001I'll call this meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge 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. >> You all very much. Please be seated. And I would like to open the uh second preliminary determination hearing. And um if you would be interested in speaking at the hearing this evening, we would ask that you sign in and you would be um uh we'll go through the rules of that if anybody signs in. Um, so at this point, uh, we I'd like to ask that Jacob Mlullen from Bose McKinnon and Evans explain the purpose of this hearing. He's our counsel. >> Yeah. Thank you, uh, Mr. President. Jacob Mlullen with Bose McKini
002and Evans. Um, under Indiana code, uh, it's 6-1.1-20-3.5. um given the size of the potential bond that you're authorizing, um you have to hold two public hearings um and kind of present the financial information and the need for the project um before you adopt a resolution assuming you determine to proceed forward uh preliminarily determining uh to proceed with with the bond issuance. Um given that this is in excess of of what's called the controlled project threshold under the Indiana code. So um the public the hearings and the uh resolution um they incorporate u parameters provided by Stiffl and those are not to exceed parameters not necessarily what you guys will end up proceeding with um but uh I also know just for for purposes of the statute that there's some statutoily required information here um
003some calculations that we had to run through um just like in the past when you guys have done uh control projects and there's another stack I brought some extras and Robin has them out uh in the lobby. So, um the project is just for the record um for various uh improvements um some renovations at the high school uh which could include roof replacement, repair renovations and solar installation. Uh band and choir expansion upgrades, improvements and renovations. um constructing and equipping additional classrooms. Constructing and equipping biomedical training classrooms, um installation and upgrades to turf at the baseball field, installation of turf and other improvements and upgrades at the softball field, technology, office storage and workspace upgrades, replacements and equipping, parking and asphalt repair upgrades and replacements, tennis court repairs and renovations, and other related renovations. um
004at the high school. Uh a list of uh renovations at the junior high, roof replacement, renovations and repair, solar installation, band choir expansion upgrades, improvements and renovations, constructing and equipping additional classrooms, replacement of bleachers, parking and asphalt repair upgrades and replacements. um tennis court repairs and renovations and other related renovations and um other renovations at the primary school and the intermediate school including roof uh renovations uh and replacements and solar installation uh playground expansion. Um asphalt patching, resurfacing and parking uh improvements and other related renovations. Um, and I'll note just for the record, just for, uh, for for the public's purposes, uh, you're listing all the projects to authorize them. You won't necessarily do all those projects. It's just to authorize and to provide notice to the public of what you might do. Um, the
005as far as timing, um, this is the second preliminary hearing uh, determination. Assuming you adopt the preliminary determination resolution, um, we would provide notice. There's a 30-day period when folks could remmonstrate uh to have the referendum process apply. Um during that time, we'll also put out a notice. This would be a bond issuance through your building corporation. That's a 30-day notice. And because of the way that your meetings run and the newspaper runs, um we would be back at your September uh board meeting. And we'd also have the building corporation meet uh just probably just before your meeting um to consider an amendment to your existing lease with the building corporation. This would be a building corporation bond. Um then we would be back in October to authorize the issuance of bonds. There's a couple
006of additional public hearings there just to make sure um the public has a chance to comment and then we would be in a position to close potentially um in mid November. Um I think Jerry would work with Stiffl um to kind of determine um the best time when you need funds, if it's best to wait till closer to the end of the year or when it's best to price. So um wi with that I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. President. And now we'll hear from Dr. Sanders uh about the process of determining the scope of the project and the need for the project. And he'll also provide a general description of the project though uh Mr. Mlen did a pretty good job at and how it addresses the school community and student needs.
007So, uh, as Jacob mentioned, we we have a number of of, uh, uh, projects, uh, that we, uh, have established, uh, for these, uh, uh, bond hearings. uh we've we've uh gone through uh the process of identifying the needs and we did that by first of all we had a facility study done in 2022 and we continue to operate uh off of that facility studies uh uh study that we've identified the the needs uh that are prioritized in that study. Uh we've had uh two uh demographic studies. The most recent one by McKibben Demographics in 2024 and then most recently uh the board has uh met with uh teachers, administrators, uh athletic director, uh representatives from the performing arts maintenance uh department, Gilman Construction Technology and uh also Lancer Architect Firm. And uh so we
008feel like the needs uh that we've identified are very important to the corporation and providing a a positive safe and environment that will be that will be engaging to our students. >> Thank you. And we will now hear how the proposed project will be financed as well as information about the effect on the typical property tax payer. So, we'll turn it back over to Jacob McCl. Do >> you want to? >> Yeah, Jake and I are going to tag team on this one. Uh, this is the same presentation that we had at the first preliminary uh determination meeting. Uh you could see on uh this first slide is uh the current situation with our uh outstanding date uh debt uh and if we did nothing uh that this would be be uh what the years
009that the debt would be coming off in in different uh bonds. Uh the next slide is if we uh approve uh get approval for uh the the uh projects uh the asking per permission to bond for the $40 million. This is how it would uh show in terms of current debt and and potential debt uh over the next several years. And then uh the last slide here really just shows uh some of the uh specific uh projections in terms of numbers, interest rate uh uh payment, estimated payments uh and uh how this project would impact the finances uh for uh Edgewood schools. Do you want to add anything? >> Slide two. If you can go back to slide two. Those are I guess I would just say it's it's based on that's max parameters and
010that is assuming that you guys were to issue everything at the max parameter. Um I think Jerry will work with Stiffl and and based on your needs you'll probably do multiple series. We've authorized multiple series over the next couple of years. So um and this also makes some assumptions about um the impact of uh Senate Bill one. Um but I think the point is working with Steifel um Jerry will you guys your goal is to make this kind of tax neutral for the taxpayers. So >> what's that% >> that's at the 7% that assumes a drop in net assessed value and it doesn't assume very it assumes very conservative growth if any at all. Um, so yeah, they're trying to set you up to show a worst case scenario >> to note that this will
011will be done over a series of bonds and as we plan the individual projects to to be done. So, okay. Um, now I will open the hearing to public comment. Is there anybody who would like to uh comment here at the second preliminary determination hearing? Okay, seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Thank you. And now next we have another hearing. And so I will open the 1028 public hearing and turn to the uh statement of purpose. Um this the 1028 hearing. Uh again, if you're interested in speaking, uh please let us know. We'd be happy to hear from you. Um I would like to note that the notice of this 1028 hearing was published as legally required as was for the second determination hearing uh before this. Um and then so again I'll
012turn it over to Jacob McClullen with Bose McKenna and Evans who is our bond counsel uh to state the purpose of this hearing. >> So so again this this uh the 1028 hearing was in statute before the preliminary determination hearings were in statute. So this is essentially kind of the similar exercise. Um it's it's a little bit lesser than what you have to do for the preliminary determination. um the resolution that you'll have before you later at the board meeting um runs through essentially these parameters to show that you've considered the impact. So again, I mean unless unless folks want us to go back through, I think you can revert back or reference back to the prior hearing. So it everything that you've covered in the prior hearing is more than you need to cover
013for the 1028 hearing in other words. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions or I'll turn it back over to you, Dana. Just uh to clarify, the the effect on the levy, the tax levy is neutral. >> You you guys have the ability to control it. And that's what I think that's what your goal is and what you're what you're going to do. That's I mean, you're going to you're authorizing 40 million, but I believe you're going to look and work with Stifel to keep that levy, >> right, >> the same as it was or the rate the same as it was. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> All right. >> Thank you. At this time, I will open the hearing up for public comment if there's anyone who would like to comment
014at the 1028 hearing regarding the purpose or anything related there too. Hey, seeing none, then I will close the 1028 hearing. Thank you for us through those two items. Oh, sure. Um, and so now I will call to order the regular July 2025 uh meeting of the Richland Beam Blossom Community School Corporation School Board. And uh, please let the record reflect that all of the uh, members are present. And are there any visitor comments? Okay, once again, no visitor comments. So, we'll move straight into the consent agenda. So, we have approval of minutes from June 17, 2025, the regular school board meeting. We have the treasures report for June of 2025. And Mr. Dal, the claims, please. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Gross wages on June the 6, 2025, 1,21,2735. gross wages on June the
01520th 2025 $698,97962 for 1,7205267 vouchers claims prepaids for June the 1st 2025 through June the 30th 2025 is 3 million866,7769 for claims regular vouchers for 715 2025 at 278,8 $893.74 for $4,154,67043 for a grand total of 5,874,92310. >> Thank you. We also have personnel resignations, retirements, non-renewals, leaves, and terminations C1 through 7 and personnel appointments and transfers D1 through 35. And do we have a motion on the consent agenda? >> I moved approval. >> Sorry. Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any comment? Hear >> none. All those in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. >> Motion carries. And Mr. Acriman, do you have an introduction? >> Yes. Uh, I have a couple teachers here tonight uh that are on the packet. Uh, this is Jacqueline Sorg. Uh Jacqueline is our new English teacher. Uh she's coming
016to us via Bloomington North. Uh she's been a halftime German teacher. Um so uh with the numbers we have in our German classes, we'll probably take advantage of that as well as her being an English teacher. Um we're really excited to have her. Uh Matt Stark, who is the principal of Bloomington North, is a good friend of mine, and he really just had just great things to say about her. So uh we're excited to have Jacqueline and Ryan Stone. Um Ryan comes to us via a number of different places. Most recently, I think LA, right? Um and has a lot of different teaching experiences uh in private schools, public schools, um and he will be teaching algebra 2 and algebra at the high school. So, we are really excited to have both of our new
017teachers at Edgewood High School along with five others that we've already sent through the board. been teaching mainly sophomores >> and freshmen. Okay, so Melissa's Melissa's load. >> Okay, welcome. >> You both could be here tonight so we could get to meet you. Thank you. Thank you both for coming. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, no, there's the supplemental personnel report and Dr. Sanders. >> Yes. So, uh, we are asking the board tonight to approve, uh, Samantha Richards to be the head custodian at Edgewood Intermediate School. Uh, Indiana Code 20-26-5-11.2 two requires uh any SC school personnel hired after June 30th, 2023 who have certain offenses uh on their background check must be voted on and approved by school board in a separate agenda item. Uh you received the background information from me and so
018I'm asking for the board to approve uh this uh hire tonight. I move >> the supplemental personnel report. >> I'll second it. >> Discussion. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Now we move into our financial report. And for that we bring back a friend from the past officer. So >> could you speak at the mic for cats? I'm sorry. It doesn't amplify in here, but it helps for the Yeah. >> Um, hello to everyone and I'm glad to be back. Uh, however, it's much better circumstances than it was six years ago. So, I'm pleased with that and I wish Matt well. Really do. Um, his this is his cash flow. And so, uh, primarily we look, um, at the education fund and we look at the operations fund
019and you know what the state's been doing a little bit with property tax movement. And so we're going to for the next three years pay real close attention to the operations fund. It's going to be okay in 2026. they're allowing that 4% growth factor to enter in, but but then in 27 and 28 they zeroed that out and it's gone. So what they do with any kind of increase in the future there, it could be nothing, it could be one, could be 2%. So we'll have to watch that. Um that's going to eat into the levy. And so we want we want to be really aware of that. When you get your cash flows, you want to pay attention to January 1st. You look at that number, January 1st up in the upper leftand corner.
020And you look at the last number over on the right hand side in the little black box, December 31st down there. And if those two numbers match up pretty close, your year is rolling along pretty good. And that's where you are. where you're at a little over four million, close to 5 million in January, you're 4 a.5 million at the end of the year, and that's what you want to see. This is just kind of a snapshot of the future. The operations fund will be one, like I said, that will be interesting to watch. Um, but it's doing the same thing right now. It's starting with a number ending with a number that's very close to that or maybe even a little bit higher. And that's okay. Um, you know, you always get into a
021debate about how much cash to keep in this fund. Um, especially the education fund. When the state put the screws down on the operations fund and debt service fund and that and said you can only have 15% of it in cash like it used to carry 50% in debt service. Now it's 15. your operations, you got to keep it lower because it it moves your budget and and affects the budget in a bad way when it comes to that fund. When you do the budget in August, September, the education fund then carries more cash balance. it it doesn't really have a number there that the state tracks or anything, but when you're spending $2 million a month on average, and if you look at your budget, it's around 20 20ome million. You're spending around 2
022million every month. And so, you've got to have a certain number there in hand or if you don't and you fall too low there, you're going to be borrowing money to operate on. And you don't want to do that if you don't have to. Now, you know, there's ways to do it, but but our goal is not to do that. So, right now, I'd say you're you're in pretty good shape. And like I said, we'll keep an eye on that operations fund as we move forward. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Really good to have Paul back. >> It is. Yes. And when I think back uh to when I became superintendent and the situation we were in back then and uh it was really a a great year working with Paul and
023then when we brought Matt on board and uh a lot of our financial success over the years can be traced back to Paul and we're glad to have him back uh working with us. Uh, we have them coming on Tuesdays so we can go to a China buffet restaurant for lunch. >> They don't do Mondays. >> That's something you don't want to forget. >> Okay. Well, welcome back. Um, now we'll turn to consideration to approve the preliminary determination and 1028 resolution. So, Dr. Sanders. >> Actually, we're going to have uh uh Jacob come back up and and talk to us about the purpose of the resolution. >> So, again, so this uh outlines everything we discussed in those public hearings. Um it outlines the project that you've complied with the statute. Um and we've combined
024I I know you'll recall a few years ago we would do these as separate uh resolutions, but we combined it into one since there's such overlap. um and it makes the preliminary determination to proceed with the project to proceed with the issuance of the bonds. It includes those parameters um from Stifl uh the not to exceed 40 million uh 20-year term uh max for each series of bonds um and the 7% max rate. Again, um I uh Stifa will work with Jerry uh in sizing as you guys have needs and to make sure that um the rate stays level given the impact with SB1. Um and again, assuming you guys adopt this, we'll put out a notice that starts a 30-day clock. We'll put out another notice at the same time and we'll be back
025in September um for another public hearing and it'll this time it'll be on the lease and it'll cover kind of a lot of the same uh topics but again you want to have thoroughly considered everything and given the public a chance to comment. So with that I'd be happy to answer any questions. >> Okay. Any questions? Just material we've been looking at for quite a while now. Okay. Approval of the preliminary determination 1028 resolution. >> Move it. Second. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. >> Motion carries. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, J. >> We uh really appreciate all the work that you put in and helping keep us on track for this. I appreciate that. >> We appreciate Okay. Okay. Um, next is consideration to
026approve the Corson uh agreement. So, Dr. Sanders. >> Right. So, uh the uh annual agreement uh for the fire alarm sprinkler monitoring system is part of this agreement. It's a monthly service fee of $280. And also part of the agreement is a five-year plan for internal inspection of sprinkler pipes for the Edgewood Junior High School and Edgewood High School. The annual fee is $1,165 for the junior high and $2,93 for the high school. I recommend your approval. >> Approval of the course and agreement. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion carries. Uh now consideration to approve the transportation handbook. >> So the uh transportation handbook uh was in desperate need of of being updated. Uh Audrey Meyers, our director of transportation, has uh taken this summer to go through the
027handbook, uh update all of it, and I've listed for you in a board packet the different areas that the handbook covers. The Jennifer general qualifications and conditions for employment contact uh contract and fleet buses and drivers uh information uh general use and care of school buses uh bus operation transportation of students routes uh safety procedures and emergencies and security and threat awareness. Uh I recommend your approval. >> A second Um any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. Now consideration to approve a memorandum of understanding with Jack Inc. >> All right. So unfortunately uh we received really late in the summer uh that uh the Indiana legislative legislature approved uh the uh fiscal year 2627 by bianaman can't say that word. >> Yeah. state budget bill transitioning
028state funding for uh school dropout and prevention programming into a new freedom and opportunity in ed in the education fund within the budget of the department of education. Essentially, this eliminated the state JAG funding uh from the department of workforce uh developments budget. Uh however, the DOE chose not to provide funding for the JAG program. Uh this is has been a really effective uh program at the high school. Really targets a very important uh population of students. So we worked with Sam Perkins uh who's the manager of region 8 to use the grants remaining dollars uh for 100% funding of the JAG position uh for the 2025 2026 school year. Uh, under the newou, the JAG teacher will actually be an employee of RBBCSC and we will submit reimbursements to the JAG grant to cover
029the cost of the JAG teacher. Uh, at this time uh we are uh committing to only one year uh continuation of the program. We're hoping that uh they will find funding somewhere to continue it uh after the uh 2025 26 school year. Uh and we will be also evaluating the possibility of finding our own funds uh to continue the program. and we'll try to have a an answer back to the board in six to nine months in terms of whether or not we feel like we can continue JAG uh into the future. So, I'm asking for the board to approve uh thisou with the JAG organization. >> Approval. >> A second. >> Seconded. Any discussion? >> Even though we're paying this person, we'll still use the JAG curriculum. They'll they'll give us support. Right. >>
030Going to continue use the J curriculum >> one more year. >> Yes. >> And then we're not doing it down in the junior high now. Right. >> Right. >> Okay. So, it's forman through senior. >> We're hoping to have uh expand it to 9th through 12th grade at the high school >> uh this school year. >> Okay. All right. Thanks. >> Any further discussion? >> All those in favor say I. I. opposed. Motion carries. Now we need to look at the JAG position itself. Sanders. >> So basically uh for all the things I've just said uh we're asking uh since we have to have this position as an employee for RBB, we wanted to create the position uh of JAG instructor at Edgewood High School. approval. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? All those in
031favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. Now we uh look to revisions of policies 4162 and 8510. Dr. Sanders, >> if you'll remember at the June school board meeting, I presented these two uh policy revisions as a first reading. Uh policy 4162 is uh drug and uh alcohol testing of CDL holders and other employees who perform safety sens sensitive functions. Uh it's really being uh revised at the direction of the Indiana State uh police uh who do the inspections on our buses and uh suggested that uh our policy was not in line with uh their protocols. So we made those revisions. Uh we also made revisions to policy 8510 uh which is the wellness policy recommended by the CHAMPS committee. Uh and it better aligns with the USA USDA smart snacks in uh
032school nutrition standards. Uh Ferguson Law has reviewed both policies uh for compliance and so I recommend your approval. >> Approval. Second. >> Seconded. >> Any discussion? >> Straight forward. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. Now we're going to look at the administrator assistance agreement. And Dr. Sanders. >> So, uh, it's interesting that we already have Paul come up and give a presentation and you haven't approved the contract yet. Uh, but, uh, you're familiar with this before. Uh when Paul came around the first time, we used an organization called administrative assistance and they have they're aworked program throughout the whole state of Indiana that provides services to school corporations. It could be interim superintendent, interim uh principal, uh interim business manager like we used Paul the first time. And uh
033this uh contract will be for uh $6,300 plus mileage and it'll go through July uh 2026. And uh I listed for the board in the board packet uh all the the things we'll be asking Paul to do. uh mainly he's going to be uh doing the 2026 budget uh and at the same time uh training Debbie Tate uh in that process uh and really Paul is going to follow the same formula that we used when we brought Matt in. And uh and as you could tell, Paul did an amazing job uh training Matt and uh so he's going to do the same thing with Debbie. And so I I request that you approve this contract >> the administrator assistance agreement. >> Second. >> Any uh discussion? >> Just feel a lot more confident having Paul
034back to back stop us as we move forward here. But >> yes. Yes. Uh we >> Deb pick it up past >> kind of got near a ledge six years ago and he uh pulled us to safely. So >> he's our he's our night and shining armor. >> So okay, any further discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I oppose. Motion carries. No, we turn to the Heritage Schools uh agreement and Jennifer Barrett, welcome to the front row here. seat. Uh after many years, I'm thankful that Paul also is here. So, I'm asking you to approve uh approve an agreement with Heritage Schools in Utah. Uh this is an agreement that we have uh with them to provide a free appropriate public education to one of our students who lives here within our
035district. Uh this uh contract is effective from July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. Uh basically what this agreement says is that uh we will maintain the students individualized education plan, their IEP. We will monitor that um through the school out in Utah. So we meet with them on a regular basis. They're a part of the students case conference committee. We receive uh general progress updates at least every nine weeks. Um and they um allow us to uh be a part of that student's education in a setting that will meet his or her needs more effectively than what we can provide here for this particular student at Edgewood. Um I'm asking you to approve this agreement. Um once it has been approved, uh we will go ahead and we will submit along with Noah Dixon
036um our special education director uh who has just will be approved hopefully here uh shortly. Noah will start working on a seek application um so that we can be reimbursed for the majority of these funds. Uh basically the way that works is with the state of Indiana uh once a school board has approved the agreement then we can start the application for seek there's no guarantee that we'll receive those excess cost. Um it's a finite number uh that the state puts into that fund but the goal is that we uh give them everything they need in terms of that application so that we do receive uh that reimbursement on a monthly basis. And what's the value of the contract? >> The value of the contract overall, it's different for each kiddo. Let me pull that
037up for you, Dana. Uh, this one is roughly 300,000. Uh, they do not break this down into individual hours. Um, but they break it down into per hour, what they charge for, uh, the students services. So, a lot of that will depend upon what the case conference committee decides. So, when we meet again for this particular student um coming up here in the next month and we'll be reworking that student's IEP, those hours could change depending upon the needs of that student at that time. So, it depends on um what type of services we're going to be adjusting from the previous IEP. So, that is in this as far as the hourly amount or the daily amount that uh Heritage would charge for those services. So for each one of these students, we're looking at
038roughly $250 to $300,000. >> Good. Is that sufficient for Stephen? >> Yes. Is that is that exhibit A to the contract? The rates. Am I looking at the right thing? >> I am not sure on that. Christine, >> I think I don't think that >> was for the full 365. Christine, it just showed for 200 days the in the board packet. Well, it showed 200 days of special education and 365 days for Ruben Ford and therapeutic >> surgery. Yeah, we're paying for the full year because they stay there year round. >> For Heritage, we're paying for 209 days of academic uh 365 days for room and board mental health therapeutic services. Um just depending on what those look like for this individual student. So that is on number nine of the individual service agreement. All
039right. >> Okay. And I think that I think that's the same thing that's broken down on exhibit A, which is page 243 of the packet. Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. So, just going to make sure we >> cover cover everything. Okay. >> I'll move approval of the Heritage Schools Incorporated agreement. >> I'll second. >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? >> Mr. the timing on what to do next for Miss Barrett. >> It is completely up to you. >> I just I asked her to kind of give us a quick overview of how this works because this is I know we just did this last year and they're in our school district. We're going to give them the best care that they can get >> for sure. >> Um but there are some things I was unaware
040of that we pay for. We also accommodate the families to help them travel to see their kids. That's part of the expense and per the law. We we may be required to do this until they're 22. Is that correct? >> Correct. Yes. >> So, I just kind of let you give the quick sumopsis there. >> Yeah, absolutely. I shared with you guys today three different documents. One of those is the special education excess cost funding manual um seek funding manual. And so it does go through and talk about all of the requirements um that we must provide to students and families when we fall into um this type of financial um I'm I'm going to say that the state calls it a burden. So what this says is that if we are over three times
041the state average of what a student would uh typically receive in Indiana, then it falls under excess cost. So that allows us then to submit an application um to be able to reimburse on those excess cost. So for uh both of the students that I'm asking you to look at agreements with tonight. Um we are definitely over the the three times there. Um and as Christine pointed out, exhibit A in this contract does break that down. So you can see it's the very last page in that contract. You can see how much uh Heritage for instance charges on a daily rate to provide special education services. how much they charge uh to provide room and board and then any therapeutic services that are determined as a need for that student as well. Um we are
042required to exhaust all funds in terms of what we can provide um for those students. So for instance uh the amount that we receive um on ADM for each of these students would go to pay for um our deductible on these kiddos which is around 30,000. that is actually determined by the Indiana Department of Education, how much we are required to spend out of pocket before SEK, as long as we're approved, uh, begins picking up reimbursements for that. Um, we also will take the special education funds that we receive for each of these students for their disabilities and we will apply that towards the deductibles as well. the additional funds for us we will take out of Medicaid to be able to uh pay for these students at the level that we're required to pay
043and then I can't stress this enough with the hope that uh seek funds will pick up the rest of that >> and seek funds does not have enough in that fund to pay for it then it goes back to the school >> it does >> okay >> it does and that will be um a situation where seek can say we can uh reimburse 100% They can also come back at any point in time and say we can reimburse up to a certain percentage. Um that is uh not anything that we have any control over. Uh we will make sure that the applications we submit are thorough. We'll make sure that we have uh justification and um need put in there in writing for every single one of these students. What will be a little bit
044different about the applications for seek this year than what we did last year? Uh these are considered reapplications. So, we do work really closely with the um off-site residential placement facilities in terms of providing documentation that these students are gaining um in terms of academics. Um that's important. If if we see that they're not gaining academically, if they're not making behavioral gains or whatever uh the situation might be, then as a case conference committee, that's where we have to come back to the table and say, is this the the appropriate placement for this student? Um, and so we're keeping a close eye on that and um, that'll be a piece that we'll report on in those applications. >> And these are two students that live in our school district. >> Yes, they are two students
045that live in our school district that have siblings who attend our school on schools on a daily basis. um two families that I've known for a long time um that uh really work well with us and thankfully trust us to make good decisions for their kids. >> You know, and the know these services can be expensive, but uh my wife's a teacher and on her wall she has fair is not everybody getting the same thing. It's everybody getting what they need to succeed. It's absolutely the the the the agreement that we have with every family and it's it's also um what we pledge to provide as a public school system for every single one of our students that walk through the door >> which is mandated by all public schools including public charter schools. >>
046That is correct. >> Okay, perfect. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. And now we'll look for the agreement with the Judge Rottenberg Educational Center. >> So this is a very similar agreement for another student. Um this student is receiving uh his or her special education services in Massachusetts. Um we're asking you to approve this agreement uh for this student on the same basis. um same outline. Uh just like we talked about previously, this um organization has a little bit different fee schedule, which makes sense. Um but ultimately, uh we would be looking at 200 to 50 250 to $300,000 um as an agreement for the students special education services out of state um at this facility.
047And just like the previous agreement, we will be submitting a seek application for this kiddo as well. Um, and hoping that the state has those funds available to be able to reimburse us 100%. >> I'll move approval of the judge for educational center agreement. >> Any discussion? the the the board packet doesn't include the specific amounts for this one. >> It will not right now, Larry. Uh the reason for that is that will be determined once we finish the IEP and determine what those services look like for that student. >> Um so it would depend um >> on that student's disability. It would depend on a lot of different pieces there. So once we have that, then we can go ahead and get the contract written. So, this is just simply the agreement with both
048of these facilities. Once we have the IEP, we go ahead and we start the contract with them. Um, and then we can bring that back before the board. So, you can see those actual amounts. Um, but keep in mind with IEPs, those are completely flexible. They can change at any point in time. Um, if we see a change in services that are needed, we come together um almost immediately um to to look at those services and they can they can change on a dime. That's a good thing. that's what we want to happen because we want to make sure that we're providing what those students need even if they're in Massachusetts or they're in Utah. Um so we will show you the initial contract um and we'll ask you at that point in time um
049to understand and to to make sure that we have the flexibility to be able to change that as needed. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Would consider this a not to exceed 300,000 then? Well, and it sounds like it'll come back to you with the exact amounts, but yeah, I would say that. >> Okay. >> All right. Any further discussion? >> Maybe at the end of the year. >> I know Miss Barrett said we were able to get the seek money this past year. >> Yes, we have. >> To make sure that that we continue to get that and we make sure we got to cross our tees and dot our eyes. >> Did we have two cases last year as well? >> Yes. And these are the exact same two students who have
050been placed um since that time. So no new students. These are the same ones. Uh what you're um what you have approved are their agreements for the upcoming school year. So July 1 to June 30 is is the um contract date on those. >> Thank you. >> Yes. The agreement allows us to apply for the seek funding. Um then we'll move forward with the IEPs. All of that is sent to um these organizations. The contracts are written up and then we bring those back to you. >> Yeah. >> Anything further? >> We pay up front start of the year, right? For the whole year and then we get the money later. >> So that's a great question. So we will pay upfront our deductible. Um now we will be charged. So we'll receive an invoice
051from each organization over the course of the year. Um I don't know if that's monthly or quarterly. I would have to look at that and see. What we do then is we go ahead and pay that and then we turn around and we apply for a reimbursement through SEK. So Debbie Tate takes care of all of those reimbursements. As far as um the deductible that we would pay on each one of these students, we pay that upfront and then that money comes back to us in terms of our ADM count, in terms of our part B grant when that's dispersed, um December count with our special education students, and then Medicaid um billing throughout the year. So, we would see that come back um on a a rolling basis. Right. Okay. Yeah. All those in
052favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Now we'll look for at the furniture bids for the high school and junior high school. Dr. Sanders. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Kerr. Uh I am recommending the board approve the purchase of additional classroom furniture for Edgewood Junior High School and Edgewood High School. Uh both schools have been uh working on us to get the new furniture for a while and uh we've heard them uh and we agree that uh this furniture is it's well overdue to be replaced. It's well over 20 years old. Um and so we will be paying for this furniture out of the 2022 uh general obligation bond. Uh the the uh quotes are already competitively bid through the co-op and meets procurement policies and rules. The total cost of the furniture for the
053junior high and it's the same cost for both schools 158,279.80. Uh and the new furniture will be installed over fall break vacation. the furniture bids. >> Any discussion? >> I just I like the uh more flexible design uh the the separated desk and chair that I see. Um, I know I had within the last 20 years, if you say, uh, a number of desks that were the the pieces, the bottom storage racks were broken and, uh, it was hard to keep them looking good and and they were dangerous at times. So, no, I I like this. >> Yeah, I saw the chairs first and I thought that was like student chairs. It's like, oh my gosh. >> Yeah, I saw the same thing. So that but that's teacher chairs I understand. Okay. Anything further? All
054those in favor say I. >> I oppose. Motion carries. Now we're going to look at purchasing staff laptops. And for that we have our tech director Rick Routton. >> Evening everybody. So it's that time of year our time uh when we do capital replacement. It's been five years since we came to you and got the original laptops for the staff. Uh so great time. Looking forward to seeing some new laptops for our staff and everybody around here. Um so we did do uh bid uh proposals. Uh we only received two back. We sent out uh six, but only two actually replied. Um one was Trafera, a new company that we just started working with about a year ago, and they've been competitively bidding on some of our other stuff, but this time they did not
055come in at the lowest price. Uh we have been using Paragon Micro for the last purchase and they again won this year's uh process of uh elimination about $3,000 difference but they were both very high-end laptops. One's with Lenovo brand and one was a Dell brand. So we've been looking at both both area. Uh so I'm asking for your approval tonight to approve that we move forward with the purchase of Dell laptops from Paragon Micro for a total of $341,996. Move approval of the staff laptop purchase. >> I'll second it. Any discussion? >> That take care of the whole >> staff >> takes care of 400 400 staff members. >> Okay. What is there any residue of value on the computers that we're replacing? >> So on the residue the runs we're going to keep
056that are still in good shape and have not been stickered to death. We're going to repurpose those into some of the classrooms. Okay. uh that have some old workstations that really do need to be removed and updated. So, uh we're going to repurpose some. We have to be careful because our licensing with Microsoft, we have to stay within a certain range. And so, some of them we won't have we won't be able to uh actually reuse. We'll have to uh we'll try to give some money out of them, but more than likely 20 $30 is all we seem to be getting for uh right refurbished equipment. >> Yeah. I was just kind of curious. And when do you think they'll be ready to roll? Uh we probably won't see these until somewhere October, November just
057because of the way that >> okay >> orders have been going the tariffs and everything. So and then we'll have to start doing the uh roll out to all the individual teachers. >> So about the time the furniture comes in >> approximately. We also have a lot of other stuff coming around. We just don't have time to even start that process. We have already received the 900 laptops for the high school and or excuse me Chromebooks for the high school students and we're already getting those into the students hands. We're trying to get those out early because it's a lot of processing to do. >> Right. Teachers can see them as Christmas presents. So >> that's what I'm looking at. I thought I thought we just get Dr. Sanders to dress up as Santa Claus
058and you know then he can deliver a few of them so make it a little happy end of year season. >> Yeah. Is that part of collective bargaining? Dr. >> No, joking. I'm joking. >> Yeah, but it's something that we we definitely need and it's time. Five years is about the maximum we can see out of all the devices. So, >> is that from our rolling fund or part of the bonds or >> it was we got a bond. >> Yeah. That's what I thought. >> Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. Motion carries. Now we have consideration to approve agreement with IU for DBT informed training and school counselors and Jennifer Barrett. >> Yes, this agreement is actually being paid for out of our smart grant. That's one
059of our federal grants for mental health. We have uh in excess carryover funds of about $500,000. And this grant is very specific about how it can be spent. Uh this is a type of training. and it's a therapeutic approach and it will be a virtual training uh given by the same IU instructors that we currently work with in partnership of the smart grant. Um so we're asking you to approve this. This training probably won't take place until spring. Um and I'll be bringing a contract back to you after the agreement has been approved um for the contract also to be approved. I >> second move it second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. And consideration to approve the Northwestern University medical social service agreement. >> This agreement also
060same terms and uh with a smart grant. And what we're looking at here um our counselors um have learned about a uh new therapeutic approach um that is being um researched out at Northwestern University. Uh this is a single session consultation. So we're looking at those students who aren't necessarily needing long-term uh therapy, long-term counseling. Um this approach is more kind of a fly by the seat of your pants, get the kids back in class sort of um approach. And uh it's one that we think will uh definitely come in um beneficial to the students in terms of um maybe being proactive in some of the situations that we have going on versus being reactive um and possibly taking more time out of classes for them to receive those therapies. So this is again um
061with Northwestern University and coming out of those carryover funds with the smart grant. >> A second >> move and seconded. And is this one where the contract will come later as well? >> I am I believe that this agreement has all of the terms and there was a an amendment amendment isn't the correct term. there was um an appendix to it that had all of the um work agreements in it. So, uh this one was a little bit different because it did have all of the particulars in it, whereas the first one did not. So, I'll be bringing the contract back to you on the first one, but this one did have the particulars in it. So, this has everything we need to approve it in one fell swoop tonight. >> Okay. And and its
062value, >> say that one more time. The total value >> total value of this one is >> okay >> of $64,750. >> That's correct. Thank you, Christine. >> Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Has it already been moved and seconded? >> Yes. >> Okay, that was all fast. Okay, any further discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. And now we'll look at uh revisions to the roles and responsibilities of the corporation administrative staff. Dr. Sanders. >> Yes. So um you know sometimes the change is is really hard. Uh and uh you you know we have a a team approach here at Edgewood and um when you when you lose a an allstar part of your team, it's it's it's really devastating at first. Um because uh I really appreciated Matt
063Irwin and what he brought to our team. He was a good a great partner. Uh and uh when that change happens at first you just you're just really upset about it. But then you start to think about uh well how can we take this opportunity to make ourselves better and uh and when I started thinking about u the different scenarios of how we might respond to March Matt's uh departure um we uh really came up across the the realization that here at Edgewood, uh we have um we're deep in and rich in talent and uh so it really didn't take a lot of consideration to realize that we had uh people right here already on our team uh who could step up. And you know the in the sports analogy, it's always a a next
064man up. And uh and what that that means is that you know the most successful teams uh uh they may have their maybe their starting lineup, but they're a great team because they have a great bench who could step right into a starting role. And that was the idea is that we uh I I wanted to continue on without missing a beat for the school corporation. We've made a lot of progress over the last uh several years and we want to continue to march forward and keep that momentum going uh not only for our students but our our staff also. And so, uh, being very transparent, what I did is I asked Matt to make a list of all the things that that he does or has done here in the school corporation. And I
065uh took uh every item on that list and assigned it to somebody in this office. Um, I to I'm taking on more responsibilities. uh um I'll be more have more direct responsibility for uh operations uh uh transportation, food service, uh technology, uh maintenance, um the some of the things that Matt took care of there. Uh Jennifer uh Barrett here is going to become our assistant uh superintendent. um she's going to keep doing uh most of uh what she's been doing in terms of uh focus on instruction and curriculum, but she's she needed to take on some other responsibilities. Uh we have uh uh two specially talented people in the office and uh Debbie Tate and um and and Susan Shockney. And so, uh, we wanted to take, um, uh, give Debbie expand her roles and
066responsibilities, uh, where eventually she will be, uh, doing the budget and, uh, she'll be doing the forecasting, uh, of our funds and and where we're going, uh, for our finances in the future. uh Susan Shockney will be taking on uh more personnel uh responsibilities and uh and so we basically took all those responsibilities and signed them throughout the the office and uh and and in order to do that we had to make adjustments to everybody's uh roles and and responsibilities. Uh and the goal I two goals I had in mind was one to continue to be efficient. We wanted to make great decisions for our school corporation. Uh but we also wanted to save some money in in consideration of uh the financial situation that all school corporations are finding themselves in uh right now.
067uh that we wanted to make sure that that we are taking this opportunity uh uh to be um coste effective uh so that we can uh better uh uh pay our teachers so that we can better um uh provide programs and services to our students but uh at the same time continue like I said the the great momentum that our school corporation has had. So uh and really if uh sometimes uh I I wish that I could put a camera in a room uh because when this group here in this office sat down and we had these conversations, it was just an amazing conversation. Nobody knows better how to do the job of uh providing uh corporationwide leadership than the people in this office. and hear them talk about what our needs truly are. Uh
068it ended up enabling us to make the best possible decisions. And uh so um I I shared this information with the the board uh in terms of wanting to get your feedback. Did you think we were headed in the right direction? Uh did you have some concerns with that? And uh so a lot of work has gone into this plan. And uh I would ask the board uh to uh approve this plan tonight. >> A second. >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? >> Dr. says he'd like to have a a camera to to to record the interaction among the the people in the in this office in the office. I don't know that I need the camera because I can imagine those people uh how they would interact and how they how eager they would
069be to make sure that things run smoothly and and do what they can to continue our our work here as a school corporation. I'm just I'm I'm thrilled with the group that we have. I think uh they're they're well positioned to carry us into the future. So, I I think it's a good plan. >> I agree with Larry. Um I see a lot of longtime loyal employees here. That really uh warms my heart that we can we can take up the slack and and be a better better school system because of it. So, thank you, Jerry. Thank you, Jennifer, for working this out. Appreciate it. And and I would tell you Paul was was a very very important part of that process. >> Uh one of the first things that that I did not only
070uh we did not only come up with with this plan was to bring Paul on board uh so that we would have a year uh to make sure our our finances continue in the right direction. And uh and we're going to use this year to to evaluate uh the roles and responsibility uh each person has and make some adjustments accordingly. And a year from now uh Debbie's going to be uh ready to uh uh fly on her own. Uh but even then we'll provide support for her through networking through Stiffel and uh and provided her with a team that that can back her. And I will tell you already uh I I feel really good about this. You know, as I mentioned when I first started, you know, change is hard. Um, you don't always
071want change, but I could tell already uh today I had a conversation with Susan Shockney on uh different several different positions and we were talking about the rates that we should uh apply to each person and she came to me and like um we should in this office. She came to me with information, solid information, facts. She gave me options and uh she gave me recommendations. We had a conversation. In the end, we made the best possible decision and that's what excites me. I feel really good about our future moving forward. >> Well, I like to improving the career of our, you know, folks that are here because I think, you know, if you get stagnant sometimes that's how you lose valuable people. And so I'm very excited about this. Um, and I think they're
072only going to continue to make us stronger. So I'm I'm very happy with how it has gone. >> And did all that. I really thank Dr. Sanders, Miss Barrett for pulling this all together. And one thing I do want to challenge all the administrators and the the contract change people is for these positions are funded by grants. and we have to continue to seek new grants to continue some of these things that are moving forward. So, Mr. Dixon, good luck on that. No pressure, Miss Barrett. Um, and I would I do want to mention on the RDC grant that funds two positions. Been sitting on that committee for the last whatever Dana three or four years and that's they're meeting again tomorrow and they're they're talking about shortfalls at the RDC and that makes me
073nervous. But we always have it's just so we got to deal with it as it's thrown at us. So, >> um but yeah, I think this is going to work out great and uh kudos to everybody stepping up to the plate. >> Absolutely. >> Any further discussion? I do appreciate all the conversations and and I think this was well thought out and you know definitely was was a strategically planned transition and so I appreciate that. Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I opposed. Motion carries. Now, consideration to approve the contracts for the 15 bulleted individuals under number 22. >> So, let me explain this a little bit too in terms of when you're adding uh additional responsibilities, not just the number of responsibilities and duties, but the uh significance of what they're doing,
074a lot more pressure that's going to be on somebody. So we wanted to to fairly compensate uh each of these individuals who are taking on additional roles. And once again, this is where the team here came together and uh we were in the conference room uh and uh they had a a spreadsheet up on the on the screen and uh uh Susan and Debbie were uh entering uh data into that that spreadsheet and providing me with information uh that I could simply look at it and say, "Okay, that makes sense. we need to adjust that that dollar figure and um and kind of repeating what I was saying earlier, it's a team that's already started to work well together. And the other thing that I wanted to try to do, take this opportunity in was
075um uh last year we took a number of our employees uh because we thought there was uh well there was a law that that was passed that we had to um move uh people uh to uh hourly that were on salary. And then that that law was uh stopped by a judge I believe. And um and so uh we took this opportunity to move these people back to salary. Um so uh some of the people on this list uh are getting a pay increase because of the changes in roles and responsibilities. Others are uh having the same uh salary, but they uh are moving from hourly to salary. So, uh, Jennifer Barrett, uh, you know, it was really a no-brainer for me to to, uh, bring her to be, uh, my assistant. Uh, we work
076very well together. I think we've accomplished a lot, uh, over the years, and, uh, we're going to make a great team. That's that's so important for this, uh, superintendent um, to be able to have a strong team uh, supporting him or her. And uh Jennifer is definitely a great partner. And so uh she'll be the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning with a salary of 109,000 and that'll be paid out of operations. Uh Debbie Tate will be the director of budget and finance and her new salary will be $71,000. Uh and she will also be paid out of operations. Uh Susan Shockney will be the director of personnel. Her new salary will be 64,600 paid out of operations. Uh Jenny Johnson, uh she's will be the manager of student services and business operations. Uh that'll
077be her title for a salary of 6 $63,120 and her salary spit split 50% out of operations and 50% out of education. Uh Robin May will uh uh have the same title basically executive secretary and deputy treasurer but she is also taking on additional roles and responsibilities uh for a salary of 60,00060,619 paid for out of operations. John Kefir uh is our payroll specialist. uh his salary will remain the same at $53,6160. And mainly that's because we wanted uh I you know payroll is so important and I really did not want uh to add something to John's uh um duties and suddenly he's overburdened and we have a mistake made in in payroll. uh and so uh he's going to uh have the same duties now as we make adjustments down the road. We might
078add something to him if it makes sense and doesn't overburden him. Uh and I'd like to uh introduce Noah Dixon. Uh Noah is has been a special education teacher at uh Edwood Junior High School and uh he has his uh uh director of educ director of special education license and uh Noah blew us away in his interview and uh it's one of those interviews if you sat in on an interview and uh while you're sitting there you're thinking uh oh my goodness this is our person And uh it's kind of the same feeling I had several years ago when we interviewed Jennifer Anderson the first time. When we were interviewing her, I had the same thought. She's she's the person I wanted. And that's how I feel about Noah. He's going to be a great
079addition to this team. His new salary will be $82,000. It's paid for out of the part Bed grant. Uh I know taking a long time here but uh you know one of the things that we were trying to do with this Jennifer Anderson's departure was that I wanted to take some some duties off of that that position and the idea originally was to focus have that position just be focused on special education and mental health. Uh but uh it was very clear that really um everybody we interviewed uh was either very strong in one area or the other and uh with this uh I see change as opportunities. So, with this opportunity, uh, I wanted to have, uh, Noah be specifically focused on special education and, uh, supporting his team and, uh, meeting the needs
080of our special education students. And so, we we Noah is just going to be over special education. Just he's going to be over special education. Uh, but he won't be uh have to worry about also being over mental health. And so what we did there is uh Jordan Truax was already at that um uh position, but we're going to have uh ask Jordan to take on some uh more administrative support in terms of uh providing support for administrators with behavior issues throughout the the school at the elementary level. We um we have a plan, but we're still working on uh that plan for uh a uh 6 to 12 mental health coordinator. And uh we wanted to have some more discussion on that before we brought that to the board. So you could look forward
081to that here in the near future. Um uh Jordan's salary will be uh 70,000. It's paid for out of the smart grant. uh Megan Scott and Mariah Bruce, they're taking on some of the duties and responsibilities that Jennifer had that we had to take off her plate so she could take some of Matt's duties on. And uh so um Megan's new salary will be $79,837. Mariah Bruce will be76, uh675 thou dollars and that'll be p paid for out of the RDC grant. Um the rest here are um uh from our technology department and they were switched from hourly uh from salary to ally hourly and we're going to move them back to salary. So their their uh salaries didn't change any um but they will be on a salary and that'll bring a lot of
082benefits both to them and the school corporation. And then one of my concerns uh with Matt's departure uh is it's very important for us to have um plenty of eyes on our construction projects. And one of the worries I had was uh uh even though uh Arnold Caldwell does a good job um as superintendent, I'm all often called away for this or that and uh I might miss uh a a punch list meeting. I might miss something very important uh in on the construction sites. So I asked Rick Routton to take on some additional duties in terms of supporting uh construction projects and uh so he's already come in handy uh where he's he's joined me as we've walked through the different construction projects. Um he's uh I think it's uh next week he's going
083we have a a schedule for a punch list in one of our schools and I I already have a previous engagement. So, uh, Rick's going to be there for me. And Rick brings a lot of experience, uh, to the to the table, uh, in that. And he's very detail oriented. And, uh, well, the the first time I asked him to go, uh, represent me at a meeting, uh, at the end of the night, I got this very detailed report. Uh, and I thought, "Yep, that was the right decision." Uh, so that'll be a $2,000 stipen for uh Rick. Um, and that'll be for this year and we'll see what happens down the road with other uh projects. So, uh, >> it sounds like um, you know, we're taking on a lot of extra salaries. Um,
084and I want to make sure to note, um, in our operations fund, we're actually looking at a net change of almost, uh, negative $9,000. In the RDC grant, um, a net change of negative $41,000. Um, in our sped grant, a net change right now of 27,000. Um, and in our education fund, we would be increasing that by about $1,200. So, I do want to make sure and note that because when we're talking about increases in salary, um it makes it sound like we are definitely adding that money on and I don't want that perception to be out there that we are um tipping the scale on administrative salaries here. And in fact, what we're doing is saving the district quite a bit of money, thousands of money, thousands of dollars here. Um because we have
085been very intentional about making sure that um we're replacing positions where we need to, but we're also absorbing roles and responsibilities where we can um and and stretching ourselves here a little bit to make sure that we're being fiscally responsible in these decisions. So, I just want to make sure and note that in in all of those funds. Yeah, I appreciate that, Jennifer. And actually, we're saving even more than what Jennifer noted there because uh we were going to we were already uh trying to figure out how to uh take uh some money off of the RDC grant and we're going to have to Jennifer's salary. Uh, a lot of that was paid for from the RDC grant and uh we were trying to uh work on a better budget so that uh we would
086have some funds to be able to do uh some other things not just with personnel. And uh so we already had plans of taking her salary and putting it into education and u so this takes care of that also. We have a motion. >> Excuse me. I'll move approval. >> I second. >> Okay. Any questions, discussion? >> I just note that uh Dr. Barrett's uh addition there at the end is exactly what we need from that end of the table. So, thank you. I appreciate that. >> Thank you. Yes. Okay. Um anything further? All those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion carries. And now we turn to the superintendent report. Dr. Sanders, >> haven't spoken enough tonight. Um, I'll make this quick. Um, I know I I already shared with the board that our
087103 flexibility waiver was approved by the state. Uh, but why what I wanted to add to that is that we were approved for three years. Uh, so we're we're good. uh with the flexibility waiver uh through the 2027 2028 school year and uh so I thought that was really good news uh for the school corporation. Uh we've talked many times about the biomed training program. I think we've shared with you how uh we've made uh progress with Boston Scientific in terms of getting precise with how we're going to transform their training modules into the high school setting. Uh we had a great meeting and visit at Cook Medical yesterday. uh and they were enthus enthusiastically on board with uh continuing to work with us. They talked about their mission. They talked about their training modules
088and these trainers are full of passion. And while they were talking to us, all I could think about is, man, these these people are going to be great in front of high school students. They're going to really connect with them. They're going to inspire them. uh they're going to make the connections necessary and so uh we're we've got some momentum going with Cook now and we are setting up a regular meetings so we could take what they do there and transform it to uh what we can do at Edgewood High School and also I'm going to be uh you know we've talked about the uh construction and adding on the biomemed training rooms to the high school And uh so I'm going to get their input on uh the architect plans that we have uh
089so they could say, "Yeah, that works. That's the right size. You don't need that much space." And that type of thing. So uh very excited about that progress. And the rest of this is just really for uh for you the board and the public to know that uh you you know I hate to some people may not like this news but the 2025 26 school year is just around the corner. Um and uh we're be I'm going to be getting out the letter to our staff uh on the 17th to students and parents on the 18th. Uh our school calendar is already on the website. Uh we'll be including that information in the email to parents and once again we'll be uh giving every student and staff member uh magnetic calendars to put on the
090refrigerators uh so everybody will know what's coming up uh during the school year. Our principles and secretaries uh that are not year round will report on July 21st. Um and we'll be getting out information to our uh parents on uh school supply giveaways uh that uh uh we will have. Uh of course we have our own RBB student assistance fund that we use to provide school supplies. Uh there are other organizations such as TRIRCAPA that provides donations to the school corporation. And then Ellletzville Christian Church uh will have their annual uh u back to school bash on July 26 uh from 10:00 a.m. until noon. It's a fun day to come out and and uh enjoy some uh activities. It'll also get a backpack and some free school supplies. I just want everybody to know
091that there is not one Edgewood student that would go without school supplies. And uh so if somebody if there's a family out there that's really worried about spending that money, uh you don't have to worry about that. We'll take care of you. Uh school offices will open to the public on July 23rd. Uh registration window uh is going to open July 23rd. Uh back to school meeting for nutrition services staff will be August 4th. Uh the bus drivers will have a meeting on July 31st. Uh we'll have a back to school breakfast and meeting for our staff and teachers the morning of August 4th. Uh August 5th, the teachers will teachers will have a work day in their classrooms to get ready for school and then the first day of school will be August 6th.
092>> Uh it usually starts about seven and um >> orientation. What time will they show up here? >> Uh, what time you have that going, Jennifer? The new teach teachers orientation. On the 29th, it'll be just brand new teachers, >> right? >> And on the 30th, it'll be brand new teachers uh teachers who have experience, but they might be new to Edgewood. >> We're working on that plan right now. Uh Megan Scott's taking the lead on new teacher orientation and mentor teachers. I just saw the proposed agenda for that today. Uh we're looking at starting that around 10:00 or so on July 29th, keeping those brand new and one-year teachers till about 3:00 that day. We have a full agenda for them just to introduce them to Edgewood, answer just basic questions, you know, first
093year teachers coming right out um no experience may have. And then the 30th will be a half-day session where we'll have all of our teachers new to Edgewood joining um those uh those first year uh teachers from the first day on that. Mr. Damas, >> let's talk. >> I'll get you on the agenda. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much. And now we'll turn to RBBA comments and we have Brandy Ael with her us here this evening. >> Good evening. Start with a quick story to piggy back off the three weeks my daughter Paige I know many of you remember her has been texting me this whole time and for some reason she has my location on her phone and her last message was you're meeting you're starting with meetings already. So here we are.
094Um, I want to start by saying we do have another co-president. Uh, hopefully you'll be meeting him soon. Stepped up at the 11th hour. Um, Ty McInness. He'll be coming from the high school. And so I know that was Doug's hope to have somebody represent secondary and I'll be representing uh, elementary. We met with Nancy a few weeks ago, had lunch with her, and since we're both newbies, it'll be nice. we're already making plans and hopefully can delegate more and just, you know, change change how the leadership has been since since we're both brand new. Um, and speaking of I I was going to say next week I would be reaching out, but Jennifer, I'll be reaching out maybe tomorrow to you and Megan because I know we always have that lunch for the new
095teachers. So So I'll get those numbers from you so I can start organizing that and know when to do that. Um, I just want to say, you know, again, I appreciate Matt Irwin for everything he's done, and I was able to to thank him personally for his service and and just again, he and Dr. Sanders, I've enjoyed working with the both of you for the past couple of years with association matters. We've had hard conversations and I just appreciate the communication and and um, you know, all the information and and seeing through your eyes things that I don't see on my end. So, um, anyway, just I continue, uh, I look forward to continuing to work with you and bargaining and all that. So, that's all I have to say. Yeah, three more weeks. >>
096All right. Thank you. Thank you. Now, for board members, we'll start with Mr. Boss. >> Tell Paige that the meetings are just starting and you will have more of them. >> I am just so excited. Uh it it there is such a a positive feel about where things are going and uh I I'm excited about the beginning of a new school year. It's hard to believe 3 weeks from tomorrow kids will be uh in the classrooms. Teachers will be ready to to take them away and uh I'm looking forward to it. So >> I feel the same way. Thank you, sir. I'm so uh pleased and so happy for the for Jennifer and her crew that she'll be leading here. So, we appreciate your your loyalty so much. We appreciate it. Thank you, >> Mr.
097>> I'm very excited about the new changes of contract and our um administration team. Um, you know, it it is nerve-wracking. It's nerve-wracking as a board when you have somebody step away and the capacity that Matt was in. However, I feel complete calm um as as myself as a as a board member. I feel um that this corporation is going to be in great hands. We have nothing to worry about. I know that everyone is going to be working very hard. Um, you know, the next few years for us is going to be difficult, but with this team, I I believe in all of us and that we're going to get through it and it's going to continue to be a great a great school system. >> Mr. Tucker. >> Yeah, Ditto. I feel very
098much at comfort. I think we're in good shape and uh thanks for helping us out again, Paul, for a little while and um yeah, looking forward to the school year. Three more weeks. >> Thank you. Yes, it's uh it comes fast. It's amazing how fast the summer goes and uh it's hard to believe that we're in for another year. Um but it's exciting. Uh I feel calm and and confident that we're going to have a great year this year and you know always want to make sure all you out there be very careful with the buses and and things. It's always kind of rough the first couple weeks or at least few days. Um, so, uh, you know, please be patient and and, uh, we would appreciate that and and safety is is number one.
099So, um, I appreciate everyone coming tonight. I'm so glad that, uh, we're in the position we are and we're we've got the team we do. I think it's a successful team. So, uh, with that, this meeting is adjourned and you all have a lovely evening. [Music]