001public hearing for the 10th Amendment to lease of the Argos Community School Corporation Board at 7:06 p.m. The purpose of this meeting is for the board to hold a lease hearing in connection with the proposed project. If you are interested in speaking at the hearing, please make sure you have signed the sign-in sheet, which should include your name and address. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for the public to make comments about the lease rental to be paid under the 10th Amendment lease. At the hearing, we will ask that each person limit their comments to 3 minutes and that the topic be limited to the lease rental under consideration. The notice for this hearing was published as legally required pursuant to Indiana Code 20-47-3. Before a school corporation may enter into a lease
002with a nonprofit building corporation, the school corporation must conduct a hearing regarding the execution of the proposed lease agreement and whether the rental to be paid to the lessor building corporation under the proposed lease is a fair and reasonable rental for the proposed improvements. We will now hear from the superintendent about the proposed project related to the lease. Thank you. The school corporation is funding this project through lease financing as it is done with other past construction renovation projects. Lease finances are used by school corporations across the state of Indiana in order to borrow for renovation and construction. The building corporation owns the leased premises. The building corporation leases the building back to the school corporation and the lease rental due from the school corporation will be paid from property taxes and will be for
003the lease of the building during the term of The lease rental is shown as a maximum amount and the lease will be sufficient to pay the principal and interest due to the bond holders. Thank you. We will now open the public hearing. Remember if you would like to speak, please sign in on the sheet which is located at the doorway. As I mentioned earlier, we ask that you state your name and address, limit your comments to the proposed rent to be paid under the 10th Amendment to lease, keep any comments to 3 minutes, and avoid being repetitive if possible. May I have the sign-in sheet now and I will begin calling the names of those who are interested in speaking. Currently, we have no one signed in to speak tonight, so we will continue with
004the meeting. Summary of the resolution authorizing execution of 10th Amendment to lease. As required by Indiana Code 20-47-3, after a lease hearing, the school board must approve the 10th Amendment to lease and authorize the school board officers to execute such amendment. This amendment is the agreement whereby the school corporation will levy the required property tax to pay the lease payments throughout the life of the bond issue. The lease payments will be paid to the building corporation and used to pay the bond holders to repay the proposed bonds. Could I have a motion and a second to adopt the resolution authorizing the execution of the 10th Amendment to lease? So moved. Seconded. Thank you. All in favor, say I. I. Opposed? Motion carried. Next, we have the summary of the resolution assigning bids and contracts. The
005next resolution is a resolution assigning bids and contracts to the building corporation. At the bond closing, the building corporation will own facilities where some of the renovation work will be completed. The building corporation will also be the issuer of the bonds. As a result, certain contracts may need to be with the building corporation because the building corporation will hold the money to pay the contractors. The school corporation receives the bids and or contracts and awards the bids and or contracts under state law, but then retains the right to assign those bids and or contracts to the building corporation for payment at the discretion of the board. Could I have a motion and a second to adopt the resolution assigning the bid contracts bids and contracts? So moved. Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in
006favor, say I. I. Opposed? Motion carried. Next, we have the summary of the resolution authorizing the first supplement to master continuing disclosure undertaking and issuance of bonds. This resolution satisfies the Securities and Exchange Commission requirement that a school corporation enter into a continuing disclosure undertaking agreement if it if it issues bonds to public investors. The agreement requires that the school corporation agree to timely provide certain financial information and provide notice of certain material events if and when they occur. Could I have a motion and a second to adopt the resolution authorizing the first supplement to master continuing disclosure undertaking and issuance of bonds? So moved. Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor, say I. I. Opposed? Motion carried. I'd like to thank you all who participated. We will now close the hearing. Could
007I now have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting at 7:11 p.m.? So moved. Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor, say I. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you, everyone. And now, I think you speak in normal language again. Yes. >> It's a lot of legalese there. That is true. Um And now, I'd like to move on to the regular board meeting January 20th. Um I'd like to call the meeting to order at 7:12 p.m. Would you stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now for a moment of silence. Okay, do we have any communication from patrons? I don't see any
008of the public here today, so I guess not. Thank you very much. And now, we have the approval of the minutes of the regular board meeting from December 15th. Um we have had the opportunity to read those minutes. They've been in our board packet. And could I have a motion to approve the board meeting minutes from December 15th? So moved. Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor, say I. I. Opposed? Motion carried. Next, we have the approval of personnel. Do you want to Sure. So, we have unfortunately we have Kendall Morris twice that we need to go through. As we were ending our first semester, we had I'm going to jump ahead actually but that will explain a lot of things. We had several resignations that came in. Carly McCammon, second grade teacher,
009has resigned effective beginning of the second semester. Ashley Yager, our junior senior kind of applied skills teacher, has resigned. She's taking a position in another district and her last day was January 13th. We have Malia Gallanter, speech language pathologist. She is going to be with us through February 6th. And then the resignation of Kathleen Knoll, our food service clerk and our ECA treasurer, she will be with us through the year of the school year and part of the summer. So, I would jump up to A, employment of Kendall Ferguson, second grade teacher. We are recommending that she have a contract be approved tonight to take over the second grade position that was left open by Carly McCammon. Kendall is an Argos graduate and she has subbed for us before. Um We have her in there
010now. Obviously, we had to get somebody in there going and she's been doing a fantastic job and stepped in seamlessly. It was a nice transition for students and families and um it was a really good fit. So, we're lucky to have her and we're thankful that she was available when we needed her. Chris Willis is going to be a temporary high school applied skills teacher. He is going to be helping out um with this with the resignation of Ashley Yeager, there is an opportunity a transfer for Laura Shaffer. She is going to be stepping into um the M.O.M.H. room. And so, we have brought in Chris Willis to oversee Laura Shaffer's responsibilities as she's pushing into junior classrooms for those caseloads. Laura will be overseeing IEPs over both the M.O.M.H. and number one her caseload
011that she previously previously had. She will continue that um and help Chris transition. And then Elizabeth Castle, we are needing another aid in the M.O.M.H. room and so, we recommend that she be approved tonight as well. Volunteers, we have some basketball volunteers. Don Odell for fifth grade, Tara for seventh and eighth grade, and Corey Bowman for sixth grade girls. And then as I mentioned um indeed, we asked for that transfer of Laura Shaffer from special ed junior senior high and life skills teachers to the M.O.M.H. Any questions? So, who will replace Laura? Chris Willis. So, Chris is taking her. Okay. Is Is Chris licensed? Chris recently finished all of his education. He has submitted to the state for licensing. He is not licensed in special ed, which is why she will continue to oversee that,
012but he will be a certified teacher. Um it's it's been a nice fit because he finished with his math degree and so, he's actually going to be working in with some kids in the content areas that they need. Is he going to stay in special ed? He has spoken of an interest of it. He Prior to him going through his schooling to get his teaching certificate, he had worked as a sub as well as with Cardinal Services with with that population of students and it was something he did well at. He has already sought out some information for some further coursework in special ed. Um I think he's going to wait that out right now. So, I think it'll be a nice semester for Laura to oversee him and have him get his feet wet
013and see if that's something he would like to continue with. So, we're That's why we have him on a temporary. And then what are we going to do with The speech pathologist, so um Molly, we had brought her on. She was finishing up her clinical hours and so, we had brought her on to do that. She had asked if she could do that in our school system and uh once she completed that, we we kept her and we were sharing her services with Tri County. Um we have it posted >> [clears throat] >> and hopefully, we will get some hits on that. We do have a caseload that could be managed by one speech pathologist. It will just be very heavy, um but we want to we want to open that door to see if
014we can find any applicants and see what we can gather there. We do have some options that we could seek out um with the people that place contracts, but it's going to be more virtual services. And so, we need to weigh weigh benefits versus the cost of that just to see what we're actually getting. Are we required by the state to provide these services? We are required to provide speech and language services, but we are covered with the with the speech pathologist that we do have. It just provide it just it gives her a pretty caseload at this point in time. And she's got till February 6th, you said, right? So, we've got a little bit of time. Not much. Any other questions? Okay, could I have a motion to approve the employment changes as
015described by Mrs. Johnson? So moved. Thank you. Second. Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor, say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Next, we have project updates from Greg. Well, I'll I'll get to the slide in a minute. This is about our master planning of the uh site during constructions and our initial thoughts about how to arrange that as well with multiple contractors on site. But um in your package, you probably have this very very fine detailed schedule. And I've got the summary in my head and also got here so I can summarize this for you. Um what we've done is take the current projects um that we're undertaking in the next year year and a half and try to put a timeline for not only for sitting at the receipt
016of bids, but also for advertisements to bid, pre-bid meetings, and the construction timeline. So, the red bar you see on there is actually the construction timeline. The blue is actually our construction document completion. And we're kind of in the middle of it on three different projects. Um starting with the current project we have going on, which is lighting replacement. Uh just completed the punch list. Uh ran that a couple weeks ago The contractor has come back and completed their portion of it. We spot check tonight. There's one or two items in there we have to address. Uh but essentially, they're they're completing with the work up to this point. I think you have a pay application on your packet that that will take them down to about $30,000 for the retainage. So, that's more than
017enough to cover anything else we might perhaps see. I don't anticipate anything else, but I I think they completed the work on time as expected. Um next two projects, the tunnel piping replacement and masonry repairs. Those are the two most probably critical track projects we need to take on. We're actually going to bid those sort of on the same time frame. Uh so, we'll have a early March bid for that work. And so, the thought was we could actually Those are distinctly different projects, so we could kind of keep them on the same track and bidders might confuse one with the other. So, we're actually going to try to run that on the time frame where we have pre-bid meetings kind of like a morning and an afternoon pre-bid meeting and then we'll receive bids
018from the morning and afternoon bid receipt. That kind of thing. So, we'd like to get those underway as soon as we possibly can. Uh masonry repairs can actually start probably prior to school leaving for the year. Something that can start maybe March or April. Um maybe probably more like April. The tunnel piping pretty much has to be done in the summers, but we want to have them give them plenty of time to get materials on on site available so they can start right in as soon as school lets out for the year. So, that's kind of the track we have. Some of these dates may change slightly, but ahead of the first advertisements on each one, I'll be able to give you the written uh uh written advertisement for project bid. And then we get
019that advertised. Um all of these dates for advertising are like a Friday of the week, so if we issue the get it published prior to that Friday, we're we're good. Anytime that week is working for us. Um the next bid is probably the roofing and copings. We kind of combined those two projects. At one time, they were kind of separate pieces of the work. Really only makes sense to combine that in one single project. And that's going to be bid a little bit later in February. Uh bids will be due 10th of March. Uh so, about a week later than the other work. Um but again, it's going to be work that a portion of it could possibly start before school's out, but most likely it'll start this summer sometime. Regardless with the those three
020projects plus the elementary patio replacement, which we'll bid a little bit later probably by April bid that and then receive bids on that. Um all of those projects will be occurring sort of simultaneously. So, the question is who starts where? How do we coordinate between the different contractors? And that's really a part of our job is to put in the documents uh a means for each of the contractors to know what the other contractor is doing and to at least take first shot at setting up where they're going to start, where they're going to complete, and who's doing what in different locations. So, we don't want we don't want the mason for instance working above the roof doing masonry repairs at the same time the roofer's trying to come in. Kind of common sense things
021like that. We also need to make sure that our the ground surrounding it, we assign specific locations where they can store materials and give them access to the building. Uh so, that's the purpose of this map we put together. Looking very generally at where the roofing work may start, that is for the fourth elementary wing and the women's meeting outside here for the elementary gym. Just looking at that being kind of project one or phase one for the roofing work. Um area A you see identified there would be the areas for staging for the roofing work so that they have easy access. We're not doing anything with the elementary patio yet, so that's going to come later. You look on the opposite side while that work's going on there uh at think the middle school
022gym, the upper roof area, we would anticipate having masons to do their repair work in that area while the roofing work is going on on the sort of the east side of the building. And then down at the bottom near the auditorium, the upper roof portion of that masonry, including the not the lower wall, serpentine wall, and the other parts of the roof. We need that masonry work completed while this other roofing work So, in general, that's kind of what we're thinking. We have separated around the building, not really overlapping their work at any one time. So, fine details of that, which contractor is responsible for providing to us, is to take our ideas and then put it to a distinct timelines. By the time we get under contract, we'll know what their timeline is
023and fits within this all work. They may be more aggressive. They may want to take on more areas. And that's acceptable. Okay. We'll have to coordinate between these contractors. So, our basic intent is to take these kind of diagrams, um, maybe a little more refined than this, but place them on the documents for both the masonry as well as the roofing project and the tunnel piping project. So, each contractor is the bidding, we'll know precisely what the intent is for multiple contractors on site. Um, next slide. This is primarily summer, um, work. As you see, uh, number two there is the elementary patio that we uh, we installed at that point. And the B is the location where they would stockpile materials, equipment, that sort of thing, kind of out of the way of the
024other work. If you go around the building, over around the cafeteria, the middle school gym, all that number masonry work should be completed. And area two, the roofing work, uh, would take place at that time. And the uh, then you see a B over in the high school parking lot. That's actually for like the tunnel piping. Uh, so that would be the most probably convenient door for them to enter and leave. I can't think of another location. Um, if we do need to come up with another location, we can. I was thinking they might have quite a few materials stockpiled out there that they want to take a period of time from the asphalt and stuff off and keep it secure in that location. Then if you look down, the other B location is kind
025of a continuation of masonry work. That's that um, lower portion of the wall, serpentine wall wraps around lower part of the lobby of the auditorium lobby. It is quite a bit of work to do with the the block. They'd be cutting out more, replacing more. Fixing some of the expansion joints that were weren't installed originally. We're going to put those in. Uh, so that work is for that lower level taking place. At the same time, roofing work is going on. Your elevator access is being installed. So, there's a lot of activity around the building. Um, I don't think they're going to encumber each other. We've kind of kept these distinct staging areas um, Then coming in the next slide, that takes us up to like August 1st. And like for this last phase, I think
026we may be looking at something starting into the fall. Cuz I'm not confident that the roofers will be able to accomplish all this roofing work at the same time without overlapping some of the other contractors' scope of work. So, I think for the fall, there may be some small roofing work going on in lower roof around the auditorium in front, near the entry. Obviously, they're going to cordon off that whole area and the sidewalk for a period of time, but it's a very it's a pretty small scope of work. There's not a lot of major changes there, so we really don't anticipate that taking terribly long. Um, the area that's uh, area three that's on the back side of the high school gym, that's an area that also I think there's an arrow actually pointing
027to one spot. That's kind of that uh, area that's been troublesome for you around the back side of the auditorium, the gym. We've got leaks multiple times. That's that really low area of the roof where they put equipment in. So, we're going to deal with all of that at the same time. So, that's really an area where we think that they may use actual staging area. They may be closer to the Try to keep them out of the parking lot as much as possible, but they're going to have to have access to the roof. It's fairly easy for that. Area C seems like the most logical place they can access both areas at once. Um, So, kind of although the exact time frame of things may change, the scope of work for each step may
028change, at least this is a I I believe it's a workable solution for three different contractors to be on site at the same time. And we got to get their buy-in and we've got to coordinate with that between them, but they start out knowing all the same information. So, hopefully they'll they'll plan their work accordingly. Do you do you anticipate we may have uh, the same contractor for some of this or Well, that would be interesting. There's a possibility. I don't I I thought there was distinctly separate masonry contractor versus a roofer. You may have a general contractor that may go Right. If a general bids in, it might happen. If not, it won't happen. Yeah, that's what I was thinking anyway. So, I had a feeling. Somebody like Shaw-Walgren or something maybe. Somebody like
029AR Eoder would come in and they they did the parking lot. They also did the cafeteria. >> what I was thinking. >> So, >> That's what I was wondering. Yeah. So, there's always that possibility. And some of the contractors that did specific work may have a general contracting license to take on the work just like that. So, I wouldn't be opposed to that. It would work for me. Uh, cuz I think, you know, >> We can maybe stage it. That would be helpful for coordination. Um, my only my concern with three there with that section that we would have to close off that piece of the sidewalk, would not be able to start that until after the start of school. Um, is our dismissal drop-off and dismissal area. Um, we utilize that section for them
030to get our kids safely to buses cuz we park along there. So, um, we just have to probably look at that and and figure out how far we have to go. That's the only thing I see right now that's kind of raising like that could be a little tricky. Um, you know, I don't Yeah, I don't know. >> couple things we always put in the specs >> [clears throat] >> the school arrival and dismissal time, times they can work, they can't work. They're making noise they can't work over occupied classroom area, but maybe in those things where they need to be able to do that, they can't do it during dismissal time or arrival time. Okay, so it's not necessarily something we have to close off for the duration of this construction. Like it could
031we have some times in between it could be open. I I think the majority of the closure would be probably building side of that sidewalk. Still allow us sidewalk to be utilized. We'll put a fence up there to prevent case of dropping piece of coping down or something that's out of the way. So, we can specify those things. >> Okay, that that's better. We'll find that plan up there. The other possibility is that the roofers may be able to masonry work is done maybe the roofers can get that piece in before the start of school, but I I want to I want to give them as much leeway as possible given weather conditions. Uh, those kind of things tend to throw off roofers. Hopefully. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, that's the only piece that I thought
032we may have to kind of work around, but if we don't have to close that off from whatever July to September, like we have access through periods of time in the day, that that shouldn't be an issue. I would anticipate that area C, for instance, they have that as their staging area that they have. Lifts or something bringing materials on the roof that they're going to transport over and work on the roof as they get to it. Um, those aren't really large areas, so I wouldn't anticipate a lot of stockpiling. Okay. If they need to stockpile stuff, they'll have to move their stockpile somewhere else. Okay. All of that is within your control during construction meetings and prior to the start of construction, they have to have all of that worked out with you set
033it up according to your your time frame, um, how you want to use the site, any security concerns, all those kind of things you would bring up at that time before they can start on site. So, And we could possibly if you if you go back to the one previous, we could possibly look at um, the high school parking lot there, we had it kind of sectioned off. They all say B, but in the parking lot we thought that might be a staging area for the tunnels and the piping. Okay. If we needed to, we could look at behind the gates. We just have to figure out how much how much we're stockpiling and that we still have a entry exit way for trash trucks and delivery trucks and all of that. So, that might
034be something we can look at, too, if we need to keep things secure cuz we do have a gate that would shut. As we get into it, that's just an option. We're showing the ideal of positioning those. If they have to travel a little bit and get to it. Yep. Yeah, a couple hundred yards or something. But, kind of summarizes what I have. I I guess we're about 60% of the way through construction documents on roofing, we're farther ahead. Um we're like 70 75% about 60 65% on the masonry work. Um we're actually defining and I got very small copies of that on the site. You don't want to Um masonry work, what we really are doing is identifying all the sealant joints we need to cut out, replace, the areas of brick we're going
035to be basically cutting out and replacing courses of brick. Um we do have a brick company that has submitted information on a brick that's very close match. It's not an exact match. It's a little bit darker red than what we have out there currently, but we'll have to see how we can manipulate that, what else is available. We do know that that brick is available very quickly. Um The other thing on the roofing, um it's probably three inches or so that came up with a core sample. So, we'll get a good 14 different cores of brick so we'll know precisely what the makeup of that brick is down to the roof deck. So, what we've done in the past is take that information and show the contractors for each area exactly what the makeup of
036the system work is and then tell them how much that we come up with and have to tear it off. So, we may not be tearing off the entire thing now, but that's been the basis of our estimates so far. If we can reduce that, great. Um then we only have to deal with maybe some surprise wet areas that might be there that would be covered by um an allowance built into this built into the project cost so that we have a pool of money in case we're running into other bad areas of the roofing. We can replace that without having to incur um an add change order to it. We'd be more or less using the money that's already built into it. So, What am I forgetting, Kevin? Anything? I'm good. Okay. Well, that's
037a snapshot of what we want. So, Thank you. Let me know if there's any issues with any of the dates. We can make any adjustments. Thank you very much, Kevin. One question. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to the next agenda item, which is the approval of the Michiana contract and pay application number two for the lighting replacement for a total of $93,600. Once again, that is in our board packet. You had the opportunity to look at that. Could I have a motion to approve the Michiana contract and pay application number two for the lighting replacements for $93,600? So moved. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor, say I. I. Opposed? Motion carried. Next, we have the approval of approval of two of the L D B C invoices, number 19289 and 19299 for
038$5,695 and $2,595 and a penny, respectively. Once again, those have been in our in our packets. We don't want to miss a penny. That's important. That's important. Um Anyway, those have been in our packets for our review. Does anyone have any questions in regards to those two invoices? No? Okay, can I have a motion to approve the two L D B C invoices as described? So moved. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor, say I. I. Motion carried. Next, we have the approval of the claims, Billy. I'm asking for approval for 18 pages of accounts payable claims in the amount of $232,924.75 and four pages of payroll claims totaling $338,058.99 for a total claim docket of $570,983.74. Okay, and the claims docket, once again, has been in our packet for our
039review. Does anybody have any questions about any of the claims? No? Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the claims as described? Total of $570,983.74. So moved. Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor, say I. I. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you very much. Uh next, we have the financial reports. Okay. So, when we met last week, we did our monthly claims and I told you we would we would review those this week. Um and so, we were going to look at our budget order that we received for this year. So, our first slide is going over our education fund revenue report. Um this gives you just a snapshot of the last 11 years, actually. Um where we've been and where we're going. And so, in this 2026 budget, we have asked for
0406. 4 million to work our budget off of and that is what we have been awarded. Um as always, we don't want to exhaust all of those funds. This is, you know, this is what we're projecting. As we've talked about though in the last few meetings, as we closed out 2025, we were able to open POs and um take over some of those expenses to protect the future budget of this year and we would still plan to do so in 2026. So, that is what we have to work off of. It's a great budget to work off of. We certainly don't want to max it out. It's certainly really good news that they approved our request. They know we have reserves. So, if you max it out, it would pull some from our reserves. Okay.
041Which we don't intend to do, but they saw we had the money so they approved it. But, what we're actually getting from the state is just about 250,000 more than what we had last year. Which covers our negotiations. So, it is really good news. It gives you flexibility, but our goal wouldn't be to max out. And carries our labor agreements back. And we and we just reviewed that an hour ago again. We worked on that. Um and then the same with the operations on the next slide. Um we've been approved 2.1. And again, we certainly don't want to max that out. We also know that this is the tightest part of our budget as we go through the year, but this should give us the means to do what we need to do. Um and
042again, having that same goal, we always want to be able to open POs at the end of the year and pay forward to protect the following or the the next year's budget. So, um we have previously done uh the resolution to continue to transfer the funds back and forth and that's about We figured that out today. Is that right at 10%? Thank you. $600,000, right at 10%. >> So, we have room if we need to. Well, we can do more if we had to. >> Question that. Yes. Hopefully not. And I'm happy to spend time if you want to go through this budget report with me. I'm learning all of the ins and outs of that as well, but we are in good shape and Ned is guiding me through this next steps as we
043started the budget year. So, kind of exciting to get started on this. It's good news. Thank you for the help. Yes, and the guidance. Um and then our our next slides are the cash reserves. This is just showing you and Jenny, this gets to the point you just made. Those are still very healthy and that is why we are being approved for what we are asking for. And to Ned's point, if we would max out that budget, it's really just going to be at our cash reserves, which is what we do not want to do. Um our goal is always to maintain and if you go to the next slide on the rainy day fund, that is what we've been able to do. You can see that that has been very steady for the last
044three or four years and um we feel like that's the right mark to be at. Um we don't necessarily want to continue to grow that much more, but we don't want that to deplete either. That gives us roughly two to three months in an emergency situation should we need it. And then the last slide, actually we got two more. Um the net assessed valuations that we received from DLGF shows that we have a slight dip or decrease in the assessed valuations. So, roughly from $500,000. Um and so that is going to impact then our next our very last slide where you see our tax rates. Um we have not increased our tax levy, but there will be obviously impacts and this is directly tied to some bill one changes that they are giving some exceptions
045to. >> Senate bill one out of our hands. >> So, I felt like it was important to put both of those in this packet just so that we can we need to keep our eyes on that and and be aware of where we are right now and as we look to the future where that's going to go. If you go back to the net net assessed valuation, I mean this happened across the country. You can see those valuations going up and I'm a little worried when the correction comes. We we've seen a tiny dip. What happens when we start The state average was about 3.5%. Well, we ours was very minimal. Other districts been hit sort of hard so that may be your right. It's trending that way. Yeah. And it's to be watched. But
046it's sort of out of our hands, but we still need to watch it. Well, right. And and adjust to it if we have to. >> It's not a 26 issue, but it might be a >> In the future you know 27 And if the Senate bill one gets fully implemented, it become more of an issue. They're exempting some people from and that's why this assessed value falls. They're exempting it. And really out of our hands. We really don't have much assessed value in some of it counting anymore. Like they're doing some things with seniors and different groups and that and some different people are going to end up paying, but we're not asking for more money. Yeah. It is going to impact. Right. I do feel like we have been in a good position for
047this compared to other areas in Indiana that have been hit very hard and it's because of the you know, it's it's how those vibrations are coming out on those households. Um this might be one time we get lucky for for how big we are and and the households that we do have in our community. I I we're just aren't seeing the kind of hit that others aren't. So, yeah. But definitely something we have to keep our eyes on and attention to. All right. Any questions from anyone? Lord, can I interject one thing? I want to thank um Kelly and Carrie. Their first round with this and they've done an excellent job. I'm proud of them. So, thanks, girls. You got it. Thanks, you too as well. Of course. He He being the support system. >>
048He's never not answered a question. >> I know. Or a phone call or a text or an email. I wondered It's good. Do you really rise when you see >> [laughter] >> I text him all the time. I roll my eyes if you weren't worried. You're doing a good job with it. It's part of the K girls. >> [laughter] >> One of those. It's been a good team. So, yes. Thank thank you all of you. This is a very good report for the school district. So, we're happy with it. Thank you for all the effort and work and education and learning. That's what we're about. Absolutely. All right. Um next we have the 2025 conference. So, um I'm following next year. This is what we had in the January meeting of last year and so
049it was kind of fun to actually sit down and think back to um obviously I'm not taking accolades for for all of this. We've been we were uh as a team at this school and actually that's one of my things that I talked about with staff all the time. This is not a solo job. It is it's never a solo job. And all of these things have been done um as teamwork and that might be that you may make up a different team, but it takes all of us to get all of this done. So, I just want to go on record for saying that right now. Um but we were able to reach a new two-year contract this year, which was which was also another ex- very good learning experience. Um I thought that
050worked very well and we discussed that in previous meetings. Um that resulted in salary increases for teachers both years. Um we were able to give wage increases for our classified staff this past July 1st. I believe that those took place. Uh we have been working through our construction projects with WWC and those have all been running smoothly. Uh jumped in on the tail end of fencing and lighting. And so that was a good way to get our feet wet before we kick off all these new projects. And so they also answered their phones when I had my knee problems and I appreciate that. Um we are maintaining our student enrollment, which is always a positive. Um we have seen some slight increases there and we don't anticipate that really changing. So, um that's right where
051we want to be. Steady steady steady. Uh last year we ran the ILEARN checkpoint pilots. This year it is mandatory and so I um this is where my new house works for last year. And so I that is an accomplishment because we asked teachers to go above and beyond and students to jump in on a whole another set of assessments that we did not have to do, but we felt it was important to get our feet wet with that new system and understand what those assessments were going to look like so we were ready this year when we were going to be held accountable for that. Um I read we were maintaining continue to maintain a high passing rate for second and third grade students. And the purchase of the American Legion building that has
052really become our our district's educational center. So, lots of accomplishments. I'm sure there are many more. Um those are the ones that I highlighted when I was kind of making this list. And then our focus area for 2026 is we are um as you know, we've been working hard to reach a workable SRO agreement and we are in really good talks with the town. That is going along well. We just need to get it finalized on paper and move forward with that. I'm looking forward to ending that process. Um finalizing our bonds and starting our next phase projects, which we just had a great presentation on. Looking forward to all those next steps as well and putting all this hard work into actual fruition and seeing the results from that. Um we will continue to
053develop our personnel. That's key to school. Um I don't like it when we see these resignations come through, but I also understand that people take opportunities that they need to take in their lives. I'm thankful that we always have talent that is waiting and really wanting to be part of Argos. Um not everybody is able to fill spots like that and so I'm really glad that we can do that. Um that speaks a lot I think to our school corporation. They want to be here and so we need to continue to pour into them to to make them the best that they can be for our students and families. We will continue to look at curriculum. There's always changes going on in curriculum and we need to stay on top of that. Um I'm going
054to give a shout out to Tory Talbert who she stepped into her title position this year and she um really loves curriculum and she's really on that. I I sat down and talked with her at length right before we went on our week of break and she's doing a fantastic job and she's really working out different angles of curriculum that we need. I know she's collaborating with um the junior high high school as well and so we feel good about where we're pushing our curriculum to to make sure we are doing the best we can and making sure we're keeping up with any changes that the state is giving us. Um and that kind of loops into the next two. We have a lot of high school graduation requirements that have changed in the last
055year or so. Um we are still making sure that we are on top of those and providing those pathways that our students are now taking. Um making sure we're opening new pathways if needed and giving them many opportunities here at Argos. Uh work-based learning is also a new piece of that that we are learning about and how we are going to navigate that with our students. It's an exciting opportunity, but it always brings challenges to with workload and within the corporation of how we manage that. And as I just talked about ILEARN checkpoints, we are now running this as a mandatory state testing platform and so this will be our first year that we are going through that with accountability measures tied to it. Um so far I think it's going really well and I
056think it was wise to get into the pilot last year because we are we're comfortable and we know what we're doing versus just stepping in and and not understanding it from the get-go. Um I was talking to a couple teachers today about IREAD uh how they're feeling about it. Um they feel like they've seen some really good student growth in some of the student populations that they've been working with. And of course we know that's coming up quick in March and so um we're looking to maintain that passing rate, continuing our intervention and remediation. That's what we're seeing right now so we know how to help them and fill in those gaps. And then last part is our exciting building that we are going to start referring to as the Argos Educational Center. Um we
057are working through getting our building upgrades completed and discussing what programs we're going to host in that. I did just get word today that carpet should be in mid to late February once it arrives. They plan on getting into the install. So, that's our next step. So, that was kind of a lot of things but there's a lot to be happening at our school corporation and I want to make sure we have that posted. Thank you very much. Do you want to have any questions? Thank you for the update. We appreciate it very much. Um next we have some closing comments. Do you want to read those or Yes, we can or if you want to read them you can read them as well. So, yep. We had a couple thank you notes that came
058in and we just always like to highlight those. Um Chris Fishburn, her father had passed away. We sent a peace lily and she just wanted to thank thank you for the peace lily and remember her friends and my dad and I think it's important that we share that with everybody and you know those steps that we take to support school family as well. And then we had a nice letter come in from the Shepherd's Food Pantry at Argos United Methodist Church. I won't read the formal letter. I'll read the personal note that they they wrote. Um Argos Community Schools is a wonderful supporter of our own local food pantry especially through the various food drives that the students provide. We so appreciate all the hard work involved in these by staff and students and on
059a more personal note we really really are thankful when the students deliver and carry in the donations. So, we have a an amazing food [clears throat] drive that FM may heads up every year and they have in the past few years um they got school wide and that's kind of a fun little competition between the grades but really obviously the goal is to see how much we can supply and help out our food pantry. And then the high school kids do deliver and so that's very nice. There are several other opportunities that we donate to them throughout the year and that's what the rest of the letter is stating but I wanted to make sure we we acknowledge that as well. And then I have one acknowledgement. It is school board appreciation month and so
060I just wanted to address to give you all a shoutout. We reorganized last week and got all of that business out of the way but I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work um in such a well-paying job, I know. >> [laughter] >> Um you guys have a lot of meetings and you do a lot of work and you also answer your phones and text me when I need it. So, um I just can't thank you enough for dedicating your time and service to Argos Schools. Thank you very very much. Thank you very much. Okay. Do we have any other closing comments? No. I just say that you know things are working pretty well when you do not get any phone calls from the public. >> [laughter] >> They never seem to
061call when everything's going well. Right. Yeah, that's okay. We'll take it. We'll take it. All right, with that could I have a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:58 p.m.? So moved. Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Motion opposed. Motion's carried. Thank you very much. Meeting adjourned. And I have been brought in some cupcakes that I understand his wife makes. So, let's have cupcakes for open house. According to Greg. I'm not I'm saying that. Yes, [laughter] that was those were Greg's words. Yes, help yourself and take a treat. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Today's meeting >> [laughter] >> I actually was focused on that too. Got to pick it up. Really? I get it. It's sure like all of you both goals Is that
062the next session? I'm going to set up Yes.