001I have thumbs up from everyone. I see Josh. Nick, are we good? Good. Okay, good. All right, welcome everyone to our school board meeting. For those that are able, would you please rise for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands nationy for all. Okay, we have six of the seven board members here tonight, which is a quorum. Mr. Glick sends his regrets. I will call a meeting to order. Dr. Phillips. Thank you, Miss Wen. We'd like to start each meeting by reminding everyone, including ourselves, of our vision, vision, mission, and core beliefs. BCSC's vision is to be the choice to learn, work, and play. Our mission is to develop expert learners by partnering with our community to invest in people. And our core believes beliefs
002are that we all can rise to the challenge of high expectations. That learning is most effective when we have choice, flexibility, and see relevance. That we thrive when our physical, social, and psychological needs are met. That our community and school district are stronger when we partner with one another. that we flourish because of the diversity and variability in our community. And last, that our democracy and democratic institutions are strengthened by civic-minded citizens. And Miss Wilin, if I could just take one moment, I I hate that this is feels like it's probably the several board meetings in a row that this has happened, but we had another active BCSSE um staff member who passed away after the not long after the last board meeting, just a few days. And so I'd like to ask each of
003you just to take a moment of silence and reflection to remember Miss Angie Hadex. Angie was a custodian uh for us for over 10 years, the last several at Smith Elementary School. She passed away uh unexpectedly back u in late July after our last meeting. So, please take a moment with me to uh send thoughts and prayers to her family and colleagues at Smith. Thank you. >> Okay, I believe we have several recognitions um for this evening. We'd like to start with state track and field podium finish for Columbus North High School. Hello. >> Good afternoon, everyone. Uh, thank you for allowing us to to be here tonight to recognize our state runners up. Um, these guys have done a great job since I've been here. Rick does a really good job of pushing our
004kids to make them better as young men, but also great as runners. Um, one of the things that we pride oursel in is making sure like our kids are comfortable with our coaches to make sure like they have everything that they need to be successful not only on the field but off the field. I'll let coach Rick say some words. >> Thank you, Brian. Thank you to the school board and and superintendent for having us again tonight. Um, we had a great state series. We won our first boys and girls sectional in several years. We won them both combined. And then this group in the 4x8 made it to the state finals and ran the 24th fastest time in the country, finished third place um just a couple seconds off our school record. Uh so
005they were third. And then Jace standing there in the end. Jace, wave real quick. Jace was also runner up in the 800. So he was the runner up in the state finals in the 800. And then we had two other medalists that are one is on her way to Butler as we speak. So, uh, Caris Glenn Jones couldn't make it tonight, but she she meddled in the 800 and just missed her school record again. And then, um, Emerson Chambers, um, is a soccer player, so she's at soccer, uh, somewhere in transition right now. So, she was also a medalist, uh, finished eighth in the 100 meter hurdles. So, we had a great representation, uh, scored a lot of points at the state meet. So, very proud to represent BCSSC and then Columbus North High School.
006So, thank you for having us again tonight. Congratulations. [Applause] >> Up front or over by That's okay. We're gonna go like this. We're back here. We're right behind you. We all love you. Nice job. Okay, I think next we have Columbus North High School girls tennis. Yeah. Next we have uh Coach Kendall. Um Coach Kendall has been here for quite some time and um that's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. But uh Coach Kendall does a really good job with our kids. Um he's very patient. Um he has a a lot of knowledge of the game which definitely gives our kids an advantage of the teams that we play against. Um, he's been around, like I say, for some time, but at the same time, he has a young spirit, and our kids
007get the the best part of him of who he is every single day. Um, I'll let Kendall say some words. >> Thank you, Brian. Thank you, everybody. Appreciate the board and superintendent being here tonight and inviting us. Um, interesting story. Doubles team, Nino Akallayia, who is here, she is a senior this year. Her partner was Annabelle's son who was a senior last year and she's at Georgia Tech so she was not able to be here. This was a team that was really sort of unexpected. Uh Nino did not play the year before because of a major knee surgery and Annabelle's son wasn't sure if she was even going to play her senior year because of a lot of injuries that she was going through. So between the two of them, we decided to put them
008together at the number one spot and see how things worked out. Uh overall their year they were 18 and six for the season. Uh a little bit about the funny but could have been a sad story too. As we were playing the team semi-state finals and losing and we knew we weren't going to get through to the next round all of a sudden it hit their their minds that uh oh they get to move on to the state final individuals. Well there was a problem. Their family had scheduled a trip back in December to go to the country of Georgia and they had not been there for 25 years. They were going back to visiting their family and uh they were going to leave a few days right after the semi-states before we were able
009to even play. So there was a lot of decision making, tears, crying, yelling, screaming, mom and dad on the phone trying to change possible uh flights. They actually flew to Georgia. They came back a couple days later so she could participate in the state tournament and then after the state tournament, they flew back to Georgia again. So, it was a long trip and a long time, but they did not regret a thing. They loved everything about it and we were very appreciative of what they did. They did win their first round at the state tournament and then lost in the second round at the semi-states to a team who was undefeated. a very good team, but we were very proud of what this team did and for all that they went through to get to
010that point and to be in there and get that experience. Uh, thank you again everybody for having us tonight and congratulations again to Nino and for them for what they did. [Applause] Can I ask one Is that mom right there? >> Yes. >> Mom, would you be in the picture? Mother of the year for to going through back and forth. I would love to have a picture for you. I think you deserve a story. >> Thank you. Yes, of course. student athletes because just one more thing for our our student athletes. I just want to say I personally appreciate everything that you guys do because it's not easy for you guys to get up every single day, go to class, go to practice afterwards. You have to go home, do homework. A lot of that
011takes discipline, dedication, and commitment. I personally want to say I appreciate everything that you guys do. Thank you. >> Thank you for saying that, Mr. Lewis. Um, I was just thinking about how I saw Coach Kindle the other morning. It was probably 6:45 in the morning or something like that. um out there by himself squeegeeing the water off of the the tennis courts in the morning to get ready for the the kids to come out there and start practicing at that clinic. And then when I left North later that day, there were 80 kids out there practicing with them. But it's not always um you know, these kids are proof. It's not always the the moments of glory when you get that ribbon put around your head. Excellence can sometimes be tedious and can sometimes
012be boring and choosing to do those hard things on a daytoday, minute-by-minute basis. So, congratulations again to all of you. Um, and I'm going to speak from this side of the podium um tonight. Um, Julie Q. Smith, would you please come on up here and bring your uh school resource officer team with you? Come on up for us. They were looking at each other earlier wondering, are we gonna have to take a picture, too? I know that that's what you were talking about over there. >> Um, we want to take a a moment here to recognize two things. We were lucky the from a timing perspective, um, that uh, the same year that Sergeant Julie Q. Smith is retiring from CPD and leaving us as an SRO. Uh her and her team were recognized at
013the National Association of School Resource Officers for the model agency. Um, and I already I said a couple of these things the other day um on Friday during Julie's last day with CPD, but I I cannot think of a better description than model agency than this group of people and the way that they have built this program. And because he's here again tonight, I'm going to say it. Just in the last month or so, um, two folks have left left us. Josh over there built our communications and marketing and social media and YouTube channels um from nothing. He started that program and brought it to where it is. Um Julie and her team also uh Sergeant Stevens now um taking over uh two original SRO's 11 12 years ago 11 years ago started this program
014that didn't exist. Um I was I was uh probably this is six or seven months ago. I was at dinner with a friend whose husband uh is also a retired um retired police officer and he had been a school resource officer in two different districts and described them both as very difficult situations. In one of those districts um they did not want the officers to interact with students at all. um they did not want the officers to um you know have badges on to identify that they were police officers. And then in the other district that he went to, they were on the other extreme end of that spectrum and wanted um you know wanted them to arrest students for the most minor of infractions. this team under Julie's leadership from day one. Um, and
015thanks to our relationships with both the city and CPD as well as the county and the sheriff's department, this team built exactly what a school resource officer program should be like. And I'll give one example. Um, I already embarrassed him earlier, but I'll give one example of this. just last Monday during the open house night as I went around to all the open houses. Um, Officer Sims at Central Middle School, um, first of all, he was right in the main lobby when I got there and I saw him interacting with folks. Then I started walking around the building and it came around the corner probably 10 or 15 minutes later and um, I could hear a whole group of people laughing and I came around the corner. It was because um, Officer Sims was giving
016one of the students he knew from last year a hard time and his whole family was laughing about it. They were all including the student student was laughing too. It was friendly friendly uh giving I think there was some giving each other a hard time between the student and him. But I thought to myself at that moment um there is no better you know kind of encapsulation of what our school re officer off school resource officer program has done for our students, our schools and our relationship um between the police and our our students and families. So said all that to say, um, thank you to Julie and thanks to each of you for your service to our district and our students. Um, congratulations to Julie on her retirement. And um, I'm going to introduce
017actually I'll let Julie introduce the the team or maybe um, you know, maybe Officer Stevens and then turn it over to him. You don't you don't have to at this point. You're in your your civilian clothing. But um if you could please join me in thanking Julie for her um service to our community and our students in this SRO program. Thank you. Thank you all so much. That has been the honor of my career to be entrusted with taking care of our most freshest demographic. I keep I say that I've said a million times in my career to take care of our kids and to have this community's trust to do that has meant everything to me and I'm going to take that with me in my next role. Um before I get too sappy,
018uh I want to uh just tell you all thank you for um this this program. It's 11 years old now and it's hard to believe. It started with two of us and now there's six. And these guys and gal are exactly who they say that they are. They are relationship builder extraordinaires and they are ready to stand watch and protect our kids in a moment's notice. And that's a delicate dance in a police officer to find an officer that's able to do those things in a moment's notice. And that's who you have protecting the kids and staff of our district. And that's why this team was deserving of such an award. Only seven agencies in the country got it. And these guys, if you'll join me in just thanking them for what they do in
019both the scene and the unseen. They're the real deal. Thank you guys. Would you like to introduce the team, Sergeant Stevens? >> Yeah. Here's the tough part. There. There goes the legend. And here I come. So, I'm not Julie, but I'll do the best I can. But yeah, we've got a great crew. Um, and we'll go with the new folks first if we can. Um, Anthony Bagby come on up here from the sheriff's department. He's one of our new guys. is uh he's going to be based out of Southside Elementary School. That's where his office is. Got Liz Moore. She's based out of North Side Middle School. That's where her office is. And we've got Andrew Plank from CPD and he's taken over my role at North High School. So maybe they'll finally get to
020see what a uh an SRO is supposed to do in there, won't they, David? Um and then we've got of course been around for a while, Bernard Sims, most office at Central. and then Eric Capsinski, Officer Cap, the legend at East High School. So anyway, but yeah, we're we're proud to be here. We're proud to do anything we can. So, thank you very much. [Applause] Thank you. >> Good luck. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] Okay, I believe next we have BCSC teacher of the year. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you today about an influential educator and their impact on students at Columbus North and Columbus East high schools. This particular educator, advance the slides here. Here we go. is well-versed in building a family-like atmosphere in their classroom where students experience
021a sense of belonging as they become immersed in the messy imperfect yet beautiful world of language acquisition. When students step into Amelia Shaw's German classroom, they not only receive world language instruction from a highly decorated educator, they also receive learning in context of their daily lived experiences. In Amelia's district teacher of the year application, a universal design for learning lesson was described in which students explore decisionmaking in high school such as which university do I choose after graduation? How do I determine my major after choosing a university to attend? And what are the pros and cons of one choice over another as my academic career evolves? These are real questions for students to grapple with. And in this lesson described, Amelia uses that context to create a meaningful space for students to engage in these
022conversations only using the German language with proper grammar and syntax. In Amelia's words, when the language is personalized to the students, they are engaged in listening for understanding and the magic of language learning happens naturally. Amelia's influence extends from the classroom to the community as she has designed and implemented a world language culture fair for several years at Columbus East High School after collaborating with colleagues from Columbus North High School, bridging the world language departments and establishing department unity for students throughout the corporation. Our elementary students benefit from attending the World Language Culture Fair as well, strengthening the pipeline of multilingual graduates. Serving as a member of the Legato Curriculum Adoption Team, German Club sponsor, guest lecturer at the university level, and the Luna Sister City Exchange organizer. It is clear that Amelia cares deeply
023about the world language experience that students receive at BCSC. We are grateful for her expertise and echo the parent of a current student who states, "She cares about our students as individuals and encourages their strengths." Fra Shaw ensures that students do more than memorize words and phrases. They leave her classroom with an appreciation of culture and a desire to continue learning. It is a complete honor to recognize Amelia Shaw as BCSC's 2025 teacher of the year. Amelia graciously allowed Wesley Anderson, who's BCSC's new communications coordinator, Josh Bernett, was uh kind enough to come work side by side with Wesley today. She led us into her classroom the first day of school in order to videotape and ask a few questions of some of our veteran students. So, I'd like to play this a video that
024uh Wes created to honor Amelia. Hi, I am Dr. Aaron Stalbomb, assistant superintendent for human resources at Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation. For the past several years, we have been proud to recognize an excellent and engaged staff. That includes the selection of the district teacher of the year. I am honored to announce that Amelia Shaw, German teacher at both Columbus North and Columbus East high schools, has been selected as the 2025 BCSC teacher of the year. >> Vasista Numar Alfto. I had a love of German which began actually in BCSC. I had a really great German teacher, Ruth Muslami. Coming back and teaching at my old high school was a very surreal experience to begin with. It was hard for me to call co-workers by their first name. I still can't do that for some of
025them. The lessons that I learned at North have made me the person who I am today. This is a place where I learned that I can do difficult things and that's a life lesson that has really shaped my whole personality. So good. Okay. >> Being chosen as teacher of the year has been very overwhelming. I work with a lot of great educators and I truly it wasn't even on my radar. Was not expecting to win. So I just feel really honored and I'm excited to showcase what my students do in class every day this year. So Fra Shaw stands out for like I think a lot of reasons. She's definitely probably my favorite teacher. She just she teaches in a way that's very engaging. I think the best teachers are the ones who >> do
026their best to connect with the students on a personal level as much as they can. You know, they are real with the students. For me, the most rewarding part of being a teacher are the relationships that I build with my students. I actually truly look forward to coming into my classroom, hanging out with them, and learning German while we're talking. everybody who's in the German classes like she's, you know, just gushes on and on about how she's such a good teacher. She makes it fun while teaching you this lesson. She just makes everything make sense in a way that's um not stressful. >> When someone tells me that I have a lasting impact on students, it's the highest compliment that I could be paid. The students are the most important thing to me. They're the
027reason I come to work every day. And I truly I love each one of my students. And I think that that seeing them succeed when they thought that they couldn't is gives my gives my work meaning. >> My favorite thing about German is probably just like the memories you get to make. There's so many fun things and like all of those memories have are sort of foundational and I think have changed the way I look at the world really. Um, and I'm going to carry that with me forever, you know. [Applause] Don't worry, I won't do the rest of the speech like that. But if you are a little rusty on your German, you might want to pop into our classroom sometime. My students would love to have some visitors. It really is an honor
028and I still feel overwhelmed even after having thought about this for a week having been named teacher of the year. I think more than anyone else here I can say from personal experience that we have amazing staff in BCSSC. I have the perspective of being a former student now being a co-orker and colleague and also as a parent to two BCSSE kids. So being chosen for this is really overwhelming. From the moment I walked into Jan Lukan's kindergarten classroom at Mount Healthy Elementary many years ago, I was surrounded by adults who cared about me. They got me through some really tough times in my life, namely middle school, if you remember that. Um, and I was honored to be or I got to be in classes of two other former teachers of the year, Derek
029Chastain and Mindy Summers there. So, I was taught by the best. I went to North High School where I really learned began to learn who I was as a person. I credit Rick Weinheimer, my cross country coach and senior English teacher, with teaching me what it meant to follow through on goals and to do really uncomfortable things that other people wouldn't do or couldn't do. and also Ruth Muslami, my German teacher, who just opened up my eyes to the world outside of Columbus and helped me just to keep in mind that you need to dream big. So, those two life lessons have got me here. Um, being a teacher was a career path that felt familiar to me and seemed like a good option to get to spend summers with my family. I quickly realized
030that that was not reason enough to stay in this challenging um profession. And during COVID, I remember going through some some really tough times and wondering and doubting if this was the career that I was supposed to be sticking with. Looking back on those tough times, I'm glad that I stuck it out. I have to thank my husband for his support. The long nights of grad school and always knowing I'm going to be prepping for school and the the line item of students classroom and our personal budget. Thank you, honey. And also for the administrators I have at North and East High School. They do all this behind thescenes work so that us teachers can close our classroom doors and have fun learning with our students. and the relationships are what have made this job
031so worthwhile and the reason that I've stuck through it. It really is an honor to be here accepting the award. But I will say that it doesn't even come close to the the memories I have with my students. Whether that is our entire class crying tears of laughter because of some funny joke the kid just said in German or having a kid who I overhear the the leader in our class who makes everyone laugh who is always you know there for others and saying I'm only popular in German class. The rest of the day no one really talks to me. And so things like that make me realize that what we're doing in our everyday classrooms, it's the little things that really are having an impact on our students. Thank you. It's a real honor
032to be here tonight. [Applause] So Ameilia's gonna come shake hands and then we will have BCSF come present to Amelia. Thank you. Thank you, BCSF. Sorry. Perfect. [Applause] As if uh Amelia was not receiving enough honors and and had to prepare for tonight, she's also going to be providing the presentation over Luna, Germany. So, I'll hand it over to Amelia. >> Hi everyone. Thank you so much. And I'm excited to tell you just briefly about the amazing opportunities that we have at BCSC. This sets us apart from other school corporations in the area because we do offer so much and we think it's even more important now in today's global economy that we provide these opportunities to our students. So we have a lot of options, five languages. We're really proud of that. And like
033I said, that's something that brings people into our district and it's a great opportunity for all students. We have a lot of um opportunities at the upper levels as well. So, we have very high expectations. Yes, it has to be fun and we're using the language every day, but we also want to see success academically and that shows through test scores and the amount of dual credit that our students are earning in the high schools. And we think that is providing setting them up for university and their futures. Something that we offer that's really unique are all of these travel opportunities. Um Costa Rica for Spanish classes. Paris and Madrid was joint with the French and Spanish classes a few years ago. Um we have students who travel to China, um Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand. We
034have a great new Chinese teacher and Japan as well. Um, our Japanese program is special because they also have a sister city, Moshi, and that's something that a lot of school corporations do not have. We're very proud of this. They've been partnering since 2004, and these relationships run deep throughout the community. We send ambassadors there um regularly as well. Uh Germany is the one I most familiar with and this is another special program because we have a sister city with Lorena which is in the heart of of Germany right in the middle. This is where many people can trace their family heritage in the Columbus area directly back to this area and that's how the partnership actually formed way back in 2003. So Art Schwank, a former German teacher at North um and involved in
035the Clifty Creek Lutheran Church community, they made the connection with people in Lerna. And ever since then, we've been sending groups of students back and forth. This is the program that takes so much time and effort, but it's just so worth it to see the students who get to participate. Every two years we send our students to Lona and they stay with host families and that's 16 students who went in 2024. But just as important and probably has a bigger impact on our community is the fact that we bring and host students from learn it in BCSSE homes. And so that means that even if I have a student who is financially never going to make it out of this country, they get to have the same experience. And that is really powerful. I had
036a student who he's probably never gonna leave Columbus and he said to me after these students were in my classroom. He said, "So if I had born in Germany, would my parents have spoken German to me as a baby?" And I said, "Yes." And he and the the look on his face was priceless because that was that was something that had never crossed his mind. We are opening up. We're just broadening our students horizons. No matter if they're going to stay here and work in a factory or they're going to go be a translator someday, it doesn't matter. That's an important life lesson that's making us all better global citizens. Um, we do a lot of cool activities. They love seeing our C4 program that we have ties with the mayor's office. They always get
037to go visit. So, these connections that we're building, they are important for our students and they're having a really big impact. We really appreciate your support and we hope that this program is around for another 35 years. So, thank [Applause] questions. >> Thank you, Miss Shaw, and your family. Congratulations. >> Okay. Uh, next, I believe we have school board member reports. Um, Miss Lloyd, would you like to start, please? >> Sure. Good evening. Um I uh have met with or spoken with um my committees at least once over the last month. Uh Council for Youth Development, I think the most important thing to share tonight is they are uh entering into a great partnership with Foundation for Youth and Healthy Communities and Mental Health Matters. Um you'll be seeing some marketing material go out in
038the community, but they're offering a tremendous community workshop series um that's coming up um on adverse childhood experiences um developmental relationships and mental health first aid for both youth and adults. And most importantly, these are all free. So great resources for our families, um teachers and students. You can get more of that information at cydtholomew.org. Um I'd also be happy to answer any questions. Um BCSF the foundation met um at the end of July uh had a great meeting. Um thank you to DeepD for being here tonight and for awarding Mich some hard-earned dollars. Um we are still working on our annual campaign. Um lots of generous gifts coming in from the community. So thank you to those who have um sent in an annual contribution. It is um going to good use. Uh we
039recently gave 10 teachers uh innovation grants. So, those dollars are at work and we are so excited to see um teachers put that in action. There also a few upcoming fundraisers that you'll also start to see in the BCS news. So, um BCSC news, the Pacer ticket sale will be happening again for students. Um that's really a great fundraiser for um the foundation and the schools and a kind of a fun thing for the kids to do, too. Um it beats the the wrapping paper that I had to sell back in the day. So, um, kudos to to that idea. Also, the Wizards game is coming up, so I'll be sure to to bring that information as well. Um, but I think most importantly tonight, I want to thank Dale, um, as a BCSF member,
040um, for going on the trail and raising dollars for the foundation and raising awareness about BCSF. Um, it it got a lot of got a lot of traction through the awareness deal. So, thank you very much, [Applause] city redevelopment. There's nothing new. We should have another meeting uh next week, I believe, the week after. Uh health trust, we're going to have a couple more meetings, I think, in the next month or so. Uh we're getting really close to locking in next year's premiums and all that. Uh we also have noted that uh there's really good usage of services. So, we've got a lot of members that are taking advantage of uh Dr. decline at uh over at Nexus Park and uh hope to see the the uh we can do our best to keep the
041premiums either flat or as low as possible. So >> no reports this evening. Um my only report is that as the board president's normally my position to sit on the bargaining team for our union um bargaining process that will start with a public input session on September 8th. So I you know expect and would love for people to come and share their their thoughts there. Um it starts on the 17th of of September. Um, I've recently taken a new role in my day job and my schedule has changed without my input because I'm new and uh, so I am no longer able to serve in that capacity on September 17th and I have asked Rich and he has accepted to represent the board in that meeting. So that's my only report today. I met a
042week ago with the legislative committee to start the process of establishing ISBA's legislative priorities. Seems like we just finished the legislative session and those will be presented at the fall conference. Uh, no, no reports here. CCIC meets on Wednesday and I believe the Hall of Fame is later in the fall. >> I think believe next we have Mr. Brnegger. >> Good evening. Thank you for having me this evening for your quarter 2 financial update. First thing we look at every time is our revenues comparing our education fund, operations fund, and operating referendum funds. This year's revenues compared to last year, education fund is a little over 1% higher than last year. Um that's going to be as a direct result of our basic grant and ADM numbers. Our operations fund is down just about 2%.
043Um and that was planned. We didn't do the transfer as high as we've done the last few years from education to operations and that's where the difference is in that reduction. And then in the operating referendum, it is up about 5% and that's directly tied to property tax uh revenue. All three funds are on track to exceed what we had uh budgeted for the year for revenues for each of those funds. our education fund expenditures in the salary area. We're up just a little over 5%. Um that's mostly related to the salary increase that was um a part of the 25 budget as well as the additional uh cohort positions that were added. Benefits are up just a little over 7%. The reason they're a little bit higher than the salaries is there was an
044increase in the turf percentage for 2025. And other expenditures are up about 4% and uh those are in a professional services area where those expenses are up. And again, the transfers to operations are down 6.8%. Again, that was planned as part of the 25 budget process. >> Mr. Burer, I'm just gonna I'm gonna butt in there. I can't help it. Um I apologize. This turf in this context is teacher retirement fund, not not green grass kind of turf. >> My mistake. Sorry. >> No, not your mistake at all. >> Thank you. >> Trust me, coming from munis municipal world to the uh education world, it took me a couple months to get turf straight because I was thinking along those lines every time. Um operations fund expenditures. Uh in the salaries, we are actually up
045about 13%. Uh part of that is the raises that were included. Another part of that, a big chunk of that is we are fully staffed within our custodial area. And you'll notice a a similar reduction in our other services expenditures because we are not contracting out for those positions. Um and our benefits are up about um 5%. in operating referendum. Uh the teacher salaries as part of the referendum are up 4%. Support salaries are up a little over 4%. Again, benefits are up a little higher than that at the 6 and a half%. Again, can be tied to the increase in the teacher retirement fund up percentage. Um safety and security is up 20% in expenditures. That is just timing of when we were invoiced from the city and the county for the services they
046provide for our SRO's. And our STEM labs are up about um $30,000 over last year. And this is the one that Mr. Major has been waiting for. I know it because he asked me last time to provide you um a little bit of comparison when we talked about the cash reserve policy that you will be voting on a little bit later. how how have we been doing in that area over the last few years? This is quarter two only and it's the operating um expenditures versus um our cash balances. And when we say operating, that's our education fund, the operations fund, and our operating referendum fund. And then versus what was budgeted in those three for the year. Back in 2022, we had about a 26% reserve level at the end of quarter two. Remember,
047also at the end of quarter two, that's after we've received our property tax payment from the state and county. So, this is uh end of quarter 2, end of quarter 4 are our highest reserve levels when we've received those funds. So back in 2022, we were at 26% went down to 24% in 2023, 19% last year, 17.88% of reserves versus the budget. In uh 2022, just an example, our reserves were at 30.4 million. The combined budgets at that time was 116 million. It's been a um planned reduction in those levels to get us in the range of what we believe is optimal, which is a 13.5% minimum level, a 19% maximum in those funds. That will allow us to have the reserves we need should something major come up, should there be a delay in
048tax payment, and then the minimum levels too to cover those in the in between times. And you'll see right now Quarter 2, 2025, we're at 17.8% which I'm fiscally conservative. It eats me. I'd love to be a little higher, but this is in the sweet spot of where it's recommended we be and where we feel we need to be. This last one is new. Um this is a slide just to give you an example of some of the things we're facing with the changes in state enrolled act. Uh one that set the budget for next year from the state. One of the biggest things we're going to be um affected by is the property tax credit effects on our budget with a new addition of the homestead credit that is $300 or 10%. I believe
049it's the lesser of those two. In years past, when we get property tax credits that are reduce our revenues, it has gone directly against our operations fund. The new state law that went into effect has spread that out and includes our debt service fund as part of that, taking a hit from the revenues we would receive. Um, we have a good reserve level in the debt service fund right now. We are a little over $3 million over a three and a half year period. This would eat into all of our reserves. We are very hopeful that in next year's short session that this will be changed and the effect will be directed then just to just to our operations fund. But the bottom half of this target or chart shows you that the levels have
050changed over the last five years and we are almost double the property tax credit loss in revenue from where we were in 2021. So just a little heads up as we get into budget time um that revenues will be affected next year in not just operations but in our debt service fund as well um due to the property tax credits. And then the budget schedule. Um September 8th will be our budget workshop. We'll present to you our overview of the budget as we see it for 2026. We'll have our official hearing on the 29th and then the budget adoption vote will be on October 20th. And be glad to answer any questions you may have. I've got a question on uh the percentage of the reserves on the reserves. Sorry, can you hear me? Okay.
051uh as you look at like how you're trying to budget it and I understand the rainy day and the operating do they stack against the same budget essentially like so for example if you have a $90 million education fund are you essentially allocating what's the recommended operations fund and the rainy day fund against that 90 million >> the total of the three together yeah >> and so like I guess I'm trying to figure out how we derive these figures and I know the recommendations from the entity but at $90 million education budget. Assume you're going to be somewhere between that 17 to 20 25% between the two funds. You're sitting somewhere between 17 and $22 million. If I'm correct, I think I asked Dr. Phillips this. You know, where have we seen education fund risk?
052We've had a one-time $3 million hit in 2010, I believe. And so it just seems very heavy of a hedge against what was a $3 million risk in 2010. I wish the state didn't return those funds. But is that is that this basically the hedge for the education fund? I'm trying to understand. >> It's it's a hedge because we receive our revenues differently. Within the education fund, we get those monies monthly. Within operations and operating referendum, we get those every six months are the biggest chunks of those funds. So, we balanced it out to where we try and have two months worth of payroll covered with our reserves between all three funds. >> So, the target was built more off two months run versus risk of past misses essentially. >> Correct. Okay. >> Thank you
053for taking time to put this together for us. It's it's nice to see um where we stand and and maybe where we're headed. you alluded or started to allude to some potential challenges maybe upcoming. Can you just dive a little bit deeper about maybe headwinds you anticipate in the next six to eight months? >> Well, uh the property tax credit is a big one. Um over the next six to eight months, we are looking um they've told us our maximum growth quotient for next year 4% is already set. Um they announced uh just at the end of last week our certified net assessed value is going up one and a half percent. Over the last three years that's averaged closer to 8 to 10%. Am I right Dr. Phillips? >> So um and that's a
054calculation on what the tax rate does is part of your assessed value. Um so we're looking at flat revenues for next year on that area. Um within the uh education fund um we already have been told to estimate uh about $2 million wait 2% growth 2% growth sorry um 2% growth next year. That does include though the curricular funds which have been prior to this year have been um funded in a separate way. those are now part of our um grant funds um within the education fund. So we are looking at fairly flat revenues in both education and property tax for next year. >> So I have a question on this screen. Um looking at those things that you have highlighted in yellow, are we reaching the point where we need to start thinking about
055cutting programs or cutting No, >> no, not at this time. Um, we have solid reserves in place to cover any potential shortfalls that may come. Um, and again, uh, we are anticipating as part of short session next year that there will be changes made here. We're also not I mean, these are strong estimates from the state. Um, we have a vendor that says the um, circuit breaker loss will be a little bit less than this. This is kind of a worst case scenario that we're looking at right now. Um, and again, we are going to be budgeting for flat next year. And my other question is on the slide with the reserves. So that shows how we are. I'm thinking in terms of who else locally um depends on on revenue coming from state taxes
056in particular the city and the county. How how do our reserves compared to theirs? >> Uh it's been a couple years since I was with the city. The city the goal was to have a six-month reserve level because the vast majority of the city's funding comes from property taxes. So that was our target goal. Um we focus mainly on the general fund for that. The rainy day was seen as a separate fund that was never used. Um so we didn't count those reserves as part of our six-month level. Um our level here, as you can see, it's stayed steady at um forgive me 6.2 million for the last 10 years maybe >> approximately. Yeah. >> Yeah. So um it is it is truly a rainy day fund. It's a a fund if something happens. We've
057got those monies in reserve to cover any any any issue that may come up. But at this moment, we are covered. We will not see any we are not planning on any um elimination of programs. No. And I just want to add to that, Mr. Non, that we do know that there are some other districts of similar size to us that have dramatically reduced some some staffing in specific areas. mainly targeting outside of the classroom um for obvious reasons, but because the last four years have been probably financially things have aligned. We've never had so many things line up in a positive direction from a finance perspective for four consecutive years. Some of those, you know, are ever something that applied to everyone and other districts had similar, you know, circumstances. Some are specific to
058our area. Interest earned, for example, is just another one of those examples that have contributed to this. But because of that, today as we've we've had the last two weeks probably, Mr. Bneer, that almost every single one of those things that were positive um have now trended in the in the opposite direction. So, we're we're seeing headwinds is a is so I think someone asked a question about headwinds earlier. That's a very accurate term at this point in time. But because we took advantage of the fact and maintain strong reserves at the end of those through those four years, we're in a position that we don't have to look at cutting anything in the in the short term. >> Yeah, thanks for putting this together. I appreciate it. I think um looking back in the
059history, we've we've averaged 8% a year increase for the last four years. So we're up from 121 or 2 million to 168 million last year. You know, at some point that 8% a year slows down or stops. So, um, it's it's concerning that it looks like our revenue will be projected to be flat next year, which means our budget's probably not going to go up a whole lot without chewing up the reserves. And it's good to see that we've got numbers here that the reserves are positive. Um but again understanding the trend downward and projecting out when that hits zero if it hits zero or what do we have to budget to maintain that. I think um one of the things that uh I've heard a lot about in the last three or four months
060as we've gotten closer to budget season is I've had a lot of people ask about where they where where I think their taxes are going to end up even though we're tax rate neutral. The the city, the state, the county are not tax income neutral. They're all going up. And so it's going to be really interesting to see where we where we land and how it impacts every person out there. Especially the the one thing that Dr. Phillips mentioned that I don't like is hearing interest earned on government entities because that means that's my money and your money that's sitting there. And I don't know how many of us have that homestead credit and how many of us are willing to give it up. So as much as the state house is a problem with
061that, we are too. So, >> thank you. >> And and I will go back to the emphasis on that this was a planned reduction to get to this. This is our target area and this is where we will be budgeting towards is to stay in that 13 to 19 range. And maybe you're not the right person, but could you give us a quick recap? I think for a while federal funding for education was being looked over and we thought at the federal level there was a freeze maybe the freeze has been lifted but I'm not sure I understand all the technicalities. Do we expect the same amount of funds for the programs that the federal funds support that we've been used to or will it change for us? >> I'm gonna step back and let
062Dr. Phillips answer this one. I think >> um right now it depends on the grant. We did just get notification today that the title three grant was up about $50,000 $49,000 from the prior year, but others are flat. Title one that we brought just uh recently for appro tonight for approval is is pretty much flat. I'm looking over there, Mrs. Sha. Um, and then uh one of the things that I will note of the um that I I know that that you'll be interested in of the federal grants that were just recently released that had been withheld for review for the last couple of months. Um, one of those did apply to adult education at McDow, um, where we serve hundreds of students in the evenings, adult learners in the community. And recent changes, um,
063require us to verify citizenship for those folks before they can enroll. And so, it's going to be a dramatic decline in those uh the number of folks that we're serving in the evening through our McDow adult ed program. But outside of that, there aren't any any programs that are on the chopping block as a result of the federal changes. >> If if there's risk to losing based on immigration at the adult education level, what's the risk of losing students at the child level that may end up being sent back with parents? >> Um, I'll answer that question both ways. in in the first instance um or or in one way were required per um a Supreme Court ruling from years ago at the K through 12 level to serve students regardless of their immigration status,
064but that is not the case at the adult level. And so that's the difference in this circumstance. But from a immigration standpoint, um our exposure is unknown at this time. just the the whether or not we don't ask and are not allowed to ask legally whether a student is in the country or families in the country. So it could be you know it could be 10% it could be 1% of our students who have the potential to be removed from the country or their family members are removed. >> Yeah. And and I understand that we're not going to go through schools and remove kids, right? But there's risk to the parents and if the parents leave the kids are going to leave too. My my only question at that is is we're at what 15
065to 20% of our kids are Hispanic right now. So the risk there of having to move south across the border is some level of that 15 to 20%. We just don't have an estimate right now. >> Correct. >> Did that answer your question, Mr. Ster? >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bneer. >> Thank you. >> All right, Dr. Phillips. >> Thank you. >> Package five. Uh and as following the the practice that we've had for the last several months as we gone through these policy reorganizations, we brought nine policies that were existing policies to be replaced to replace or consolidate all or part of 44 current policies and then two new proposed policies. Brought those back to you to you back in July for a first reading. They were posted two weeks prior to
066that. the ones that were are highlighted A100 and B150 as well as H100 those three received a small change minor changes during that t time frame that two weeks prior to the July meeting when they were posted we uh the posted versions online have those changes in are highlighted uh since the after the last meeting Mr. major gave me several um questions and some some concerns with the policies, all of which are noted and we've done some research on some of them just to to find out what the answer to they to those questions from a legal standpoint and we'll keep those for um future consideration as these come back up um unless the board does not adopt them this evening. happy to take any questions on the uh policy reorganizations if you have any.
067>> So on policy E125, it actually changes the the what I would say the standing precedent as it comes to chain of command. So if a parent wants to appeal um their child being held back, it's it actually stops it. Uh, I was wondering why the inconsistency across policies when there's a fairly clear and agreed upon chain of command, why cutting that off would not be applied to all policies rather than just selecting some forward to apply and some forward to not. >> Yeah, I didn't notice that change until you pointed it out in um in your message to us earlier. the there's still a separate policy the the public complaints or the complaint policy is still in place that says this is the process if you have a complaint that you wish to escalate
068this policy um points out very specific items that aren't subject to that same level of review or appeal um also to to the superintendent andor and the board and those are student grades and then student promotion or retention. Um, and based on conversations we've had preliminarily, I have not had a chance to check with the Church, Church Hill, and Anthem attorneys um, at this point in time. But my my assumption is that that is there to protect um, the teachers and schools ability to keep those decisions at the school level between the parent um, the family, the student, the teacher, and the principal at that level. Um, as far as I know and and Dr. Hack and I talked um she's been in her position at this district the the longest. We have not had
069one of those kinds of appeals come to this level. They're always resolved at the school level. The one thing I would say that I would point out that we don't want to happen is that teachers would fear that their classroom level decision about a student's grade would end up at the next board meeting as far part of a complaint policy. Again, I don't think that would that would happen, but that's my assumption as to why church's recommendation is to call out those classroom level decisions around um grade placement and um assigning grades for student work uh to exempt those from board and superintendent appeals. >> Yeah. I mean, I guess what I'm just trying to say is it doesn't drive a clear and concise consistent message. If we're saying for process A, this is the
070chain of command. For process B, this is the chain of command. For process C, this is the chain of it's it's one chain of command. And if if there is a situation, I would agree with you, 99.9% of them probably never escape the school, which is great. But if there's a situation where they feel there is undue representation for whatever reason, we're essentially giving a parent no avenue to have that conversation. And so that's that's my final comment on it. >> Thanks. >> Any others >> for uh for H100 school visitors and parent family engagement? We had talked Dr. Phillips after the last meeting where it said instruction and services may not be recorded in any manner, audio, video, cell phone, use of Alexa, etc. unless first receiving an approval from the principal and instructor.
071Um, what we talked about after the last meeting was Indiana's one party consent law. Uh, we're from a law perspective, is this written in a way that it does not conflict with law? Either you or Mr. Macyver want to answer that? >> I I believe so, Mr. Major. think looking at this policy the policy is a school visitors policy and in in my mind again I'm making an assumption what I think church is is going for with this but because the preface to that section is visitors are reminded to me this policy would not come into play if a teacher sat if a parent sat down with a teacher for a conference and said I want to record this while I'm doing it or as part of an appeal process that they were going through,
072wanted to record something in that process. This is a visitor, someone >> coming into the school and recording something. And and to me, I think that is a distinction. There are rules and regulations like Furpa. Some of those may or may not apply specifically depending upon the nature of the recording, but the privacy rights generally of those students. There are going to be uh the school will have an interest in protecting those privacy rights in ensuring that the educational atmosphere is not being interrupted. Those those considerations would be there on the school side. And so I think from a visitor standpoint, I would say the policy is okay. I think different conversation if we're talking about a a parent engaging in a conversation. >> Yeah. And I think the the other part to that is
073is where is school? School now could be at home for virtual. So is there any thought on how this might be impacted by a kid sitting at home with someone anybody could be a parent could be a friend that's recording that. Would this protect that as well? >> This policy as written, I think, is focused on our physical school buildings. I don't know that it would specifically address some of those other items because you have uh looking at that paragraph in the introduction, right? You're talking about registering at the school office. You're talking about uh classroom observations. You're talking about things that I think are specific to what I would consider a physical building. So I believe this policy would be directed at those situations, not necessarily a virtual setting or other things beyond that.
074>> Okay. Thank you. >> I have one followup to that because I was also looking into furpa and trying to understand the one party consent. The 13 court of appeals and the US Department of Education says that it only applies to FURPA if it is directly related to a student and is maintained by a school or someone on behalf of the school. So this policy the way I interpret it is not someone acting on behalf of the school. It is someone acting on behalf of themselves. So I was trying to understand how Furpa would apply there. >> Correct. And and so I don't know that an individual's recording may not meet the definition of an education record under FURPA. >> Correct. >> That is not that is not necessarily the only privacy laws or rules
075that may potentially come into play. But I would agree that as a as a general rule that might not qualify as an educational record. >> Okay. And we are aware of the um the federal case in which there was a parent who um recorded a meeting and and that's u the district took action and the parent appealed and that's working its way through the courts. We know that that will likely impact us. Two two other things I just want to point out real quickly is make sure that everyone knows that our special education policy does explicitly allow for the recording of an IEP conference, which is new under Indiana code. It's not a change for us from a practice standpoint, but that that one is compliant. Um, and then the last thing I'll add is
076that this does contain um this policy does contain our the same um principles that are in our existing policy. Um, and I think those have been in place for a long time in this district mainly with the aim of just protecting a teacher's ability to know whether or not someone's recording in their classroom or not. So to have the instructor and the principal be able to say, "Yes, we know that you're recording this classroom. This is your reason for doing so." I think more recently there's there's other reasons to protect student and other parents rights as well to know that their child might be being recorded in a classroom to at least be aware of that. Um, as you know, for whatever purpose, you might see those on on social media and you might be
077surprised to see that another parent has posted something that you recorded in a classroom and they didn't know that their child was being recorded. That's a more the last decade or so. But the policy in place to have the instructor and the principal in the building to be able to say, "Yes, we we know you're recording and it's okay." That's been in place for for decades in BCSS. Okay, thank you. Next, we have a new requirement um under Indiana code. Also, this is uh from the last legislative session uh requires that the board approve uh the district's human sexuality curriculum. And so, Mr. Edwards is going to provide some brief information about the the curriculum that we use at sixth grade, middle school, and high school health classes. Good evening. I'm standing here in response
078to Senate Bill 442, which as you know brings several updates to human sexuality instruction in Indiana schools. And in a few seconds, I'll talk about those key changes. With me tonight is Cheryl Label from Clarity. Clarity has been a longtime partner with BCSSE and Cheryl is a strong advocate in this work. I might mention that their services are highly soughta as they partner with many of the schools in our surrounding areas. I also have with me Lindseay Pzanski who is a health teacher at the secondary level for us and she too is passionate about educating students with regard to their sexual health. So, Senate Bill 442 mandated age appropriate consent instruction for students in grades 4 through 12. It also requires that schools present a medically accurate age appropriate fetal development video along with instruction
079on fertilization in each stage of fetal development. Those videos are supposed to be high-res ultrasounds or computerenerated or they can be animated. Senate Bill 442 also granted board approval and increased transparency. All curriculum must now be formally approved by the school board, posted online, and available for public review. Families must receive written notification at least 14 days in advance of instruction, including a summary of content, opt- out procedures, the instructor's gender, and whether or not the classes are co-ed. The bill maintains an abstinence focused approach, stating that fidelity inside marriage is the only way to prevent pregnancy or STI. In our district, we fully meet all Senate Bill 442 requirements. We partner with Clarity to deliver human sexuality instruction to elementary students, making sure this content is taught by experts who specialize in age appropriate,
080medically accurate presentations. The same provider also works with our middle and high school students and clarity uses the I decide for me curriculum which is currently posted on our website. Our middle and high school health teachers also teach elements of human sexuality using the health smart textbook. You may recognize the name as it was board approved during the March 31st meeting. HealthSmart is also posted on our website for parental review. Using our resources in this way guarantees that both our provider-led sessions and classroom instruction align with state law, board policy and our commitment to transparency and parental engagement. If you have any questions, Cheryl Lindsay and I will be happy to answer them. >> I think that I did have >> I'll just let me just add one one comment there. Um, we found out
081on Friday evening that the publisher of the HealthSmart textbook um had opposition to us posting its content on our website for all to for all to use or see their copyrighted material. Um, so, uh, thanks to Charles and Karen and and the health folks and and our health department, they got the a website and a login and a password that we have shared with um, all of the families of students who will and the parent square messages, all of the families of students who would receive that instruction this year. And then if anyone else in the public wants it for this point in time, just reach out to your child's school, say, can you provide that? They'll send you the website login and password and we will continue to work with the publisher to figure
082out how to be compliant with the law and make sure that the materials are on the website. >> That was the question. So I will we be compliant by just providing it by email because it's pretty explicit that it has to be posted online and available. I >> based on the way that I read the law, we will not be compliant at this point in time. So it depends on who you want to get sued by is the is sometimes the position we're in. >> So you're good. >> But we know that this company is interested in continuing to sell their product to other school districts in the state and they know that they have to be compliant in order to do so. >> Any questions? Mom has held on for a long time with
083that sweet little kiddo. I feel like we better ask a question, guys, or that's just going to be really frustrating for you. All have done a nice job educating us ahead of this meeting. I think that's how I'd take the fact that we're all um we're we're all okay. And unless anyone has anything we'd like to ask before we move on topics. Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. >> I'll just say thanks to Clarity. I've sat on that curriculum for the first time probably 15 years ago back at Central. They do a masterful job with middle school students and having these conversations in a way that engages them, but also they learn a great deal. And Mrs. Pzansky, you have a tremendous skill set of teaching health to high school students,
084being a terrific parent, and coaching our girls wrestling team at North. Is that right? >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I um teach at North Side. >> At North Side. That's right. >> Thank you both for being here tonight. Appreciate Next on the agenda, Dr. Boseman. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me some time. Uh for the interest of not getting up and down over multiple presentations, I actually have three items combined in the Envision um project update that you're used to from me, including the North Athletics that I'll speak to um on this slide. So, this this information you are used to seeing um and we just update it as we go. So, a few items of note here. The highlighted items are for your consideration tonight. I'll speak to the Maple Grove Elementary project first.
085Um that um current budget is $59.8 million as you see and the total committed that is 56.5 roughly. That's um the GMP guarantee maximum price that you have for consideration for approval tonight and all soft costs. So soft cost would include the fees we pay architects, the the um builder's risk coverage that we carry, all furniture for the building, technology for the building, phones, telecommunications, etc., etc. That's included in all those soft costs outside of the GMP. Um that item that um 56.5 is about $3.2 million under budget. And if I may speak to that, um actually I will not speak to that. I'll speak to that on the next slide when I get to it once I get through this one. There's a lot of information up there up there for you. Um, also
086for your consideration tonight, not within the Envision 2030 project. I want to make sure I'm clear about that. I put the athletic that's the turf that we discussed uh two meetings ago I think um for consideration uh the athletic improvements at Columbus North for Columbus North High School at South Elementary. That is the infield baseball turf and full turf softball field. Um again under budget $2 million was the was the total budget. Um those that $2 million was made up as a reminder 1.5 from CPF from the operations budget for calendar year 2025 and the remaining from Build America bond proceeds that we've had um for high school improvements to facilities for quite some time. Um the market is changing in our favor so far. You've heard me speak before of of having some some
087stresses when it comes to budgeting. Um and we are we are at the current moment on the other side of that. So these two items being under budget are reflection of a lot of hard work from a lot of people. But also the winds seem to be changing a little bit. The construction guys over there are probably cringing by my saying that. But that's the benefit we're experiencing right now. um bids are becoming more competitive and we are reaping the benefit of that. The um the 1.5 that similarly is included all soft costs. The soft costs on the turf project are about $117,000 roughly. Um that goes to architect fees, builder risk, etc. I have a few slides in here just to walk through what you have samples, not taking through all 80 pages you
088have in your board packet. Um but a few that I'll walk through here. Um thanks to Jacob, Alex, and Josh from Taylor Brothers and Pepper Construction. Two Taylor and one Pepper over here today. Thanks for their um involvement in the work. Um and I want to mention also this this project has been um quite a treat for me personally. And I I mentioned this because I had a phone call from somebody just last week and they were they were curious on the um if you build a beautiful building and um you have a worldrenowned architect from Boston come in and design the building, is it is it more expensive was basically the question. Uh and the answer is no. So, um, I I told them, and you've heard me say this before, that, um, for
089the size of a building that we're going to build here, $60 million is about $60 million in Evansville versus Fort Wayne versus somewhere else. Um, and that's the case here, too. There, the team was very budget-minded, including Eric Hower and his team. And you'll see that as we as we work through here. And this is the result. Again, I won't speak to tremendous amounts of detail on this unless you have questions. Uh, this is the GMP summary. It looks a little bit different in formatting than what you're used to from the other projects, but the contact context is the same. So, not line number one, those are all accepted bids. I think the Pepper and Taylor Brothers team had 26 or 27 bid categories and um all of those have been fulfilled minus the elevator
090that is in the allowance at the bottom. Um the accepted bids include all alternates. So, uh, the teacher team had a list of alternates that they were interested in and we basically said if we can afford it, we would love to do that and so far it looks like we can. So, those are included all alternates. The next items are contingency, reimburseables, insurance, bonds, the staffing fee to the construction managers, the construction manager fees, and the miscellaneous allowances. Those include an allowance for the elevator that I mentioned. And also that's where we are carry the owners contingencies and unforeseen uh small font but just for an example uh in your packet there are I think six pages or so of all the bid categories the number of biders on the right hand side. We had
091really good bid coverage on these um on these bid openings which we are reaping the benefits of and they also include the alternates. So, at the very bottom under the electrical um category, uh you can see that there was an alternate accepted there and that one was probably four motorized shades, roller shades that are on the clear story upper windows in the gym and cafeteria. Again, just one example of what's in your packet, but project schedule that you can look through. Couple other items that that uh you may not have seen quite yet, but some site logistics, fencing, gates for the proposed site, construction layown area as designed by Pepper and Taylor Brothers where contractors will stage and again a reminder the general layout of the building. Uh next, this is the Columbus North Athletic
092Turf Project. a couple of slides here and then I'll talk about uh our lease rental bond process that you also have for consideration. So, these are the drawings of the north baseball field. I have this up here uh to point out that the the um the outfield fence of this project will actually move in about 20 ft. There's a tremendous amount of sideline grass um that we want to correct. So, the infield is going to move back, home plate will move back about 20 feet. And so we don't have to have major league baseball players actually have any chance to hit the ball over the fence at 390 ft. The outfield fence will also move in as a result of that as part of the project. This is an image of the north baseball um
093infield. As a reminder, it's turf only for the infield, the same as what East currently has. Uh you'll see on the on the outside there, those are uh bullpens. And that's the scope of the work there. So, no dugout work, no no work to the the pavilion, the building or um anything else for baseball. This is the softball. Again, if you overlay a softball diamond onto a baseball field is just a little bit bigger than the infield of a baseball field. So, um similarly, bullpen work there. No, no dugout work. Um, but that's a full turf softball field at Columbus North for Columbus North High School at Southside Elementary. Again, very similar to what is currently featured at Columbus East High School. A quick synopsis of uh we were asked a few questions last time
094we spoke of this that those were sent to you in a Friday note via email regarding some questions. Um, I'm happy to answer questions that you may have, but I do have an item on here. Um the third bullet down about our difficulty to maintain natural grass fields to the appropriate standard. The appropriate standard um would be at a professional level um that your you know obviously your major league baseball teams are going to be able to satisfy some of your large division one baseball programs at large colleges that sort of thing. Um, I have a note on here for an immediate need. That includes about $160,000, $170,000 of equipment. We rely currently on parks and wreck to maintain our baseball and softball fields. Um, Columbus uh parks and wreck, they are looking towards and
095moving towards turf fields also. And uh quite frankly, we've we they have struggled to maintain their own fields and let alone ours in the past few years. So, if we were to take that upon ourselves, that would be a substantial upfront cost. And the annual fees, that's just a rough estimation of $50,000 for um an employee and then about 30 or $40,000 for annual um material, fertilizer, that sort of thing. Turning pages a little bit, you have uh you have two items for your consideration also relative to bond issuance for calendar year 2025 budget 2026. So uh just as a reminder, the board had approved uh previously the authorization to uh provide $36 million worth of lease rental bonds for our Envision 2030 projects each year. Uh there's one action that the board uh would
096have consideration. We had done that in 2024. The $44 million that you see that was authorized from 2024. Those are the projects that they went to and that they're going towards. A couple of notes on that. If you add up that column, you will not get to $44 million. It's actually a little bit more than that because we receive bond premium on top of that um that we roll into the projects. The 2025 bond is $72 million. Again, this is with this is all within the 306 in total. And the if you look um across across, you know, pick a building, North Side Middle School. Um that is a reminder that's a $50 million project. So the completion I don't have the math in front of me and I'm not going to try to do
097it um and mess it up, but so we will in the 2026 bond issuance for your consideration. That would be the final third year of um our acquiring that funding for to finish North Side Middle School at the $50 million. So most of the larger projects are over threeear cycles that you'll see. Um so here I've just outlined what we've done in 2024 and now in 2025 um again to get to um the 306 in total. So, in summary, the actions of our request for you this evening. Award the GMP guarantee maximum price for Maple Grove Elementary. Approve the bids for the Columbus North Athletic improvement turf. And you can see the funding sources that I mentioned. Adopt the resolution to reapprove the building corporation. and um adopt the resolution to allow us to sell
098bonds at the uh the end of September um to satisfy the 72 million that I outlined a moment ago. So happy to answer questions you may have. >> Dr. Boseman, on the on the turf, can you remind me the useful life of the investment? It's it's usually um on football turf they advertise 10 years. We last time we went 14 years. So 12 years is a is a solid bet um for sure. The baseball field, softball fields get a lot less use than the football fields do with turf, even soccer. So um so I would say at least 12 years, probably well beyond that. with with the costs you showed prior prior to this slide. Do you have the financing cost that goes with that? Those are the bond costs, right? So 72 million plus
099financing or is financing included in that? >> No, that would be in addition to so about about 108 in total. >> Yeah. So another $30 million on top of that. >> That was the estimate that we had received. Yeah. We won't know until we sell them obviously, but that was the estimate when when I asked you. >> How do we pay for that? Do we have to do an approval for that at some point? >> That's on the agenda for this evening. Two, the two approval items for the building >> for the 38 million now >> because I don't know that I saw a number of 38. Was there a number of 38? I didn't recall seeing that. >> There's not. >> Yeah, that's why I didn't think it was. >> This never has been
100part of the approval. part of the approval process does does not include um it includes the approval to sell the bonds for $72 million, >> but we've never had to go through an approval process for 30 plus million worth of interest. >> That's correct. others. >> One one more question. I'll channel Mr. Glick, who I think last time we discussed turf, asked a question about safety, which I think you've provided some information to the board outside of this. Could you just summarize for us the the debate and the discussion around safety of turf and and what we've concluded? >> Sure. Yeah, I'll I'll offer two comments on that. one was um I asked a few professionals, not not those that the actual folks that are selling the turf, but um and the feedback I had
101relative to safety was uh natural grass is only only safer than artificial turf if it's maintained professionally. So that's why I mentioned the a major league baseball field, that sort of thing that that can maintain natural grass to that level, which we obviously are not going to be able to do that at at a high school level. Um, asked the athletic directors and the trainers if they've noticed any additional injuries um as a result of most recently putting in turf at East Baseball and the soccer complex. And the answer was no. Yeah, I looked that up, too. And the National Center for Health Research shows that uh in all three divisions of NCAA football, PCL tears occur three times more often than turf on grass. ACL tears 1.6 more times often on turf than grass.
102the NFL Players Association, uh, Solomon Thomas in this article said, uh, that there was a report that, um, 32% more often non-cont knee injuries on turf. Uh, ankle sprains uh, were much greater. Ankle fractions were six times higher on turf. concussions. Amazingly enough, uh a uh turf is much worse on it says disproportionately associated with concussions. And the other one is uh pretty interesting. There's I've got another complimentary article here from Mass General Bighgam as well. But this one here from National Center for Health Research showed that on a 90 degree day like today, uh the temperature on a grass field is 98 degrees Fahrenheit height, sorry, but the artificial turf could get up to over 160 degrees. So, um I think if anybody's paid attention to uh health related issues in high school in
103the last several years, there's been a significant increase in heat exhaustion and heat stroke on on several of the football fields and I think that could be a contributor. >> When was the East Turf? Can you remind me when that was installed? >> They just finished their second season. Uh baseball softball. So, that would have been approved when? >> Well, um, let's see. I just pulled that up a few weeks ago >> with the pro parkside project. >> It was within the Parkside. Yeah. >> Same contract. >> Yeah, I can I can dig around here for a second, but >> um, >> were these similar concerns raised when East when East students were in question? >> No, I don't think it matters which students are east or north. I think the big thing is uh
104is a different board today asking different questions or maybe asking questions. >> Just curious. >> So, >> Mr. Major, do you mind sharing that sending that our direction? >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Thank you. >> So, I do have a couple questions, right? Is one, I mean, I can deflect to Dale on sample size. I don't think North or East has a whole lot of natural grass left across the athletic sphere. I mean, I know we went football turf back in ' 06, maybe 04. Um, and I mean, I think I can hear what you're saying is when the investment is there and you have to do the investment to make it equitable. I think in terms of safety, I hear you. I have concerns when the awarded bid inside of it for I think it's
105Sprinterf, is that correct? >> It's correct. has on their website that they are actively seeking to improve the safety of the product in relation to and that's on the front page of their website and maximize performance and improve safety. So I think inherently there is safety issues and risks related and to miss Lloyd's point I didn't know about this two years ago so I apologize and I raise it now um but that's I think the concern here is one a budgetary priority but two Are we doing something that does have an inherently unsafe risk? I I give an example. I was at the Bartham County Bears Jamberee where we had hundreds of young athletes playing tackle football on a turf field that at 98 degrees we're talking on the field we're north of 110 to
106115 based on what these turf experts are now saying and what they're trying to do to reduce that risk. the technology is just not there according to most of their websites and they're trying they're actively trying in good faith but it's not there yet to be able to match that of natural grass if properly maintained and 100% caveat is fair >> no I just want to make sure I'm clear that we are happy to take direction at the board's wish to review all of our existing turf and or grass athletic um surfaces. Um if that's the wish of the board, including an evaluation of the cost of, you know, replacing any of the surfaces with the most safe surface that's available. I mean, I don't think anybody, and I don't know where Mr. Major stands,
107no one's suggesting a reflection of the entire portfolio overnight. I think what I'm saying is as these questions come to the board, this is the proper time to evaluate them before you make any significant capital investment. >> The question was asked of me relative to um to this slide and the information that was shared previously. Um, and we we have not some of the things you're citing, we've not experienced that here, quite frankly. Um, if we had, I would not bring this to you for consideration. Happy to answer any other questions that you have on any of the items. The the building corporation, uh, I don't think it stated who the, uh, officer are we redoing officers for that or because it didn't have them listed. So I didn't know if it was the same
108three individuals that we did the last time. >> It is uh Mr. Dumpy, Mr. Orbin, and Mr. Trap serve in that capacity. Yep. >> And then I guess the revelation of interest flows through them somehow. Is there a way to get a uh financial disclosure to understand what money is actually being spent outside of the for example 72 million so that we have a full scope of total cost. >> Uh ask me that question again or a different way please. Yeah. So, the school corporation, they they the building corporation owns the buildings until we pay everything off. >> Correct. >> How do we show what we're paying if we approve bonds and no one up here talks about interest payments, but they're 40% of the cost. How do we see that? How do we have
109visibility to financial disclosures there that would help us understand the total cost of ownership versus the price of the bond? >> So, okay. So, you're you're asking for a run out of all the cost essentially both on par for the projects and interest as well. >> Yeah. Yeah. how much money flows to the school corporation to pay for everything because or the the building corporation because the building corporation doesn't get revenue from anybody else but us. Correct. >> That's correct. >> We give them money and then they pay. So the for me where does being able to have all of us have visibility to where that interest comes from because we we uh ultimately owe it to taxpayers to make sure we understand what the actual costs are. not the cost of the bond, but
110the total cost of the purchase, which includes financing. It's no different than buying a house. We don't go in and pay for uh $200,000 home without paying another $100,000 or more in interest. So, it's just having the ability to understand what that is so that we can make a well-informed decision. >> Okay, I understand. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> And I know Mr. Ber is eager to answer your your question. I just want to make sure that everyone knows no money transfers from the school district to the building corporation. They don't process any payment. They don't receive any dollars. We make the payments directly from the school corporation to the bond holder. The u building corporation doesn't actually ever touch any or hold any funds. >> So, thank you for clarifying that. So if
111we don't pay them then just making sure that we understand the total cost of whatever it is we're buying. >> Understood. >> Especially if we have approval fund and a non-approval fund. Right. So you've got the bond we approve >> the total cost >> financing. We don't nobody even up here asks >> any other questions. >> I think Mr. Berger's got answer to part of that question. >> Sticking around, isn't he? >> He does. >> Just when the bonds are sold, we get the payout. In the payout, it lists the the the bond payment interest are listed separately. That comes to you as part of the the budget process. When we do our debt service payments, we we can show you the the principal amount and the the the debt service amount that's in there.
112and that makes up the debt service fund that makes up the budget for that. So you do have an approval every year as part of this process. >> And I just want to make sure I completely understand where you're coming from, Mr. Major, and everyone has a right to know what that dollar amount is. What is the total dollar amount? But it's no different than us somebody who goes to get a loan for a home and they get preapproved for a $200,000 loan. Then when they close on the loan, the there's the disclosure of all of their payments. How much is paid in interest over the life of the loan. Same thing will happen on this when they close the loan. We'll have every penny to the or everything accounted for and we'll share that
113with you at that time. >> I I think what and I can not speaking for you, Mr. major any by any means, but when we're telling the community you're buying a $300,000 home, we know it's going to cost $500,000. It's different when it's your personal finance versus I'm borrowing from the taxpayers to pay it, right? And so from the taxpayers's perspective, I need $500,000. >> I understand. >> Yeah. And it goes back to the night we sat in here and it was 306 million presented and no one had talked about financing. It was 197 million. So the total cost to the taxpayer is 53 million and it's just making sure that there's that clarity. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um public comments. We had one individual who signed up. Um he crossed his name out.
114I happen to know this person, so I will follow up with him outside of this meeting and just understand what what he may wanted to speak about and if there's anything he needs from us. So we'll skip through that. Miss Wielen, under approvals this evening, we have requests for approval of old business and that's item 7A, the minutes of the regular school board meeting of July 21st, 2025. I request approval of item 7A. >> I move that we approve line item 7A as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Schultz and Mr. Nell. Any comments or questions from the team on item 7A? Okay. All those in favor of approving item 7A, please say I. I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. >> Motion carries 6. >> Thank you. Under new business, I'm going
115to take these in groups because I know there are at least a couple of items that need to be pulled uh out for some abstensions and further discussion. So, we're going to take items 8A through 8D to start. And those are the supplemental contracts, field trips, and professional leaves, and school fundraisers that we u propose to the board each board meeting. And then also claims and payroll. uh the docket for for this date of 823,000 the pre-eruns of just under 6.5 million for July of 2025 and then the payrolls from July 11th and July 25th of 5.7 million. I request approval of items 7 A through 7D. >> I move that we approve line items you said seven or eight. Yeah. Okay. 8 A through 8 D as presented. >> Second. Thank you, Mr. Schultz
116and Mr. Major. Are there any questions from the team? >> Okay. All those in favor of approving items 8 A through D, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. >> Motion carries 6. >> Thank you. Um, and that I also Miss Wielen or I'm sorry, Miss Lloyd let us know before the meeting that she needs to abstain from item 7E, title one part A grant. I'm sorry, it's item eight. Apologies. Item 8E, the Title One Part A Grant. And so we'll take that one on its own. I request approval of item 7E, Title One Part A Grant. I move that we approve item 8E under new business title one part A grant >> second. >> Thank you Mr. Nalen and Mr. Schultz. Any questions or comments from the team on
1178E? >> No. Okay. And Miss Lloyd is going to abstain from the vote. So all those in favor of approving item 8E, please say I. I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. Motion carries 5-0. >> Thank you. I apologize, Mrs. Chrisman and Mrs. Sanduski over there as you listen to this and I keep saying seven instead of eight. Apologies. Um, next we'll um we have item 7F through 7 L. And some of these were requested to be pulled out um and others we had discussion about and there may still be desire to pull um any of those out and vote on them individually. So just do that for now. Okay. So we'll do item F one at a time. We'll just go down the rest of the easiest way to do it at this
118point. That's all right. Okay. So item 8 F. I request approval of item 8F policy package five as presented. >> I move that we approve item 8F policy package 5. >> Second. >> Thank you Mr. Nellen and Mr. Major. Any comments or questions on item 8F policy package 5. I'm going to actually move to amend 8F to reflect that we will table C475 due to conflicting language between several policies, E125 due to conflicting chain of commands across several policies and H100 pending a legal review against the one party uh state recording and how it's described and move forward all of their policies. Second. >> I'm just going to repeat those to make sure I got them all correct. Mr. Schultz. C175. >> Is it 475 or 175? >> Thank you. >> C475, E175, and H100.
119>> That is correct. >> E125. >> Yeah. Mike, why don't you repeat them for us so we all get it straight? Okay, you're the lawyer. >> C475 E125H 100. >> That is how I have it written as well. So, >> okay, >> don't yell bingo. >> Okay. And the amendment that we would need to approve as a board and I think it would be majority carries right would be to pull those pending legal review. Okay. Does everyone understand what they're voting on? So, the amendment would be to approve no would be to approve policies as presented except for policy E125, C475, and H100 pending legal review. >> Well, and alignment of the chain of commands and the like language of C475 with other policies as well. They're conflicting between policies. >> Okay. >> So, we're
120I'm confused. >> I would like you to repeat to make sure there's clarity amongst the team. I think that's a good idea. >> Vote to pull those, but we're voting to approve the others and not approve those. >> I thought the motion was to pull those. >> So, your original motion that Mr. Nan made >> the original motion to approve all of the policies as presented. >> That was made moved and seconded. Mr. Schultz has made a motion to amend that motion. And Mr. Schultz, correct me if I am misstating anything. All of the policies, but for those three, you are suggesting that the motion would be that all the other policies are approved. Those three policies on C475, you are asking that that be aligned on the chain of command. E125, I don't remember.
121>> Chain of command and H100 was alignment on the recording or review of the recording requirement. >> Essentially combining what would have to be a two-step motion into one, right? >> Because you're tableabling these three and you're approving the other ones at the same time. >> Understood. Does everybody understand what they're approving? If you say I, you will be approving all of the policies. >> You are approving. >> You're accepting the amendment >> which is to do that >> and then the next vote would be to actually approve the policies. >> The amended motion. >> Okay. >> Great. Say that again. So the first vote is do we want to amend the motion? >> Correct. >> And then and then we go back and vote on either all the policies or the policies with these
122>> or the amended motion. >> Okay. >> Yes. So, we're voting on the amendment. The amendment is to pull out E125, C475, and H100. Okay. All those in favor of approving the amendment to the motion, please say I. >> I. I will actually vote. All those opposed, please say nay. >> Nay. I'm still confused. We just voted on. >> Okay, Whitney, which way did you vote? >> Okay. Okay. So, the amendment carries, which means we will pull out E125, C475, H100. No substantive changes are being presented or proposed. It's just to make sure that we're aligned, considerate, and relationship to other policies. So now the motion has changed to approve all other policies with those three pulled out. Okay. So all those in favor of approving all other policies in policy package 5 with the
123exclusion of E125, C475, and H100, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. >> That motion carries 6. For the purposes of our records, could we please do an individual roll call on the first vote for uh Sherry and Karen over there? The the first vote to amend I believe that vote was that vote just unanimous >> was 42 I believe >> was 42. >> I'm sorry. The vote the vote you just did on >> Yes. Was >> that was unanimous? But the vote before that can we please find out how each person voted because I don't think they know over there >> on the amendment. How did you vote on the amendment? Mr. Schultz, >> I >> Mr. Nell, >> no. >> Miss Wheel invited. I >> Mr. Stoner, >>
124I voted. >> Mr. Moyer, >> yes. >> Miss Lloyd, I >> thank you. Appreciate it. I made them the promise earlier today that I'd do that if it got to this point. >> No problem. >> Thank you. So, um, next we have, um, I'm going to put the >> G&H together. >> G&H. These are the approval of the bond issue for Envision 2030 of $72 million of principal. And that's item G and H. I request approval of item 8 G and 8H as presented. I move that we approve line items 8, G, and H as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Schultz and Mr. Non. Any questions from the team? >> H has a new school in it. >> H has the new school in it. Correct. >> Both G and H do. Yes.
125>> Yep. >> So, one day, just bring it up again like I always do. Uh this time with a little twist. Um, on Tuesday, June 24th, I was up in Indianapolis with some other people here at the ISBA event and they had a uh discussion topic on diving into enrollment, where it is now and where it is headed for you. Um, I don't know if other board members were not present were able to get caught up on that, but basically what it said was the state of Indiana has a downward declining overall enrollment in schools. And uh I just think it's uh prudent to bring that up now again as we talk about spending significant amount of money on a new school uh when both the state in the ISBA event and our own demographic
126studies show uh future decline in enrollment. So I just want to bring that up again make sure it's noted. >> Okay. >> Thank you. And again, I will just note that the uh Envision 2030 projects, including the 12th elementary, are not built for the sole purpose of accommodating increases or even flat enrollment. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Motion on the table with a second is to approve items 8, G, and H as presented. All those in favor of approving item 8, G, and H, please say I. >> I. All those opposed, please say nay. >> Nope. >> Or nay. Okay. 51. >> Thank you. Um, now we'll move on. Uh, take item 8 I, Columbus North Athletic improvements. Request approval of item 8, Columbus North Athletic Improvements, as presented. >> I move that we approve
127item 8 I, the Columbus North Athletic improvements. Thank you, Mr. Non and Mr. Stener. Any questions or comments from the team? >> I think my only comment is I don't know, I appreciate Dr. Boseman and the research. I just don't know how we'll be the exception to the rule uh on safety and the data here didn't present that we would be. Um, and with Mr. Brener's feedback of we're facing several headwinds, I don't think this is the priority at the moment until we get through a budget workshop. I think my comment would be the safety data as as I work in manufacturing safety data often is it's um difficult to discern sometimes and in um in some cases you can tell different stories with the same information and and so it's it's a little difficult
128um frankly to to discern the two but I appreciate um the information presented tonight. I would also say I I think my my math shows this is basically fiscally neutral if you look at the um life of turf versus the ongoing costs and the initial investment needed to get our field up to the standard. So I don't necessarily see it as a as a financial loser. I think it's about the same. Um so anyway, I'll just leave it at that as an explanation. >> I I apologize. Did we I didn't receive any data regarding safety. I just received the statement on the slide. >> I did as well. >> Okay. >> And the commentary that went along with that. And then there was other commentary that I wasn't privy to ahead of this meeting either.
129>> Just want to make sure I didn't miss something. >> Yeah. I didn't share my information with everybody else. I just investigated it on my own. I I suppose if we're asking questions, you know, if if we're focused on around safety, what would be the recommendation going forward with the turf that we have? I'd be curious >> the question for the >> We'll continue to each time we approach um a project to either replace existing turf uh or add turf anywhere else. Our recommendation to the board will be based on you know the most recent information that we have in front of us. >> I mean I was sorry I was framing that towards my colleagues. I mean what what do you mean sincerely what would you recommend? >> I mean I would like to
130see specifically the amount of players that play on each reportable injuries of each and be able to compare and discern that data set. None of which I have seen yet. How long have we had turf on the football fields? >> 20 years. >> I mean, that's what's publicly available on the NCAA and professional sites. So, I I mean, if we're if we're the the exception to the rule here, then I I would like to see the data. >> Agreed. >> Okay. I think we have a motion and a second to approve item 8 I, which is Columbus North High School Athletic Improvements Turf Project. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. >> Nay. >> Okay, it carried 42. Um, I'll go around the table just so
131the team can get that correctly. So, Mr. Schultz, can you please um Did you vote Yay or nay? >> Nay. Mr. Nell, >> yay. >> Miss Wheeling voted yay. >> Mr. Stoner, >> Mr. Major and Miss >> Le. Okay. >> Thank you. Um, next, um, >> do two and one. >> I believe we have items J and K, unless there's a board member wishes to pull one of those out individually. Item 8J is the 2026 and 27 board meeting dates as sent in your board meeting package uh reflecting the same pattern that we have had for the last uh six months since January. And then item 8K is the human sexuality sexuality curriculum as presented. >> I move to approve line items 8 8 J and K as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you Mr.
132Schultz, Mr. Nell. Any questions or concerns on items 8, J, and K? >> No, I just want to thank Dr. Phillips, Dr. Hack, and Mr. Edwards for leading the way ahead of the publisher and trying to at least be as compliant as we can be with the law here. >> Okay. All those in favor of approving items 8, J, and K as presented, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. Motion carries 6. >> Thank you. Uh item 8L is the last item for under the new business of approvals. Item 8 L is the guaranteed maximum price contract for Maple Grove Elementary as presented. >> I move that we approve line item 8L as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Schultz and Mr. Non. Any questions or concerns from the
133team that they'd like to share? >> Yes, Mr. Ster. probably because I'm on the district and facilities committee, but I think it's important to thank all the folks that have brought the project along so far and the fact that we're $3 million under estimates. So, big thank you to the all the staff members that participated in the design process that was extensive and helped make sure that we could get to today. It's really very much appreciated. Thank you. Okay. Motion is to approve item 8 L as presented. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. All those opposed, please say nay. >> No. >> Motion carries 51. >> I do have a ask to introduce another uh line item 8M which I require I understand will require unanimous consent but to introduce this policy
134first reading. You'll have it in your email. Uh, additions and changes to policies 0155, D150, and A125 as presented. >> What was the last one, Mr. Schultz? >> A125. >> So, 01 0155 >> 0155 D is in delta 150 and A alpha 125. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second to add agenda item 8 M, which would be to consider this a first reading for policies 0155 D150 A125. In this case, this is a change to the agenda which requires unanimous vote from the board. All those in favor discussion >> questioner comments. Yes, of course. Thank you. Yeah, I was going to introduce the So, I mean, just for awareness to the um to those online, uh additions to 0155 would restrict ad hoc appointments to committees um by the president without the
135board's approval outside of an emergency. Still providing the flexibility within an emergency um as outlined within board policies, but for those inside outside of an emergency would require full major or majority of the board and visibility during a public meeting. additions to policies D150 would um include what I believe the spirit of the language would have been is that the superintendent is there to appoint non-board members to any negotiation teams and then for A125 would include conflict of interest statements um when the party has knowingly or intentionally provided benefit to a schoolboard member or employee to receive a contract with the corporation or a purchase made by the corporation Right now, the conflict of interest statement is only if they were to financially derive benefit from a contract, not if they were to have already
136received one ahead of time. >> Thank you. >> Um, so I was just going to add here that I think I have this correct that our our policy for policies um is that they're posted online for a time for the public to see and we get a chance to read them. Um and then when we do the first reading, we can we're informed enough by ourselves and also from comments that we've received from the public as to whether we want a work session, a board work session before the second reading to to discuss those. And when a policies brought up, we got it in email. I think I saw it today. The it was never posted online. I I am not in favor of this that as our process. it doesn't seem to fit um
137what we intended in terms of posting it for the public. And so that's why I'm going to vote. I mean, >> in in addition, I guess I would also say I don't um I don't feel okay about approving a change to an agenda when one board member isn't here and they were also provided the same few hours notice. So that's my position on my vote. Anyone else like to comment prior to going to a vote? >> I I didn't have time to read it. So I saw your email come in. I did not. So, I'm I'm not opposed to discussing those changes as we work on the policies moving forward. I'm absolutely open to that, but I I feel like it would be irresponsible of me, honestly, to to put it on the agenda without
138being prepared. >> I would like to amend your motion then to make tonight an introduction of those policies for our first reading at the next meeting. >> I'll second that. This would still require unanimous >> when when would >> No, because it's an amendment. >> Yes. Sorry. Still new. >> So, thank you, Mike. >> So, Mr. Major, the the motion that was originally made was to amend the agenda and to consider these items this evening. Mr. Major has made a motion to amend that motion. essentially asking directing that these policies be put on for the next meeting that we do not have a step of intro. We do not have a preirst reading for normal policies here at our board meeting but I think the effect of that action is that it it is to
139ensure that they are are on the agenda. Um, so you would be voting initially, do you want to amend the motion that has been made to direct these policies to be on the next meeting's agenda? >> Okay. >> In which time I believe we have we have more than 14 days between now and the next meeting. >> Okay. Will we work on these policies? I'm still >> learning the learning the stuff here. >> I think >> the first reading. Well, if if we could also um just clarify as a team, we reviewed policy package five today. Policy package six has already been set and put together. >> Working on it. Yes. >> So, um and it includes how many policies, Mr. Dr. Phillips? >> Probably 15 or so. 14. Thank you. >> Will the policies
140that you're talking about, Logan, will will they organically be in a packet moving forward? No, not based on the current state because they've already been reviewed and approved later in the >> last year. >> So I Yeah, I don't remember all three. One was just approved in April. >> Correct. I believe so. Um I have to go back and look. >> So I'm a little unclear why we're >> reviewing it twice. >> Reviewing a policy that we just approved in April just from an efficiency perspective. We have a lot of policies to look at down the road. >> I I'll make a third proposal just to make things even more. >> This isn't an amendment though. Okay. If I can just >> I an I can't make amend. >> I would make a suggestion to
141the board that in advance of putting these on a third reading, we actually schedule a work session >> so that I know what to put in the proposal that I bring to you in a you know, in in a uh first reading that it's as opposed to waiting and doing that between the September and October meeting. That would be my request of the board >> to help us >> with legal counsel to help us draft those as a group or at least the language that's in question. >> Thank you, Dr. Phillips. I'd like to point out team, we don't have to do these motions and amendments. if we could just communicate as a team ahead of time on things like this and try to put them in a streamlined fashion. So I I hope we
142can get better at that going forward just for the efficiency of the meeting and our content in in the future. Um thank you Dr. Phillips for that suggestion. So right now we have an amendment that we need to align on. So the amended motion is to add this as a first reading for our next board meeting on policies 0155, D150 and A125. All those in f in favor of the amended motion, please say I. >> Yes. I >> All those opposed, please say nay. Nay. Amendment is declined for two. Is that how I say that, Mike? Yep. Thank you. >> So So to have a work session, do we need to make a motion? >> You don't even need a motion, people. Okay, we can just ask for a work session. Does not require a
143motion. We're making this a little hard. Let's go back to our original motion, which was to add 8 M, which would include policy 0155, D150, and A125 to the agenda this evening. This would require a unanimous vote. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. >> Nay. >> Motion is declined for two. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Zalong. >> Yes. Thank you. The 10 human resources recommendations consist of three resignations, four appointments, one withdrawal, and two additional personnel recommendations. I request that you please approve items 9 A and B as presented. >> I move that we approve items 9 A and B, human resources. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Nell and Mr. Schultz. Any comments or questions from the team? All those in favor
144of approving 9A and B as presented, please say I. I. >> All those opposed, please say nay. >> Motion carry 6. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Board input and review. Um, Miss Lloyd, would you like to start? >> I really enjoyed the recognitions at the beginning of the meeting. That was probably the best part of my day today. So, um, got a little bit emotional listening to Mrs. Shaw. That was pretty, um, amazing to hear her speak so passionately about her students and her dedication and, um, just really appreciate it. So, congrats to the students. And I think one of the track gentlemen was our Lily recipient, right? Is that Neil? Neil White. Go, Neil. That's amazing. Um, so, thank you for bringing them to us and and letting us celebrate with them. That's that's
145wonderful. Um, my kid had a great start to the school year, so I hope everyone did the same. Thank you to our teachers and all the support staff and everybody involved in getting our 11,000 plus kiddos safely to and from and um kicking off the school year, right? >> Yeah. I just wanted to welcome everybody back to school and hope that uh everyone enjoys their experience this year. There's new teachers, new students, parents that are new to schools, and many others that are going to do this for the first time. And for those that are doing it for the last. So, want to make sure everybody has a safe uh wonderful year this year. Wanted to share something too that I got uh on a Facebook post that said uh the reason for this post
146was I was told today that a student went through the lunch line and said, "Do we really get free lunch?" when she was told yes to look at she looked at the wonderful cafeteria lady and said bless you. So uh this person uh was thankful for uh having at least a couple of schools get added to the free lunch. So thank you. >> Um I'm always uh appreciative of the parents. So for the the students that we were able to recognize tonight, Miss Wen I think called out one in particular, but the the support that the parents give uh for all the extracurriculars, for all the academic work that our students do. I really appreciate that. Um as a community, we rely on the parents and I'm glad that we're able to support them as
147a school corporation. I did want to pass along I I have done my best to remember past school board members. Uh Alan Conrad was a school board member in the I think in the 90s and maybe the early 2000s. Longtime teacher and coach and volunteer and supporter here at BCS. He passed away in July after our last board meeting. And I remember talking with him and working with him. He still has family in town. And we remember Allen combat and his service. >> Dr. Phillips, do you have anything? >> I do. Um, just echoing everyone's welcome. It was a great start to the school year last week and I have to point out how much of a miracle that it is every year. I mean, people always ask, are you ready for school to start?
148And I always say, ready or not, here they come. Um, and it's a small miracle that on Tuesday of last week, we didn't run a single bus. We didn't pick up a single kid. And then on Wednesday, we picked up thousands of students and drove hundreds of miles across the county and got every student back safely. We didn't serve a single meal on Tuesday, turned around on Wednesday, served thousands and thousands of meals to students, uh many of them for free thanks to your action. Um so thanks to everybody echoing that. Thank you. And then two things for the future I want to point out before our next meeting. Um, first, next weekend is the exhibit Columbus opening weekend. We have two student exhibits as part of that. One with our high school C4 students
149and Darren Johnson. And so, please go see that exhibit. And then also our STEM, fifth and sixth grade STEM lab students worked on an exhibit. It's the first time we've I believe it's the first time we've had two student exhibits as part of that. The second part of that uh announcement is between now and the next board member board meeting is rivalry week. And so we continue to be able to fill that week with as many of our Northeast events as possible. We've got girls golf, boys tennis, cross country, girls soccer, boys soccer, and football all in five days between Monday and Friday. So, come out, use your legacy pass, support our students in some of the most fun rivalry events you'll ever see. >> Um, I'd also like to thank um all teachers and
150staff. my kids are finally as tired as I am when I come home, which has made me feel much better. Um, and they are safe and happy in school. Um, I also didn't want to take away from from Julie and Dr. Phillips and her recognition, but I did write her a letter and I wanted to just read that and gush on her a little bit more before I pass it off. Um, dear officer Julie, I'd like to extend my heartfelt congratulations on your remarkable milestone, 20 years of dedicated service to our community through the Columbus Police Department. Your journey has been nothing short of inspiring. In 2014, you helped launch a small but mighty team of two school resource officers and began your impactful work Columbus East High School. For the next 5 years, your
151commitment to excellence was evident in every interaction. You fostered a sense of safety and security, but more importantly, you built genuine, positive relationships with the students, leaving a lasting impression on countless young lives. Your resume is a testament to your unwavering dedication to safety and the education in our state and community. from serving as a DARE officer, field training officer, and physical tactic tactics instructor to leading as the former president of the state of Indiana SRR group and becoming a certified instructor with the National Association of School Resource Officers. You have cons consistently gone above and beyond. One of the most memorable examples of your commitment was the female safety course you held for high school seniors preparing to graduate. It is your way of giving one last gift, equipping them with the skills and
152confidence to navigate the world safely. For more than half of your career, you've been a guardian for our children. And while you may be retiring in this role, I suspect that you're not done making a difference. I, for one, can't wait to see what you do next. Thank you, Julie, for your service, your leadership, and the heart you poured into this post. You've made this community better, safer, and stronger. With deep appreciation, Nikki Wilton, we wish her the best. Um, I want to also thank all the people that helped get school off to a good start, but in particular, I want to thank Dr. Stalbomb and her team for um the hard work of staffing our classrooms and and our schools. Um, and I want to thank Mr. McCyver for guiding us through the meeting
153when we're not sure where we're where we're going. Um, and I want to thank Mr. Edwards and Dr. Laura Hack um for for helping us maneuver um state laws that sometimes are hard to coordinate with textbook requirements and things, but but working on some of the tough things getting us through that. Um and finally, I also really appreciated hearing what um Amelia Shaw had to say, particularly um her student stories. I love hearing student stories. So I will tell you one student story. Um so a former student of mine um hiked the 100 mile wilderness with me. Um he is he has his master's degree in um international economics and he is an economics researcher for the um Federal Reserve and my son-in-law also hiked who's a he's the Old Testament professor at Christian Theological
154Seminary. So as you can imagine we had some interesting conversations as we hiked the 100 mile wilderness. Um, but I would also like to thank um the the people who have donated to the school foundation in honor of that hike. We are close to $3,000 the last time I checked and I appreciate every one of them. So, thank you. As as the last one on the line, I'll welcome back everybody as well. And I I thank everyone that made it a successful first day. Um, Dr. Boseman, the bus department was on point. I think they were like 30 seconds to the spot to get to our our place. So, it was great. The kids enjoyed it. Um, congratulations to the North Athletics that were uh presented today. And then congratulations to Amelia Shaw. Um, and
155also a thank you, shout out to Clarity. I know she sat around and was kind of through the presentation and definitely the dedication that they have to um educating our students as well. >> Thank you. Okay. Next, I believe our next meeting will be September 8th, 2025 here in the administration building. I would also like to point out I think our public um input session for the upcoming um bargaining is also on September 8th. And what time is it, Dr. Phillips? We shouldn't have that on here. >> Put that in. >> You have a calendar invite, but let me look real quickly just to make sure because the rest of the people in the crowd do not have that calendar invite. We have it scheduled from five o'clock >> starting at five o'clock on the
1568th for uh any public input on bargaining prior to the beginning of the bargaining season >> and that will be on our website um posted on our website just so people are aware of that. And then um just given the conversation tonight, assuming I have supported the board, we'll work on a a work session for the um policies that were brought to our attention this evening and get that on the calendar as well. Okay, everyone have a good evening. Meeting adjourned.