10/20/2025 School Board Meeting

001ultimately delay the issuance of the geo bond into 2026. We did ask about that and uh we're told we we could not or did not want to do that. That would um delay our payments as part we could not put our payments as part of the 26 budget if we're to do that. which would then negatively affect the tax rate in 27 moving forward. So, um so we I wanted to follow back on that because we did we were asked of that previously. Uh the need for the additional appropriation tonight is simply because uh we do plan to receive uh those funds for that geo bond in calendar year 2025. And because we are receiving those funds and will likely issue a payment from those funds such as the cost of issuance, uh that's the

002need for the additional appropriation. So you want to take any comment from the public now would be the time please. >> Yep. So um there's always a blue sheet when you come to any board meeting and you can speak on any topic at all. That's later in the agenda. During the public hearing portion of it, anyone, even if you didn't sign up to speak, can come up and ask questions um of Dr. Roseman or the rest of the staff um regarding that specific topic which is the geo bond that we are going to vote on later on in the in the meeting. So I welcome anyone who would like to do that to stand up. I always give plenty of time for awkward pause and I see no eye contact. So I am going to

003assume that no one would like to speak to us tonight on this topic. We have spoken on it before so um understand if a lot of questions have already been asked. Um any questions from the board? Okay. Thank you Dr. Boseman. All right. So we will gabble back into our formal board meeting and move on to school board member reports. Um can I start at this end of the table? Mr. Schultz. >> No meetings here. >> Mr. The only thing that came up was the first iteration of the referendum survey committee, Miss Lloyd, myself, and uh really just kind of going over the nuts and bolts of what the survey may entail and what may be in there. Miss Lloyd has anything to add or Dr. Phillips have at it. But be on the lookout

004for the survey coming your mail here in the next few months. my committees did not meet. Um there is um November 6 there will be an ISBA regional meeting that I emailed the board members about and our local legislators will also be invited to that meeting. >> Um I've not had any meetings but on November 10th there will be a county redevelopment meeting coming up. >> Mr. St. >> Mr. Major. >> Yeah. So we had trust uh meeting last week and I will not speak about that. I'll let that be discussed later. Um redevelopment met earlier today and they uh did a resolution to recognize the creation of a neighborhood development corporation. So you may hear the CICDC, Columbus, Indiana Community Development Corporation listed in the future. It's a nonprofit that will uh be funded

005by city tiff money to do uh local work. Um, and then they also talked about the downtown entrance plaza. Uh, they've got somebody that's lined up to do the initial planning over the next few months and, uh, that will then come back with a recommendation and a cost. So, those are the two things they talked about tonight. >> No formal meetings. Just a reminder that the Wizards game is coming up in November and that will support the school foundation. So, tickets should be going on sale. sponsorship opportunities now. It's a great time for students and staff, so mark your calendars. Okay, thank you. Next, we have cabinet reports. I believe first we have Dr. Sto and Miss Ke. Sorry, Miss Good evening. Thank you for dedicating time to go over the tenative collective bargaining agreement.

006We uh will go over kind of our process, the timeline, and then what we have agreed to. And of course, Mandy and I will share this presentation this evening. So, we'll start with our process. We started with informal meetings that began in May. During those informal meetings, we celebrate some of the successes of years past. We talk about our priorities for this specific bargaining term. and we also talk about those long-term sustainable priorities as well. We kicked off our term with the September 8th public input session which was held by the board. On September 17th, we had our first formal bargaining meeting and that lasted a day. That is of course the collaboration between the CA bargaining team and the BCSC bargaining team. We held three sessions before reaching our tentative agreement on October 1st.

007And then October 8th, CA held twoformational meetings for members with voting that occurred from October 9th to 10th. On October 10th, they ratified the tentative agreement with a positive vote. We are here presenting this TA to you this evening, which is just anformational presentation. And then on October 29th, we will meet again during a special board meeting to approve or ratify the TA to become our collective bargaining agreement. Thank you. I want to go ahead and first start off by introducing our bargaining teams. So for CA here with us this evening, we have Mrs. Amy London, myself, Mr. Scott Rurn and then also Miss Grace McDougall. She is here. She's hidden. There she is. Miss Grace McDougall. And then Miss Christy Billings, our ISTA uniserve director from BCSSE. It was Mr. Rich Ster, Dr. Chad

008Phillips, Dr. Brett Boseman, and Dr. Aaron Stalbomb. Before we actually get into any of the specifics of this year's tenative agreement, I did want to re reiterate some of the current and future financial headwinds that we that we are facing for this school year. As you know, the ADM, our average daily membership decrease translates to roughly $1.6 million less in state tuition funding for our education fund. In addition, curricular materials funing is built into our state tuition dollars, meaning that that same pool of money must also now cover things like textbook fees. And on the local side, our property tax growth, that NAV or net asset value, is expected to rise only one and a half% instead of the usual 4%. Combined, these factors mean our overall 2026 budget will be lower than in 2025,

009as has already been presented to you in prior meetings. Also, as mentioned in previous board meetings, under the provisions of Senate Bill One, many school districts are projected to lose substantial local revenue from property taxes in the coming years. Senate Bill 1's property tax reform provisions reduce the growth and stability of a key local revenue source for our school districts. When combined with possible declining student enrollment and flat or modest state tuition support increases, the capacity of districts to provide meaningful salary growth to teachers presents further challenges which we have to tackle together. And this tenative tenative agreement is reflective of these headwinds that we're currently facing. Also, I just wanted to talk a little bit about what are considered bargain bargainable topics again according to Indiana code. And so, Herb is the Indiana Education

010Employment Relations Board who oversees collective bargaining agreements for public school employees within the state of Indiana. And they feel that the compensation plan is truly the heart of the CBA. We do have the ability to bargain some other wage related fringe benefits. For example, like the number of sick days or the percentage of health insurance premiums that teachers would pay versus the corporation would pay. Some of the other items that are listed there as examples of things that we don't bargain. For example, appendix B and C positions. Those are coaching stipens or co-curricular stipens are things that we can discuss and we do have formal established collaboration discussions between BCSSE and CA to discuss those and have even created several committees then to then further dive into those topics and address those. Thank you. We

011want to go over our successes from 2017 to this current collective uh bargaining agreement tentative agreement that we're bringing to you this evening. And so most notably we've been able to increase our salaries of course year-over-year through our collective bargaining agreements. Our starting salary with this tenative agreement will be 50,950 this school year and then move to 51,800 for the upcoming 2627 school year. We have been able to increase the top of our salary table without our referendum and then also increase our average full-time teacher salary without our referendum as well. But of note, approximately 75% of our certified staff earn those retention referendum increases, which we are very grateful to the community for. You see the CA affirmative votes on that last bullet point there and their latest vote passed with 89.7% of that

012tentative agreement that we're presenting to you this evening. So getting into our 2025 2027 agreement, we'll go through each of those years for the 2025 2026 school year, which is this current school year. The uh tenative agreement states that we will add $850 to each line or row on that salary table. So each one of those salary rows will increase by $850 except that top row or that beginning teacher salary row. We did want to create some distinction between those with prior years of teaching experience and those with no years of teaching experience. And so when we meet as a collective bargaining team, we talk about those priorities of wanting the increases for all and movement along the salary schedule. And we also about where we may have some compression in the salary schedule and

013if there's an opportunity to address that compression. So, this distinction really addresses some of that compression at our starting salary line. Right now, our maximum with our referendum remains at 96350 and our top of scale remains at 89950. With those maximum salaries remaining where they are, we do have teachers who are at a maximum combined salary receiving a $500 stipent. And then um as stated with this 2526 school year, each teacher stays on their current step except for that distinction at the beginning salary and our steps are not based on experience. And then all of this would be retroactive to the start of the contract year. One new component to our collective bargaining agreement that you will see is the literacy endorsement increase. So that was handed to us from legislation to place that into

014our compensation model and our literacy endorsement will provide an additional $150 for teachers on the year they receive that literacy endorsement. Then for the 2627 teacher salary increases, we were able to satisfy the priority of moving along the salary schedule. So we talked about the priorities of increasing the salaries. We did that in 2526 and then movement along the salary schedule which is really where 2627 lies. So all of those teachers will take a step not to exceed the maximum salary. So we have some of our teachers at the bottom or the top of our scale, whichever way you want to look at it, at that 89950 that will not take a step. There is no step to take there. And then our teachers at that 5950 row will move a step to the new

015starting salary of 518 and then actualize the 1500 through a combination of their base salary increase and a stipen. Again, we have those maximum with referendum remaining at 96350. And thus, if you are at that maximum combined salary, teachers will receive a $500 stipend. And then that $150 literacy endorsement increase is written in there again. And then again, that's for teachers when they receive that in their first year of adding that to their license. This would be our new salary tables. And M's going to walk us through three examples of that uh at a deeper level than my high level explanation. What you'll see here is just that distinction of that beginning teacher salary of the 5950 to the 518 and Mandy will help explain that further. Okay, so this is an example of a

016teacher who was hired with no prior years of experience starting this school year. So they would start at that 5950 for the 2526 school year and next year then take a step to what our new starting salary will be that 518. So they would get that $850 base salary increase but then would also receive a $650 stipen to actualize that $1,500 total. Teacher B, you can see where teacher B is in terms of starting salary for 2425 and then again receives the base salary increase of $850 and then is able to take a step in year two. This teacher also has a literacy endorsement. So that also provides an additional $150. One thing I would just like to remind, I know Dr. Stalbomb mentioned it, but again the salary schedule is not based on years

017of experience. Prior to 2011, that is how teachers moved along the salary schedule. It was based on years of experience and for their educational attainment. So there was often column or bachelor's plus 15. And so you could very clearly see how you would move along that salary schedule. In 2011, our state legislature changed how you could use those components to essentially allocate teacher funding. So they severely reduced the amount that could be tied to years of education or years of experience and further educational attainment. And so now with every bargaining contract, which we can do a one or a two-year contract, we have to look possible base salary increases or movement on the scale and it's not something that automatically occurs anymore. So even though this teacher you can see which step they're on that

018likely does not equate to their years of experience they might have 18 19 years of experience within BCSC. Then teacher C has a salary of 82,450. And so again, you can see that base salary increase for this year. And then the step in next year of $1,500. However, this teacher is at the maximum combined salary of the 96350. So that does mean they will receive that $500 stipen then in both years. Referendum remains the same. So our 5 10 15 years of experience within BCSD. BCSSE will still see those incremental increases and bumps in their salary. Our experience point system also remains unchanged for those coming to us with prior years of experience. And then the maximum pay that base and referendum stipen remains the same for both years of this tenative agreement. Speaking of

019the referendum, so I just have to further elaborate on this because honestly, it's hard to put into words the gratitude that teachers feel for the continued support both from our school board and our community for BCSC's operating referendum. State funding, as you can see, no longer stretches far enough to cover a competitive wage for our teachers. In fact, according to an article that was released just last week in the Indiana Capital Chronicle, new data shows that while Indiana teacher pay has climbed somewhat in recent years, who's your educators still earn less than their peers in all of our neighboring states with Indiana currently ranking 39th in the nation for average teacher salary. These operating referenda are thankfully an option that the legislature has given to communities like ours to improve upon this lack of state

020funding. And as shown during a presentation from Dr. Stalum back in July, BCSSE has improved its retention both of our BCSE teachers and also our ability to attract educators who come to us with previous years of experience due to our operating referendum. Of course, keeping these talented and committed educators in BCSSE most importantly benefits the children we serve each and every day. Thank you. So, our tenative agreement overview again, we have a two-year agreement with a starting salary of 5950 this school year and 518 next school year. We have those two priorities of increasing our base salaries which we were able to do in 2526 by 850 and then moving along the salary schedule were able to do in 2627 with that cap of 96350 with referendum. We have approximately 1.5% and 2.5% average base

021salary increases with an unchanged referendum pay structure and all of this will be retroactive to the beginning of the 2526 contract year. Before we take questions, I just want to sincerely thank the CA bargaining unit members and um CA as a whole for your collaboration through this process. We are happy to take questions. open to any questions from the board. >> Have a couple. Uh you mentioned compression. Do we have compression risk or issues as we speak today or is it more forecasting out? >> So every time we come to the bargaining table and we talk about our priorities, we look at where everyone lies on the salary schedule and I think every salary schedule has compression. We talk about how can we problem solve some of these and we're not able to do all

022of the things in every year but we're able to do some of the things. So that was one of the points we talked about this year and having that differentiator and distinction between teachers with no prior years of experience and teachers with prior years of experience who are currently at that 5950 row. Can you ju just to clarify or tea off of Logan's question, can you describe compression maybe just for everyone to make sure we're all understanding it the same way and know what you're talking about? We have teachers who are in each line of this salary schedule and we look at what years of experience do they have. And so we had uh about 21 teachers with no prior years of experience and at that 5950 with other teachers who had upwards of five

023years of experience with that 5950. So it was an effort to break that up and create that differentiation. So that's what I mean when I talk about compression at that row. >> The other call out I had was I know we have a lot of I mean based on our CIC meetings we have a lot of attrition in the zero to fiveyear category. I know that I want to say it was the bargaining before last there was a lot of new teachers that mentioned they barely able to afford rent barely able to afford with the starting salary. Has there been any consideration to expand the operation referendum into that space? I know it's been reserved traditionally for 5 10 15 years but that zero to five is where we see our highest level attrition. So

024was there any discussion around that? >> We didn't discuss that at the bargaining table because that's not a bargainable topic because it's referendum funds. >> Okay. >> Any other questions from the team? >> Yeah. I think the one thing I've heard over the last two and a half years more than anything is teachers deserve more. I'm surprised to see one and a half% after the last two years being around 12% total. Um this doesn't equal the average of around 3 to 4% over the last 10 years. I I don't have I wasn't in the meetings, so I don't know what happened in the meetings, but is there anything you can advise us on that uh other than we don't have enough money? There's there's always money, right? How we spend it can be moved around

025a little bit, but how do we get to a point where it's only one and a half%. >> I appreciate the question. I'll go back to that current and future financial headwinds and kind of reiterate some of those points that Mandy was making. And when we come to the bargaining table, we look at our budget for this bargaining session and Dr. Boseman presents that we have a Q&A session before we get we kind of have some questions posed. we answer them and we dive deep into what are the dollars we can bargain with at this moment in time. And so based on some of those projections with these current and future financial headwinds, we bargained with the dollars we felt comfortable bargaining with at this moment in time. I don't think that answers your question.

026I might refer to Dr. Boseman for maybe something a little deeper than what I provided. >> Actually, I'll jump in Dr. Shaw on that just the with education fund budget that's 96% salaries and benefits. We know that any change to moving money around is going to involve people in programs and with a legislative session that didn't wrap up until May and then an education sorry uh ADM count that we didn't start to realize how low that was going to be until students started showing up in August. the impact on our students and staff of a change at that time frame to people in programs. While we did staff as tightly as we could and we work with our CA partners in all staffing meetings, the we just weren't willing to look at at removing people

027programs to the extent that would make a meaningful impact on this bargaining session for this year. But like we talked about last time, we're working internally and with CA and others within the district to identify potential savings for future years so that if we're in this same situation or a similar situation next year or the year after prepared to make changes with enough time to make sure that the students and staff members that are impacted by those changes have some time to prepare. So, so the big story is we couldn't afford more than one and a half% for teachers. There's just no more money, right? The budget that is proposed tonight spends more money than we're bringing in in revenue. So, we could afford more, but we would spend it out of a cash balance

028and continue to put ourselves in a deficit financial position. And that commits us, of course, when a teacher salary an individual teacher or 765 teacher salary goes to the base that's a commitment for every year thereafter >> this may be too early to know the answer to this but um next year's starting salary of 51,800 do we know enough about surrounding school corporations to know if That will still make us as competitive as we've been. >> Yes, we we will still be the highest salary in our area. >> One followup on the step schedule, which it's hard for me because it's not years of experience, but like how does it how does it allow you to be competitive in being able to bring in experienced individuals from adjacent school corporations? I've got a couple teachers

029that I know recently that have came from whether it's private school or public schools. I mean, are you able to place them within the scale or how does that work? >> Yes, that that is exactly how that works. So, someone comes to us with experience and then I provision where our current teachers are with that experience. They fall somewhere on this salary schedule and then we're able to place them on that salary schedule in comparison with our current teachers. Our referendum is also really supportive of teachers with prior years of experience. And so that has been something that has allowed us to recruit and uh retain staff. >> And then the the one and a half% the 850 is what we're giving this year, but for 2026 2027, it looks like the steps are the

030same. So is it really just the step increase? That's the two and a half% >> everybody. Yes. Because everybody moves. follow question where we were compared to other school corporations and other teacher assuming that there are votes somewhere in Indiana. Where will this put us in terms of comparing us to our peers? >> To our peers and our and our surrounding communities, we are the highest started starting salary to the rest of the state. We won't know until all of those are finalized. >> The increase is the increase proportional to other corporations and what they're able to do. >> I can't answer that with with any confidence right now. What I can state is there are several school corporations who are having stipens instead of base salary increases. That's a trend across the state and

031so I think we will see quite a bit of that. >> Going back a couple meetings though just for Rich like 60,000 I think was the average in the state and we're at 69,000. So we are right now like 15% better than the average school corporation in the state. And then based on all the discussion, everybody is going to have the same challenge with incoming money. They're not going to be able to just go out and get more. So, as long as we're all in a reasonable percentage, we're probably going to still be 10 to 15% better than the average school corporation in the state. >> And much of that is due to our referendum. Thank you so much. >> Well done. Thank you. >> Hey, Dr. Boseman, Health and Dental. Good evening. Our health

032trust has, as Mr. major mention recently met and discussed and have uh brought a recommendation to you for consideration to set health and dental premiums for the 2026 calendar year. Um members of the health trust, just as a reminder, we are self-funded in our health trust. So just among BCSC um employees that participate, um John Green is also our coordinator of campus security um is the chair. Amy London representing CEA, Jason of course uh representing the board, Jesse is a is a teacher and TJ representing the classified staff and other participants in the non- voting members, but other participants are listed there as well. Um, ultimately I'm I'm pleased to share with you that um, at least for the first time within my memory since I've been at BCSC, we're recommending a 0% increase in

033health and dental premiums for the 2026 um, health plan year. U, you may recall last year we brought a small increase to you for consideration. Um, the trust members thought that would be wise. Uh, we we thought uh, Mrs. London and I and others um had thought that this from a bargaining standpoint would be a lean year. So um we had that small increase last year to safeguard us a little bit into this year um which has paid off and we're able to recommend a 0% increase uh for the 2026 um calendar year. This is a snapshot of our cash reserves available. happy to explain this as as as you're interested. Um, but those are by year and then as of September 30th reserve amounts there. You see that highlighted reserve amount is higher than

034than previous. We do have some expenditures coming up that we've not paid yet this year because that'll dip a little bit. Um, and also as as a reminder, we do have a provision if you're curious in the CBA that will remain in the CABA that if the reserve level gets to 30% of expended expected expenditures of the next year, then um the trust would have a discussion bring action recommendation for the board for action for the balance of some of those reserve monies to go back to members through an HSA deposit. As of now, we're not quite to that 30% uh but we are getting close. Uh same information on dental. I'll go back just a moment here. I'll look at uh Mr. Stinner because he smiles I think or cries maybe. I don't know.

035But the 2019 2020 years of uh things were not great in this on this chart and um we are not there now. So special thanks to folks before me certainly and and our adviserss with the health trust. Uh we have a really good thing going now for members and we're in a good financial position. I don't know again as Dr. Stalbomb mentioned with what other bargaining situations other districts are in. I don't know where they are with their premium increases, but I would bet you a dollar there are very few that are going to recommend a 0% increase uh going into next year. same information on dental uh same quite frankly grim outlook uh eight or nine years ago. I'm in a much better position now as well. Um certainly happy to answer any questions

036you have. Mr. Major can jump in as well. He's in all those health trust meetings and can speak to him just as well as I can. >> This uh action item tonight, what are we approving the greens and the blues? on the first slide. So if we vote, >> yes, you're ultimately just approving a 0% increase. We do those annually within the board. These are these are premium amounts that are already set for this this calendar year of 25 which would carry >> on the first slide when it says yeartoday other revenue. Can you elaborate what is other revenue? >> This slide >> those are uh this is Mr. Brener's presentation. These are rebates that we that we get. So expenses are obviously expenses that go out. Revenue or premiums from members and then other

037revenue would be um um rebates that we get sorry on mostly on pharmaceutical items. So >> there's some interest income in that one as well. >> Yes. And yes, thank you. And interest these funds are invested. Also, the law around self-funded health programs says that any money that goes into this can only be expended on the members who are paying into it. And so even this money, the cash balance that's invested, that is deposited back in here to make sure that the profits from those investments go only to the folks who pay into the trust. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Desmond. >> Okay, first reading of our final policy package. You promise, Dr. Phillips. >> This is the final >> final >> package of policies related to the reorganization efforts with Church Hill and

038Antrum to move away from our Neil policy packages. Sounded like a disclaimer, but >> that was a caveat. >> That's right. It does not mean it's the last time we will talk about policies for sure. >> So, as you um remember, we had a board work session back on October the 6th to review this final group of 28, I believe it is, policies that again, this is an effort to go from our our the organization under the uh policies under Neiola clean and transparent for the public and for parents and members of the community to read. And so I'm not going to read each of these 28 to you. If you have any questions about them, certainly let's talk about them, but we also did so back in October. So anyone who wants to dig

039in deep to those can certainly view that video from October uh on the on YouTube as well. So the The ones that are not that are new are there are two policies that we discussed during that work session that are new policies that church church hill recommends that are not based on a current policy and that's prohibition of unmanned aircraft probably seven or eight years ago you couldn't fly a drona anywhere over our buildings or stu where our students and members of the public were. Uh the law around that has loosened but you still cannot do so without our permission. So if you're at a football game or a band performance must have the permission of folks running that that event for BCSSE to fly a drone over our facilities or our students. Um, and

040then G500 is intellectual property ownership and revenue. And this was one just clarifying that if a teacher or an employee creates something that is intellectual property in the course of their employment with BCSSE, how revenue for that owns the and how that is split between the district and the employee. The this tonight represents the first reading of these packages, this last final package and then the second reading will be at our next meeting on November the 17th. These policies are all posted on the website for the public to review. Please reach out to us if you have any questions well before that meeting on the 17th so we can make sure and address them. Otherwise, we'll bring these this package to you on the 17th. >> I will point out we've already had our work

041session on this package of policies. We did it before the first reading. I actually think that went pretty well. So, um last time we got it right and we figured out how to work through these maybe, but we'll we'll use that model going forward. Um I also want to uh remind people that all work sessions except for executive sessions are um on YouTube and available. So if a person is interested in what we discussed or or whatever that is on our YouTube channel on October 6th and you can review that and understand the discussions that we had. Any any comments or questions from the team? Thank you. >> Okay. And last up, Dr. Boseman again. >> Emily Newton from CSO is a project manager. And as she starts to make her way up here, she's

042with uh Dr. Stephanie Loan from CSO. Also, I there's a few folks here. I I'm going to put them on the spot and have them stand up. We have some principles, directors, and design team members of the three projects. if you could please stand up uh briefly. So uh if if these these are folks that are putting in a tremendous amount of time for these projects at the respective building. So if you have questions um I'm sure they'd be happy to to answer when the when the time is appropriate. Thank you for being here and thank you for uh your time that you put into this. >> Feel like we should clap for them. Thank you all. >> A lot of money in good hands. >> The presentation that Emily will share with you tonight

043um highlights three projects. the uh planned renovations at Taylor'sville Elementary, Mount Healthy Elementary, and the addition to satisfy C4 programs needs at Columbus East High School. The approval items for you tonight are permission only permission to bid Mount Healthy and East will seek permission to bid Taylor'sville at the next board meeting. And also, you may notice in your packets there's a longer presentation in there. For the interest time, we pulled a few slides out of here. So, uh longer full presentation in your package. So, thanks thanks to CSO for all the work and I'll turn it over to Emily. >> Thank you, Dr. Boseman, and to the board for having us here today. I'm excited to share project updates for the three projects that Dr. Boseman mentioned. Um, I do want to say a large

044thank you on behalf of the entire design team who's had the opportunity um to work with you all as you continue to invest in your people and in your buildings. Um, I stand here as one person representing over 50 design professionals who are working every day on these three projects. Um, and want to thank you for for the opportunity to do so. Um, first we'll talk about Taylor'sville. Um, again, I'll try to keep this as brief as I possibly can, but um, there have been several uh, discussions starting uh, at the end of the last school year. Uh, Dr. Demer and her team have been very gracious to us with their time, giving us time after school, giving us time over the summer uh, to talk through uh, all of these points of discussion here

045that focus on uh, safety and security in the building. um aligning with uh current learning and and teaching trends, improvement uh of classroom technology and furniture um and overall just creating collaborative learning spaces for students that align with what you've seen on other projects that we've done at this point in the district. Um those staff input sessions um usually last about an hour. Uh we've reviewed multiple floor plan options over those uh many design team meetings. Um, and what we've learned from Taylorville specifically is that the students and the teachers make this building special, not so much the architecture. Um, that can't be said necessarily of all of your buildings. I guess that's not true. It's always your teacher and your students, but sometimes the building is a little extra special, too. What we've learned

046from Taylor'sville is it's really about the people in that building um that make it run as well as it does. Um, there was a desire for STEM to be grouped with other related arts in the building. Um, again, trying to make better office flow. safety and security is a central point of discussion for us on all of these projects um when we work with the the teacher design teams. Um and then they really just need some ample room um for small group spaces in this building. A little bit limited right now by their current footprint. Um so we looked at many design options and without getting too much into each of these uh we've landed on an option concept three which is basically a refinement of the other two um option that creates clusters um

047of class kind of around spaces. So, a commons in the middle um of each cluster of of three to four classrooms. Um each classroom will have its own cubby, access to small group rooms, access to a single user restroom, um and access to a sensory space nearby. Uh this is the current and existing floor plan. Again, for those who may be a little bit less familiar with the building, uh there's a central core on the east side of the building uh with the media center and STEM and then there's kind of corridor to the north, south, and to the east. And you can see just by the amount of white space in this building that there's a lot of area that's just taken up by circulation. Uh typically, we would anticipate that circulation is about

04830% in the building. It's closer to about 37% of the space that you would I'm sorry, 15% and then 21% in this building. Um so we're trying to get that number down uh essentially to make that that space more usable to pick up the small group needs um that the building has. The other thing I'll point out in the existing floor plan here is the main office uh the vestibial that exists now uh breaks up the hallway in the north south direction. So you have to bypass that secure vestibial or pass through it in order to get to the south end of the building um to access music, art, gym um and then the sixth grade classrooms. Uh the new plan uh per the request of the teacher has moved STEM down with music and

049art groups all the classrooms on the north and east side of the building and most importantly probably most notably uh moves that main office over to the west side of the building uh giving better sight lines to see those who are entering uh coming up to the main entrance of the building. It also then opens up that corridor that runs north south and so you no longer have um that break in circulation throughout the space. I do want to highlight a couple of things here. We're going with a a largely open building, but you'll see all of these doors, these cross corridor doors. In the event of an emergency or quite frankly just after school when you don't want people wandering through your building, uh this building can be compartmentalized by closing these series of

050crosscridor doors. Um and it creates all these different zones that you cannot get into um unless you were there when that button is pushed. You can certainly always get out of these zones, so free egress, but the goal is to kind of lock these different spaces down as needed um in the event of an emergency or again for building compartmentalization after hours. Something else we talked about a lot with the team is circulation in this building. Um you'll see that we have gone from two corridors down to one central corridor uh in the space and that each classroom has been given a secondary path of egress out of it. So, uh, in addition to the coat rooms for a shelter in place event, we there is a new door that's being proposed out of each

051of the classrooms in this building as as a secondary path of egress. Um, and those are the a zoomed in view of those cubby rooms and then those exterior doors just just for your reference. And then this is a concept view um of the third and fourth grade learning commons in the building. Again, we're early in design on this one. At some point we'll share new renderings with colors and and patterns and textures. Um but this just is meant to uh show the amount of small group work um that can happen in this space um for enrichment uh for um remediation um for large group gathering. Um and really the thought here is that seven classrooms surround this space and use the resources as needed um by the classroom teacher. Schedulewise, uh, this is supposed

052to wrap up here with design near the end of the year and then we will go out to bid at the beginning of the year in January, February. We are working with our construction manager partner, Myron Num, um, on this job. Uh, we will continue to have safety security meetings uh, with John Green and with the staff to talk through the design of the building along with each of the individual classroom teachers and uh, special education title ELLL. Essentially, everyone who has a stake in this building will have their opportunity to come and give us feedback on the final design. Uh the budget for this project is $15 million. Uh at Mount Healthy, we have very similar themes here. So, I'm going to kind of skip through a little bit at the beginning, but the

053biggest one here that I want to highlight is the need to improve acoustics in the learning environment for the space. um having been in that the space after hours without it fully in in session, it's it's loud in this building and that certainly not only affects the acoustic but also the safety security um and the fact that you know you can't compartmentalize the building at all currently um outside of kind of the classroom wings. So, uh safety, security and acoustics were the two things that we heard from teachers the most in this in this project and we've sought to address those uh with our our design Um I will circle back here. The architecture on this one is unique and there is something special about it. Um but again it's very challenging to work within

054and we've decided that the the needs of the students and the teachers supersede the need to um carefully protect every single piece of the architectural identity of the building. We're going to try to keep it looking and feeling like Mount Healthy but bring it into a 21st learning uh environment. Um, again, we've worked through concepts one, two, and landed on concept three here, which is um a kind of finessed version of of concepts one and two. It makes the media center kind of longer and more continuous through the building. It improves sight lines and supervisions down the main spline, creates larger learning comments for students and allows again for cubbies and individual restrooms in each classroom. Uh this is a very hard plan to read if you've not been or walked through Mount Healthy, but

055this represents uh the the upper levels. Um I'm sorry, the lower levels of Mount Healthy. Um this is the existing floor plan here. So you can see kind of a cluster of floor plan of classrooms. Uh on the the upper diagram is is both levels one and zero and then the upper one is levels two and three. Um so there are four different floor heights in this building. um and getting those to show correctly and model them correctly and share with the team in 3D correctly um has been a fun challenge for us. Um this is our current design and again a little bit hard to uh understand without without having a full uh grasp of all the different levels but essentially we've tried to create a two-section building. So every two classrooms are sharing

056an activity commons with a little bit of flex space in the middle of the building. We've created dedicated prek classrooms, moved music around a little bit and really kind of cleaned up and improved the flow through the spine by widening the corridor uh in this space. Similar to Taylor'sville, we do have the compartmentalization. Um so all the spots where you see the red squares there are where we've got cross corridor doors on this building and that creates these compartments. Um when those cross corridor doors are closed. So essentially all the classroom space there on the south side of the building. um if you push that button for a lockdown situation or again for after school hours that space is completely closed off. Uh similarly here again always trying to find a second path of egress

057for students out of a space. Um and so there are situations when you're on upper floor where you can pass through um another classroom to get to a secondary stair or at the lower levels where you can directly eress out into the playground area. Um again for people who have been in this building there is no accessibility um to no access to the upper levels or the lower level. Um so our proposed solution to that in le of putting in three full-size elevators is to actually do six vertical platform lifts. These are pieces of equipment that essentially sit on the floor um have their own internal ramps, their own power systems, and allow for that five foot change in elevation and a significantly reduced cost uh to you guys both in terms of installation and

058maintenance over time. Um, every classroom in this building will be accessible um at the completion of the project except for one third grade classroom, which you could get to by going through another classroom, but there's just one that was kind of left out in the dark. But all but one classroom will be um completely accessible uh meeting ADA standards at the end of this project. Uh again, I talked a little bit about the areas of refuge and then the the path of egress. So you can see here uh coat cubbies that are shared between the two classrooms with access to the toilet rooms which are in kind of the light brown color and then again those secondary sets of stairs uh in terms of of shelter in place or of a path of egress to

059get out of the building from the second floor. and understanding this building threedimensionally um is challenging. I think in the packet that that you have you'll see this as maybe four or five different views um from foundations all the way up to this view which is all the levels turned on at the same time. Again, we really want to thank uh Mrs. Drum and and the team uh at at Mount Healthy for their patience as we try to explain our thought process here as we try to work through design and talk about these these kind of complex spaces in in three dimensions. Um so just a quick Here are the upper level classrooms as they exist now um with with cubbies. This is our proposed learning common. So you can see full walls for classrooms.

060Learning commons we are not showing ceilings in but classrooms will have them to address that acoustic issue. Uh this is inside that classroom that we were just looking toward. And you can see now with a full acoustic ceiling access to the commons on the left uh view down to your other classrooms on on the immediate left. So trying to keep some of that mount healthy connectedness that they have now. Um and then the cubby access there on the right side of the image. Uh this is the main hallway looking west. Uh currently this is that same hallway where we've essentially deleted part of the the program that's there to open it up for the media center. So trying to keep some of the structure exposed, keeping again some of the pieces that make Mount Healthy

061Mount Healthy um without maybe all of the noise of the colors and the jagged kind of walls that into the space. Um and there's that same view kind of looking the other direction looking east down the corridor. Um, and then again simplifying this, trying to lessen the amount of noise so that student artwork can shine um so that your student and and your books and everything that that BCSE um has told us is important uh is able to stand out in this space. Uh again, we are uh wrapping up design on this one near the end of the year. Uh this should bid in January. Uh which means construction can start as early as spring break. Uh we would anticipate about 18 months of construction. And our goal here would be that students are moved

062in into a completed building um by the start of the 2028 spring semester. >> Um budget on this one uh is $22.5 million. Uh you can imagine as we put up walls everywhere, that means having to redo all of the HVAC, all of the lighting, all of the controls in the building, new plumbing. um essentially rebuilding a new building inside of an existing shell um to make it both accessible uh and safe and functional for students. Um and then I will real quickly here, I know I'm over my time, I apologize, try to get through C4. Um again, thank you very much to Dr. Hack and the entire team um who has met with us now several times uh to talk about their existing spaces and their dream of a new space. Uh what we

063are proposing is an uh 22,500 square foot edition to the west side of uh Columbus East. Um north is is uh to the right in this image for reference. Um our plan is for it to sit between the tennis court and the current construction lab. Um and what the space will hold is is some really large um spaces for lab work. So some big box spaces uh for things like construction and welding. Uh and then a cosmetology lab that will um spots for up to 40 students to be working simultaneously. Um that's all on the first floor with corresponding classrooms and support spaces. Um can see the new courtyard that's created there on the east side of the site um by enclosing and attaching to the existing building. And then the second floor um has

064an a lab and an ad classroom as well as serving kind of our mechanical space uh that's kind of running the the whole HVAC piece of of the building. Um again about 18,000 square feet on the ground floor and about 4,500 upstairs. This is a concept image. As you come down again, tennis courts would be on your right. Uh the existing construction lab is there on your left. Uh the overhead doors, the first one would be construction lab. The one on the right would be uh welding. And then further down uh with a little coping is the cosmetology area. And then this is looking back the other way. So again, story cosmetology piece on the end. Twotory lab spaces for a and or I'm sorry for construction and for welding. And then a sits kind

065of hidden uh back upstairs uh behind the the welding lab. This is an interior view of the cosmetology lab. Again, set up so up to 40 students uh can be working in the space at one time. Uh positioned for them to each have a guest as well. There are so there are restroom public facilities for them. Uh fit out with all the things that you would expect. So, uh, hair washing station, hair drying, manicure, facial, everything that they need to keep their lensure um as as a as a cosmetology lab. And then upstairs, again, in terms of the a lab, kind of an open space with very cleanable floors. That was the number one request. Cleanable floors and power were some of the big requests here. just really a large lab space um to allow

066for um aquaponics uh and a number of other activities that were shared with us which are quite frankly very exciting. I think it's great that you guys have a program here um that that has these types of um curriculum items. It's not something that we see everywhere. So, I love that the community supports it. Um and we appreciate the opportunity to to get to work on spaces like this that are kind of unique to us. Um this one we are almost done with. So this project is wrapping up. Uh we will be finishing design and documentation this week. Um the project will then bid before the end of the year and we would expect construction to start then uh first thing in 2026. It has a budget of $12 million. Um and again we would

067like to or anticipate that this would uh be open for the start of the 2027 school year. Again, on behalf of all the people that I've listed on this board, thank you very much uh to the teacher design team uh for their time and input and thank you all for for letting us be part of the process. >> Questions. >> Can I just say that was very impressive the amount of information and the knowledge that you have on these projects. That was really well done in the presentation. Thank you. >> I've got a couple questions. Um the new egress doors that are going to be implemented at both elementary schools that are uh going out of the classrooms, how are those going to be contained as we have a high number of potential aopers. So

068how do especially some of them are in cy rooms and so maintaining eyes on is not always the easiest thing. >> Sure. >> So how do how do we >> so the ones at Mount Healthy are actually existing. We're not putting any new new doors in that building at all. Um the ones at um Taylor'sville are solid doors um and they don't have any type of delay, but they do have a door position switch on them. So there's a sensor. So if that door is propped open, if it gets opened, there is an alarm essentially that goes off that lets you know that. Um when we asked teachers about that, they said, you know, that the preference is that they have the opportunity to take students outside directly. Um there are days where you don't

069want to just walk through the corridor. Your kids have some energy that they need to shake out. Um so there's certainly, you know, you have to weigh the options when it comes to doors and and door position switches. So we've tried to find that balance. Could someone elope from it? Yes. Um but the same way that they could from any door in the building that you have right now. So um we've tried to create sight lines into those cubby spaces so that you don't have kids in there who are doing things unsupervised. Um Again, trying to balance all of those pieces. >> Yeah. I I wasn't sure if it was like like a badge in badge out type scenario. >> It'll be exit only. >> Yeah. Exit. >> And vertical lifts that are going to

070be implemented at Mount Healthy in case of emergency. Uh >> those are on our battery power. >> Say again. >> They're on battery power. more likely how fast do they operate or do they will they continue to operate like case of a fire or anything like that? Other questions? >> The uh Mount Healthy just so as an engineer I understand what it's like to draw in 2D. That's not hard. 3D is very complex. You have to have a special mind to see it. Um I know when Logan and I visited two years ago to Mount Healthy, we were just in awe of just the general feel for how noisy and difficult it's got to be. teacher to to manage a classroom. So, God bless them for being able to do it, right? Um, yeah, it's

071it's not easy. So, when we left, we were like, we need to put some walls up. We need to do a couple things here and there, right? And, uh, you know, we we kind of both agreed, you know, Logan mentioned it might be 15 to 20 million. My my question is less towards you and over here. So, in November 23, we had a presentation that said 4.2 2 million in March of 24. That moved to 8 million. In April of this year, it moved to 15.7 million. I think somewhere in the summer, I think I missed something here, but I think it moved to 18 million. This said 22, but our document that I think we have says 18 to 21. Two questions. what is the number versus what is approved based on the bonds

072that were issued in the agreement then for schools. So yes and good questions. Uh I'll back up a little bit and I jotted a note as we were listening to this presentation and you're right Mr. Major I've I have heard over and over from this board to do Mount healthy right. So that's that's the charge that we've heard and that we've given to our consultants here obviously. Um so to answer your question on the cost the we we are also um have a budget meeting again next week. So we are value engineering these things consistently as we go through. So um there is not you didn't ask this but I'll say it a different way. This is not an open checkbook whatever it you know that type of situation. Um I am concerned about the

073cost of this project. Um I'm encouraged by the good bid results we've had in other projects that are going to help. Um so for example the uh the most recent be the Maple Grove project is $3 million under. Uh we'll need to make some adjustments to because the 306 for the Envision projects is not going beyond 306 because this or because of anything else >> and that that was a concern was yes >> where where the shift would come from. I know we've had little bits and pieces >> that this is like five times what we originally >> and and it just I didn't know where that money was going to come from. I knew we had what I thought was just crazy amounts for the gyms at 25 million a piece. >> I don't

074think that that's a real number. I think we can do that for less. My assumption was it was coming from something like that that to your point value engineer can come down >> and so I don't I don't at all disagree that the work you presented needs to be done. >> I I absolutely wholeheartedly agree with that. Um and I think Logan and I would if you would have said this is what we needed to do two years ago, we'd have bobbleheaded yes and that's absolutely what you need to do. It just when when you see the numbers I didn't know how we were from an approval perspective. I didn't know how we were changing this number up to then bring something else down. And so that was my concern. >> Yeah, it's a fair

075concern, a fair question. So, so we'll adjust as we go. I uh right now within my own calculations, I have it factored at about 19. We'll see how well we can scale this back a little bit. What I didn't want to do was bring this presentation and say whatever 18 and then bring a GMP to you that's 22 and then have some additional questions. So, we're going to try to scale that back a little bit without cutting corners obviously. Um but your your assumption at least my opinion is correct in those those phase three projects that would include uh the extracurricular space at the high schools would be adjusted to accommodate our priorities or with um spaces we're doing in phase one and phase two. Um so yes that's that's a fair assumption. We'll get

076to that point when we get to that point but fair state fair statement and a fair assumption. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, Mr. Mr. major beat to it because looking back when I sold 22 million 22.5 and uh like I don't remember having that approval and even went back and read the CMC contract that we approved in June of 18 million. So I assume that maybe future approvals coming our way. >> It will be yeah once once we get it scaled in and we go to bid we'll bring the others will bring a GMP to you for approvals. It's a good I don't know how this works, but if you ever dry if you ever buy stock in drywall, if that's a thing, I'd recommend insider trading tip. I recommend doing that because we're going

077a lot of walls up. >> I have a couple calls. One guilty for driving the mound healthy like 100% sold like this school is welld deserved walls and acoustics and Bodart and your staff for teaching that like we need to have all the the support and I also happy to see Taylor'sville. I think it's been since the expansion in the late 90s is really where it's sat since then. Um I had a couple questions. It looks like especially Mounty is capacity for the classrooms going down a lot like it looks like it's going down 25. Like I'm seeing groups of three and four classrooms go down to groups of two and three classrooms. So are we losing a lot of capacity here? Is it really more in preparation of the Westside School or Maple Grove?

078I apologize. >> No, we're not anticipating. We've not designed for less capacity at either school. Um they're to say we've allocated space differently um from how it is now. I >> Oh, so there's the same number of classrooms. They're just moved. >> Yes. Or some classrooms now are being used for small group or they're not being used at all. And when we use classrooms and not healthy, we have to use that very loosely. They're open, you know, open spaces. >> There was a couple of those. I remember that. >> And all of these are called off as what could be classrooms. They have technology for classrooms, but they're not all occupied as classrooms. >> And that's the same for Taylorville as well. >> Yes. >> And then the other question I had is um on

079the security measures for the lockout of Mount Healthy and then we can go to Taylor'sville is it didn't look like the like when I I was when I was thinking of like where are we going to put security doors and zones, it's those big open areas like the cafeteria and the gymnasiums. Is there any discussion around going to be able to secure those zones as well. >> Those zones can be secured. Again, we have to try to find things that we're not touching um as part of these projects because we've certainly at the gymnasium where we're putting in new doors um have tied those to the lockown system. The existing cafeteria doors are ones that we were trying or planning to keep, but that doesn't mean that you can't change the hardware and function of

080those doors um to be kind of on a lockown piece. >> If I recall, It's been about a year and a half, two years since I've been in this building. But that blue area was the entrance, right? >> Yes. >> And so like I guess is there anything like kind of like a secure door after that to keep them from going down the hallway and accessing all the all the open areas like the cafeteria, STEM lab, eventually the gymnasium. I guess that was my disc my question there. >> Sure. Um we're not proposing one now. There's the secure vestibule and the check-in process at the secure vestibule, but Beyond that, it's open corridor like it is at all the other buildings. >> And then on Taylorville's design, same actually I believe it was in the

081room hallway there on the left, the bottom left. Is there a secure corridor off of the cafeteria? Those classrooms down the left across from the gymnasium kind of like on your way to STEM. >> On the way to STEM, past the office. No. >> Yeah, like the classrooms there on the bottom left. Those are still classrooms. I can't tell. >> Those are those are offices. The that's all administration and counseling just above the STEM lab. Is that what you're referencing? >> Oh, I just realized you didn't change it up to the office. >> N you're good. Okay. >> Yeah, we've tried anywhere where there are classrooms to make sure that those are in fully compartmentalized. >> I have maybe a broad question for the working teams in the audience here. Um, I understand we went

082through a design process, collected input. You know, you never get absolutely everything you want, but there's like the critical few things that you want to make sure you're getting out of every project. Is there anything that the teams involved in these spaces identified as critical that you all feel like we are not accommodating in the designs that we're looking at tonight? My gosh, Jean Hack shook his head. No, Jean Hack is with getting good. >> I think the east phenomenal especially go great there. The only thing that's missing is a cattle shoot for Taylor'sville and Mount healthy. Are we checking the big boxes that people expected to see checked? I'm seeing lots of knots. Good. I can't again I cannot overstate how grateful we are to the teachers who continue to give their time outside

083of contract hours, give us their lunches, give us their summer days um to come and give us input on this. We of course have plenty of projects that we've done all over the state, but none quite so unique as what we work on here in Columbus and and your very special buildings. And so um understanding the people who live and work in those buildings every day and what their needs are feed and inform our design more than anything else ever could. So, I'm very grateful to these teams for showing up tonight and for continually showing up and giving us input and saying the things that are important to them and things that they don't like, which is equally as important. Um, so, thank you very much. >> One last comment for me. I should have

084put in the presentation, but there is uh about one point just a little bit short of 1.2 million of ready 2.0 money we're anticipating for the Columbus East project as well. Awesome. >> I think it was I think it was fantastic. So, good job. >> Very much. >> Thank you. >> And I just have to add there if you don't mind. Emily maybe said something there at the end that was one of the more poignant statements about Columbus is that the people that make this place special, not our buildings. The buildings exist because the people here are special. Thanks for your work. Okay, next on the agenda, we have our public comment section of the meeting. Um, if you ever want to speak at a board meeting, you can come in before the board meeting

085and sign up on a blue sheet. Um, it is at the front door and then you will have three minutes to address the board. Um, I have no one signed up to speak tonight. So we will skip that portion of the agenda and move on to request for approval. >> Thank you, Miss Wielen. Under item 6A this evening, I have a request for approval of old business for both the minutes of the public hearing and the regular school board meeting from September 29th as well as the board work session for the policy package on October 6th. Request approval of item 6A as presented. I move that we approve item 6A as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Nell and Mr. Schultz. There any questions or comments on item 6A. Okay. All those in favor

086of approving item 6A, please say I. >> All those opposed say nay. >> Motion carries 70. >> Thank you. We have items 7 A through 7 I under new business. Those include the regular approval items of supplemental contracts, field trips, and professional leaves, school fundraisers, as well as claims and payroll for the October 20th docket of just under two million or sorry, $1 million. the all of the September 2025 preruns of se just under 7.3 million and then the payroll that occurred between August 11th and September 7th of $3.98 million. >> I I believe that we want to pull out items E and I to be voted on separately um based on feedback I received. So just as people decide on the motions, make sure that we're doing So I move that we approve um

087items seven A through D, G and H >> oh and F. Sorry, A through D and F through H. >> I >> thank you, Mr. Glick. Um any questions or comments on items A through D or F through H? Okay. All those in favor of approving items 7 A through D and F through H, please say I. >> I'm just double checking something. >> Does this include the buses? Which one's the buses? >> Buses was item correct? Okay. So, on the buses, I did have one question on the buses. There was something that stood out. I mean, it's not >> We've already pulled that one out. If you want to wait, >> then we can talk about that resolution. >> The buses, just, you know, the buses technically are part of both item E and

088item I as they're part of the budget as well as would be paid for with proceeds from the GEO bond. for clarification. I'll reiterate requesting approval of items A through D, F, G, and H. >> So, there's a motion and a second. All those in favor of approving items 7 A through E and F or A through D, now me all wound up. 7 A through D and F through H. Please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. >> That was hard. >> Then I move that we approve item 7E 2026 budget resolution. >> Second. Any questions or comments on budget? >> I was going to ask for a refresher. This occurs to me. I think every year and I ask this question for clarification and we to the DGF for

089their approval form four that includes a maximum budget for the five tax supported funds includes education fund operations fund operating referendum fund and the two debt funds. So there's a maximum budget that the district cannot spend more in 2026 than that number that's approved unless we come back to the board for an additional appropriation which requires a public hearing. Uh it also includes a maximum property tax levy for each of those funds that the county then uses to collect property taxes and distribute it to distribute them to the district. And then based on those two items and the assessed value that the board doesn't have any control over, there is a maximum property tax rate that is attached and those are the essentially the 15 numbers that the board approves each year. Maximum budget maximum

090rate and maximum levy for the five tax funds. >> I have a open question maybe for Mr. MacGyver. I had turned in and it was approved I think last board meeting um a conflict of interest with regards to the purchase of budgets or buses. This budget includes I think a budget for buses but is not awarding any specific um awards to a an OEM or a powertrain solution etc. So I just want to ask if um it's appropriate for me to vote on this budget tonight. the the plan uh that's attached to your agenda that I reviewed is as you described it laying out number of buses uh intended to be purchased in each calendar year. I don't believe that would present a technical conflict because those buses could end up being manufactured by any

091given company with any given system in it. >> Thank you. >> Staying with the buses just a real quick hopefully simple question. Uh items four and five and six and seven all four have the same description the same DOE information but they have the first two have a price of 146 and the other to 126. I didn't know if there was if they were all 146, if they're all 126, or if the descriptions actually don't include differences there. There are differences between the two. I can't tell you off the top of the head what they all are, but there are there are spec differently between >> Is it possible that the difference is a lift, Dr. It's very possible. I didn't want to make that assumption. Uh but that that would make sense, but >>

092Okay. So, I believe we have a motion in the second. >> Question. I have a question. Well, I was waiting for the buses to close. Um on the 2026 budget, I know historically we've been very conservative as it comes to estimating interest revenue. Obviously, we don't want to count on something that we know may or may not come, and I think that's very wise. However, we've been very conservative. I mean, I think the closest we've came is 2 million favorable. We've had close to 8 million favorable in just recent prior three years. Have we ever looked at eararking these overruns as a contingency rather than putting them in interestbearing accounts that just build out that cash cash resource. >> So clarify your question. >> So like for example like right we've had multiple things come

093up. I believe one board member talked about the prek funding shortfall. I've talked about an inability to afford the food c expansion. We've had clear areas where we said we don't have the funds. But this budget represents again a likely interest overrun in terms of interest revenue. So have we ever looked at earmarking likely overruns versus just knowing that it's likely to go over and we're just going to put it into our cash reserves to collect more interest from it. >> We have not. No, we have not done that in the past. Essentially what it would be what you're describing the request would be to increase the maximum budget assuming that we may collect more in because the board approves that one that that high number the highest number we can spend from that fund.

094Well, we know it normally comes in the revenues come in above that, but we can't spend more. At least the revenues historically have always come in above that. >> The board can approve spending more both during this budget process or afterwards as part of an additional appropriation in either case. >> The board can authorize more to the extent that we have the cash to do so. So to earark you actually have to raise the the upper number essentially >> either during this process or later on in in an additional appropriation process even if the revenues come in higher than what we've estimated board still has to authorize that expenditure we have to submit it to the TLGF and they they approve it as long as the cash is available cash is not available they will

095not approve so every dollar in the budget has to have a purpose and that purpose cannot be to sit there for reserves at some point. It's got to come from an expense, a real expense. So if you end up with a reserve at the end of the year, it's because you either got more revenue or you found savings, but not because you budgeted for a reserve, right? You can budget to expend that reserve. The board can choose to budget to expend that reserve, but it has to be part of a budget adoption process. You would have to select state in another way. It has to be part of a budget and it has to be if you're doing an additional appropriation, you have to identify what the purpose of that is to the DLG. I

096think it would be wise interests has been a hot hotly debated topic on this board and I know it's been one I've discussed a lot in the community is the collection of cash reserves. I think it's what led to a lot of this cash reserve policy. I think if we're going to build on the reserves, I think it would be wise for the board and the administration in March to look at it. Where are we at one quarter through the year and say, "Okay, we're going to overshoot this likely by a million and a half," which it's the lowest that we've ever done it in the past five years, but maybe that's where it's at. How would we prioritize this? Because we've clearly said we don't have money for the prek shortfall from the state.

097We clearly said we don't have money to expand the food program to all the elementary schools. Uh we've seen book buddies come up here and not be funded with actual like they get some funding but like they they've said that they would do more if they had more funding. Um and then I I believe I think it was actually the public hearing dedicated to the CA collective bargaining but you had a lot of parents come up here for a summer band camp that was now not funded. I feel like we're we're misaligned in our priorities if we're going to not have a conversation about these interest revenue overruns that are likely I would say I bet my bet my paycheck on it that they're going to likely go over and say how do we look

098at this and how do we allocate this wisely rather than just building up the reserves. But I mean if we can take that as an ask I think it would be wise at the end of March to say we're one quarter through. If it runs, then let's have that discussion and say that gets us ahead of the 2026 2027 school year and say we've we said we're short on all these things rather than have a whole discussion about where we're short on revenue. Let's put some of that additional revenue that we don't see in our budget that's likely to come. See Dr. Phillips nodding. >> I am taking notes. >> I understand. I understand your request to look at that what our revenues are and we should know with more certainty in March than what

099we know today. Certainly what the rest of the year is going to look like. Some of that depends on whether or not we purchase Treasury. If we purchase Treasury, we can tell you almost to the penny what we're going to bring in interest. There's some other things that change throughout the course of the year, but this year is just a little bit unique in that additional revenues will actually just decrease the negative impact on the cash balance during 2026. Unless the revenues from other sources also exceed our expected and we at some point realize we may end the year in the in the black as opposed to in the red. Okay. Any other questions or comments on item E? It's good discussion. Okay. I think I have a motion and a second to approve item

1007E, resolution to adopt the 2026 budget. >> Yeah. Real quick, I do have one more thing. Um, I asked couple of questions. One of the questions was around the operations uh salary increase and I think that's like uh around 7%. Is that that's what I heard. So I heard we were not adding people but we were raising our salaries by 7%. 6.9 and I just wanted to highlight that Bureau of Labor Statistics for uh Indiana shows that uh 2.9 is a consumer price index. Um I also saw on uh on this Indiana chatter uh somebody sent me that there was a uh highlighted uh comments about um city council. And so the fire department, police department both got raises of about 3%. City employees 2.7%, city council 2.7%. And the mayor 2.7%. And uh I

101just I I still am not understanding how um the city looked at a 3% raise. We're paying teachers one and a half% more, but then we're going to give another group of people 7%. is that it that just doesn't feel I use I use the term equitable. That doesn't feel equitable um to have uh operations. Granted, there's lots of people doing lots of hard work. Not going to discount that at all, but they they're going to get a percentage-wise a 4.6 times greater raise than what their teaching counterparts are. How do we How do we justify that? >> So, sorry, Dr. Ros, I want to jump in there again. Uh, so we intend the the next board meeting as we usually do uh the meeting after the collective bargaining agreement has been approved, we bring

102to the board approval of classified staff and administrator increases for that same two-year period of time. Um, and what we have done for the last two contracts with classified staff is what we also intend to do this time, which is the average teacher percentage increase for that school year is what we will request for the July 1st of 2026 increase for classified staff. So that's one and a half percent. They last this past July 1st received an increase of 3% which was the average teacher increase for the 2425 school year. Prior to that it was actually eight uh 8.3%. That's what the average teacher increase was for the 23 24 school year. So um the the requested the the amount on the salary line for the fund does not just in uh reflect that one

103and a half% um classified staff members also receive an experience step if they are in their first 10 years with us. Um what we have seen thankfully um as a result of the actions of this board and the support of our community is in 2021 and in 2022 we made a dramatic changes to our classified staff pay. In June of 21, the board heard a request to increase classified staff pay by 9%. I think I heard Miss Wen refer to it earlier as the staffing crisis of of 21 and 22. So in 2021, Dr. Ple and myself did a presentation saying we need to uh dramatically address our classified staff salaries. I think at the time we were offering teaching assistance somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 an hour to start if they were in

104their first year and we were not getting applications for any positions. The board we increased that all the classified staff salaries in 21 in that July of 21 time frame. Then spent the next uh the better part of the next year really doing a deep dive position by position and presented that in June of 2022 and then the board took action on that. It was a more specific we found specific positions that were underpaid relative to their peers in other school districts. Those ranged from 6% increases up to 25% increases. Since that time, classified staff had gotten the same percentage increase as teachers have gotten in their contract on July 1st. Each of those following July 1. What we have seen is such a positive dramatic response to that that I think Dr. Boseman shared

105a week or two ago with us. Now, I'm going to throw some bad luck on this, but we have we have applications for custodians right now that don't have a position, and that's never never happened before. We have teaching assistants, bus drivers, custodians, technology employees that um have stayed with BCSE to the extent that they're advancing on that experience scale at a rate that we had not seen in the past. So we had a larger proportion of people in that year one column than you know three four years ago than what we have today. What that has done is of course increased the cost of employing the same number of people or in this case it's a lot more people than what it was three years ago because we were also using manpower a temporary

106agency to staff very large proportion of our custodians again today we have more so I said all that to say to obviously explain why that number is more than one and a half% or more than you know the average of that 3% and % it's because people are staying in their positions. They're not missing as many days. Uh obviously as a result of that, at least I believe it's a result of their commitment to BCSSE, the fact that BCSSE is committed to them that we were named in the Forbes best and best places to work just a few weeks ago. And I say we graciously myself in the same group of people who are employees of this district because um it's I think of looking over at Miss Ke right now at Mandy and think

107when she comes into her classroom and that same custodian has been there for three years cleaning her room and she's able to come into a room that's completely clean, she feels better about being a teacher in the district and she feels better about her relationship with the custodian who works here. He or she feels better about cleaning Miss Ke's room every every It's not a custodian who did a day shift over at Schmidt and then has to come and do the night shift at Southside in the evening because we don't have that position. It's not a temporary that keeps turning over. Same thing with our teaching assistants. You know, we have actually people apply and you fill an opening for a teaching assistant relatively quickly. It makes it a better place to work and all

108of that then translates to better outcomes for our students. So anyway, the that is more than just the explanation of number, but the number reflects that more people are applying, more people are filling and staying in those positions, and that just means that they're more. >> So, so a couple things. One, when I asked the question and got the answer, there was not the answer was not because of more people. It was because the salaries went up by that percent. Number two, I I absolutely don't have an issue again, right, with a custodian that's been here for five years. But if the custodian that's been here five years is getting a just call it a 7% because I don't know what the individual is getting. I know the group average is 7%. What about a

109teacher that's been here 15 years that's only going to get one and a half%. So I think that's for me where I'm struggling a little bit with this. The other thing on a budget that I have a big question on that I did not get answered is um our budget went down almost $6 million. I've not heard are we employing fewer people and what services are we no longer providing? So less money means we have either less people or we have less services. And I never got an answer to that. So, I'd like to understand a little bit about what it is that we're not going to provide to the community because we have less money. >> The couple of positions that we did not fill um that I could think of right now were

110um not a dramatic impact on the budget because one of them was 100% grant funded. The other one was filled with a less experienced teacher in a different position outside of the UDL coordinator position that had been there before. Outside of that, the most dramatic impact on the budget is that the board over the last couple of years because of our large cash balance had budgeted large capital expenditures that were time expenditures to draw down the balance without committing ourselves to a budget deficit. And so those were in place in the 2025 budget. They're not in place in the 2026 budget. So that 5.8 the largest proportion of it is the change in those in the capital expenditures. Dr. Boseman also dramatically reduced the capital expenditures. Usually the board over the last several years had

111put $2 million towards improvements like painting, carpet, uh just simple keeping your square footage up to date in your buildings clean and up to date. because we're putting so many millions of dollars into all of our elementaryaries when we're done finished with these projects. Reduce that amount from two million to under a half a million >> 450,000. So that's another 1.5 million. That doesn't impact programming. It means that that carpet might not get replaced for a couple of years until we get to that section of Mount Healthy or Taylor'sville, but it doesn't impact programming. Those are some of the things from Mr. Bneer's last presentation that I I think of right off the top of my head. Are there others, Dr. Boseman or Mr. Brener, that I'm not thinking of? But essentially, again, without there's

112no programs that have been eliminated. There's been one position that was 100% grant funed that was eliminated that was under the wellness umbrella and went around and did some drug prevention training and elementary training for elementary teachers around some of the uh wellness work in the district. That's the position that was not filled looking at Dr. I'm thinking I I don't want to I don't want to say that that's the only one and misspeak and have someone but that's those are UDL district UDL coordinator position is one that we shifted into a building in a different position at a lower rate of pay and then that other position that person left the district for another opportunity. We did not refill. Outside of those two, I cannot think of any programs or positions that have not

113been ones that we would intend to refill. if it were empty. At this point in time, again, we as a district as as the administrative team working with others in in Ca and others are looking for every opportunity to save for next school year. >> And I think I just want to come back to a point that Dr. Boseman made earlier. Tonight we are we are approving a budget which includes the um the bargaining unit output that we discussed earlier today. Next meeting we will look at the proposed um percentage salary increase for our operations and administrative staff and we will approve that separately in our next meeting because it always follows by one month and approval of um the teachers union contract. >> Yes, that's correct. Classified uh which a lot of those are

114operations but classified. Yes. >> Okay. >> So the 7% is that tonight or next time? >> The the full budget you're voting on is tonight and then next time will be the proposal for classified administrators special contracts. >> And we are approving a max rate, a max budget, and a max levy for those five categories that were presented to us in our board packet. >> That's correct. >> Not individual lines necessarily, but those maximums not to exceed. Okay. Any other questions or comments on item 7E 2026 budget? >> I just I just want to follow up on one thing. Uh Dr. Phillips, if we can get I had a similar question. I know we talked right before the meeting about the 6.9%. If we could just get with the next meeting, right? Let's not double

115work. You're going to get the stuff or the classified staff, but on the stuff that we can't see, right? We only approve the ones that have a contract year round. So, right, you're also going to say, it would be great to be able to say, here is the totality of the 1.5 for all classified staff on a one-year contract, administrator positions, whatnot. Here's the total amount that we're giving additional step increases because it sounds like you're talking about there's there's three there's three elements to the 6.9%. There's the one and a half that you're giving. There's the steps that are on this 10 10step solution that we have that I wasn't aware of prior and then you had vacancies that because we're using real run rate budgets not total budgets and total spend that there's

116a vacancy assumption that wasn't known to at least wasn't known to me prior to this vote. Um, so I think if we had all three of those, it would be much easier to explain because if the increase is 1.5, which is what I believe it to be now, then the other two are easy bridges to explain to the 6.9%. >> Yeah, I'm struggling a lot tonight just because I don't think that anything's been described to us in that level of clarity. I know I'd asked a couple of times to have a special meeting. I know we had a meeting for for policies, but we couldn't have a meeting for this at the level of detail that would have described that so that we could walk in here tonight and understand it better. Right? And so

117if if that's the case, I will be much more likely to vote yes tonight than what I had when I arrived, which was just seeing somebody getting 7% and teachers getting one and a half. And all I've heard for the last every conversation I've had is teachers don't get paid enough. And you know, I understand the state only has so much money yet they have an overrun. But um the state only has so much money and one and a half is where we land. So that's why to me it didn't seem fair. But if that's if that's how it is, then I'll be more likely to vote yes. Are there any other questions or comments tonight before we vote on item 7E, resolution to adopt 2026 budget? >> Okay. All those in favor of approving

118item 7E, resolution to adopt 2026 budget, please say I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. Budget passes 70. >> Thank you. Uh and then last request approval of item 7 I. These are additional resolutions. It's a two meeting process to adopt bonds. So last board meeting we voted on the first step. This is the the same item or similar items requesting approval for item 7 I for 2025 geo bonds. >> I move that we approve item 7 I geo bonds final resolutions. >> Second. >> Thank you Mr. Nell and Mr. Glick. Are there any questions or comments on item 7 I? >> Okay. All those in favor of approving item 7 I go bond final resolution please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed please say nay. >> Nay. >> Motion carried 52.

119Um the two were Mr. Schultz and Mr. Glick or Nays. Evening. Thank you. Um, the human resources recommendations consist of one resignation, two appointments, and six leaves of absence. There are no additional personnel recommendations this evening. I request that you please approve items 8A and B as presented. I move that we approve items 8 A and B at this time. >> Thank you, Mr. Glick and Mr. Major. Are there any questions for Dr. Stalbomb? >> Okay. All those in favor of approving items 8, A, and B as presented, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. Motion carries 70. board input and review. Miss Lloyd, can I start with you, please? >> Sure. Uh, I don't have a lot. Just thanks to the teachers and principles and staff that were here

120tonight to go over the Envision 2030 project. It's really nice um that they are participating at the level they are, even though I know their time is is uh, you know, not of the essence. So, thanks to them and uh just thinking about the students and staff that were involved in today's accident. Sending them well wishes. >> So, you all got to hear some good news today about the health trust and I just wanted to make sure that uh being on the health trust, I wanted to recognize some people. So, uh the team worked really hard to keep the premium increase as low as possible without not without compromising uh any of the benefits that would be received. Uh takes a lot of work to do that. You have to look at a lot of

121scenarios and there's a lot of discussion that takes place and so luckily uh we were able to be at zero. I can tell you from my experience my work was up 3 to 4% for interest uh premiums for next year. So not everywhere is going to be as lucky as we are. And I wanted to make sure that I recognized Mr. Green, Mr. Schae, Mrs. London, Mrs. along with myself on the trust and then also supporting cast of Dr. Boseman, Mr. Brener, Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Dman and the team that supports us from JA benefits. I think they um they're they're kind of the unsung heroes of this because they've done a lot from a data analytics perspective to work with some different groups to try and find the best uh the best path forward

122for us to end up at zero and And the last piece that also helps us significantly is Dr. Klein and the nurses at the clinic. So I want to thank all of them for all the work they've done. And if you uh are a uh insurance user, uh if you see any of those people, please tell them thank you for their work. Uh it's very much appreciated. Thank you. Thank the board for uh their endorsement of the collective bargaining agreement this evening. Was an honor to represent the board as part of that process. The folks in the room there's there's an old saw that you know it's a good compromise if nobody's happy with the final decision. I think that's a really bad thing to say and it does not apply in this instance. In

123this instance, we were able to put students first direct money to the most important places and representatives of the Columbus Educators Association, representatives of ECS came to a good decision. So, thank you and thank them very much. >> Um, I have a couple of things I wanted to point out. on October 22nd. So this Wednesday, we are going to have the groundbreaking for the new elementary school. It's at 3:30. So I encourage people that have been balling in Vision 2030 to to head out there and and go to that. Um I think this weekend we have North Boys doubles in tennis um playing for state championship. So I want to recognize Teddy Litrol and Vince Sass. Um Allison Meyer, who is a STEM teacher in our corporation, is um one of lots of people coordinating

124and and supporting the Girl Up event this coming Friday at North High School. So, this is where I think there's about 140 girls that are enrolled to go do an evening of STEM fun. They do cooking, they do building, they do graphics, they do all kinds of things. It's um very energizing. So, um, thank you for all of the work that's going into that. And then my heart just goes out to our bus driver tonight. Just think about what that one adult on the bus with all of those kids in an accident was was kind of going through and they have a really tough job. So, my heart goes out to them. I hope they get some good rest um and an easier day tomorrow for sure. >> I want to thank Mr. and the

125administration representatives and the Columbus Educator Association representatives for the hard work and time they put into coming up with a collective bargaining agreement. I I know besides the financial constraints um over the years, the state has put on time constraints and and it's I just appreciate how much you got done in the time that you had to do it. So, thank you for that. Um, also another place that really came out tonight where where we have um CA and teachers and administrators working together is um is the the designs for the updated schools. Um, Mr. Sten and I happened to do our um our Mount Healthy visit when Miss Keel and Dr. Boseman were doing their initial information gathering from the teachers and I I just it really encourages me to see um in this

126corporation while we don't always necessarily agree um but to see that the administration and the teachers working together on important things like that and and I also have to say we have some challenging buildings but at the top of that list is Mounty and I am excited to see how it looks like the and took care of the things that we heard at that meeting and I'm sure came up at other meetings that that teachers have worked hard to overcome the situation they're in and I think this will help them to actually improve the situation. >> Thank you Mrs. Wen for the call on tennis. I'm lacking on the smaller sports especially after the last two weeks of sleeping on a cot in my office washing a dryer throughout the entire night. Um, one call

127out I'd like to give to Columbus East Wrestling Coach Cooper. Chris was inducted last week into the Indiana High School Wrestling Coach Association Hall of Fame for all of his endeavors and successes over the last 23ish years. I believe I think my sophomore year was his first year there and uh he's done nothing but build that program to be a powerhouse in the state. Uh led him the first state championship duel wise and led us to multiple state champions for Columbus East and they're this year pending injuries and recovery should be a really fun year to watch for East and North doesn't have some bad wrestlers either. They're be pretty competitive as well. And final call out for East Wrestling, Chris posted 21 wrestlers on his team carried an A minus or better GPA through

128the first nine weeks, uh, which he's pretty well known for a lot of academic all state guys as well. Um, football sectionals is coming up. It starts this week. North and East both have by weeks and so they get nice little welcome break. East doesn't know who they're going to play. Probably going to be Whitland if I had a guess, but and that will be next Friday and then North will play Franklin Central at Franklin Central next week as well. Uh unfortunately soccer-wise, uh had really tough draw. It's a really tough sections. Nationally ranked teams in their sectionals and uh went toe-to-toe north competed very well and uh came up short. Uh and since you walked in back in, Jean had a little thought when we were looking through the the east renovations for anybody

129who's shown livestock in and in 4 or anywhere else since the A and cosmetology is going to be in same world. Maybe a little collaboration with pet grooming standards or or animal science there with cosmetology and a just food for thought. So want to welcome everybody back from a fall break. I hope everybody's well rested. I know my kids were jumping to get up at 6:30 this morning for the bus. Uh so it was nice for to see Miss Pat and my thoughts are with every bus driver right now, especially given that to be with all those kids. Um, I also want to thank the cso and the design teams and Dr. Boseman. I think it says a lot for the school corporation that we have prioritized the title one schools that we've prioritized the

130county schools that typically would get I mean I I remember coming from Taylor'sville and last one to get a playground upgrade, last one to get this upgrade. I don't think Taylorville's honestly been touched in the past 20 years outside of the expansion in the late 90s. There's been a couple cosmetic changes here and there, but it's it's great to see that BCSC is prioritizing those schools uh first and I think they definitely needed it. Um and I appreciate Dr. Boseman taking my feedback on not healthy and Taylor'sville and others. It's been I mean you've been an open door and being able to provide feedback. So I appreciate that and your team. Um I also want to thank a local group uh who's your action. They know a few of us uh from the board and

131the administration with some local on their feelings about education and educational issues. So, it was good to be able to get their perspectives on it as well. So, thanks for that group for coordinating that. >> Miss Wheel, I just want to add congratulations to all the staff and everyone for a successful first quarter. First quarter is over and uh every time we have a break and we come back, I'm thankful when everyone comes back safely and we have everyone back in school on Monday. So, it was a safe ball break following a successful first. >> Okay. Schedule coming up. We have um a special board meeting on October 29th at 5:00 um in the terrace room. It's this room. Then following that, we will have an executive session. So, that will be up in the

132boardroom and that will not be open to the public. Um, and on November 17th, we will have our next regular board meeting here in the terrace room. And don't forget Wednesday once again. All right. Thank you all. Have a great night.