001Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you all very much. Please be seated. Please let the record request that Brad Tucker, Jenny Dur, and Mary present. This is a special meeting on the RPB school board. Um, we have two agenda items. Uh, are there any visitors here that would like to comment? No. Seeing none, we'll move straight to our first item, which is consideration to approve the 2025 2026 teachers collective bargaining agreement. Dr. Sanders. >> Uh, yes. We had uh as you know we had our required public hearing on October 21st and um uh we went through the contract uh that night and uh I happened to uh mention
002how well I thought the bargaining went and I give a lot of credit to uh Brandy Ael for that because uh she did a lot of homework with everybody ahead of time and so it made a lot easier when we got to the actual bargaining. I I pres I have before you the [clears throat] summary of the tenative agreement um and on uh for ECA guidelines. Basically what we agreed upon is that we're going to put together a committee. We're going to go through the ECA uh schedule and uh and then make a decision on any changes that we might need to make and that we'll get all that finished uh by the end of this year, by the end of 2025. Um and um so that we can um make those changes retroactive to
003the beginning of the 2526 school year. Um second thing is uh we have the uh in the contract that for a teacher who takes a day uh off before a break or right after a break that uh they are charged two paid leave days for every one uh that they take off. uh we added the the phrase uh that if a that we a teacher would lose only one paid leave day for every half day taken off and that seems very fair and reasonable and also uh we put a timeline on uh making those decisions and uh we're I don't know if we did are we have we sent out the job form yet to anybody Jen >> I am just waiting for it to be posted on the staff bookmarks I've put a ticket
004into tech and I keep checking it but it's not there yet. So as soon as that's posted in staff bookmarks I can send that out along with the um new flyer that we have for the nurture and nourish stations for our uh moms coming back from maternity leave. >> Yeah. So that'll enable us to we'll get it well within the 10day period. It'll it'll probably be with same day. Now uh the other thing is we added uh uh days to paid parental leave. uh moved that from five to 10 days. As far as salary goes, we agreed to uh uh not make any changes uh to the base salary uh for 2526 school year. Um uh those teachers who are uh who are possessing an early literacy endorsement will receive a a $200 base increase.
005And uh we also agreed that uh the teachers uh will receive a one-time stipen payment in the amount of $2,000. And uh uh the last uh page uh shows the pay dates for 2526. I recommend your approval. The >> motion >> I'll move approval of the teachers collective party agreement. >> I'll second move and seconded. Any questions? One one quick question actually to Dr. Sanders. The first of all, thanks to the teachers association and administration for getting this done a little earlier this year because I know it's a little stressful for this group in here to get it done before Christmas. But when will this be paid? Before Christmas. I've been asked that by a few people. >> Yes. Uh we are going to take care of uh a stipen for principles and support staff.
006We're going to ask the board to approve that at the November board meeting. So I would say uh we would pay out all these stipens at one time uh which would be uh after Thanksgiving early December. >> Okay. And this and what fund will this this will come out of our education fund? We have enough in there to support this correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um >> so what is the early literacy endorsement? So, uh teachers are now required to uh take u basically do additional professional development uh and to um uh I don't I'm don't remember how many hours they have to do. >> It's 80 hours total. Um and all of our teachers who have gone through OG training, so all of our K through most of our fourth grade teachers all have
007received OG training which is 25 hours. Um there's an additional component of that that's uh 55 more hours. The state does allow um teachers since they've made it a license requirement uh for anybody who's teaching literacy or anybody really who's teaching in a K6 building um or in our case K5 um that they now um have a free program. free, meaning it's at no cost to the teacher, but it's still a time commitment. It's 80 hours. Um, the state also has tried to to help soften that blow a little bit by providing a stipen to teachers for completing their 80 hours. That stipend is $1,500, and they're offering it again, which is great. Um, so teachers can go to um, uh, the DOE website, sign up for the keys to literacy training. There's also a
008shortened key to literacy training that's not 80 hours that complements what they've already done um through our training here with OG and and um there's a modules uh science of reading modules. So there are different ways to get there but ultimately short answer is 80 hours of professional development. Um anybody who um is graduating from college now will graduate and have that training already under their belt. So the endorsement that they would go back and take this practice exam for, it's already included in their undergraduate work. Where the state is having us fill in that gap is anybody who's outside of that window. So anybody who's a practicing teacher. Um, and they gave us some leeway there. So we do have until 2027. So some of our teachers went ahead and applied for their license
009early. So 24 25. We even have some that are going to sneak it in in 2026 because if they go ahead and get it now, it gives them another 5 to 10 years down the road before the literacy endorsement has to be added. Um, we're not worried about that as a district because they have the minimum training that we're requiring, which is Orton Gillingham, which we pay for as a district and we send them to during the day or we pay them a stipen for um any type of out of school hours. Um, so we will see more and more teachers who will fall under um this literacy endorsement as they're taking that practice test and getting it added to their license. I think at this point in time we only have three or four
010something like that. Um, who this would affect. I think that we'll start seeing over the next well by 2027 we're going to start seeing those coming in um um definitely on a more regular basis. So, we'll see what that does. But this is a state requirement now. This is in state law that we have to add this to the base. Um it's not a stipen that we added that we give to teachers each year. So, as they're getting it, um that's why that's being added in there and as part of the um contract. >> Thank you. Um I do appreciate the hard work between administration and our teachers to to come up with this. I will say is just my position. I am not a fan of stipens and not moving the grid. I understand
011it. I understand we've got some financial challenges that are coming down the road. So, I [clears throat] understand it, but I don't particularly care for it. >> Well, and I I think we all agree with that. Uh this is uh an opportunity for us to really put our our school corporation in a better position next financially next fall uh to increase the base and get back to uh what our usual practice is. So this is uh considered a one-time uh uh effort to get us into a position where we can do exactly what you're saying. >> Yeah. But, you know, it's one of those things that if you uh next year they'll be starting off with the same pay that they started with this year. And if they get [clears throat] a $1,500 raise, they're
012still losing $500 from the previous year. So, it stipens can cause issues. So, I just wanted to to say my concern with that. >> I appreciate that. Is there any other discussion? U >> I did have a couple more Dr. Sanders. One was do you have the the total amount that's coming out of the ed the grand total that's coming from the education for these stipens the total dollar amount? Uh no because we are we would like to uh combine that with uh the work we want to do and we we're working on today uh as far as considering stipens for uh administrators and support staff. And so I'll when that's all done I'll give you a full uh >> grand total. Okay. >> Full total. I want to make sure the teachers understand as
013I know there's been discussions about there's no not every teacher's eligible for a tag grant this year. So that's $500 off the table. Correct. >> Yeah. >> So that's not not every that 25% of the teachers will get it this year. >> And that's and we're still working on a plan for that. I just want to make sure that that's [clears throat] and and we've been put in that position by the legislature that we have to make these decisions. And I just hope that we're making good conversations back and forth because that's going to be hanging out there the rest of the the school year. So, and that also has an effect, as Mr. Kerr said, what we do financially is what the leg legislature is kind of dictating what we're going to be doing,
014too. So, I'm I I am I do have some concerns about next year, but we have to see what the legislature if they make [snorts] any changes or not. Mhm. >> We are in uh I think better shape because we have increased in enrollment. We are in better shape than uh most school corporations in the state of Indiana. And uh because of our uh the increase in housing in our community uh and our we we do have an a uh projection uh based on a demographic study of increased enrollment. So that will certainly help our financial situation and as we've said many many times that over the years that that we've made tough decisions uh and trying to do business better and that was really the catalyst to uh going with the stipens and uh
015I we do value our teachers uh >> absolutely >> from the [snorts] bottom of our hearts we value our teachers and I tell my daughter all the time as a teacher that it's uh much harder today to be a teacher than it was when I when I was uh teaching. And um so we need to make sure that that we continue to to make good financial decisions so we could take care of our teachers. >> Any further discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. Motion carries. Our next item is the agreement with Lancer Associates. [clears throat] >> Yes. So uh with uh our last uh set of uh construction projects uh I think we've all been happy with the work that uh Lancer Associates the architect has provided us uh with
016a very beautiful looking very um well appreciated uh early uh childhood center. uh the fieldhouse is almost done and uh they really help us to stay on top of things and so as we're thinking about the next set of projects uh we would like to continue that partnership with uh Lancer uh the agreement that that you have uh that you were able to review and have before you uh is uh on phase one which is um replacing the roofs at Um uh all of our schools except for the childhood center. So the Ed includes Edgewood High School, Edgewood Junior High School, the intermediate school and the primary school as part of this project will receive uh a new roof. And also uh HVAC work uh at uh Edgewood High School and Edgewood Junior High School.
017Uh and so we're paying uh Lancer for the services of design, the design and making sure that uh all the um uh legal uh steps are taken in order to uh make sure that we get these projects uh uh designed appropriately uh out for bid and make sure that uh the projects are uh done uh according to the specs. And so, um, this contract is for, um, 580, uh,,600. Um, and once again, this is only for the work on the, uh, roof and HVAC projects. >> Motion. I >> move approval. One second. >> Seconded. discussion. >> I just I just want to add uh Mr. Kerr, I I did talk to the Lancer today after talking with Dr. Sanders and um on page four of the agreement. They creative engineering is subcontracted. They're they're used
018as consultants by Lancer, but they're all part of that lump sum we're paying too. It's not an extra charge, which was my concern. Um, so they did they did address that and I know that creative engineering's helped us with some more HVAC problems over the last year or so at the Boys and Girls Club. >> We have a ballpark of the HVAC and roof projects. [snorts] >> Uh, just curious, you know, wise how it's compared with overall project. Well, that that we would have an estimate, but uh which I don't have in front of me right now, but um >> that's right. I can go back through the >> Yeah, we've had before and added >> I think it's like uh two and a half million. >> Yeah, the two the two combined were 8.2
019million. The roofs the roofs and the H back were all like 8.2 million >> combined. Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Um with that is there any board member or registration like to give a closing comment? Seeing none this meeting. >> Good job. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music]