001Sorry. [Music] Good evening everyone. will uh bring the meeting to order and um if you would please sign in if you're a guest and um we will go ahead and start the pledge of pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Um, is anyone here to speak on a agenda item? Okay, we will move on to our spotlight on service. Dr. L. Thank you. Um we have eight retirees this year from West Nville. We will recognize four of them tonight at this board meeting. Uh they've chosen they get the option of choosing the first meeting in June or the second meeting in June and these have chosen uh to
002get it out of the way. So, uh, we're excited to honor our retirees tonight. And what I will do is invite them one at a time to come up and receive uh their gift, their bell uh from West Noble. It's a little music box. Um, I think it plays School's Out for Summer maybe. No, I'm not sure, but um I know it doesn't I know it doesn't play that. Um, then it says their name and uh West Noble School Corporation and their years of service. Uh, I'll ask them to come up here and if they want to say a few words, they can. If they don't want to say anything, uh, they don't have to. If any of the family want to uh, say anything, that would be fine as well. And then we'll let
003you uh, shake the hands of the board members, let them recognize you uh, for your years of service. And then uh at the end we'll get a picture with the board members and each of the retirees kind of as a group. Um by the way Joe Sagers, our president is coming back from a nice vacation in Hawaii tonight. And so Joe Hutzel, sorry Joe Hutzel, I'm looking at Joe Sagers. Joe Hutzel and um Laura Shear will be here hopefully later. her husband uh is getting an award tonight, I think at the Ligonier City Council meeting at this very time. So, uh they regretted not being able to be here tonight, but um and and wanted to congratulate you um when they get an opportunity. So, in the order that these were given to me, we
004will begin with Brian Stump. Brian, will you come up and receive a token of our thanks for 15 years of service? mostly driving bus here at West Noble and we thank you for your faithfulness to us and to the students and staff here at West Noble. Is there anything that you would like to say to this group of people? It's been fun. Thank you. Thanks, sir. Thank you. Okay, the pressure's on. Now you have to follow that speech with something even more inspiring. Denise, firstman, 18 years of service as a school nurse. It's a lot of headlights and a lot of a lot of messy pants and a lot of fun. So tell you, I do have stories, but too many for tonight. Thank you. give you Oh, go ahead and share share whatever you
005would like with us. Well, one of my students in the last couple weeks before school said, "If you're retiring, does that mean you're tired?" And I said, "Yes, I am. I'm ready to go." Yes. I I'm thankful for Mr. Sheepard's support. I appreciate him so much. In our building, when I would need whatever or any situation, his often his first comments would be, "What can I do?" And that was so very helpful. And Dr. La was very helpful as well. It takes so many supportive people to make school nursing effective in school. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank Skimhorn 27 years. What grades? What all grades have you taught in those 27 years? Um, fifth, second, and fourth. Fifth, second, and fourth. Yeah. And what was your favorite? Um,
006definitely fourth. Okay. All right. Those are your current students. Yes. Yes. Definitely. Congratulations. Thank you. We appreciate you. Would you like to say anything to Can I have my husband speak for me? He's the one that likes to do this public speaker. You'll get his chance. This is yours, right? Vote. Oh. Um, so I just want to um thank I'll start crying so I apologize. Um, the administration, the school board. Um, if you Dr. Well, um, this is a great place to be. Um, I'm honored to have served West Cole. um and to be a part of such a wonderful family who saw me through so many highs and so many lows and all the seasons in between and they become my family. So um thank you for letting me serve. Thank you. Thanks for
007thank you. Did you teach any at any other district? Um, just a really short leave at East Side just for I don't know it was a semester. And so you're a West gradu, awesome athlete. I do remember that. Thank you. Great. Y proud that my children all went here and pretty neat place. Thanks. So, but also kind of why I took retirement is I'm going to be watching my grandson. Good for you. So, thank you. Last tonight, we want to recognize Amy Grath. Now, Amy Gra has had one of the most one of the more unique pathways to this point. Uh she started out I saw in the plaque out there 2001 as a school board member. So she started here, did that for about eight years, I think, served two terms, and then served
00814 years in West Noble Elementary. Was it all in that building? Okay. As an instructional assistant. Uh I don't know too many people that have done that. I know a lot of people come through the school and then end up on the school board, but to come back and to uh serve as a staff member uh has been a gift and we will miss you. So congratulations. Thank you. Would you like to address the room? Just the floor is yours. Thank you. Just thank you. Thank you for West Noble. I I love this place. I love the people and I especially love the kids and I have loved all my years here. I also served at the turning point and I love that much over there, too. So, this has been a a good run.
009Excellent. [Applause] Okay, if all the retirees would come up and stand maybe in front of the board, maybe staggered, and if the board would stand in the back there, and we'll get a couple photographs. In the meantime, I will pass out your boxes. You want to hold your bells? [Music] All right, we're going to find the window here. You in front stay where you're at, but Jack is going to have to shuffle. You can see me and I can see you. You're all good. You ready? Sound like this is really fun. Say retirement. Okay, thank you. And you are free to leave unless you would like to stay for the rest of the board meeting and see what else we do. So, have a good evening. Next on the agenda is um approval of our
010previous board minutes and we've all had an opportunity to review those. I would entertain a motion to approve those. I'll move, Mr. Schwarz. I'll second that. All in favor? And uh next we have reports from the superintendent. Thank you. Yesterday I got to participate in my third graduation back at West Noble and it was a lot of fun and things went well. It was nice and nice and tight timewise. Well done for all that and uh all that had a role to play in that and it was just a great celebration of this accomplishment. So that was from my perspective and Mike Deak took some pictures. They're all on Facebook and the website and much better than these but um this was what I got to see from my perspective. So I was thankful to
011be a part of that. Uh it was a great day. Summer school is off and running. We are in week two at this point or as of last Friday. We had 90 at the primary roughly. Um sorry, why did that get missed? Um 107. Yeah, sorry. If you include the little leaps, I had that in here and now it's gone. Little leaps um is about 80. uh Little Leaps, 90 K1 students, uh they're at the primary, 75 at the elementary, 36 middle school students taking some courses online, and 221 high school students that are taking a course over the summer. Uh online mostly, some using Apex, some using Indiana online academy. Uh it's a great way for them to uh add courses to their course load that maybe don't work well in their schedule because
012of um a special that they want to take or maybe it's a makeup uh something that uh they they struggled in during the school year and it's a way to keep on track. So, it's great numbers and I'm thankful um that we have staff and administrators that are willing to add a month to the school year and help students prepare for I read uh there at the elementary or uh make sure that they're ready for graduation as they approach middle school and high school. Any questions about summer school? Building project update. We are one week out from a punchlist walkth through on Monday, June 16th. It's our uh by monthly check-in meeting with uh Eladas and Hamilton and Hunter. And so we're looking forward to that. It's coming together quite well. Uh here are some
013pictures from the inside. Paint is done. The floor is nearly dry, ready for um a rubber flooring out here and epoxy in the offices in the restroom and the training room at the other end. So, lights are installed, uh heating and cooling are on and uh drawing the moisture out of the concrete so that we can get this finished up. So, um, we're hoping that by the end of June, the flooring will be installed and that we can get the, uh, weight room equipment then assembled and installed in this place in July and hopefully get some use yet this summer in this space and then be ready um, well well ready for school when it begins. Uh if you were back in the back or came through the back, you notice that the paving is
014done. They're going to finish. Um this is a area between the sidewalk and the asphalt that will remain um gravel. They're going to put sealant on that and allow that to that's part of a drainage system. And then there's a place of um grass that needs to be planted to the west. You also may have noticed if you drove up around the middle school, which there shouldn't be much reason to do that, we are tearing out the concrete for um the middle school. And um the they'll also do this at the elementary later this summer, probably in July is when they'll get to the elementary. And so it's a big project. They'll um take out some of that center section there, and that'll be a grassy area uh to the right of the entryway. So,
015if you're coming to the middle school or need to come to the middle school for some reason, please avoid the main entrance and door 14, uh they are no longer safe for um regular traffic. Uh and hopefully these will be ready for uh this this part of the project should be done by June and then the elementary should be done in July. Do they have signage up where to go like if they need to get to the office for the summer? Right now we don't we realized today he got to those front doors. Today was the first day that we realized oh we have a problem there. So yeah. Um will you make sure it was probably 46 when we're doing we're working on some cones and some tape and some of those things. And
016I sent out an email to all the middle school staff today to just use the gym entrance or a different entrance uh for the for the remainder of the month of June. Yes. uh seeing the school and thinking about it. I think it was what three or four years ago we had a company come in and spray a sealer on that school. How is that holding up? Is that it's third year so next year we're going to have to do it. Okay. Thank you about the walls. I'll make sure your walls. Yes. Okay. Staffing plan update. Um we've had a few internal moves. We've had a few openings and we are hopefully hiring uh some in this room tonight, but I wanted to give you an update. We are still looking for middle school orchestra.
017I think they have an interview next week for that position. Uh high school biology is uh still open. I saw it. Was it me? Oh, there she is. Um you do you have any applicants yet for that position? Sort of. Sort of. Okay. Okay, good. Excellent. Uh then we have lots of assistance that we need a lot of um early intervention at the primary school. That's our preschool. Um students and then applied skills. Looks like we have one in each building, primary, elementary, and middle school. And then we're starting an uh emotionally disabled classroom at the middle school through the co-op this fall and we will hire two of our own assistants uh to support that classroom. So um some big steps for us and we're excited about that. And so we need people, if
018you know of people that love working with students of these ages or willing to to give it a shot, make sure they check out the website and um take care of that. Yes. Um the last item, those are new positions. Yes. And are they adding to the staff number or another position wasn't filled or Good. Thank you. It's reimbursed by the co-op. So, they hire the certified teacher and that's all paid for by the co-op. And then we hire the assistants. I don't know why we ever had this system, but it's the system we have. We hire the assistants and then we are reimbursed for um the majority of their salary benefits by the co-op. So, we share the cost all 13 schools share the cost of those positions. Um, and we get reimbursed for
019those because other schools in the co-op will be able to access this classroom. Um, so if they have a need for a middle school student, maybe a chair busco, um, potentially at West View, Central Noble, they could send a student to us through the co-op or have that recommendation. So, how many other partnering schools have this program in their building right now? Um the ED program at the middle school is at cherab but I will tell you it's a little bit because of the way we divide elementary, middle school, and high school. Each school does it a little bit differently. There's some weird overlaps and we're trying to to fix that. And how many students do you think would be in that classroom? And would they all be West Noble students at this point in
020time or at this point in time it will all be West Noble students. And they're anticipating that we would begin around eight students. So 78 students equals two classrooms. One one classroom, one teacher with two assistants. Okay. It's just that big of a ratio. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty it's um it'd be more of your behavior concerns. Um um so it's pretty it's pretty intense, but I um I believe that we um will have the program, the um the administration that that can work well with and we and the benefit to West Noble is we our kids don't have to travel. They get to stay they'll stay in the district. Thank you. Yep. Great questions. Tomorrow I'm sending out my annual parent satisfaction survey. I usually wait till after graduation and uh didn't have
021a chance to get this sent out today, but uh just to get feedback from parents. This will go to all parents of students that finished the school year. um to get feedback on every area of West Noble, our buildings, grounds, administration, teachers, curriculum. Um lots of good questions in there. We'll be able to compare that uh to last year's data and continue to see growth. So, wanted to let you know that that is coming. Had a few people ask me about it actually. They said, "Hey, can we can we get feedback?" And uh they have good good feedback. We're always open to constructive criticism or constructive feedback and there we know that there's areas that we can grow and so um I'm always going to be doing things like that. We sent out a staff
022survey to help us evaluate our administrative team and our directors. Uh we sent that out in April right after spring break and that was a part of their evaluations and now we do this for our parents as well. Update on project two. This is the same slide I showed you last uh meeting. Um, and I just we have another item up for today which is the CMC selection. We selected an architect in May. I'd like to select a construction management company here in June and begin to evaluate the things that need to be done around here. And this is where we need help. uh we presented back in January, February, remember about a a company called Site Logic that was interested in doing an evaluation of our spaces and giving us recommendation. We decided not
023to go with that. We're doing our own uh internal review and the building committee has recommended uh that we go down this road and so that's what we're continuing tonight. I'd like to see the scope of the project nailed down here in June, July uh and in the beginning of August so that we have some idea of what these uh things are that need to be done or that we want to tackle uh in project two. Uh then we'll have budget numbers hopefully in September. These are rough uh timelines, but but just to keep us on track, uh I would like to sell bonds in December or January, maybe have some schematics February, March, do bids, and then begin construction uh with whatever projects we move forward with um uh next year at this time.
024So, if we're going to do anything next summer with project two, uh we have to start now. We have to start evaluating those things now. Um, so I wanted to give you that update. We are doing a budget work session. This will be a part of this process as well, June 30th. Uh, this is on the website. This is approved at the last meeting. I wanted to give you a brief agenda for that night. All of this is open to the public. 5:30 we'll meet here in the corporation office and we'll walk down to the front of the high school where some work needs to be done down there. I'd like to walk through the wait room. Hopefully by then the flooring is installed and we can walk through that space. Maybe even see um
025that finished. Then I'd like to just swing through and look at the sidewalks at the middle school. Those should be done by the end of June. are at least in progress, almost done. Want to walk through our bus garage, maintenance offices, softball and baseball fields. These are some of the areas that we're considering as we look at project two. And so I'd like to begin our budget work session uh with a tour of um those spaces. So that part of the meeting will be public. Anybody is welcome to join us on that tour. It's not just for the board. It's not just for our admin team. Uh that's open to anyone. We will not live stream it. There's just not a good way to do that. Um then we'll come back here. We'll have dinner
026for the board members and administrators probably in a different room. We'll come into this room then um either here or in the green room and start our work session. That'll be about 6:30. Um and hopefully in about 2 hours we'll uh have the information uh that we need for that. No decisions will be made that evening. Uh it's just a work session, but it is open to the public. And once we're back in this space, the rest of that meeting will be livereamed uh and available for the public. Any questions about that night? Thank you. That is my report. Thank you. Um next up, it looks like director of transportation. Okay. So, we've got a couple of initiatives that we're starting and we wanted to just give the board and the public a heads up.
027Uh the first, well, let me back up. About three years ago, we put GPS units in our buses so that we could track them and then the drivers could also if you're subbing for a route, you get in, just type in the route number and it navigates you through it. Um, some of the other features that are available that we hadn't used are a wrership program. Um, so the kids scan as they get on and off the bus. Um, which we're going to utilize K through four. Um and then a second one is here comes the bus feature for app there's an app that parents can um use and when a bus enters a zone that they've chosen uh however big whether they want to not they want notified when the bus is within 10
028miles or 200 f feet of their stop um they'll get a text message. So uh Loren's been spearheading that. So I'll let her I'll flip through some pictures and let her kind of just kind of give an an update on those two things. So, this what you're seeing here is the handout that we're going to pass out um at schools. So, the teachers will have them in their classrooms, the offices will have them. We'll do it back to school night. Um so, they can take that, they can scan the little QR code at the bottom. It's got the our school code for that app and then they can locate their students ID in Skyward. And that's that's key because you can only look up your students information. You can't just look up anybody's information. It's
029only pertains to your student because you are the one that has access. Now, if you want to give grandma and grandpa or the babysitter your child's ID number, feel free. That's on you. But they'll be able to then track the location of your student. Okay. Um Susie was nice enough to take some pictures this morning, so we had them for you tonight. This is an example of the students using these things right here. I made hundreds of these and each barcode is specific to that particular student. And they are scanning on the bus and they'll scan off of the bus. So, when they get on the bus in the morning at their home or babysitter, they'll scan and it will show, hey, the kid got on the bus and then when they get off at
030the school, it'll say the student has been now off at the school. They're at their location they want to be. Um, we are trying and hopefully this happens so we don't have to make these every year. Hopefully the primary and the elementary will get on board with the uh badges like that from the people that take pictures. So, we don't have to make these for the students every year. Now, we can make them if they lose it or whatever, but that would be ideal. Um, granted, we'll have to do this every year for the kindergarteners coming in, but So, I took screenshots this morning. And I used a a student so you guys could see what is going to be on their phone when a student scans to get on. So the first one on
031the left, it says new bus assignment. So this morning, bus 38 wasn't on route. Bus 38 had a sub. Since bus 38 had a sub and it was being replaced by bus 26, the parent got me got a text message that said, "Bus 38 is nine service and has been replaced by 26." just so you know that there's going to be a different bus coming by to pick up your child. It's not going to be bus 38 like you had anticipated. So then at um 4 at 11:45 in the morning, a scan was received from another student on bus 26. So at 11:45 they were at the elementary school and scanned on bus 26 and said they got on the bus. Then um bus 26 entered the 250 foot radius as to where the student
032is supposed to get off. There's a 250 ft radius and we can set that or you can set it as a parent how far you want that to be. So if you want it to be 5 miles before your student actually gets to the stop so you can race home and beat the bus there. That happens. Um then you can set it to 5 miles. But right now we have 250 set up on on my app and it said that he entered the radius of my 250 uh feet set up and then we'll arrive at the stop momentarily. So then we have the last one. It says at 12:22 um a scan was received from Maximo on bus 26, meaning he scanned the bus and got off at 12:22. So you know that your that's
033where your child is. The spot on the left, if you see up up underneath where it says ligonier, there's a little yellow dot, that is actually the bus. And you can watch it moving. We are trying to get that turned off because we really don't want people chasing down the bus. And it happens. It really does. It happens. So So we we don't but we don't have that option right now. that feature is not available to us at this point, but they're working on it. So, they can actually follow that little yellow dot and know where their child is at all times if they want. Um, then on the left, the student that I was scanning, there's a red dot and then you see the larger dot around it. That's the 250 foot radius that
034once you enter that, on most the bus enters that, it will send a text and saying he's almost home. To the right, oops. To the where it says history, you can actually see when the bus was there, what time? 11:45. Bus 26, 12:22, bus 26. and and it kind of helps us and it's saved us quite a bit this year this as far as the parents saying, "Well, that that student the bus never came." Yeah. We get a lot of calls that the bus never came. And then we'll look it up. We'll say, "Well, it did for the last three days, same time." Yeah. And the parents like, "Well, I'm sorry. That's what little Johnny told me. I'm at work. Little Johnny." So, all right. And that's that's pretty much we're rolling out it. So,
035we're kind of excited about it and we we did some training. Uh Mr. Yoder was in some training with uh the ladies up in the office and they are pretty excited about it too. and we're going to go and meet with the ladies in the office at the primary this summer and get them on board because when a bus driver calls in and says or when the ladies in the office are looking for somebody, they can they don't have to call the bus driver. They can get on the computer and say, "Oh, they scanned on such and such bus." And and then the bus driver also knows when they scan, if the scan comes up and it says you're on the wrong bus, it'll tell the bus driver you're on the wrong bus, you need
036to go up two buses and get on that one. Or if a little kid tries to get off at the wrong bus stop, as they scan off, it'll give Yeah. And you're not supposed to get off here. So So that's exciting for us. Any questions? Is there anything on the app for a parent to let the bus driver know their student would not be riding that day? No. Huh? There is not. They um a lot of bus drivers will give their phone number out so they can Yeah. Yeah. Just not here. Any Yeah. Um can a parent tell who has access to their child's information? like did it falls into the wrong person's hand or I mean could I tell if you know their grandpa grandma and nextdoor neighbor has access? No, you won't be
037able to tell who's got you if I was concerned about that for some reason. I don't know about that. I don't I don't think I can I've really done a lot of looking and digging in this and I have never seen anything I can look a little bit more into that think about security you know sure people um But I think, yeah, I don't think I've ever seen a place that I can I can recall who's got access to that information. Um, and the only way that they could get access to that information because it's not it's not on here. It's the number is not written on here. So I think the only way you could give that you know get that information is the parent would have to give it is does a student
038ID like when we go to the middle school or any school for parent teacher and we get a handout with our students information classrooms locker you know at the beginning of the year has locker locker combination and stuff isn't the student ID on that I think it is I mean this you know it's not like it's not the securest thing in the world I'll tell you But when I was at the high school this year, they didn't have our son's schedule printed off anymore. They wanted us to look it up on our device and and get that information that way. So, there's a lot less printing of that kind of material going out than there used to be. Would you agree with him? Number STN number. It's their state ID number. We don't print We
039don't print that out. Right. The the main thing is having the Skyward access. So, whoever has that would have access to most of all that information. Even use the fingerprint at lunch. So, it looks like a barcode, but it doesn't it doesn't have the number on. Yeah, this this does have a barcode, but there's no number printed. So, my second question would be um will the driver know immediately if the child didn't scan? Yes. Like if they just got off the bus, like at the end of the route, will it say you have three students still on your bus? Yes. I I'll tell a funny tell on Susie. She She doesn't even know that this was We had a parent call. Yeah. I had a Mrs. Doner called a parent called her all worried that
040her child got off at the Campbell residence. And what happened was the kids forgot to scan off at the primary when when Susie got home. She cleared out the computer and it just sent the parent a notice that that's where they got off there. I do not take any kids home. No, this is a reassuring mom that no, she's here. We just forgot to scan off the bus. So that's something with our training we'll have to work on. And this is uh growing. We really have a lot of training to do in this process. This summer school has been our pilot program. Yeah. So, what about those kids that forget their book bag and don't have the handful of kids that just still have it? That does that does happen and they can when they're
041at that stop, they can choose to select that student. But we also have students that want to get on the bus that aren't on that route and we just have to let them on because in the morning. Yeah. In the morning. We don't do that in the afternoon, but in the morning you're not going to leave them at the stop. So, we just have to let them on. Um, and keep in mind if there were to be an accident or something like that, we would not have a print out of that child being on that particular bus. No different than it would be now. But yeah, we have that quite a bit. So, I like the program. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, looks like we would be moving on to the consent agenda. Um, am
042I correct, Dr. Lao, that the only thing on this is a professional leave? Yes. So, you've all had the opportunity to review that um professional leave for the superintendent and I would entertain a motion. I'll make a motion. Laura makes a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second. Let's have a vote, please. Thank you. And then uh next up is a full personnel agenda. Um a resignation hiring of several certified staff and also classified staff and then numerous service agreements. Anyone questions, comments, concerns? I entertain a motion on that. I'll make that motion. Parish makes a motion. I'll second it. And who is that? Laura? Yes. Second. And let's take a vote. Thank you. And introduction. Yes, we have some people in the room who just became West Noble employees. And I will
043start with one that I worked with uh the past couple weeks. Uh Lori Fleshman is our school psychologist coming to us. So, thank you Lori. Welcome to West. She had a year-long interview and passed the interview. So, we're glad to have you as uh part of the team. I know you've been part of the team and you come highly uh regarded and recommended and we're thankful to have you on board. So, uh Brian, I believe you hired someone tonight. Got a couple hires today. First of all, we have Claire Stump. She'll be joining us in applied skills as a program assistant. We look forward to that. We'll we'll put up with her husband. And then we have Casey Hunter. She student taught for us in the fall with Miss Hoffmeister. She went off to Centron
044Noble a little bit to do a maternity leave. Decided to come back this way. She did an outstanding job for us in student teaching. So, we're glad to have her. She'll be teaching kindergarten for us. Mark, this isn't a new hire, but um you do have someone new to your building that's here tonight. Do you want to go to our team? She's going to be data coordinator, testing coordinator, and all sort of things that we can join. Yeah. Is there anyone else here that needs to be recognized for joining us? Okay, thank you. All right, thank you and welcome everyone. Uh, next is individual action items and uh the first item up for bids is breakfast and lunch price increases. I think they're going up 10 cents which is the maximum allowed if I remember
045correctly. So I would entertain a motion on that. I'll make a motion. That's Katrina. Second and Laura second. Thank you. All in favor. Uh next we have a tri share request. So this is the um helps with the child care costs and the current request is to increase the threshold from the current 300% of property level to 400% of the poverty level. Is there a motion to accept that? I'll make that motion, Jeremy. And is there a second? All right. Thank you. All those in favor? Thank you. Um, next is a letter of intent uh from MCOR for the elementary school. No, he's he's Yeah, sorry. I switched it on the agenda. They're both up there. Keep going with what you got. Yeah. Apologize. Uh should have fixed the slide on the HVAC and uh
046the letter was included in our packet. And is there any questions, comments, concerns? If not, I entertain a motion. I'll make that motion. Mr. for I'll second it. And all those in favor? Next item is uh recommendation for YAN construction is CMC construction management on project two. This would uh this is selecting somebody to work with us to um get some costs in line and prioritize projects for project two. For those of you who don't know, we have two representatives this evening from Want Chris and Diane. and uh they've been meeting with us and we've been getting to know them through this process and they come highly recommended uh for work like this and so I'm pleased to recommend them and have them here tonight. So if you do have any questions about the entire
047process, they are the experts. I am the learner and uh this would be a great opportunity to to get some questions out in the open. So they drove all this way. Sounds like Parish is going to pick their brain. Now project two would be what we're looking at for the elementary upgrade of Hback. That's that's project one. That's what we just did with MCOR. So project two is upgrades at the front of the high school. Um, there's some foundation issues up there and plumbing issues. Uh, there's a safety issue with the student entry in the offices, the way they're laid out. Theater, music, band, storage areas, and production areas. These are things that we've been talking about since I was principal and uh pushing off. And so, uh, we'd like to take the opportunity to
048look at those spaces. Um, and then part of moving out of the primary and the campus in town uh would be potentially uh leaving the Turning Point building. And so we'll need space here for our alternative school. Uh, so we've looked at uh a space which is our current maintenance uh offices. So we've talked about um and we've needed for years again since I was principal needed a new bus garage area. Uh that place is uh a civ when it rains and uh not really built for a bus garage. So we thought maybe we could uh rehab the current location for the offices into our alternative school and potentially build a new bus garage um out here beside uh the current one. Um maybe in the space where the softball field is, which also needs
049upgraded. and our baseball field. And so, uh, if we did all of these projects or some of these projects at the same time, uh, they would alleviate some of the needs that we have and some of the pressure, um, on this space. So, that's project two. Those are the things that I want to accomplish. Uh, most people have told me there's more to be done than, uh, bond money available, which I humbly submit to that wisdom. Um, and this is why we're asking for a company like um the architecture firm Martin Riley that we approved last meeting and why to come in and help us say this is realistic, this is doable, this is necessary, this is our recommendation. And so that's what we're asking for uh in project two. There's also some roof issues
050and some heating controls issues and there's there's plenty to be done uh around this place to keep things running well and to use our resources wisely. Um and we just need help making those decisions. Otherwise, it's Tony trying to figure it out and he doesn't want that and nobody else wants that. Thanks. Yeah, that's my vote of confidence. And I would just like to reiterate that just because uh there's a project on the list, it doesn't, as Dr. L said, doesn't mean that it is going to be able to be constructed. Um there's it's a long wish list and there are many items that need attention. And uh so out in the public I've heard that oh you know I heard you are you know people kind of I think immediately believe that it's going
051to absolutely happen that particular item that was mentioned and doesn't it means it's on our radar doesn't mean that it's definitely thank you and most of these items have been on our radar for many years and I think we have an opportunity to take care of many of them in the next year. So, that's my hope. It's my goal. And um any other questions for Before we vote, I'd like to clarify my no vote last meeting. Yeah. To everybody. Um it was nothing to do with the firm that was brought forth in front of the board. I believe that we need to be good stewards with everybody's money. Um, and there's a difference between wants and needs. So, they should not have received my no vote. And I think my no vote will be better
052explained or worked through during the work session. Um, I believe $12 million on top of the first 12 million is a lot of money within a short amount of time. So, that is what my no vote was for. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. I'd like to explain mine as well. I voted no on the last one. Um it seems like we're rushing into stuff. Kind of sets me back a little bit. Uh there'll be about $30 million being spent. Um like to pump the brakes a little bit and kind of get a feel for where we're at when this all first two projects kind of shake down. Um nothing against the other company, nothing against you guys. Uh it just seems like we can make maybe take our time a little bit. Again,
053it's the taxpayers's money that we're spending and I got to have respect for them. They're they're paying the bills around here. Um and that's just how I feel. And again, like Jeremy said, through the whole building process, maybe you'll get a better understanding of or I'll get a better understanding of how I feel and how you feel. Thank you. I appreciate nothing. Yeah. No, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Um, any other questions, comments on it? If not, I'd entertain a motion. I'll make that motion. Motion to accept. I'll second. Second. And all those in favor. So I want Thank you. Uh next item is curriculum or curricular materials adoption. Could you expand on that please? So these are the um the materials that I kind of highlighted in our next board our
054last board meeting. So these are different um books for West Level High School. Um we had some teachers and parents look those over and this is what they select and the only exception are those two courses from PFW. We don't really get a choice on that but we want to bring that to you for your review. Um, any questions about those? And then we'll be able to add that there especially the social and community services. We've been waiting for textbooks for that very catch up with new courses. Thank you. Um, so I would entertain a motion to accept the new curriculum. So Jeremy, I'll second. John second and vote. Thank you. Thank you. Uh,formational items, Dr. Lao. Yep. I'll go through this list. Um, these will be give you couple weeks to think about. We'll
055vote on these hopefully in the next meeting. Um, we have a pre-approved vendor list that that we add to uh when we have vendors that we trust and we'd like to add Felder Construction to that list so that when he submits a um an invoice or a bill at the beginning of the month that we don't have to wait until uh the very end of the month to pay him. And so we're asking uh the board to consider adding Felder Construction to the pre-approved list so that when we receive his bill um we can pay that. You'll see it always uh when we do the consent agenda and um receipts and dispersements, but uh we won't have to approve that each time. Questions about that. Board policy 5200 uh needs to be updated. There's um
056after going a year on the new law regarding uh school attendance and habitual absences, habitual truent uh we found that our current board policy was making it very difficult for our administrators to and especially when they would submit um to a prosecutor for excessive absences. um if there were lots of excused absences in there, the prosecutors weren't touching it, even if we felt like there was a habitual truent problem. And one of the recommendations was that right now, the way our board policy reads, um parents can call in or write a note every time their child is sick. And they can do there's no limit to the um the amount of times that they can do that throughout the school year. What we're suggesting or asking the board to consider is that there would be
05710 of those and that the first 10 or 10 throughout the school year u may not have to have a doctor's note um to associate with that excused absence. Um but once they get beyond 10 then it's for illness then we need to um start having those verified by a doctor. Um, so that's the main change on that policy. There's a few more updates that Niola is going to give us probably in the fall. um some of the legal language that surrounds this. But if we could get this in our handbooks this summer, which we'll bring handbooks to you for a first read at the next meeting, uh this would be really helpful and I think help um us make sure that our students are attending school and um not missing uh excessively. Questions about
058that from the board. Didn't you tell me the current policy says two dozen ex they can have two dozen excused absences like you want to right now it's at 24 and you want to lower it to 10 is that accurate right now there's no limit on the number of parent times a parent can write an excuse okay for illness and we would like to limit that to 10. Okay. How many how many students do you have that would be how many students do you have that would that would go over that 10 threshold? I will defer to our administrators in the room. I would say we used to have a limit like this and when we removed it to match the state policy to the minimum I think so we put it that that number
059went up. So, it worked really well when it I think it used to be six in a trimester when we said after that you have to have a doctor's that worked really well. I don't have the exact numbers, but I know when we took that away. Now, they can just call in and they and they are. So, um I think our attendance has improved throughout this year because of the meetings they've been having at 5. However, that is open-ended. given where they're saying they're safe allowed uh administrators prior know prior uh say go a year back what how was it then how was it going like two years ago three years ago we're talking about co remember after co how was your and we didn't see much improvement this year with the new law has
060been much better. It's been a lot of work and in my building that was Mr. Wilson I mean hundreds of meetings and so it's improved I think the threshold was a little too low for a high school level. So we've talked about that and we think this would really help because then you're just looking at unexcused and the ones who aren't going to a doctor and you can kind of narrow it down a little bit. I think we need I think education needed some help after co getting people back. I think it's helped having face to face meetings with parents after I mean let's talk about why but this will definitely help the outliers this will definitely help. The other thing that I'm hearing is that the administrators that work with attendants are saying and
061the and the parents are telling them, I was expecting this because I got the exact same call from the elementary or the middle school and so we're on the same page when it comes to how we're working through this attendance policy and that's been a huge help. Um when I came uh we were not. Everybody kind of had their own version of how they were dealing with this and now we're together moving in the same direction. So, that's been helpful. Um, this will be, I think, a piece of, uh, continuing to bring us back to school. Um, things got pretty lax during CO and nationwide. It's not just West Noble and we're tightening things back up. Getting your boats going in the same direction. Yes. The new ECA stipened payment system. We've learned of an
062issue um I've learned more recently um of an issue with people that have been paid throughout their checks all year and then decide maybe they're not going to coach something in the spring or there's a change in it and then all of a sudden then they have to have a deduct in their pays or it's or pay money back which is awful. And so we're going to start, we would like to start July 1 with a new ECA payment system for all ECAs, no matter what your classification is. If you're classified, certified or lay coach or sponsor um club any anything that it is all uh on this system where um you get paid uh at the end in one lump sum or if it's a larger amount or if it's all year you could
063get paid in the middle or break it up into three payments. Um, but basically you would know going in instead of it being divided among my check um that I'm I know when I'm going to be paid for this thing and when I'm done or I'm ready to be paid, I submit that to my supervisor or athletic director or principal. They sign it and then I get that amount um in the next paycheck, but it's not spread out over all of the paychecks. Uh we've had I think we had seven or eight situations this year where people had to pay money back because of some sort of snafu with this current system. And moving forward we want to have a triplicate paper copy and each time you're ready to get paid for that portion whether
064it's at the end the middle or in thirds um that you'll submit that it'll be signed by a supervisor and then you'll get that dollar amount. So, we've been working talking about this with our athletic directors and some of our coaches and principles. Um, just want to put that out there that we would like to try this this fall and see if we can avoid some of the struggle that we've had uh with our current PCA stipened system. And part of it's confusing because everybody's on a different system and and you're just not sure who's in the middle of something and all of a sudden you go to back to fix it and uh find out that it's not been done correctly. And I think this will help that be that way. The other thing
065is instead of bringing all of um classified and lay coaches to the board every year, we'll issue them a contract every year, but if there's no change, we'll assume that they're moving forward and we'll not bring back to the board each time that we do that for classified or lay coaches. So, everybody will be on the same system. If you coached it last year, uh, and there's no change, you'll coach it again this year. As long as the AD says so, you'll be issued a contract. You'll know how much you'll be paid and when you'll be paid. Uh, that's the system that we'd like to move forward with. Questions about that. Okay. Uh Brian came to me a couple weeks ago and he's been talking with his staff about a new start time uh for
066the primary uh at least for the next two years. Uh and his main motivation is he uh wants more time with them in uh academics and we as you know because of our split bus system we have very limited time with our uh students the minimum and he wants to expand that a little bit. This slide shows the the proposal and what he's been communicating with his staff and parents. I wanted to make the board aware of this uh before we get into a new school year. Uh everything is moved up about 15 minutes. So the doors would open at 7:00 a.m. First bell would be 7:15. That's when uh kids are starting to get off the bus. Um all the buses currently this past year have delivered their students by 7:30. So this no
067change in busing schedule, no change in pickup times. Um and and when I walk through the building at this time, most of the kids are already in the classroom or they're uh they're finishing up breakfast, getting to the classroom. Um the academic day then would start at 7:45 after 15 minutes of family time. and then no specials until 10:00. So, basically those first two hours are going to be uh English language uh or ELA uh language arts instruction, reading instruction um and and helping our kids learn how to read. Brian, do you want to talk about any of did I say that correctly? And is there anything you want to add to why you're why you're considering this type of a change? 15 * 5 is 75 minutes of instruction. You take that times how
068many days we go to school 180. It's better than none. And our staff asked for more time and the only way to do that without changing blessing, which corders did not want me to do that as to do that would be to do this. And we're there for the most part. Mr. L walked through. We're there and we're ready to go. Was there some grumbling a little bit about this? Sure was. But when you ask one more time just so I think we're ready to go. 99% of us are. It's more it's more time with kids, which is what we're going to do. So the big change then would be for the drop off, the the parents that are dropping kids off or kids that are walking to school with their parents. That'll be the
069paradigm shift will be getting them there earlier, which will be my job to inform them to get them going in the mornings. But that's something that we will adjust to. 95% of the kids are already there right now. Anyways, so we might as well get going with the kids that we have and I'll get after the other 5%. So the staff day, talk about that. What day? I want to adjust it from 7:30. It is 7:30 to 3:30. Right now is their eight hours. They're expected to be there. I would like to adjust it to 7:15 to 3:15. Still the eight hours so they can leave 15 minutes or got to get there 15 minutes earlier. And the dismissal the dismissal time for the students is exactly the same. So you're just gaining it at
070the beginning. Dang it. Okay. And the dismissal time for students is what? We have three dismissals. We start first dismissal is bus at 2, pickup 210, second bus is 2:15. So they're there at least a minimum of an hour afterwards. We have collaboration twice a week. We'll have to get going pretty quick. That usually takes about an hour. classified handbook updates. We're working on here the month of June. Um, we recognized in the last year or so that we have specific pages for bus drivers, for custodians, for food service, for all of our department has a specific uh page that outlines uh days and hours and expectations, qualifications for those jobs. We've never had pages set up for the tech department, uh, HR or curriculum. And so these would be Mike's department, uh, Andrew's department,
071and Sarah's department. And so I've added those pages to the handbook, uh, shared those with directors, principles, administrators, and the board uh, for you to review with some of those job expectations. I'm asking for our hourly employees uh 30 cent raise across the board uh for this coming school year. Most of this would be um some of it for our instructional assistance that would be out of the education fund. Uh the remainder would come out of the uh operations fund. Um and then the classified sick bank. This is something I've had several requests for. It's there. There's a little bit of language for it, but we need to reinstate that. Andrew and Haley are going to be a part of that and they're going to be inviting um actually someone else or two other people
072that are interested in helping manage that uh classified sick bank for people that are out of days uh in their sick bank and experience um maybe an extended illness or something um that if they pay into that sick bank, then they can uh submit a request. We do this for the teachers. We've done it for classified staff in the past, I guess, but somewhere along the way, it just uh stopped being maintained. And so, we're reviving that and um expanding the language, basically borrowing the same language from the teacher master contract and putting that in the classified uh handbook. Questions about Well, I'll just keep going then you can ask questions about this whole slide. Cell phone stipens. uh has been 420 for a while for um uh there's have maybe a dozen people that
073have uh cell phone stipens. I'm asking that that would go up to 450 this year. Um and then administrative and director contracts, I'm asking for a 3% raise for admin. Um move insurance benefit to salary. This is something that a lot of schools are doing uh for just the portion that um uh would match maybe what a teacher pays that administrators would pay that as well. But um that would be added to their salary. If you if you compare our administrators salaries to those in the area, it's confusing because we they have this benefit but it doesn't really show up in their salary. So it's a more transparent way to show this is the benefit that they're getting. um it could benefit benefit them at the end uh during retirement. The state would pay more
074retirement based on uh the top five salaries. So there's a benefit there. They'll they'll be taxed on it as well. So that's the downside. And so I'm just investigating this and having them consider it or having you consider that as an option um for administrators uh that maybe they could take that benefit as salary and then pay their entire uh insurance premiums or pay that portion of the insurance premium. Uh for our administrative team it's about uh 10,500 and for our directors it's about half of that 5,000 250. I'm also asking that in the next year's contracts uh Amanda nine Mike Berkkey and Sarah Wilson go up five day um 10 days for Amanda and five days each for Sarah and Mike. This is based on what they've been working the last how many ever
075years and I would like to recognize the days that they're working uh consistently over their contracted days to get the job done. Uh so that's that request and then you have a draft of um my contract that's up for renewal uh to consider as well. If anybody has any questions about any of that, I will do my best to answer that. Thank you. Next up is board administrative comments. Any board member have anything to share? Being at graduation yesterday was lovely. It was wonderful to see so many people there supporting their kids and it was just a really nice experience to be a part of. Graduation did go very very well. I could hear everything. That was nice. Yeah. I'm sorry you had to have a rowdy group to quiet down. students. I I think
076it's really neat that the underass can come to it. So, I mean, yeah, it's good to see summer school off to a good start. Um, kids being fed, food getting home. Good. Good. That's all I got. Uh, just thank you. great graduations. Um, also the other administrators, thanks for the great theater and teacher puts it all together and it takes a community. But I think graduation is a nice end and I thought that was very nice. It was great to see the uh lack of balloons, posters, flowers. So, good job. Yeah. Any current administrators with any comments? Was it cool enough for you though? That's what I I was that new chiller of all three circuits working for the first time in probably 40 years. It's almost like you were in the yellow. I had
077that thing maxed out. Any other current administrator? any past administrator. Um, since you asked when they were presenting this transportation thing, how far that that has come. I can remember back in the 60s and here's how it was done. The bus driver took his bus or her well they were most of them were dairy farmers and they drove around each kid's house stop in most cases someone was home and the driver would tell them about what time that they would be there the first day of school then there was no radios or cell phones in the 60s at least that we had. So here's how the afternoon went. um you would have to sat by the telephone in your office till you thought that the routes would be done. If there was an issue and
078usually it was somebody stuck in the snow, they would send the most dependable kid to the neighbor's house. Okay. Hopefully they had a telephone and they would call the school. We're stuck. Here's where we are. So then at that point I would call Cliff Burns. Some of you know him pretty well. He run Fosters's Garage for many years in Kiml. and he would take his record and go out and get it. So, a little bit of advancement. It was a lot simpler, but uh yeah, this is great. My grandpa was a bus driver and uh I remember about once a month he would reverse the route in the afternoon as a treat to the kids and make it a little more fair for those who normally had to run it along. But I just imagine
079how much that meant parents, you know, unknowingly when their child might thank you so much. I appreciate I do want to add just one thing with uh a cool thing that happened. Uh Dustin Richardson down at state director. Okay. uh high jump 6 foot seven which was close. Yeah, he just clipped 6'8 with his heel. He was over it by a couple inches. But yeah, just amazing. I mean, you go down there and watch those kids and for him to be fourth in the state at that and the guys he lost to. One guy jumps seven foot, one guy gets 611, which uh yeah, just neat just there, Dustin. And just his uh surprise when he does something like that. I mean, he just had a real real neat attitude about it. But proud of
080him, coach is did a great job this year. But that was neat. That that track was pretty cool. Pretty neat. So, thank you for sharing. Anything else before I wrap up? Thank you to all. I'll look for a motion to adjourn. I'll make that motion. John, thank you very much. Sorry.