001motivation indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much please be seated and please let the record reflect that board members brad tucker jimmy durnell larry demoss and dana kerr are participating in person and we have board member angie jacobs on audio zoom can you hear us angie i'm present okay all right thank you very much the first item business is visitor comments if there are any visitors then mr irwin will invite you down to address the board please give your name and tell us what you want us to know first up is melissa wickers hi everybody i did send you an email earlier so i will not go into everything that i sent you but first of all i just want to say thank you for sending out the proposed coveted safety
002protocols via email last week that was really nice to be able to get that and have a chance to look at it before tonight i do have some concerns and questions that i wanted to share the plan for the upcoming school year does make me a little nervous to send my child to school at this point as i do not trust that at some point we won't have to go back to some of the protocols that we had last year and last year as you all know was pretty rough for everybody involved i realized that we were all just doing the best that we could do and everybody was going along with that just to try to get through the school year but i was really hoping that this year we didn't have to just
003get try to get through the school year again i'm really hoping that we can focus on thriving and not just surviving this year secondly let me say that i am aware that covet is real and can be serious i personally had it for six weeks and others i know have had it and am aware of the potential dangers but when it comes to our kids i do not feel that we have dealt them a fair hand i am concerned that overall as a nation specifically in our public schools we are more more focused on coveted safety than we are on mental health safety this virus overall has not physically affected children in a harmful way in the numbers that we originally thought it might the risks of being vaccinated are are outweighing the risk of
004them contacting the virus at this point the risks and fallout of an unstable environment and isolation is far greater than the risk of covid for children under 19 but yet those things are remaining our focus my concern is that we are not giving enough attention to what is needed to make sure our kids are mentally healthy this past year i struggled at home with my own kids struggles with mental health i also witnessed my niece struggle with mental health and multiple other children in our community and other communities something none of us want to have to repeat this year the fact that our local pediatricians say that they have seen an increase of something like 400 percent in anxiety and depression cases in children and have prescribed more medication for mental health than children than
005ever before and that they have seen more kids for suicide attempts than they have for covid hospitalization this year which by the way monroe county did not see any children for covet hospitalization should tell us something about what is needed on the surface it may have seemed like kids were making it or hanging in there or resilient as i heard many people say but i can tell you if they have to endure this another year they will likely not be able to hide their struggles any longer so many parents kids teachers i know are literally dreading heading back to school this year because they are still trying to undo the trauma they experienced over the last school year they are concerned it will be more of the same and the same is quite honestly hard
006changing our schedule six times in one year isolating kids with hybrid or full e-learning taking away all of the social activities that make a child want to go to school including social events and eating lunch together in the lunchroom or time without math so they can talk with each other or interact with their teachers in their class taking away important milestones that they look forward to each year punishing kids for not wearing their masks correctly versus asking them how they are doing and getting along with all of the craziness that has surrounded them and come down on them in society this year has taken a toll on them we know more now about the viru how the virus affects kids more people are vaccinated now and we need to protect our children's mental health more
007now we need as much normalcy as possible for these kids i am blown away last year this year as i was last that our kids can live relatively normal lives during the summer play baseball have overnights with their friends go to stores restaurants amusement parks and swim with each other all while not wearing a mask or social distancing and not having any cases of coved to my knowledge but then they came back to school with lots of restrictions and guidelines and the fear that they're going to infect everyone around them if they don't wear their mouse can keep away from each other don't touch don't talk cover yourself up stay away it is hard for me to wrap my brain around and i'm guessing even more so for kids to have to it is but
008especially hard when i see other schools have less restrictions and they have no more or less cases than we have at our school and in our community i would like to request that we as a school corporation implement something for our kids mental health and to reduce the number of restrictions and quarantine requirements so that they can have healthy interactions full time again with their teachers and their classmates some of the ideas that i have i outlined in my email that i sent to you i won't go into all of it here today but there are other schools that are implementing some things that i think are a good idea that we can maybe look at and also just giving giving them the opportunity to speak about their mental health issues and i know that
009we have implemented some more counselors and things like that and i think that's great but maybe even implementing some more opportunities for that discussion at the school level would be would be a great idea lastly a huge concern of mine in the proposed plan is requiring volunteers to be vaccinated we have never ever requested vaccination records of volunteers before and i'm not sure how it makes sense that teachers and bus drivers can be with kids all day every day and choose not to be vaccinated but volunteers who will spend one day with the kids are required to be vaccinated i see this as a huge violation of privacy and overreach my personal health and medical decisions should not be a factor in me volunteering with my child's classroom in closing i believe it is time
010to give the power back to parents and families to decide what is best for their own physical health and to determine like always when to keep their kids home i believe it is time that our focus needs to be on creating an environment that is good for our children's mental health and giving them as much normalcy as possible by keeping them in school in person full time giving them opportunities to socialize with others and have fun and by giving them opportunities to attend any mental health issues attend to any mental health issues that might arise i appreciate the care work and time each of you has put in to making these decisions and that you are willing to listen to all of our concerns and take them into consideration i'm looking forward to seeing some
011changes made for a stronger school year this year thank you very much next is michelle garrett good evening i'm not going to speak as eloquently as melissa did i barely got here in time i wanted to start out with some data that came mainly from the indiana dashboard and the cdc website so far since march of 2020 there's been 760 thousand 163 cases of covet confirmed through tests 13 514 deaths if you take all that into account that's a 1.77 percent death rate for only those who tested positive now if you bring in the ltc communities older folks nursing homes they had 24 768 cases of covid that were confirmed 6 305 deaths that is a 25.45 death rate if you take out these ltc communities and just look at the numbers for our regular
012citizens or you know citizens that aren't in a long-term care facility we account for 735 395 cases and 7209 deaths that is .98 death rate then you take in the number of people who had no symptoms um one third of the country according to the cdc site one third of the country has been confirmed to have covid uh that's just that have been tested there are many many more that were not tested had no symptoms mild symptoms and did not go in to get tested that's a 99.02 percent confirmed survival rate which is actually much higher when you take into account the people that were not tested as of the beginning of june this year no one under 50 had passed away from covent and monroe county um 85 percent of the country that are
013high risk age 65 and up have been vaccinated that is pretty telling for herd immunity and keeping our older citizens and those at risk safe super spreader trackers have shown very little transmission rate from student to teacher and staff and vice versa the cdc site acknowledges that rate of transmission with covid and other illnesses is much much higher when someone actually has symptoms and is ill than when they do not have symptoms i stand by my original suggestion of last year of really the only safety protocol deep cleaning that is fine but the main safety protocol is not checking who has vaccinate a covered ua vaccination parents students employees included and just asking that anyone sick with any illness stay home anyone that becomes sick at school send them home so i do like some
014of the things in the in the contingent safety plan i know a lot of time was put into this i'm fine with most of it but really at this point with such a low rate of seriousness especially among students i'm pretty concerned about visitors getting permission to enter school buildings i'm very concerned about only allowing vaccinated parents to go on field trips volunteer that is as melissa had stated a bit of an overreach and opening up a pandora's box for further implementation to go deeper in the future my proposal is to take out in this contingent plan to completely take out permission finding out who is vaccinated who is not parents students employees if i want to come and spend time with my students my children in school if i want to go on their
015field trips as i've always done i've never seen a parent or teacher or anyone go on a field trip or volunteer that was actually sick like we're not going to come in and do that and per the cdc site the transmission really is more substantial of any illness when somebody actually has symptoms i really don't like that pandora's box that's just that's medical liberties that's privacy it's just not acceptable in my eyes i'm all for if anybody wants to choose to be vaccinated i'm all for if anybody wants to choose to wear a mask that's you know that's their prerogative my prerogative but giving away information at this point in time and how it extends and this is the way that our culture is going is not very acceptable i say we just open back
016up the way we used to be a little extra cleaning is fine i'm fine with a little bit of the social distancing with desks but i i think we need to scratch these extra things and get back to it thank you mr irwin i we originally discussed that so those who are here on time i would normally only allow three minutes per speaker when there's only a couple i usually extend that to five so anyone who was here on time can have five minutes those who came in late because we do have a lot of a meeting tonight we'll keep theirs to three minutes mr erwin becca anderson good evening it's great to see all of you i really did appreciate you getting us that plan so we could review it before the meeting tonight
017dr sanders thank you very much for that honestly i was very pleased with the majority of it i was really happy to see that masks would be optional for the students i was an advocate of that last year and i'm very thankful for that this year so thank you for giving us that opportunity to allow families to make those medical decisions for themselves um just a couple of questions that i had i know they're not going to be answered but just some things especially some of these are even for the administrators of buildings that are in the room tonight melissa touched on one thing and that was lunch it may not seem like a big deal for an adult but for kids it is a big deal to get together and gather with your friends
018for lunch and even having access for the older students to have access to microwaves it's hard to plan lunches all year long when you can only do cold things and so i would love to see that happen this year that be something a new another normal thing that kids were used to before being implemented again again i know that doesn't seem like a big big deal but for my kids it was something that if they could have that back again i think it would make a big difference to them um i am one thing that the plan didn't really make clear is if teachers in individual classrooms would be able to implement mask policies in their own classrooms or if building administrators would be able to implement mass protocol in their own buildings or is
019this a corporate corporation-wide policy that masks will be optional no matter if a teacher wants students to wear them in a classroom or not if i hope that makes sense the field trip thing was a concern to me in fact i agree with michelle that should be completely done away with it is not the corporation's it's not your business what my personal medical decisions are and truthfully i'm very disappointed that whoever was it all of you or whoever came together to put that policy in place or to to draft that policy i'm really disappointed that those would even be considerations that you would expect field trip volunteers or volunteers coming into the building to provide proof of vaccination that that is between my doctor and me and on that note i'd like to close tonight
020with just a personal situation i have a daughter who is 15 years old who has been battling lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses since she was two years old and it's been a i can't even go into all of the things that we've dealt with you can imagine if you have a child with illness that it's a very challenging thing and her doctor very boldly and very specifically said do not get her the vaccine at this point encouraged our family to not receive the vaccine that is a personal doctor a personal decision that our family is to make on our own and for a school corporation to expect that me as a parent that i would give have to be vaccinated to be able to come and volunteer at the school or to be on
021a field trip it's not acceptable and there are many many parents who are very frustrated that that even made it into the into the possibility of this of this plan so thank you again i know that this is a really hard task that's in front of you i do appreciate it very much these were just some of my concerns that came up in reviewing the plan and i want to share them with you tonight so thank you marcy edwards okay so i will be here for three minutes sorry i'm late i work a full-time job that's where i was coming from um i have three children at the schools and we are going to be in three different schools i am going to have a third grader an eighth grader and a sophomore in high
022school i came to the last year school board meetings and expressed my concerns for the way that we were handling the virus and the hybrid situation and everything else so what i specifically want to address tonight and i'm going to sound like a broken record because it's been addressed but my two biggest things are on the contingency plan just like they're sharing the vaccination being required for parents first of all it like becca said it's it's none of your business whether me my husband anybody in my family family's been vaccinated or not it's also should be none of your business whether any of my three children are vaccinated or they are not um so what it's creating um first of all i'm not sure what the plan is to prove whether they are or not
023um but what you're doing is you're late you're labeling these children and psychologically it's been proven that you put a label on them and nothing good is going nothing good is going to come of it so i'm asking you to not label my children one way or another um you know i dealt with some i've been in some conversations with people and another concern which is kind of off topic is the correct curriculum for next year as well and making sure i've been warned by lots of people to make sure that the critical race theory does not get into the school system and i felt like i dealt with that parts bits and pieces a little bit last year and had to address administration send emails because of basically what a teacher at the junior
024high level decided she what she thought was appropriate to be teaching my son in what was supposed to been a homeroom classroom while they were eating lunch okay and so i'm asking also now i want to see the specific curriculum before registration opens um but i'm also biggest thing is the vaccination so i'm kind of going back and forth a little bit i apologize for that and also the second thing in the contingency plan that i want to address is the quarantining of students who are not vaccinated again you're labeling those kids so whether you say oh people will know or they won't know well if you take student a b and c and they're all together around somebody and they get quarantined well how are you going to know and two of those three
025students get quarantined but the third one doesn't well then there you go that's that's the label you're putting on those kids right now and it's just going to cause nothing but trouble you guys are overstepping by putting these things into that plan okay these kids are coming to school it's public education they're coming to school to learn to be taught not for them to be judged labeled criticized for their personal and what should remain personal choices okay so i'm just asking you to please revise it get it out of there that they need to be vaccinated to avoid quarantine which has been proven ineffective anyways and let's get on with the school year remain open do what we're here for which is to teach these kids not push your own agendas on them and give
026them the same opportunities that they're getting in surrounding counties mary blessinger mary bussinger she's not here okay jody myers hi there i'm jody myers i am a i'm going to date myself here 60-year resident of ellinsville i graduated from edgewood my children graduated from edgewood my grandsons are attending the elementary school and my great-grandson is about to attend the elementary school so we have four generations that are going to be coming through edgewood i am very ill prepared about a month ago when we had the the flood damage in monroe county four foot oak tree fell on my home and i've been homeless ever since so all of my notes and all of my research that was lost and i apologize for that but i did scribble some notes and i thank you for your
027time i'm just going to take a couple of minutes i hope i think the misinformation that's coming out about covet is just staggering whether you get it from the world health organization or the cdc or john hopkins different recommendations come across the board every single day it seems like last spring a health aide at eps posted on a social media site that during their regular briefings from the indiana state department of health it was reported that there had been two thousand five hundred children deaths in indiana since covett began two thousand five hundred i simply did not believe it so i reached out to lori ramsey who's the chief nurse consultant for the indiana state department of health she apologized profusely said that the wrong information was given to the school and she would reach
028out to correct it she followed up with me in an email on june 15 and she said that there had been a total of six deaths in the state of indiana between the ages of zero and 17 she didn't drill it down any further than that i only make the point to talk about the misinformation i do not mean to say that the deaf a child is acceptable because it's not i will tell you that my grandsons came home every day last year and as soon as they got off the school bus they literally ripped their masks off their face and took a breath of fresh air i've already begun researching a homeschool co-op i have a curriculum i have an art teacher a music teacher and science teachers lined up the only thing we're
029looking at is for locations just in case we have to go that route because we do not want our children i do not want my grandchildren and other people's children if they don't want that choice if they you know not to have to wear masks we would like for our children to attend eps and eis but we also want them to attend mask free it's time to join other schools around the country and to take a stand for our constitutional rights thank you very much for your time thank you all very much for coming tonight and and speaking uh is a difficult topic and it's good to hear from from all of you so thank you for for speaking with us yes speaker the one presenter uh from the public uh we missed her name
030she's here now okay um i'm gonna be real honest the email you sent i've not even gone through it all yet i mean i've gotten through a little bit of it heard a little bit about it talked to some friends stuff about it but my main reason for coming up and talking was i'm sorry what's your name mary blessing sorry i have um an eighth grader here um anyway i'm here to support my friends who were i'm going to speak but i'm kind of on the opposite my boys have been vaccinated i've been vaccinated my husband has been but i'm kind of a rule i always i've always everything's been live we've always been vaccinated for everything um but when it came out saying that like people kids can go on field trips if they
031haven't been vaccinated or um no not right i didn't say that okay anyway i just think that it should be a choice you know that if people you know want to go ahead do it if you don't want to it's just kind of like the flu shot i mean if you if you get the flu shot um you know or if you don't get the flu shot you're still allowed to go do those things right and on the the part about um if get being quarantined um on that part it's it kind of goes back to the same concept the vaccination's been out there long enough now that it is a choice for people to get it or not get it and so on the other aspect of that just because you haven't been vaccinated
032and you're around somebody that i don't even know why i guess i don't even know why we're why why would that still be an issue at this point because people have had the choice to do it so if you've chosen not to do it why would you need to quarantine you need to quarantine the sick not the healthy so i don't didn't quite understand that part of it um i don't know what else to say but i just want to see our kids back in school full time without having to wear masks do you go out to public now you go out to restaurants now you do it's not mandated that you wear a mask i don't know i don't understand why it should be mandated in in the schools as well um i don't
033know exactly even where that came from so i don't know anything else i don't know what else i need to say i think that's about it um basically just that i'm kind of on the opposite of the spectrum i everybody has been vaccinated but i also understand everybody else's rights to not be vaccinated and if you even though you haven't they should still be treated the people that have been and have been everybody should be treated the same at this point no matter what because it's been out there long enough not to be does that make sense nobody cares okay that's it i think that's it and thank you mr kerr i just want to say that i did receive an email from becca melissa and today and i will definitely respond to those and
034anybody else here tonight feel free to email me call make an appointment we could talk in person said i since i sent out the plan i've been answering emails and did a zoom meeting today with a couple parents so we definitely want to be open and transparent and make sure that everybody has a chance to share their concerns and also hear uh where we might be coming from when we create these plans thank you okay moving on with the agenda the next item is the consent agenda and for that we have approval of minutes for the june 1st special board meeting the june 21st regular board meeting and the june 21st work session we have the treasurer's report for june of 2020 and mr durnell could you give us the claims yes sir thank you
035the gross wages for june 4th 2021 935 248.96 gross wages for june 18 2021 600 792.78 claims prepays for six one twenty one through six thirty twenty one nine hundred eighty thousand two hundred forty nine dollars and fifty nine cents claims regular vouchers july nineteen twenty twenty one twenty twenty two hundred and twenty four thousand five hundred fifteen dollars and thirty eight cents forest hills vouchers seven twenty twenty twenty one thirty three hundred and forty two thousand three hundred thirty dollars and forty nine cents for a grand total of three million eighty three thousand 20 cents thank you mr durnell we also have uh personnel resignations retirements non-renewals leaves and terminations 1 through 10 and personnel appointments and transfers 1 through 30. so we do we have a motion on the consent agenda i'd move
036approval moved and seconded any questions comments yes okay uh any questions or comments on the consent agenda hearing none um with uh one of our members being by zoom we will do a roll call vote so mrs jacobs yes mr durnell yes mr tucker yes mr damas yes and mr kerr is a yes as well our next agenda is the mr kerr i'm sorry i just want to recognize a few people if i could i want to recognize amy phillips who is resigning she's taking a position at sherwood oaks christian church west to work as a counselor and amy has been with us for 26 years 17 as a music teacher and nine as a counselor and we wish her the best of luck we've had some folks moving around susan shockney is moving from
037the secretarial office person at the high school to become our benefits specialist and she's going to do a great job at that we are also hiring a new director of special education nick mcginnis and he he was just impressive in his interview he had he brings with him quite a few years of experience as an administrator he comes to us from mcc where he was a elementary school principal his wife ashley is actually also going to be coming to rbb and teaching high school english and nancy van allen is moving from a teacher's position to be our new media specialist at the high school thank you very much a lot of good people coming and unfortunately have one going as well so um the next we have the business managers report so mr irwin so
038you guys should have the cash flows there at your desk start out with the education fund education fund in june rolled in very accurately as far as receipts and expenses go i updated the state tuition support payments with the most up-to-date form 54 document which reflects the new state budget and then the estimates that they're using for our funding all the way up until november and december when then they start to reconcile based on your september adm um year ends looking very positive and we're definitely very pleased with where we stand in this bond turnover to the debt service fund during the month of june we received our june settlement our tax disbursements and we got a normal distribution we also paid a small trustee fee which was expected and all the receipts and expenditures
039were expected as well and we are where we expected to be turning over to the operations fund we received the june disbursements of taxes in that fund as well usually the disbursement in june is a little higher than at the end of the year and this this year will be no different we did make our transfer to rainy day to accomplish that goal which the board and the administration had a few years back which brings our rainy day fund up to one million dollars which was which was something that's taken a little while to get back to but it continues to regain that financial stability that the school corporation needs um year end is in and is in a very solid place and and we feel feel really good about where we're headed for the
040end of the year so with that i'll take any questions i i presume that the the basic grant increase that is reflected in july that's just the new fiscal year is that correct based on the new fiscal year so with the new budget that that the that the legislative committee approved with that reflects the new payments so they've taken into account all those changes those legislative changes that have occurred and so that's based on the estimate that the department's using for our adm in september and so based on that they use our current grants from special ed cte all of those things and they roll those forward and then they continue to use that number until they'll they'll take our september adm and then they'll reconcile in november and december i mean it's nice seeing
041them absolutely increase 140 000 so absolutely okay good thank you any further questions i'd like to uh compliment mr irwin and dr sanders for uh working with our budget and i appreciate the fact that we were able to get the rainy day fund where we wanted it to be and it just gives us a little peace of mind in case things start to unravel financially so i appreciate that very much thank you thank you next up is the ready school student run coffee shop update dr sanders all right well i'm going to invite jamie miller our ready schools coordinator up to the microphone tonight to give us a general update on ready schools stacia myers who is a business teacher at the edgewood high school is also here tonight to give an update on our
042student-run coffee shop and we have two of our awesome high school students kennedy bruns and gretchen monday monday who will be here tonight who are here tonight to talk about the business model that they created and then finally jamie has an introduction to make tonight evening it's always nice to join you all um so you want to go ahead this first slide the graduate profile i hope you all eventually tire of seeing this because that means we've sufficiently gotten this out to be seen everywhere and i will send you all the slide deck after this board members so that you can see some of these slides there's a lot there but i'll send them afterwards for the you guys to be able to review but this graduate profile this really is one of the core
043tenets of all things ready schools because this is our commitment to the community this skill set these six different types of skills this is what needs to be embedded from kindergarten through our seniors and it's in some cases very new skills to the classroom so new to our teachers as much so as our students so ready schools is all about infusing these skills um into new experiences and new challenges and in some cases just tangible curriculum even but regardless of how we incorporate these into each grade level i hope that you continue to see and hear these skills through everything that you experience with ready schools so i'm just going to continue to share it with you because these skills really are hopefully going to be embedded in everything we do so these first couple
044of slides this is an overview that we just shared and at the last meeting in june we spoke to professional learning communities or plcs so i wanted to just continue um to again connect this piece to everything else that we're sharing that we've already implemented um so in each of these three sections of this visual the why the how and the what the first one the why this is our vision in our mission language that we came up with gosh a year and a half ago now i'm not sure pre-covered we have a new vision and mission statement to really capture the way education is changing we're changing how we do school and we don't have to tell you all that but these new career awareness skills and new transferable social emotional skills interpersonal skills
045everything we're doing is changing so this really goes all the way back to our vision and mission statement so how we're going to change all of that plcs is the foundation so this is where we're equipping our teachers so over the next year we're going to take baby steps to revisit how we're equipping our teachers we can't prepare our students for a world if we don't know how to prepare them for that world in a lot of cases our teachers this is this is their one career that they've invested all of their passion in and if they don't know what the workforce looks like and how quickly it's changing and they don't have the time to collaborate and to connect and revisit data and inform their own instruction and continue to iterate then they can't
046prepare their students to do the same so those four critical questions that you see that's going to continue to create this foundation in everything that our teachers are doing to try to continue to iterate and improve instruction for all of our students across all grade levels so what do we want the students to know how do we know when they'll learn it excuse me what do we do if they haven't learned it and then what do we do once they have it sounds simple um but it really that that's the core of everything that we do already in our classrooms so ready schools is built on that exact same foundation and then the what this is where all of the implementation strategies that you hear me come tell you about and show photos of this
047is what we're building on that foundation so as we equip our teachers and as we equip our students to learn and to teach in completely different ways that sounds daunting but each of these strategies is its own piece of this puzzle and each of these strategies are being implemented already in different ways and to varying degrees in each of our schools so pbl that's something that's been in place for five plus years now in our school and has really changed how we empower kids to take ownership of their own learning and as you go through each of these strategies and everything that i share here about the last semester you'll see that that foundation again is it's just that ready schools is about equipping our teachers and our students to feel more um equipped and
048empowered and able to face an evolving world so over the last semester our design labs are a big focal point of ready schools because it's something to see and experience and in the case of both the junior high and the high school now brand new construction just like the elementary schools experienced a few years back so these design labs are truly state of the art they're innovative learning spaces in every sense of the term so this is the lab at the junior high with dry erase tabletops that convert from sitting to standing so flexible options for small groups large groups they can move on caster wheels and that's the clean side of the lab then the dirty side of the lab is where we have the laser cutters in a cnc router coming and vinyl
049cutters and hand tools and all sorts of things that kids are just starting we're starting in the spring semester to go through safety modules to learn how to use under supervision of course but in every case these labs are bringing relevancy and authenticity to what might have previously been a cardboard and duct tape project so when our kids are envisioning or designing prototypes to solve a problem whether it's to solve a prosthetic create a prosthetic to solve a hypothetical problem or to truly create a solution to a problem right here on our campus perhaps or in a couple cases kids have even been commissioned to solve problems out in the community this lab just takes it to another level these labs are allowing them to have access to market ready tools to create market ready
050products um that they really feel are authentic and are um you know valid representations of what they're envisioning when they're designing so um this is a picture of what will be the innovative learning center next at the high school now so this is the view from c115a what was that meeting room um the next two rooms over are all under renovation now to create the same type of space now at the high school so it's four quadrants essentially digital design digital fabrication which mirror the two labs here at the junior high that are actually right over there and then a collaborative presentation space or a dynamic presentation space where there will be the technology the lectern the flexible seating for small group presentations classes to come in and use but also presentations of this caliber
051and then the fourth space is the audio video studio where they'll be portable podcast booths a green screen room so audio and video production equipment for kids to be able to demonstrate their learning and create in that way so in each of these spaces these are just new innovative ways for the kids to our students to demonstrate their learning in age-appropriate ways through each of our schools so the initiative has obviously followed them up through the grades starting with the steam lab at the primary and intermediate and now building on that foundation up through the junior high in high school so just one example of this work still taking place throughout the summer i was fortunate it was my honor to take a team of teacher leaders to chattanooga tennessee this summer in cooperation with
052roi who funds our portions of our ready schools initiative to be able to take more intentional time and longer spans of time than we can get in a normal school week to really be able to dig into these tools and create ourselves so we were able to use laser cutters and see the cnc router in action and vinyl cutters and 3d printers and have a challenge of our own as teachers to experience this just in a sense that speaks to what i was just sharing that our teachers can't ask of the kids what they haven't done themselves and they can't teach the kids or facilitate their learning with tools that they haven't used so this group of teachers rolled their sleeves up and for several days they were there in a lab from eight to
053five every day facing challenges of their own and getting frustrated and iterating and persevering through that in just the same ways that we're excited to be able to see our kids rise to the same challenges so um i kind of already spoke to the audio video production so i will sort of just skip over that but you all will be able to see the highlights from what we did in the last semester they are just taking fortunate to be able to actually take site visits and see other spaces to inform ours and then the mustang coffee corral is really what i was supposed to get to quicker than i did but these are two pictures of the construction underway in the media center at the high school um so what was an office and a
054storage room for the media specialist there sorry to nancy van allen that she walked into here but it's about to be a commercial grade kitchen for our student-run coffee shop so this was a challenge that we truly threw at the introduction to business students in the spring semester in the most authentic way possible and they they dove in to research they weren't sure if we had lost our minds but we continued to try to run alongside them and facilitate as best we could one step ahead of them in envisioning what it looks like to work with the fire department to work with the planning department to work with the health department and go through all those same steps that a new business owner would have to go through to plan for and implement a business
055of their own so this is just a little glimpse of what that space is going to become and we can't wait to come to you with the after photos but the kids really did take it and run with it so this is pbl in its truest form where we say as teachers as facilitators as long as we're one step ahead of them um then we're doing our job and we're just supporting them along the way and they asked the critical questions and sought out the solutions and we're well on our way to having a viable student-run coffee shop so if anyone in the audience knows how to work an espresso machine that's our next challenge but i'm going to with that be quiet and bring up mrs meyers as well as kennedy and gretchen to
056share just a little bit from their perspective what that experience was like um to be able to really take ownership of this and just kind of leave you with their thoughts and then we will come back to what this looks like and with the business connections and introduce our other guests as well so i'm really just going to kind of let them run with this i'll just tell you it has been an absolute honor to teach this class i'm so nervous i'm so sorry to teach this class and to work with these kids and to see the really cool things that they have done so if you have questions for them i encourage you to ask them they have all kinds of really cool ideas and things to express to you so i will let
057them take it away hi i'm gretchen oh and i'm kennedy so whenever we were building the coffee shop and mrs meyers was first introducing like the interactive learning center and the coffee shop i was like oh this is kind of way out there and i didn't think it'd be that useful but honestly after we got the experience of like writing the business plan and getting to work with mentors that own businesses i realized how important these type of things are it gives me a lot more faith in the students and how they'll do in the future honestly because it definitely helped me learn a lot about the real world and what businesses expect from you so gretchen uh we worked on that project every day during class and i think it was every friday we
058would talk to bob costello who ran he like owned soma and then any time that we had a question on how to do the business plan he would help us out and that was really nice yeah i feel like this wouldn't have gone near as smoothly had mrs myers not set us up with like as much as she did to succeed and bob is really helpful in giving us information specific to coffee shops but also just businesses in general that even whenever we were looking for jobs i started to understand more of why something works the way it does because of this experience i mean if you have any questions i guess then i have dozens of questions but i'll try to keep them down yeah um one so for somebody out in the community
059when is the the coffee shop uh operating who's going to be operating it how does it affect your schedule during the school day those kinds of things yeah um we were hoping to start it like towards the beginning of day maybe have it open during first period and then during both lunch periods after school and then during like football games or any sort of after school event whether it be music related or just sports but also i guess many maybe any time in that open window because i think at one point mrs meyers had talked about like a food truck mobile way to get food out to people but as far as like affecting students schedules it would be possible to work during lunches or if you maybe had like a study hall period you'd
060want to be willing to work but i mean after school i can imagine maybe some kids would want to do it because it's just money for getting to go to school and see your friends and get some new work experience that you wouldn't have otherwise okay i sat in on the uh the day that uh each of the teams who each team wrote their own business plan and they presented their plans to uh through a zoom meeting to local business leaders and uh i was impressed by two things one just their presentations uh alone were just very impressive but these business leaders they asked some very challenging questions and at one point i'm just wondering do they do these business leaders are they remembering that these are high school students but the students they answered
061every difficult question with excellence and i was very proud proud of them and just like the question larry asked and just on the spot just was a great answer and so just very evident of the kind of student we have at edgewood high school what ended up being the most difficult part about the business plan section or an area that was more difficult than the others i honestly think that just starting it out was probably the hardest because we didn't really know where to start obviously we're 16 have never written a business plan but our mentors really helped us get through that a lot it was kind of difficult to figure out like what products you wanted to sell or how much you would make it cost because you want to be able to make
062profit but also don't want to run students dry so are the workers will they earn a wage for yeah i forget the exact amounts that we set but um sorry we did set wages for each both manager positions versus baristas who have all their own specific duties but it should be on the business plan i think yeah approximately how many about how many uh workers will there be at the outset originally we started with just maybe up to five baristas because i know that typically baristas do all the money handling dishwashing they kind of do all that for themselves and at the start one maybe two managers just so that we aren't having to also worry about paying like overstaffing and having to pay that many people but we would hope to be able to
063get more staff as hopefully the business grows at the school okay great so we have two windows main window in the library and then are you working the other okay i think it was two windows i think one that was like in the back that was like a sliding door and then the main one that was in the media center when when can i place my order your employees coming from the pool of students that are already in the is it the ice program miss myers is this the ice program where the students are coming from or the afternoon program no so in order for them to be management sorry we'll need you in the microphone right in order for them to be management they have to take a business management course but other than
064that any student can come in and be a student worker so they can all be a barista but in order to be like what we would consider a ceo cfo cio anything like that they'll have to take a business management course does that make sense so it's a new course that we're offering but no no cte it's a cte course but not ice we don't offer ice right now mainly seniors in the course uh no okay we have sophomores through seniors yeah okay yeah it'd be nice if we could uh if it's okay forward to copy the business plan to the board members i'd like to see that you have a copy of it of their business plan their business plan yeah you should have a copy right in front of you all right perfect
065yeah it's really good i think you'll it'll be some good night time reading for you tonight so perfect thank you okay the mocha mustang any further questions thank you very much for coming tonight they really are the highlight of our portion of the presentation um but you can see anyone who wants a copy of their business plan i'm sure they would love for me to offer to share that up openly but then this is just a little glimpse of the mentors i can't say enough about the community engagement that came of this particular initiative so as someone who is really terrified of public speaking the community engagement piece has been a huge tenant of all things at ready schools but it really this is an example of the initiative really taking on a life of
066its own this is not something that jamie planned or mrs myers planned or really even a team from the district planned this was something that we saw in a student-run machine shop elsewhere and just very loosely imagined what this could be and listened to the students and to the staff when we gathered feedback two years ago now through discovery and this is it's just taken on a life of its own and a huge piece of that is the community engagement piece so these entrepreneurs that are members of the dimension mill in bloomington that's how we got connected with each of them they're each just truly individual business owners in the community that were willing to give a little time on a friday um and it was also a silver lining of covid because without zoom
067we probably would not have gotten them here in person and we wouldn't have thought to do this virtually so it really was it was such a blessing in disguise the way this worked out so um of those community partners hoosier hills credit union you all i'm sure coming into ellisville have seen their new branch russ wilkie is an example of someone who really kind of blindly trusted dr sanders and i as we're navigating all of this this is all brand new to us everything that i come to you with it's brand new to education and so we're really writing this as we go and we had a handful of meetings with hoosier hills credit union russ has kids in the district and just said how can we help how can we get involved and every
068facet of ready schools um can benefit from support right now because of the newness but the coffee shop is something that we're really trying to pour into and they they were willing to lock step with us and run alongside us so hoosier hills is here tonight to present one of the fun big checks just as a representation of their partnership with rbb and their monetary support but they also were on that panel of financial institutions giving feedback to the kids during that zoom presentation and have been willing to you know give of their human capital as well so their time and their energy to support us so i can't say enough about all of our partners but tonight we really want to showcase hoosier hills credit union as a new commercial member of our community
069and supporter of ready schools so with that i'm going to invite them to come down and join us and take a quick picture i think and then i will let you guys move on with your agenda so thank you as always for letting us come and share all of the things that are going on with ready schools so one two and three thank you so much for your generous donation and work that you've done with rbb schools and the ready schools thank you so much we really appreciate having community members like you thank you so much for introducing real quick this is russ wilkie and uh and then travis markley if i get that right and nan morrow all right okay very good uh we appreciate them and all their work like jamie said we
070have multiple meetings with russ and and we approved their donation at our june board meeting but hoosier hills we are working with organizations and companies like this all through the ellisville area and we encourage our our uh business partners throughout the the community to come and work with us with ready schools just like hoosier hills has chosen uh to do so the eldersville chamber of commerce is having a power lunch in in august and uh jamie and i will be there presenting about ready schools and hopefully uh inviting more partners like hoosier hills to to join us so thanks again thank you very much hey it was a wonderful presentation tonight our next agenda item is the 2021 go bond general obligation bond outlook and update uh mr irwin yeah so this uh proposed 2021
071go bond is something that um is something we've been talking about for a little while at a past work session with the board i had presented to you a capital replacement list to start to look at a bunch of the varying needs across the corporation and this being a way that we could continue to address those things to make sure that our our facilities and our operations and everything else going around the corporation stays at the level of which our community deserves this go bond is whether it's going to be for buses or technology or hvac or parking lots or other capital needs it's going to address a lot of things and the financial means that we would need to get that done and it also is being done in a way that's tax neutral
072with our current rate within our current capacity so it has no effect on raising our tax rate or anything of that nature we do have jacob mcclellan from bose mckinney and then chad blattlock blacklock and matt shoemaker from stifel to talk about their respective expertise within the go bond and i'll let jacob start and then they can come up yeah hi uh jacob mcclellan with bose mckinney and evans i'll be pretty quick i'm just going to talk about the process um chad and matt will have um you know more interesting information about the finances so um unlike your last few bond deals this will be a direct obligation of the school corporation so it won't be issued through a building corporation i provided you all with a timetable and you can see the kind of
073critical steps are will after this meeting get a notice to the newspaper you guys will have to hold an additional appropriation hearing at your next meeting and a 10 28 hearing because the project will be over a million dollars you'll just have that one board meeting where you'll consider i'll have a bond resolution to to jerry into dave before then and once that's approved stefan will work on the marketing we were targeting a bond sale in late september with closing in mid-october so i'd be happy to answer any questions on that otherwise i'll turn it over to stifle so the 1028 here will be at our next regular schedule board meeting yeah you'll need to have the 10 28 hearing and then you'll need to appropriate the funds into the budget so you'll have to
074have an appropriation uh hearing as well and we'll have a bond resolution and an additional appropriation resolution for you okay okay thank you first all right but yeah if it's under the million we don't have to do the 1028 hearing if it's under a million don't you don't have a problem per project yeah per project not the total bond issue no um and this will be under the 5 million 575 000 threshold for a controlled project so um you know you won't have to do any of the other authorizing steps that you might have to do if it was a bigger project but um it you can you can combine it all on call at one project and then you don't have to have let's say it's a two million dollar bond and that we're
075three or four projects right you we can combine that all and call it one project and then you only have to have one hearing and unless there's a reason you want to have more than one hearing okay anything else thank you all right good evening uh matt shoemaker chad blacklock with stifl this is informational only but matt and dr sanders asked us to come and just talk for a few minutes mostly as a primer for next month when you go through some of these authorizing steps so the first page shows us the bar graph of all of your outstanding debt and the debt payments this really goes back to 2020 with the long-range planning that dr sanders and matt and the board has done laying the foundation for this uh a bond issue to make
076sure that it is tax rate neutral and that payments can come on without increasing the community's tax rate so you can see the payments from 21 to 22 are fairly stable but then there is a drop in 23 and 24 and then larger drops six or seven years down the road in 27 or 28. so if we go to the next page we see what potential payments could be we are always solving to the tax rate and not the debt service payments so you may see the actual payment go up or down but we're looking at the tax rate so you'll see pretty quickly that there looks to be the payments going up in 2022 and 2023 the payments are going up but the tax rate's not going to go up it's a function of
077the budget chad does a lot of really good work of looking forward doing this long-range training planning making sure that the payments that are coming on are going to be tax rate neutral so you can see the line graph that depicts your projected tax rate the bar graph shows your payments so from 21 to 22 to 23 your payments or your excuse me your tax rate is going to be stable your payments will vary from year to year but that still sets you up with a lot of flexibility down the road you can see there's going to be a big drop projected in 2024 which at that time if there are other facility needs they can be taken care of at that time again without increasing the tax rate the board has obviously been very
078forthcoming with keeping the tax rate uh stable no increase we want to do all of these uh projects under the current tax rate again which is why we're keeping that tax tax rate steady from 21 to 22 to 23. this just depicts the the debt service fund this page you can keep going the next page shows the total tax rate obviously the constituents are not just paying attention to the debt service tax rate it's the total tax rate so that comprises both the debt service fund and the operations tax rate the blue shows debt service fund and then the gray on top of that is the operations rate and again you can see 21 to 23 are very stable in that dollar nine tax rate uh we have shown projected payments um but as you
079know we're not going to have your assessed value until probably the second week of august or so so all of this is projections as of now nothing is locked in the bonds are not going to be sold until september so once we get that assessed value to see how much you grow or don't grow we will update those payments either up or down to make sure that we stick you with the dollar eight to the dollar nine tax rates so nothing is set in stone uh at this point the last page shows the financial parameters this is what you'll see in the resolutions next month but we always like to talk through these a month before so the par amount of the bonds is set at 2.4 million that is a not to exceed number
080doesn't mean you have to borrow 2.4 million means you can borrow anything up to 2.4 million so if your assessed value doesn't grow as much as expected you can borrow a lesser amount to make sure you still hit that tax rate costs of issuance are estimated 150 000 that would leave estimated proceeds available for hard and soft costs and other capital items at 2 million 250 000 we're estimating the interest rate at four percent that is extremely conservative if you were to sell now you'd be well under two percent but given there's going to be time between now and when you actually issue the bonds we'd like to be conservative all of these are maximum financial terms estimated interest expense 170 250 the estimated maximum tax rate impact i do want to speak to this
081it is showing 15.3 cents that is just a statutory formula so it simply takes the largest payment you're going to have on these bonds and divides it by your current assessed value it does not take into account you paying off other bond issues down the road so maximum payment divided by your assessed value that's going to give you 15 cents that last line the net impact after taking into account your other bonds being paid off it's going to be a net impact of of zero cents questions on any of that i know it went really quick that's all we have but we're happy to answer any questions the board may have just on the last page there's a note one but then on net impact it also has a in parentheses at two yeah i
082think that was something that should have been deleted but okay just forgot to delete it yep just looking for the note no great question wait for other questions thank you very much for your hard work on on this and doing uh trying to keep to our mandate so to speak of keep being tax neutral um i think that's important for the taxpayers to to understand um that we're able to do these things yet um not not impact the overall tax rate so uh from the school so thank you very much for thank you for your time and next we have consideration to approve occupational and physical therapist contracts so mr irwin all right so these are the contracts like said for the physical therapists and occupational therapists that work with our special education students these
083are just yearly renewals that we need to do and so their status quo with how we ended this past year um they were included in the packet for your review as well and so this is like i said just a yearly renewal and so with that i ask for your approval do we have a motion on the occupational and physical therapist contracts i move approval a second moved and seconded any questions or comments hearing none by roll call vote mr damas uh yes mr durnell yes mrs jacobs yes mr tucker yes and mr curtis yes as well so the motion passes okay our next item is consideration of e-script agreements um and so dr sanders i'll let you take us through those yes so in january 2020 the board approved using s craft as a
084the company that would provide our property and casualty insurance uh and in february we were to approve these agreements but then kovit hit and that requirement fell through the cracks so apologize for that but we are here tonight to take care of that and this is something that we need to do uh to approve the board needs to approve the agreement and need to approve the appointment of me as a trustee and uh so they these documents have been reviewed by ferguson law that the agreement basically is the original agreement that set up the trust uh and uh and goes through the the different components of uh of organizing uh such an organization and the other like i said is each school corporation that's part of the s craft trust needs to appoint a trustee
085and uh i'm recommending that you pro approve me to be that trustee so i recommend your approval on both documents the motion i move approval all second move and seconded any questions comments ms dr says it's a one-time one-time approval correct we just missed it the first time we don't vote on this every year okay and we've been very happy if that's crap correct yes they've been very good we could talk probably a long time tonight about what a great move that was they are always very easy to communicate with whenever we have an issue they are very timely in in working with us and they also do a lot of proactive work for us we are definitely in a lot better position now than we were in the past okay thank you it's an
086interesting collection of school corporations that are involved in this i was i'm sorry it was it's an interesting group of school corporations that's involved you wonder how they all came together to do this but i'm glad they did yeah it's quite a lengthy list as well yeah a lot bigger than the insurance but healthy church all right so the motion is on the table to approve the second amended and restated agreement and declaration of trust of the educational service center's risk funding trust and the appointment of dr sanders as the as craft trustee so by roll call vote mr demoss yes mr durnell yes mrs jacobs yes mr tucker yes and mr kerr is yes as well will the emotions pass um now we have consideration to approve a contract with dr buddy berry an
087interesting individual dr sanders yes so um on normal years uh in the past we we would begin uh the school year by bringing the everybody together on the teacher's first day back and we will introduce our new teachers and have a a keynote address and last year we didn't get to do that i went around and spoke to each staff individually and we are looking forward to to actually having that again this year in the auditorium and uh we've invited dr buddy berry uh who is the superintendent of eminence independent school district in eminence kentucky and if you look at their website they're they're called the school on fire uh and we've actually uh we've had dr barry come here on a couple of occasions and we actually had a team to go down and
088visit his school and when when he was here before he's such a dynamic and inspiring speaker more than anybody else i get requests to bring him back and so since last school year was such a tough year i really wanted to bring somebody in uh to just really encourage our teachers and get them fired up for the new school year and i couldn't think of anybody else but dr barry and i was very thankful when i found out he had that date open so he'll come on august 10th and uh speak to our our teachers and uh i think that they'll the teachers will will receive that very well i'll entertain a motion make a motion notwithstanding the fact that he's a kentucky wildcat i will if you're making the emotional second ocean motion didn't
089second second second okay uh it's been moved and seconded any questions comments i had the opportunity to sit in on the first session that dr barry did in our auditorium and uh dr sanders exactly where he's he's uh very positive uh he's funny as heck and uh he also he knows what he's talking about they've they have achieved amazing things in eminence so if we can if some of that rubs off on us we'll we'll be ahead so i echo what dr sanders said i was on the group that went to eminence kentucky a couple years ago and that was very uh he had a lot of entertaining things going on a lot of excitement within the school so another thing i encourage you to do dr sanders is keep him out of the coffee
090shop because he's he already has enough wire already well making sure actually one of my favorite things that they had at that school that we went to that uh i don't think i could get our insurance company to approve but they had a slide that went from the second floor down to the first floor and i actually went down and there's do we have that it was very awkward i would love to do that and put that in our preschool but like i said i don't know if our liability insurance would allow that we used to have a shoe uh i don't anyway okay anything further hearing nothing will by roll call vote mr demas yes mr durnell yes mrs jacobs yes mr tucker yes and mr kurz yes as well next we have consideration
091to pre-approve some each month easements for two of our projects the new eecc primary edition project and the new administration support services building project dr sanders yes so during miscellaneous i will give you an update on our construction projects but uh in involving the new e-e-c-c preschool uh uh that's part of the primary edition we need to install a transformer and it'll go there's a drive into the the new preschool and it'll go there right at the corner to entrance into the preschool but we would need an easement to be able to have remc to do that and then also for the new administration building we also need a transformer installed and that will be right at the corner of the practice football field as you as you right across from the football fields of
092practice field right on the corner is where that transformer transformer will go and there were maps that were included in the board packet so those easements are in the process we're waiting for the utility companies to provide us with the appropriate documentation and uh rather than holding up the the construction to the next meeting we're just asking the board to give us pre-approval on those two easements so when the documentation's documentation does arrive we can put our signatures to it and move forward more quickly you have motion i'd move approval a second moon and second any questions comments and these are routine things we would need to do for the project so i believe pre-approval is warranted to to keep the projects on going moving forward so any further questions comments hearing none by roll
093call vote mr demoss yes mr durnell yes mrs jacobs yes mr tucker yes and mr kurz yes as well so the motion passed next we have consideration to approve the 2021-2022 contingency learning and safety plan dr sanders yes so rb's goal for the start of the 2021-2022 school year is to create an environment that gets us a step closer to a sense of normalcy in the safest way possible given current coveted circumstances this school environment for edgewood students must balance the academic mental health and safety needs of our students of course the challenge is that there are many different opinions on how to get back to a sense of normalcy in schools and there are many different thoughts on how quickly to get back to a sense of normalcy in school as i created this
094contingency learning and safety plan i actually went through our reopening school plan from last year line by line looking at the safety measures that could be revised in other words some safety measures that maybe we could we could eliminate or change in order to take that one step towards normalcy but yet identify those safety measures that we had to keep in order to balance that academic mental health and the safety needs of our students and staff i believe that this plan achieves this balance and enables rb to take a step closer to a sense of normalcy in our school environment the plan gives parents options in terms of in-school or virtual and also gives parents options in terms of wearing a mask or not wearing a mask our plan also and this is really important
095our plan also needs to be a living document that we can change in order to effectively respond to continuing changes that exist whether going into or coming out of the pandemic as a school community we should not pass over the second sentence of our plan which says our plan is a living document that is subject to change based on the current situation during the 2021 2022 school year rbb like many other corporations responded to changing covic conditions let me go back actually it's during the 2020-2021 school year that like many other school corporations rbb responded to the changing coveted conditions by adjusting our school schedule as you remember we implemented the hybrid schedule the 4-1 schedule e-learning and eventually went to the five-day plan we took those actions and changed our schedules in the best
096interest of the students in our staff my goal for our safety plan for 2021 2022 is to hopefully stay in one schedule not to go back and forth and and implement uh different schedules that was really hard on students and staff all year long but instead to adjust our safety measures so if i'm creating the right vision here the hope is to stay in one one schedule and as the coven numbers change our response will be what we do with the different safety measures so for example uh the number one question uh the and obviously by the the comments that were made tonight the number one question has been uh what is the corporation going to do about masks the plan submitted to the board tonight states that masks are optional for students and staff
097but i want everybody to know and this probably won't be very popular but if the data that we're watching happens to worsen and the kovitz situation in our community gets worse instead of better which we hope that doesn't happen the there is a possibility that we may have to adjust our plan accordingly but instead of going to a different schedule our first step might be to require masks so god forbid if if in september the numbers get worse either throughout our community or our corporation as a whole or an individual school the most appropriate and safest response might be to reinstate the safety measure of wearing masks nobody wants to do that i hope we don't get that way i hope every step steps that we take from here on out is revising our safety
098plan and having less and less and less safety measures but we want to be able to move forward and get back to a sense of normalcy in the safest way possible our true north is going to be to keep masks optional but we have to be prepared that the circumstances might cause us to have to require masks all last year and i've talked to many of these folks that were here tonight these really good people that that i don't know i've probably met with all of you at one point um had a lot of good conversations but these folks in our whole school community they trusted our leadership and um that won't ever be forgotten um it'll go with me for the rest of my life and i appreciate that and i want to thank
099everybody but i ask for that very same support as we hopefully navigate our way out of the pandemic together and as safe as possible the highlights of our 2021-2022 contingency learning and safety plan is that we we are giving parents the option of school and are all virtual masks are optional for students and staff now i have to emphasize the cdc and the indiana department of health does recommend masks for those who are not vaccinated and the guidelines that we receive from both organizations it clearly states that masks are recommended however it will will be optional we're hoping that parents will take heed to that recommendation but they are optional masks are required on school buses per the cdc and indiana department of health requirements the cdc mandates that masks are used on all public
100transportation and school buses are considered part of the public transportation so there's not a school corporation in the state of indiana uh that has really has a choice in that everybody has to make sure that masks are being ward worn on the school buses we want to in talking with our principals we want to balance social distancing but yet work on providing our students with collaborative based instructional strategies so we're we're going to continue with the students being in rows facing in one direction but we're also giving teachers the option of putting their students in a pod of no more than four and then each pod would have to be three feet apart we have to continue the contact tracing protocol we do not have a choice in that we have to do that and
101with the quarantine the state guidelines and the cdc guidelines states that those who are close contacts and are vaccinated do not have to be quarantined they should still monitor symptoms and isolate if symptoms develop those who are unvaccinated if they are determined to be a close contact or if they test positive then they are still required to quarantine their the amount of days has changed and has been adjusted uh that close contacts may return on day eight with a specific negative test and precautions which is the quarantining day 11 with precautions or day 15 if you don't do anything there's much more to the plan and i heard the the comments on field trips and i'm very transparent so i'll just give you exactly what i was thinking on that last year we didn't allow
102uh field tricks field trips at all and so as i'm giving consideration to this plan i'm just thinking okay what are we going to do with field trips we're going to continue not to have them would one option be to not allow field trips the first semester and see how things go and maybe bringing in phil tripp's second semester and so i i decided that well i'd like to be able in the theory of taking one step towards normalcy what can we do to still have field trips but do so in a safe manner and so i determined that this safety measure would be that field trips would be allowed as long as they were going students and were going to a place where it wasn't open to the public i thought that was a
103very good safety measure to keep everybody uh away from the public the the question about volunteers um you know i'm going to give that some thought i'm going to give that some consideration the whole idea of stating that that um volunteers on the field trip had to be vaccinated was just um i mean bottom line is uh how can we do field trips and stay safe and uh i thought that was uh uh if if um we could have field trips and ask our volunteers that are going to be vaccinated i thought that was a safe uh step to take uh in and to continue to have field trips but we'll give that some thought this is a living document and if there's anything i've learned over the last year a year and a half
104is to listen listen to our our staff members to listen to our parents listen to students we can't there's no way in the world that we can accommodate everybody i wish there was a magic answer i would have paid a lot of money for that to find that that magic magical pill but it doesn't exist um really i would say we all agree on a couple things in this room we all agree that we just can't wait to get back to being normal but we also agree that we really don't have much control on the pandemic except to follow those safety measures to keep everybody safe as we're working through the pandemic and the part that i know everybody agrees on is we all want everybody to be safe and to get through this pandemic
105without any more uh hurt or challenges that's already placed on us and so i asked the board to approve this plan there are some very specific components that are very school specific like the procedures for lunchroom school specific like uh arrival on dismissal procedures that the schools uh will be working on and communicating to their parents before the start of the school year i bet i didn't entertain any questions or comments actually let's get a motion and to put this item on the agenda or on the floor we have a motion mr president i'll remove approval of the contingency reopening plan as presented we have a second that's a second is the with a disclaimer that this is a living document i agree with you it could adjust as climates change and unfortunately who knows
106what's going to happen the next three to four weeks and it could be great it could go the other way so i i suck at the motion based on the fact that it will be reviewed as time progresses over the next three to four weeks okay moving second so questions comments i agree with what brad is saying uh i think that some of my concerns can you hear me um yeah go ahead yes go ahead please go ahead i'm just making sure that everybody can hear me so you know this is a a big concern um for me for the contingency plan and you know just listening to the families that have come to speak today i just want them to be sorry mr jacobs we lost you okay can you hear me now yes
107yes we can okay so i just want to get a break to be aware that the contingency plan can change these these plans have been evolving all year long and we'll continue to do so as things progress and i just want families to understand that um i'm sorry i've lost you again mr jacobs i did that a hundred percent that is something that we have to be very um and how the students will be treated um you know vaccine versus we lost you again hello mrs jacobs yes yes we uh lost you uh again um ask her to call my cell phone i just asked her to call myself could you uh call mr tucker's cell phone and we'll see if we can get that to come through okay okay okay okay i will do
108that all right thank you mr president i i agree i think i know what angie's trying to say there thank you so much for coming tonight and tell us your concerns and a charge to mr sanders is and i'm sure you're aware that would make sure these people are heard and make sure that adjustments can be made whenever they can be made that would be my that would be my choice so thank you sir thank you all for coming thank you okay um let's try this again okay so what i was saying um was that i want everyone to understand that the contingency plan can change just like it evolved all through last year and it will continue to do so and it will constantly be evaluated and everything's not a 100 percent sentence known
109as how we're going to be all year and i want everyone to be aware of that and the families that talked about mental health i completely agree with that i understand that 100 as i dealt with that in my own family so um i'm with everyone 100 with that we also have to understand that covet is very real i'm a nurse i work in it i have worked in it for a year and a half it is extremely real the variance is there and it is stronger than ever before so we have to be cautious careful and look at all sides of the matter we just have to be very careful in how we're opening up our school system and you know we're talking about the field trips with a vaccinated um you know family
110volunteers that are coming in again that's one of those things that we have to be very cautious as to what um type of illness you know that we may be bringing to our students and being on buses and that sort of stuff so we have to be very careful so i know that people are you know we're excited about being able to get the math off students and you know i know students that are non-vaccinated that realize that they may be quarantined because of that they're okay with that um i think that you know as parents we have to again talk to our children just like we did last year going through this pandemic starting you know and we need to be kind to one another we need to be supportive of our friends and
111fellow students and our educators are going to be the same our corporation is very strong we're very supportive we're a big family um and that's how it will be expected to be ran um and i just want you know i want to tell everybody i hear everything that they're saying i've looked at the emails i'm sorry i'm out of town right now but um i'm with you all a hundred percent and i think um going this direction to start um this school year is a very good thing that's all thank you so much thank you mr jacobs any other questions can we comment before the vote before we is it on the table now yeah okay so i i just want to echo what what angie's or miss jacob said is i don't want to
112be a mask versus mass dissension among students and staff and everybody just needs to get along i mean it's this is going to be it's still going to be interesting to start the year to say the least and i think if i heard correctly tonight everybody that was here tonight was more of a i'm happy the masks are going to be an option but then on the flip side and that and for the people that are watching from home we we do read your emails uh i know dr sanders responds to them and is more than happy to meet with people and i i encourage you to set up a time to meet with dr sanders because he does weigh things back and forth and he i will say one thing he does listen and
113he is very he is very transparent but but with that being said there's a there's another faction that thinks that we need to have everybody to mask still and i i kind of see a little bit of that too but it's just it's just a tough slope to go back and forth so as she said i think i don't want there to be tension within the school amongst who has a mask who doesn't and i would just hope if you were a parent on a field trip and of course you're gonna have to pass a criminal background check first that's that's a given right but you would use enough common sense that you wouldn't put kids at risk by going on that school bus sick and i i know it's going to be tough on
114the bus drivers this year because that's that's a guarantee they're going to have a mass going there on the bus and i hope the kids would just cooperate and understand and and i know kids are will step up to the plate on that so i think that will be hopefully a smooth part of our process um and then we got to trust our teachers and administrators they're in they're in it every day they they've been trained they know what they're doing and as far as arranging the classroom to be safe i i trust them i mean that we have to trust them and i do trust them because we've we've got good people working here and we'll continue to grow with this as as it progresses mr demos i um there is no question that
115this is going to be the toughest vote that i have faced in my short time on the board um and as mr tucker said um i appreciate those of you came to speak tonight uh and i understand the desire to take off the damn masks i get it on the other hand i have also received communication from some who are scared to death that their children are going to be in a classroom and they they will be vulnerable and they are scared and i understand that too and i i feel for all of them and i did have the opportunity to witness witness recesses at the intermediate school while i was walking my dogs and watching the kids run around and get the chance to take off their masks outside and i know that they
116loved the fresh air they they were as mrs lee said the the the joy of hearing kids screaming and and having fun was gone for part of the year and it was starting to come back as we got to the end of this last school year and i hope that that process continues at the high school i got to sit in and be a proctor for a couple of the ap exams and i was i mean i taught at the high school for 32 years i had wondered how the mask thing was going and so i was in the auxiliary gym with about 40 high school juniors and seniors for three hours and they were terrific the masks stayed on they they did their work they were serious they were terrific i i just i
117was so proud of them and i also felt bad for them because i had my mask on i hated every minute of it but that's that's the way that it was going i think that the students and we have to just recognize there are some things we're going to need to continue to do to keep people as safe as possible and i just hope we can as they said work together and continue as a family as a community to support our kids support our teachers support our school and let's start from this and judge the situation as it grows thank you dr sanders as far as the quarantining and those who are vaccinated versus unvaccinated we are we assuming that they are not vaccinated unless they tell us and then if they tell us they
118are then they would have you know they would follow under the under that so those individuals who have been vaccinated but do not want to say one way or another would just follow the the the protocols of those who are not vaccinated that's correct we'll follow the same procedures we did last year in terms of determining our close contacts and the principals uh when they call up and and tell a parent that their son or daughter is a close contact they'll be saying that they're that they are quarantined and here are the number of days that they could be quarantined and and then leave it up to the parents then to say well my son or daughter is vaccinated and and then if that's the case then they would not have to quarantine um i
119know some were talked about uh worrying about those who were vaccinated versus unvaccinated and and how they might be treated at school um honestly i'm worried about the optional mask because uh as you probably saw i wore a mask in today i've been vaccinated but i still wear a mask when i'm in areas with people i don't know and you know i go into the store and there's a few people wearing masks but i see a lot of people look at me and roll their eyes because i'm wearing a mask i don't want that to happen to the kids at school who believe that they should be wearing a mask and that they i'm more worried about them getting i don't want to say picked on or funny looks or something like that because they're
120wearing the mask and you know so that's that's a concern i have because i i know i get them as an adult in public so i i'm worried about that so i think our our parents need to do a good job letting their students know that it's okay for people to wear a mask if they want to it's optional but it is okay for them to do that and you know so just treat them just like any other student um because you know they they have that right to wear a mask um you know like i had the right to wear the mask in today i said i i do get looks i see it i know what happens and i hope our teachers and staff do the best they can to to watch out
121for that as well i am worried about the new variants the delta variant is becoming more prolific in indiana and if you look at the indiana coronavirus site it'll it'll show the percentage that are coming it's the amount of delta variants has raised 40 some percent i think it was 46 percent um so since last recording of that so that is a concern the multi-system inflammation that children are experiencing that is very very serious that is a concern and i do know also that there's people out there who wouldn't mind to be vaccinated but can't for medical reasons one of those was mentioned tonight as well so just because somebody's not vaccinated doesn't mean anything either that they don't believe in it or anything like that it's just some people can't be um and and
122so it is a concern um it's difficult for me and it's kind of like calling a snow day i'm glad dr sanders does that and i don't have to um so i i appreciate the work that he has put into this and and i i believe in his his work and his research and and his talking with people i would prefer more stringent requirements to start off with quite honestly but i i do understand that you have to weigh all kinds of factors and i trust dr sanders and supportive of of him um but i you know we we dr standard of i have had discussions on how this is a living document and it's not that once now that it's out there we're going to ignore anything that happens in the community that's not
123the case i'm going to be watching for and i know dr zanders will be watching for it i know the other board members will be watching as well and i know parents will be and parents will be letting us know what they see and and what their concerns are and you know we and we do welcome that uh we do welcome to hear uh what your thoughts are i do read the emails um depending on if it's directly to me most you know i'll i'll respond unless i found out that dr sanders already has usually we have discussions but i try to respond to everybody and do unless i i know somebody else has responded so but we we encourage you to keep those lines of communication open we want to hear from you um
124i have heard not from a lot of people uh since it came out but what i've heard have been all across the continuum on what we should be doing and there's not you know and unless this is exactly what you want um you're going to find fault in it um because it can't be what everybody wants and it's just just because everybody's wants are different so so this is a difficult topic difficult subject but again we we do appreciate the input and please please continue to to give us that input are there any other further questions or comments okay by roll call vote the motion is to approve the 2021-2022 contingency learning and safety plan as a living document mr damas yes mr derno no mrs jacobs yes that was yes i don't know if
125it came across okay mr tucker yes and mr kerr is a yes as well so the motion pass 4-1 okay our next item is miscellaneous information dr sanders yes during miscellaneous i wanted to be able to give the board an update on our various construction projects the junior high high school renovation project which is now the cafeteria expansion that is going very well we're expecting to get the punch list by the end of this month and uh everything should be completed and we should be in that area the week before school starts right now they're installing windows and case work and leveling floors we meet every two weeks on that project the innovative learning center which was mentioned tonight is due to be completed or estimated to be completed around october 31st right now they're
126framing interior walls and installing duct work the demolition is all complete for that project for the new preschool we have had some delays mainly because of being able to get steel and other supplies that estimated completion is at the end of december and right now the steel is actually arriving it is arriving i know i said last month that it was arriving and it didn't but i've been up there and and it is arriving and they'll be starting to wreck this deal around august 2nd the new administration and support services building right now they're estimating that to be completed around before spring break probably they are right now once again that was another project that we've had some shortage of materials so the architect is working to identify some alternative roof framing systems so that's
127kind of a that project has not been having a lot of progress lately but once we get everything in it should pick up the transportation lot is seeing a lot of activity and it needs to it's going to be finished by the end of this month and right now it's kind of cool to see them pouring the curbs and seeing that project nearing completion the pool the pool project is due to be finished uh mid to late august right now they're laying the pool deck and locker room tile resetting the lockers they're finished installing installing door frames and doors they're finalizing pool equipment and installing the starting blocks and then the hvac projects are due to be finished uh september now the schools will have hvac and that won't be interrupted it'll be working off
128of the old system um but uh right now they're working on the air handler unit atop on top of the gym and over the a classroom wing of their going outside of the media center that that wing that they're they're working over top of those classrooms so that's where we are with construction thank you and now the superintendent's report dr sanders all right well uh we received uh our i learned results um there was a day when uh years ago when uh the then istep results came to us by mail i mean i'm talking regular mail and we would be waiting at the mailbox for those scores to come in now we wait at the computer and wait for them to come electronically but we we received our results this year and it told us
129what we pretty much already knew that the impact that being out of school and not having that direct in-person instruction did cause the scores across the state to go down we our scores at rbb for grades three through eight uh are above the state average um and usually that's a really good thing but when the state average is low and you say your scores are above the state average it's not doesn't have the impact that it normally does but there are some things to celebrate one and we already knew this too we have very hard-working students very supportive parents and dedicated teachers and that's the perfect ingredient for a successful school and so we're very proud of the hard work that they they put in whether they were doing virtual or being in person everybody
130worked really hard this year and uh so the consideration of the test scores this year um really are it's not that meaningful to us because it's telling us what we already knew however the school corporation regularly conducts assessments throughout the school year and we have uh benchmark assessments that that the students take and the teachers have formative assessments that they do in the classroom so really uh throughout a school year teachers are paying attention to where the students are on mastering the skills and the standards that are set for their grade level so we we really appreciate all the hard work so what did we learn about this we said that maybe the scores weren't we're not as meaningful or as impactful as as we've seen in the past well we have learned uh that
131we've identified different ways to address those learning gaps one is we we really expanded summer school this year we've had two sessions and we finished the first session in june and end of june first of july and we recently started elementary started their second summer session last week the junior high started their second summer session or their first summer session uh today and then the high school will start their second summer session uh next monday and so it's going it's gone very well we're also using some of our uh esser funds to provide our schools with additional resources that will be in place uh for this fall we are utilizing some of our current resources such as title one and using them a little bit differently in order to focus and zero in on those
132skills that the students need the most work on and then we are going to continue with delayed start wednesdays this year in order to give the the teachers time to collaborate and work together more and to talk about their students and where their students need to be academically in order to get these students back up to where they need to be so uh that's a report on uh our ilearn results um new student enrollment open today so anybody new to the corporation can go on our website and uh be able to enroll their child the student registration which takes place every year will open up that window opens up august 2nd the teacher's first day is august 10th and the student's first day is august 11th and all the information the contingency learning plan that
133we just approved and all the information on registering enrolling transfer students all that could be fine found on our website that's my report thank you very much brooke sanders next we have rbea comments mr ewells good evening everyone good to see you here it is july 19th already so i know what that means next time we meet we'll already have started school so we're in that window i'm getting excited to be honest because barring any catastrophe and it's been mentioned many times can't predict the future but it's got to look way more normal than this last year is and that's why i'm excited to see the kids and from a day-to-day outlook it ought to be a lot more normal and that's what we're all going to hope for uh on that note i my
134main oh yeah i want to put a plug in for the mustang coffee corral i'll be a repeat customer when that gets open i guarantee it um really i just want to say thank you to the ever present communication from dr sanders uh you know sending out to parents to teachers alike can't predict the future we all know that but uh at least uh we know what's going on and no matter what side you're sitting on it so appreciate that um and we'll always be in contact so that's really all i have it's been a long evening so we'll see when school starts up next time thank you mr ewells um i did get a message from mrs jacobs she unfortunately lost connection she did say that my only comment because it's time for board
135member comments uh is to thank all the families for coming and speaking to the board and we apply their input thank you for the donations and i want to wish amy phillips well and we will miss her looking forward to the school year thank you now on to mr damas i'll start with a a shout out you probably don't know this but mr ewells uh just ran a 50k in wisconsin and he placed first in his age group so the man is insane but that's 31 miles for those of you who don't do metric and he he was still able to walk and and do other things afterwards i don't know how i want to welcome back or welcome nick mcginnis and welcome ashley mcginnis back to into the fold ashley did teach english at
136the high school for a couple of years and it'll be it'll be great to have her back and amy phillips was actually amy kramer when i first met her she was the first ehs grad that i met when i started teaching a number of years ago and i knew ehs was a special place that turned out grads like her so she was she was just a bundle of energy um and thanks so much to hoosier hills credit union as well as jamie and stacia and uh and the students great job i mean they've done a lot and it's just it's really exciting i'm looking forward to seeing i'll be behind mr yules in line for the coffee so mr dirtle thank you mr president uh i'll echo what mr demoss has said not to put
137you all through that again thank you all for coming tonight speaking your mind i appreciate that work with dr sanders on the limitations and the guidelines and as things get better i'm sure those guidelines will ease up for us so i too i want to get back to normal more than anyone but we'll have to work together to get that done but again thank you for coming that's all i have mr president thank you mr tucker again kudos to the business class in the coffee cafe and thanks again to hoosier hoosier hills for their nice donation this evening i'd like to personally thank miss phillips also for her her years here at rvb she was my son's music teacher at steinsville i think i got her just right in first grade i think she convinced
138him he wasn't going to be a musician so i think that was good maybe on a career move at that point for him so i i thank her for all her time and i've enjoyed her over the years i watched her kids grow up as well so i wish you the best of her new new venture again i just hopefully ask everybody to be cooperative each other and i think miss miss edwards if your curriculum concerns i encourage you to meet dr sanders regarding that and i hope you'll have the answers that you may be looking for thank you i want to thank you all for coming tonight i we do um actually really benefit from speakers when they come and let us know how they're feeling what their concerns are and and what recommendations
139they may have for us it does mean a lot um the coffee shop presentation was two students uh it looks like it was two others that were on the business plan as well they did an amazing job um i really am excited to to see the coffee shop come along and it is really great that uh it's utilizing the students as much as absolutely possible in getting that that project uh going it's not being handed down from the uh the the teachers uh it's the students that are going out that are digging in and doing the research and putting all the blood sweat and tears in it so to speak so we we appreciate them we appreciate the the two students who spoke tonight we appreciate hoosier hills by glad they had a chance to
140do their presentation tonight of their check we we benefit so much from our community partners our business partners and we so much appreciate them um i uh amy phillips is a big loss for the corporation she's a wonderful person i've known her for for many years very very good person and i wish her well nick mcginnis i had limited contact with him before when i served as a guardian at light him at times for children and i had a case where that child was at the school he was the principal of and he uh was very very dedicated to his students um he worked with me to to do the best that i could for that student as the guardian ad litem um and so i you know that's not special education but uh as
141a person i i thought he was he he was excellent he kept me informed as the courts allowed uh of what was going on with the child and um he he obviously cared uh he went above and beyond um for that student so i'm sure he'll do that for the other students as well so again thank you everyone for coming it's been a long night so we wish you well and this meeting is adjourned now you