on that and provide them experiences in business
021and in entrepreneurship and in marketing and all those skills that are essential to life after high school. And so what the amazing teachers uh of this program have done is they have collaborated with a lot of organizations, a lot of professionals to create an experience for these students that gives them a a look at what um life after high school could be. And one of the things we we say with this program is for every you know they a lot of students think I'm going to be a musician. I'm going to go out and be one performing on stage. But what a lot of students don't recognize is that for every student, every performer on stage, there are 50 people got. And so understanding what that looks like and the business behind it is essential
022to moving forward uh with this program. So, but we're really excited because we have the teachers and some students here to talk about this program. So, we're gonna invite them to come on up and share about their experience. Mr. Explain this real quick and then pass around. >> Yeah, real quick. This what we're going to pass around are their compositions. >> Hello, my name is Cohen Ward. I am class my first year. >> I'm Ros Gibson. and I'm a senior and this is my first year. >> I'm Tyson Club. I'm a senior and this is my second year program. >> I'm Jen I'm a senior and this is my first year program. I will be talking about uh business and entrepreneurship side of this book taught by DJ Schoer. All juniors are required to take
023in entrepreneurship level class. They we all follow a curriculum from an online program called started up and all students are taught to approach opportunities with an innovative mindset. Now how we go about this these opportunities is with a formula called rock IRA realization open discussion tussle heterogeneous grouping iteration reflect adjust we are taught to realize the problem and realize that it's not a problem it's really an opportunity discuss it openly even if it's not comfortable we discuss it we hustle about it and our ideas go back and forth and we make the best idea possible go into groups that are very similar and can do very similar things. We make an iteration or a prototype. We reflect on it and we adjust what we need to go back through it. So, we have the final
024product that we want. All students were required to make a professional level pitch like this one, but we were given two to three months. And each student was judged by teachers and staff within the school. Like I was judged by two janitors and maybe a teacher. So [laughter] it was not all it was not all teachers >> and students were awarded based on how well they did by their pitch alone and their performance. And yeah. Okay. All students use that Roth IRA format or formula that I talked about earlier to make a physical program for a jazz festival concert and all students advertised this jazz festival on their respective social media. Actor went through a teaching of how to advertise certain advertising uh techniques to ways to grab attention. And if students were not performing
025which most of them were all required then they were helping to broaden the events. >> Okay. So along with working in our primary classroom we work a lot in Bunny auditorium for some hands-on work experience. Um this is taught by Mr. Dave Vance. So as you can see this is we are very fortunate that we have such a um developed theater that we get to work in. So we get to work um not only behind the scenes like with um groups of different groups of people but we get to work um in there. We take opportunity walks. We get to think about things that we can do that further develop the um auditorium that as you can see we have coen um working on setting up a microphone. So like I said we do a
026lot of work behind the scenes. Um we set up stuff for showire for band did some things for the um achievement day the whole year. So um along with like uh micro and stuff like that we learned at the beginning of the year to work in the sound booth. So we got to do a lot with um not only sound but for the fall musical we did and we got to work a lot with the lights. There are some really cool like lighting effects and there's some really cool things that you can do. uh working like on the board and just seeing how all that works was really cool. Um so two of the biggest things that I think that personally I have received from this aspect of my class is problem solving and communication.
027Um like I said we work with a a variety of different groups of people um like working backstage and working um with their performances and stuff like that. So that comes with a lot of different problems that pop up along the way. And it's very important to be resilient and figure out a way to solve those problems. And with problem solving comes communication. So um over here especially this is a very good example of communication. So whenever we set up the show fire risers, it's very difficult. Sometimes it can be dangerous. They're moving different things and stuff like that. So it's very important to have communication um and have some good problem solving skills. So, we are all required to work two a minimum of two events each semester. We're allowed to work more if
028we um want to, but these are just a list of some events that we've got to work. My personal favorite is the gospel concert. At the beginning of this year, we partnered with Kenzie Brown and we got to um see a bunch of different aspects of how to put together an event like that. Um we got to work with advertising. we um all reached out to or we all put uh the poster on our respective social media platforms and then we got to work on posting posters around the school and reaching out to different people just to um have a bigger audience and bigger turnout for this. Um along with advertising we worked a lot with behind the scenes things. So getting the stage set up, getting dressing room and green room set up for
029the different performers and um we got to work with all of the different performers had a sound and light technician that they brought in. So we got to work with um somebody who had experience in that side of things. So that was really cool. And then like I said, we're very fortunate to have fun auditorium just right in our back pocket. So we um work along with the high school band and choir and the middle school band and choir. Um I think I mentioned achievement day. and we got to help set up for that and if we weren't in achievement day we got to work in the booth and um do the music and stuff like that and then along with all of the other things we worked with the elementary schools for their Christmas
030programs so yeah that's um one of the aspects of our class and I think that it's one of the most important things to have hands-on experience along with getting the skills just from like lectures Okay, moving on to music theory taught by our wonderful teacher Miss Lover. To begin, we have site reading and music analysis. I think I thought this would be a great way to begin this presentation because this is the basics of music. It's understanding what's on the page before you begin to write what like begin to write to write your own um creative things such as these. Um this is something that Miss Hubard taught up talked to us and inquired but in this program we began to go in detail and truly understand like what the c this page is telling
031and I think that's what's super important about understanding music and analyzing music and um yeah so this is just like the very basics of music of understanding um what the music says what's it's telling you to do and um you know just understanding the love and how much the the artist itself put on. Next, we have piano fundamentals and ear training. Piano fundamentals is pretty important because it's a great tool to have when you're creating pieces of your own, but [clears throat] also when you're reading and trying to analyze um learn pieces on um that you're performing or maybe just doing for fun. Um Miss Hubard really um makes it a point that we truly understand the piano first along with analyzing music. That way we can get into making our own um creations. And
032the piano is a great tool to do such that. And um this is something that we use in the fire room that's a great help um that helps us understand um to help us understand um what is on the piano and how to um you know how to translate that to the page. And ear training is something that's relatively new that Miss introduced to us um this year. Well, well, we did it a little bit last year, but I would say she truly introduced us to ear training this year. And all it is is um learning what a pitch sounds like and identifying what that pitch is. And that truly helps you as a a musician to you know, be able to rely on like everything around you. Um hearing things because you know I'm
033sure well sharps and flats if you guys heard that. It's important that we understand like is your sharp flat. How do we fix that? And ear training is a great way to understand to know what that pitch is, how to fix that in the future. Then we have music theory and composition. Music theory is the and composition is the hands-on creation of what we do in this program. Here is an example of us um in the works of making some of our compositions, putting them in use, which is just a way of uploading your music and making it look more professional. Um, it's a it's a great a great tool to use to to make your piece look professional and ready for uh if you wanted the producer to produce that movie. This is a
034great way to get that set up and the composition itself. Um, this is just kind of like the format of how we do things and this is the finished result. Um, this is the semester piece and then that is a fall haiku that we did. And um, yeah, this is this is the result of what you get from everything that I just showed you. This is the end result um that we that we love to see. Um and then we have the recording and then the special guest very um the recording part um really what this is is once you get your finalized piece it comes down to three things. Recording mixing and mastering which is what we do. Um and try and bring that piece from the page to real life. that that's that's
035the goal of recording this. And Mr. McDaniel gave us the amazing opportunity to bring in Jeremy Manning, which if you don't know, he is the producer that produced all of Michael, well, not all of, but I think a few albums of Michael Blaze, which is amazing. And uh he helped us um truly learn how to utilize these tools um that's been given to us. And um it's amazing to to to see um you know, how to truly work that by professional. And that was just an amazing opportunity. Um over here is it bio if you would like to read that. And um yeah this is this is the behind the scenes on um what the music that you hear. This is what happens before it gets out of the mainstream. This is the behind scenes
036that people don't realize the the moving parts that happens in between. And yeah will be minus small curriculum. This is just a senior only activity and is taught by our teacher and our anyways our teacher Mr. >> trying to think of director that was so with the minus law curriculum what we have is packets and uh packets of information given to us from Mr. Minus. So we may go over and learn the legal side of music business. So for the first couple uh packets that we've gotten from Mr. Midas is the basics of creating a band. So obviously everyone knows the basics of creating a band is getting a few friends together in your parents' garage, getting a guitar set of drums and going to town. But for the first legal part of creating a
037ban is forming a band agreement and or a limited liability company or an LLC, which is a document or a piece of paper that legally binds the ban of who's in the group, how the group works, or if they were to add a group, add a group member or lose group member or break the band up entirely. It also measuring to effect of who in the band will work the money like finances and buying equipment. And the next part of this is creating a public image for your band. So that's like the band's name, the logo, maybe how the band members dress, how they look, how they act out into the public, which is for example um just logos of bands like say the Rolling Stones and things like Kiss, all all stuff like that.
038And the final part is marketing, trade marketing, which as uh as many probably know is how you promote yourself, your band, and how you are able to uh show the world out there like who you are and what you what you and the next couple packets packets we've gone over is managers and agents. So your band has uh gained traction. It's starting to grow a little bit more and so you be you are wanting to go perform out to more bigger broader places and you are getting more revenue. So and your friend Kyle does not want to uh have all this stress and weight on his shoulders while also taking your time to create your music. So you will hire agents and managers. So some of the first uh major fraud managers are artist managers
039who serve as the public face and primary representative of an artist. So they help with um with creating more of a like iconic look for your band and they help distri distribute uh your image out onto either physical media either through records, albums, uh the news, maybe radio, TV shows, concert stuff like that. That may also help with uh social media aspects maybe posting your uh your stuff on as I said before more of the news, more radio and also like just any social media platform they can think of. And the next is uh our music agents which secur which secure live performances and gigs for your client. So instead of having one of your bandmates uh taking time out of their day that you could use to make music, you have someone else looking
040for places who are willing to have you in their space and perform for people in their in their area. And the next uh next uh section we've gone over is our record labels. So record labels are just companies who are willing to help help bands create music and promote themselves uh for a little bit of money. So there are three different levels of record labels. So the first one uh the most expensive are obviously major uh major labels which have the most resources to help your band grow and so of the stars. But then there are three major uh labels. There are the Warner Brothers, Sony and Universal. Universal. Thank you. And then the intermediate level is the independent labels or the indie labels which are more which do which do not have as many
041resources as the major labels but are more artist friendly. So they allow the artists or the bands have more creative liberty with their work and have more leeway with with what they will allow and what they will change. And then the final one is DIY artists who run labels. So the artists themselves or the band run their own record label. So they fully work on designing, distributing, marketing, uh finding gigs, all that stuff, which is very beneficial because they have complete 100% control of their work and of their music. But it does but they do run the risks of failing without having a fallback. And our next one is songwriting and copyrightiting. Obviously the songwriting you get with your your band uh your bandmates you write music you compose it and then after you have
042your entire song you go through the copyrighting process which as you know you go into your copyright uh law firm get it registered under under the law. But there are three major uh rules that come to copyrighting when it comes to music. Is the originality. So is it original? Does it not have any things taken from other people's songs uh created by a human being? So only has to be created by uh by mankind. Nothing robotic, animalistic, nothing, just humans. And then fixed in a in a tangible medium of expression. So basically just any form of art. So it's not just like random like you're just beating pots and pans together and saying, "Oh, I this now my song is copyrighted." Instead, it has to actually be a form of art. And then the final
043one we've gone over are record deals. So record deals are deals and uh law law binding uh things done with the artist and uh the record labels. And basically they are just allowing of what the label to do for the arts. So the first one is the dist distribution deal which the label only and only distributes the artists work in music. Nothing else. No more no less but they do get a little bit amount of cut. And the next one are label service deals which the record label does get a bit more cut but they do help with a lot more stuff like promoting managing uh PRs and other stuff like that. And the next one, the license deal is a 50-50 split of cut. The record label helps with a lot more stuff of
044marketing, distributing, and also helping with like artist management and helping how maybe some help of how to create the music. But there is like a five to twoyear uh uh two-year deal where the record deal has a had rights to some parts of the music of the sound recording. And until those years deals are up, the artist does not have the rights to their sound to their channel. Then there's the full label deal where [clears throat] the record deal has a bigger and broader uh control over what the artist has created and what they can do with it, but they have more resources to get the artist to make their music and their uh their business grow. 360 deals is much like a full label deal, but instead of just doing stuff with the music
045to help, they help with touring, marketing, and all other stuff like that. the whole aspect of the artist career. And then the final one that is that the artist maybe is done creating music and maybe just or maybe want to go more on the lay low level and doesn't want to do any more of the work. They make a deal with the record label where the record label now has complete 100% authority and control of their work whether that be past, present or future. Yeah. >> Well, thank thank you all for being here to to talk about that. They've been able to do some really neat things going a lot of different universities. They've had like the partnership Jeremy Mang has mentioned. Um they they were last year and they're going to do it again
046this year. They were able to record their own competitions with a professional uh recording engineer with the equipment at the school. So, it's been pretty neat to to see all that they've been able to do. Have a partnership with the Palladium in Carmel where they get to go and talk to artists, do concerts there for free. Um, and uh, it's been it's just been amazing to watch the program grow. So, we thank the teachers especially with everything they've done to to make this happen. Well done. >> This is a pass project of of Mr. McDaniels and probably shoot me for saying this, but he is being recognized this Friday uh as an administrator award for the Indiana Music Education Association. because of all these different projects he has done with us. He was nominated and
047a very uh strict committee uh took under adisement and he won for the state. So >> great job presenting tonight. appreciate the information sharing the great things that are going on. So that's awesome. Uh next we'll move on to the uh >> Yeah, you guys you guys are >> everybody's welcome. Great job. That would be good for you. Okay. Thanks for coming. Well, I will say [laughter] >> I will say I I didn't mention that Greg we had met in his second interview at um pick up and so we went out and met Grant Director Woods and some of the staff members some of the kids and whatnot and so after that um I was talking to Director Woods She she said because they're our educational market as well and she said we did hire
048and I said yes [laughter] he's got so it was nice to get that [clears throat] next we'll move on to Mr. provide is the CMS uh curriculum. >> Yeah, thanks. Um so middle school would like to make an addition to course selections that's available for our students in seventh and eighth grade. Um this would be a beginning concert band and beginning chorus. It would be available for seventh and eighth graders. It's a high school accredited class. Um it is something that would really would and we've met with the music department both band and choir. they're both on board. The opportunities to provide a high school credit to students in seventh and eighth grade would not uh limit the credit or the crediting that kids would have in the high school as well, but it would
049allow students to get additional credits in the middle school. Really, when they look at the description that the current curriculum and description they have, they should be able to just make a few minor tweaks to make sure that those standards are being covered. This will allow students to get not only a credit in seventh grade and in eighth grade, but with the new accountability model through the state, it would allow us to get some additional bonus points beyond just the academic proficiency piece. So, this could actually help our school letter grade when we can have seventh graders that are earning two or more credits at this level. Um, I think that they all feel the department feels this can also help with retention because when you can promote and provide opportunities for students to learn
050to get a credit in the middle school. Um, it just adds to that. Currently, [clears throat] you know, we can have students that are departing the middle school with up to 10 credits. This would expand that opportunity even more. So, we're excited about this opportunity. Um, and yeah, I'll go to any questions that you may have. So would this be in an addition to the seventh >> an eighth grade band? Would this be like a wind ensemble to the band? >> That's a good question. So to clarify, it would be renaming the current classes that we have >> and would allow those descriptions to be met the additional classes. It's essentially rebranding what we have to allow us to give the credential. So obviously there's an interest. We already have the classes. >> Yeah. It's
051essentially the classes that we're having right now. It just allows us to change the coding with the state of Indiana, allow us to offer a credit for that. So that's why the seventh and eighth grade band teachers feel like, hey, this is something we could do and could do right away. If approved, we could put it in place for this semester and we would start promoting that even when we start the conversations in February for future man. >> I'll make a motion to accept the um easy curriculum changes. >> All [clears throat] in favor? >> I the next thing is the - category one. So, you want to cover that? >> Yes, we'll cover that. >> I can cover deals with this, too. [laughter] Um, so, uh, [clears throat] long story short, when you look
052at your cell phone bill, there's a fee that's taken out for universal service. It is what allows for schools, libraries, and I think it's a hospital bill and rural hospitals to benefit from internet connectivity. Uh category one are are our um internet connections between buildings and our additional bandwidth. Those were up this year. And uh we had several um companies give us bids. And um for additional bandwidth, I recommend Metronet uh because they had the best price per what what we know from um past experience that we're going to get uh from that and the level of service. Um AT&T was a little bit lower, but we've not had a good business relationship with them in the past when they carried our T1s uh when I first started here. And as for our wide area
053network, you'll see where the same ones are in there because they bid for internet access, additional bandwidth, and the land together. Metronet separated theirs out. Um, looking at the price, one of them we would have to actually do a townwide fiber optic buildout. That would cost more than a million dollars. >> That would be additional fees. it would be covered, but we wouldn't have what we needed in time. Um, so again, I'm recommending Metrodet for that. Um, they have the best price per gigabit that we would want and, uh, have a good working relationship with their technicians and their staff. Um, whenever we've had an issue, they've been out very quickly to resolve it. >> I had, what's the lady who's your sales rep? I had her on the phone the other day talking to
054her about some other businesses. >> I dropped her name. >> She was very impressed. >> Yeah. >> We have a good experience with them. >> Yes. Yeah. We've been >> Yeah, we've been pretty happy with them for the last few years. They've given us great uh service. So, those are the recommend recommendations from the technology department. And then I'll have category two for you in a couple months on some equipment purchases. So, I'll move we approve category one. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> item J is a reminder for the February 9th schoolboard meeting starts at 5:00 pm instead of 6:30. And then next we'll move on to uh Mr. McDaniel and the building groundsation update. >> Two things. Uh the high school restrooms um they are still in the midst of um
055being renovated. the company that we are working with um somehow in the ordering process with the manufacturer had the hinges put on the wrong side of the doors. Uh so we're waiting on those to get delivered the uh the repairs on that one. I know the high school's really happy about that. [laughter] >> The multi-purpose restroom facility, you probably seen it. It's going really really well. Um the they're really moving along quickly. Very happy with Pride Mark. Speaking of Pride Mark, Bundy Auditorium, uh there were some issues. If you ever were in there, noticed the the uh liner around the seating where the lights are and behind that, it would it would start to chip up. It just wasn't looking good. They found a solution for us and say we were the contractor on that
056project. Came back for no additional fees. Didn't cost charge the thing to get all the material and everything. It was recently nothing better. So, very thankful for Pride Mark and the work they do. Great relationship that we have with them. uh fieldhouse scoreboard. They're working on the electrical pieces right now for uh for potential uh additions to the fieldhouse space. In terms of scoreboarding um and uh working with some engineers as well, uh we are currently in need um of a few bus drivers. Uh we're getting to that point in the year where we're recognizing where we're going to need a couple more people. So, uh we have that is currently posted. It's always posted. Uh, but if you know anyone who would be interested in doing that, uh, the CDL, we walk you through
057every every step of that and we will get you the CDL license to drive a bus. We love to have people apply to to do that for us. But that's it for me. >> All right. Next, we'll move on to Dr. Shoemaker for the superintendent report. So this Thursday, January 15th, uh the Newcastle County Chamber of Commerce will hold superintendent report on education at 11:30. Um it was sunny. >> Oh, it's sunny. It isn't sunny. It is sunny. It is what day? What time? Thursday at 11:30. It was last year. Yeah, it is a sunny sun. um 11:30 and that's on Thursday. Uh and I'm sure that um schools will give reports on Senate roll back one programs that they've got such an development. Um I would like to say also that we're close to
058we've actually in in concept and principal reached an agreement on the teacher appreciation grant. Um, and so can't I can't do a meeting this perhaps text me to meet with teachers and review that with the teachers. So I've already reviewed that with the board, but I think we're all all um we got the best plan possible. Um, we are working on the 2728 school calendar. We expect approval date in February or very late March. While they're here and I want to thank them for being here, it seems like they're everywhere. Kim Nicholson and Molly Smith. Uh you really you've been all over the place called Will Chuck and a duck the other day. >> You're not allowed to go on the court in case you're wondering. >> Learned that. >> Really? Because I I mean
059you would think that >> I took him right up to the court and then he said don't get on the court. >> Okay. >> I've never checked it. >> It was cute. But I want to thank you for though for how much um you contribute um and how much effort that you're putting forward with this. >> Um and that's good that goes for all this. >> Um so let's get to the slides. Two slides. So I'm going to go pretty quickly. Uh so the first one is uh we actually have in the very center with little baby see the baby right there a little bit close up uh Misser she's been schmeer um she's been here 14 and a half years and so she's leaving retiring to go babysit and that's that seems to be
060a trend that um losing quite a few good ones to the babysitter but that's that's such a privilege. Um, Panther Christmas is the next one and that is that's just a cool site. Beautiful. We talked about Bundy before. Such a a great venue. Um, want to thank Dave Dance for all of his work. He's just been fantastic as he's moved into his new role. Also thank Kim Sidwell and and K Marlo for their work on the performances with the next one is Chris Pringle. You can see actually be Chris over to the right. And that was um I believe that was um they did snow angels and uh that I believe went viral. So and he's back there playing the guitar. So he has a little bit of everything there. Good good leadership. We do
061appreciate what's going on. Been a little bit under the weather. Maybe it was those snow angels on but we hope for a speedy recovery. um speaker hysteria. Uh a lot of IU um vibes going out there and it's probably why you're a little bit raspy from Friday to Friday [laughter] if I had to take a guess. I made that connection. But it's really cool to see the the wave of of who's your hysteria. Next we got um Wilbur Wright, Miss uh trying on instruments and uh that's just good stuff. She's the perfect person to go out and introduce the music to. She just has fun every single day. She has fun. Such a great great employee. So that's that's over with the fifth graders to let them experience different instruments there. Um next um we've
062got Aubrey Lap. She's actually going to be here next month. Uh this was a little bit of fun uh ceremony tonight. So um I asked if she could be here on the night. So she will be here. uh with with family. She's chosen to attend Purdue next year and she's going into the engineering program. So, she's the second out in three years a war runners. That's a big deal. So, really proud of her. Um community partners, uh that's through the career center. Some really cool um CCLA jackets there. Want to thank Lisa Myers and Jen Howard for uh helping us purchase those. So, a lot of great connections in community. Um and we really appreciate the partnerships. uh the fieldhouse uh we had the one 1000th game uh at the alumni night and you can
063see pictured um obviously want to thank Corey Bennett Trace Thornberg but uh Roy Darbin was given a beautiful ceremonial ball game or game ball and he played in the very first game which is pretty incredible and on November 21st 1959. Well, look at that. We got a we got a star there. Yeah. So you look like up there [clears throat] a little bit. [laughter] So good times. Uh and the alumni band always a big hit. Um and so Lady Trojans, they won the holiday classic. They were the champions. They defeated Hamilton Hines, Franklin County, and Odin Oldenberg. So, congratulations to them. Great victory. Girls wrestling, we had actually had three girls uh wrestle. Paris Washington, Olivia Dudley, and Peyton Nash. They came back um with history as Olivia Dudley was crowned as the first ever
064regional qualifier for Lady Croger North wrestling program. That is very cool. Um I was actually in um in the uh lunchroom and one of them came up and said, "Hey, I pinned my phone last time." I was like, "You go." So they're really excited. Okay, next we've got Boomer and um on December 30, the Lady Trojans uh invited Boomer to come out. So you can see Carl's kind of given the eye there. I'm not sure what that's about, but um the fans loved it and so it's really really nice. I want to thank Matt for making that connection to come out because I know the the little ones I'm not sure little one was there that >> we were there. Absolutely. >> He was a little nervous but he got jumped. >> Oh, really? >>
065Yeah. Yeah. So, um next we've got um Citizens Bank. Want to thank them for their involvement, their ongoing involvement. Um they gave $1,500 uh to support the girls basketball program. Want to thank Latina Masters and Rich Warner also pictured as board president Seth Lee and we got Logan lines back in the back. So want to thank them for their generosity and their leadership. Um next it looks like fairly happy on that one. So he he was the um the only student ever to be crowned as the four-time Connorsdale Spartan Classic champion. So there were 45 schools competing in that meet in Connorville and he's the one in ever that's been a four-time champion. So quite you know his his accolades keep on stacking up such a great Krogan and such a great kid too. So
066it's it's fun to see. Want to thank and congratulate all the wrestlers. Uh uh truly had a good time. So um I want to thank and recognize Kristen Owens just for being a fantastic coach. She was a coach of the year in swimming for the Heritage Conference. It's the first one according to Cory Bennett, first one he's had since he's been here first coach of the year and that's been going on his fourth year. So third year. So congratulations to her. Congratulations to all of the swimmers that made that happen, too. Um, and the last one is low rider. I think this is Yeah. And so after the win on uh Saturday night, uh the kids went over and uh kind of a new tradition where they they play low rider the 1975 classic and
067yeah, it started as a gag and now it's a thing. So good times. It helps when you win too. So [laughter] that's it. >> Yeah, I was there for the uh basketball fan celebration. That was a that's a genuine thing as a former basketball player. Josh can speak to this is is a whole different world when the fans there and uh there's great appreciation from the athletes, the fans fans there. So they do a great job. Uh that's part of what makes the Philadelphia special. So it's nice players over the love like that. It's fun. >> Uh so next we'll move on to the budget. That will be uh we'll turn it over to Megan. >> So we recently closed out the 25 budget. Prior to doing so, we did one final transfer to cover
068the December expenditures. So the board had given previous approval to transfer up to $350,000 from the education fund to the operations fund for the December 2025 expenses and that amount is the amount that we trans the full amount that gave us just over 14% that was transferred for the year. Uh we call the state was up to 15%. So we go not quite a percent but right around that 14% for 2025 >> and then uh next we'll move on to the approval to avoid stale dated checks. >> Um so at the end of the year we also do some cleanup from checks that are outstanding longer than two years. So those get voided and they go back to the account. We do reach out to the vendors making them aware that they can issue that
069the sign an affidavit say the check is lost. We issue another one. Um unfortunately we don't always get the response from them. Um so but we we work to hopefully get all of our vendors to but um every year we have some some that are still remaining. So we'll get that cleaned up. I'll make a motion that we wave the stable dated checks as presenting. Second. >> All in favor? I >> uh next we have public questions and comments. >> Yep. Go ahead. >> Um I would like to thank Dr. Shoemaker for um working together on that tag grant. it was particularly challenging and um [clears throat] I think it is the best the the best plan that we could come up with. Um and it was challenging uh it was a challenging handed down
070from the state. a challenging amount of money given a challenging opportunity from the state for us to come together and come up with >> fair way to do it and I think we came up with the >> best possible way to distribute money to teachers. So um thank you very much. >> Any other comments? All right. >> Yes. [laughter]