001e good hello can everyone hear me okay in the back yes good okay good evening I have 6:30 we're going to go ahead and get started for those that are able if you wouldn't mind standing for the Pledge of Allegiance please really enjoyed all the little voices helping us with that tonight that was very special okay I have all board me members in attendance so I'll call the meeting to order Dr Phillips thank you Miss Welden we like to start each meeting by reminding ourselves of our mission vision and core beliefs and so I'll read those aloud to all of our guests tonight for a packed house the vision of bcse is to be the choice to learn work and play and our mission is to develop expert Learners by partnering with our community to
002invest in people our core beliefs are that we all can rise to the challenge of of high expectations that learning is most effective when we have Choice flexibility and see relevance that we Thrive when our social physical 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 but certainly not least that our democracy and Democratic institutions are strengthened by civic-minded citizens you Dr Phillips we have quite a few recognitions tonight this is very exciting I believe we'll start with the 2025 education Hall of Fame War Mr Schultz yeah to kick off all the festivities and appreciate the full house uh we wanted to present the 2025 education Hall of Fame award uh
003for those of you that aren't aware this award's purpose is to recognize outstanding and extraordinary contributions to bcsc by a bcsc teacher staff member or administrator um just to walk through the overall process uh applications were given uh by November 1st a committee reviewed these um and we really appreciate all the applications that were provided to us um and today the award goes out um and I want to thank the committee members that are here um if any of them are uh Brett Finley uh principal over at CSA Lincoln Toby Haron the parent the parent representative uh Janice Montgomery and loose Elena Michelle and if any okay I didn't see any of them but I wanted to make sure I didn't miss them um and I I want to make and want to appreciate uh
004Miss Carla yudi is the recipient and welcome Blake Manuel to introduce her uh for this award [Applause] all right thank you Mr Schultz and the board before I hand it off to Mrs udy I just wanted to I'm just introduce myself my name is Blake Manuel and I'm an assistant principal at Columbus East High School but 12 years ago in 2013 I had probably my favorite title of being Mrs Udi's student teacher um and and so from that not being from Columbus and and coming to a central Middle School to um experience what teaching was like um I had a firsthand experience of just seeing uh Mrs Udi work and interact with the students and be um a pillar for a school and I got to see that firsthand and I got to see that
005over the next few years um as a staff member at Central as a teacher and then later as assistant principal um just continuously seeing uh Carla not just um interact with the different student teachers that she had or the different staffs but really just make an impact on all the students that she had um the running joke amongst everybody with her team and Mindy and all the students is that um calling her dinosaur and all that stuff but that's but they say that um endearingly and it's it's it's kind of a running joke too um that uh she's always the first person in the parking lot and she's always the last one to leave and after 42 years um as working at Central Middle School it's I'm just an honor to call her a friend
006and a mentor um and I cannot think of a better person deserving of the 2025 education Hall of Fame award and so before I hand it off um I just wanted to read some things that are going to be remembered on the plaque that she'll have in a plaque that'll be at Central Middle School and so these are some of the things that um your your peers your friends your daughters um wrote in their recommendation for you and so um first it's Beacon of influence an honest faithful and loyal exhibits empathy and compassion leadership beyond the classroom student teacher mentor ignites curiosity and critical thinking skills among her students four Decades of dedicated service to bcsc as an educator passion for World cultures US history and current events and then a quote that I'll be
007on here is her extraordinary commitment mentorship and educational philosophy have left an enduring mark on bcse so with that congratulations Mrs yudy [Applause] [Laughter] well thank you bcsc for giving me such an honor um I used to joke with people about you know after teaching here for so long I would hope I'd at least have a plaque on a bathroom stall or something and I never my wall streams would have thought of this um but I want to thank everyone who uh helped with the recognition process I know there's people that wrote letters and I've got to see the letters and it's very touching um as well as my children that uh that participated in that effort um I have sincerely loved being a part of this Corporation for my 40 41 years this year
008um I love Middle School um I think part of that is because perhaps I have a little bit of a middle school personality I think that goes a long way um sense of humor also obviously very important um but I have truly loved all the time that I've spent with like over 5,000 students hundreds of students athletes when I coached in my first 10 years which seems like a lifetime ago um and then of course all of the teachers and so many of teachers that have come tonight I can think of stories with everybody uh stories with children and then also funny stories that that we've shared um uh we do a lot of teasing at the middle school level because humor is important and that's sometimes that's what gets us through a day when
009it's a tough day um but my team that I'm working with now currently has been also an inspiration for me to continue to be the best that I can be as well and we have different Generations represented from someone that's my children's age up to dinosaur age um so they've been a real inspiration for me as well I was really touched that Mrs Hagen is here um Willis Hagen her husband who was deceased um hired me and I remember so many stories from Willis hang or what I used to call him Willie um I could remember the the day that I had my interview and I was so nervous I drove a a gremlin it had no air I was coming from Ball State um no air conditioning so I had to roll the window
010down but I had puffy hair and I'd spent a lot of time on that hair and uh so I wanted the window down I sat straight at my seat so I wouldn't have sweat on my back I got down there and hour and a half before my interview and there was some seating outside so I parked and I sat outside later to find out that Willie and Mr cell were sitting across at the Olympia watching me the whole time so I'm glad I didn't embarrass myself um but uh Willie and I shared a lot of good stories and uh I truly I truly do miss him um I don't know I I know I could tell you a lot more stories and uh I could also write a book on what you can get a
011middle school child to do for a Jolly Rancher that might be in the works maybe when I retire but I do want to thank everyone for coming out and and supporting me tonight um and feel a lot of love I really appreciate that thank you so much [Applause] than [Applause] pleas okay next I believe we have Southside spell Bowl champions Mr Beck Meer Miss Duo I didn't say that right I can tell Jack's G to be mad at me Z front and center all right uh Dr Phillips thank you for having us members of the school board it's a pleasure to be here um giving us the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of these Southside Mustangs um we talk about personal best and each of these individuals did their personal best and then combined that
012together to uh do their personal best for their team and so we appreciate all of the efforts I couldn't be more proud of Mrs Doo our spell longtime spell ball coach who's not allowed to retire and then all the many members of of the team so we appreciate them very much and I'd like to introduce them uh and have her say a few words all right um standing in front of you are 13 amazing fifth and sixth graders um they had tough shoes to fill because last year we were state champs as well um and we only had one student return um the rest moved on to Central which I think you guys celebrated a little while ago um but they they worked hard so our season started in August um we had 50 try
013out these 1 made the team um they they hit the road running um we had 21 tests from August to November we had 12 practices um I threw in crossword puzzles I threw in extra credit um extra credit you'll see on our shirts um one of our words was cumulo Nimbus and I have a black golden doodle named Nimbus so that's how he um became our mascot for the year um so the night of the event is actually um hosted at Southside we had 14 teams compete six were in the green class eight in the blue class which is um the class that we compete in um we won our area tournament and then out of 104 teams um in the blue class throughout the dist or throughout the state we had the best um
014score so very proud of them and and yes personal best is is what you would hear out of my voice or out of my mouth and and that's exactly what they did so I will let them take the mic and introduce themselves um I'm yoshika garia I'm in sixth grade and I was one of the spell members I'm Dia Rami and I'm in fifth grade I was one of the spell bow team members I'm stavia fresh and I in grade I'm Risha ragavan I am in sixth grade I'm rant Sharma and I'm in sixth grade and part of the spell bow Team I'm rashan jagi and I'm part of I'm in fifth grade and I'm part of the spell bow Team I'm subu subaya and I was part of the spell bow Team and I'm
015in sixth grade my name is swasti tande I'm in fifth grade and I was part of the spell bow Team my name is sonana Manata and I'm in sixth grade and I was part of the spell bow Team my name is Victoria Q andl is part of the spellow team and I'm in sixth grade my name is Bella Zang and I'm in fifth grade and I was part of the spell ball team my name is mishita pal I'm in fifth grade and I was part of the spell ball team my name is verica pru I'm in sixth grade and I was also part of the spell bow Team con [Laughter] sh very cool congratulations way to go it's amaz up here the [Laughter] okay Mr Miller all right thank you Dr Phillips and the school
016board for recognizing this uh amazing accomplishment by the girls wrestling team winning the state championship in the first year um I'd like to thank coach olds and his staff uh they did an amazing job obviously when you're starting a new program from scratch you're going to have um a wide range of uh skill levels and we had some girls who are wrestling in our club program um for the last few years and we had a few girls who have never wrestled before um and Coach olds and the staff did an amazing job working with each individual wrestler and helping them to get better every every week um I told Coach olds I wouldn't steal too much of his Thunder talking about um the team but kind of one quick story that really shows you what
017type of Team This was um a few weeks ago on a Friday when we had some uh bad weather um the girls team were wrestling in moresville for the Regional Championship uh they had a tough week the week before in sectional didn't win sectional um but really did a great job in Regional we had a lot of Champions and that really um pushed us to a a state championship that next week um and the next day that Saturday after wrestling a long hard Regional uh bad weather coming back getting home late a lot of the team came to Franklin to support our boys team in the team State duels and that truly shows you what type of team this this this is um they support each other they support others in the school and they
018truly embody what it means to be a Columbus CE Olympian uh I'll turn it over to coach [Laughter] OLS I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight and showing support for these state champions uh before we meet them I have some people I have to thank um coach noblet for helping with everything that happened this year wouldn't be possible without him um I need to thank my wife Emily and my son Braden uh they've sacrificed uh a lot their sacrifices allowed me to coach these young ladies um and they gave up their time and gave their unwavering support for me and the team uh next I'd like to thank the parents of these athletes uh without their commitment to the goal long hour in the gym miles driven this would never have been possible
019uh I also want to thank the athletic department the school and the fans they showed up to make sure uh this was a special year and I just hope we represented them well now I want to thank this year's State participants and then say a few words about the team uh so step forward when I say your name first up Tina caditz [Laughter] Madison Mount matd schwartzen truber Seventh Place finisher Eden [Applause] Knight fourth place finisher Madison Sher third place finisher Grace McMahon State runner up Sage plumber and state champion Monica [Applause] McMahon one more time for all the state qualifiers um I was asked a question after we won how did a group of girls with very little experience come together to win a State title over the next few weeks I had time
020to think about that question and what I came up with was six universal truths that we all learned together as a team number one big Su success starts with Big Dreams without dreams you can't create a path to success number two believe believe in what you're doing believe in in yourself believe in your teammates if you believe you can't achieve number three consistency without consistency dreams are just dreams make a consistent effort every day to get better don't focus on the early wins and losses but grow every day to be the best version of yourself number four dedication every person in the room dedicates themselves to getting better and making their teammates better success isn't built in a day a week or a month but small daily gains are the key to reaching your goals
021number five accept failures as inevitable use failures to find Improvement and take your abilities to the next level and finally be passionate about what you're doing passion will push you forward when things get hard and lead you to your dreams there will NE there will never be another first time ihsaa team state champion these girls have earned everything they've achieved nothing was handed to them I hope they never will forget they'll always be Champions thank you [Laughter] congratulations that's awesome taking picture [Laughter] come on we got to do our F [Laughter] go board members I don't want to make I'm the only one doing it what the [Music] heck hey can I say you ladies even had tough handshakes I very much appreciate that and I can't help it I have to uh add just
022a a quick comment uh about um Miss McMahon Monica's speech I told so these poor kids I I've been going to the state championship for the boys for a lot lot of years um just because I'm a a fan I don't have any wrestling background but I love the sport and these poor kids when they win a state championship um what happens is the guy from TV sticks a microphone right in front of them as soon as they're finished they have a short break and then ask starts asking them questions in these poor kids for the most part very unprepared and you can tell and plus they're worked up because they just won a state championship um and and that happened to Monica and she I I've told so many people this now they're tired
023of me talking about but um she gave the best speech that I've ever heard any state champion give following um following her uh her win as a individual state champion um and did her family proud and her School proud and her community proud if you haven't seen it try to find it on Instagram or or whatever social media app you are on because it is it is a tremendous Testament to the um the whole team but also the way that coach olds prepares them the way that her family prepared her and I have to tell you also I felt so sorry for her sister who was getting ready to have her picture taken because she was on the podium for the previous weight class and when she talked about her sister and what Mentor her
024oh she just she just lost it and then so she was all prepared for a picture but then by the time the picture came she was a you know um you know kind of kind of uh you could tell she had been crying but um tremendous tremendous achievement there and um I don't think U very many of us get to say our community has the very first state champion ihsaa history so congratulations to all of you hi we are going to move on to Schoolboard member reports uh Mr major can I start at your end please yeah the the Redevelopment committee commission met uh last week and we had a lot of stuff going on swor in a new commission member uh former mayor Jim linup um talked about parking garage we talked about new
025uh owner for the Orange Leaf location new owner for the or leaser lesser for the subway uh location the downtown entrance Plaza the Hamilton Center chillers and the Arcadia Drive uh Department of Public Works projects uh Health Trust also met last week had a great conversation um talked a lot about how we finished up last year and what risk looks like this year uh we're probably going to have another meeting sometime this month next month to talk about some things that uh will help lead into managing the risk for this year so we're doing everything we can to keep cost down as much as possible uh but acknowledge that cost is increased so we're just trying to figure out the best way to make everything great for for uh all of the users of our
026insurance so uh I connected with uh Mrs Sarah Dunlap to talk about Cyd and get our first meeting on the book so I'm really excited to talk about the work that they're doing and learn how I can hopefully help and create a positive impact reviewing their current initiatives and projects and what their goals are for the year um also communicated with DD about the foundation and reviewing what their current Works have been and uh hopefully we'll be able to assist in that capacity as well it's just din no meetings nothing to report this evening thank you um so I did not have any meetings I did participate um in a closeout session for our um exit conference for a financial audit um I want to thank Mr brener and Paula beus for doing such a
027fantastic job with the audit um there were no major findings I think there's always opportunities for improvement they dig deep um I thought the things they found were valid and and we'll get better from those so just want to thank the team for putting in putting in the time with that um I didn't have any meetings but I do have a isba legislative update um there are hundreds of bills I'm just GNA throw out three of them here um House Bill 101 is the budget it's pretty early but I'm I'm sure that will have some impact on what we do here when it comes out um House Bill 102 is a lot of educational um has a lot of educational impacts and one I'll throw out there is that it would remove under its current
028um version it would remove the requirement that the state Secretary of Education has an advanced degree or experience in education and um House Bill 1544 if this went through this could have local impact for us it allows a it would allow a 25% tax credit for donations to a public school foundation and more to come Mr Glick a couple weeks ago we had the superintendent advisory Council luncheon with a whole number ranging from all levels of Staff uh and one thing that stuck out to me was Jen moral who's she's a counselor at CSA new tech uh there's not much to really report other than what she said kind of stuck out with me and where she led I was hoping that's where she was going uh they had their open house for eighth graders
029and they did something different this year they had the seniors lead it and the students lead it and uh that's exactly I was hoping to go she would go with that and uh and making their job easier as staff by letting the students do it sounds like they uh created more work for themselves because the they had a massive number of increased applications so they're going to have to do a little bit of nagling there to figure out how they're going to do it but that's exactly what we need to see empowering our students to step up and help with enrollment thank you Mr Schultz no meetings on the ccic I believe it comes up in the next couple weeks and then we just covered Hall of Fame so we're all good thank you all
030right cabinet Ember fors I'm color blind so to me it was green um thank you for participating in today's audit I would love to take credit for all the work that went into it but it was the two-year audit for 22 to midyear 24 so Dr Phillips and Paula they did a great job setting it up for me um and it it was a good audit and we're very proud of it um looking at our financial report for 2024 um revenues for the year were very strong in the education fund we were up five and a half or five and a quarter percent over 2023 the largest part of that increase was due to to the interest income that we discussed last meeting with our investments as well as our basic Grant was higher than
031we had anticipated because we had good ADM numbers in the operations fund revenues were up about 7% um that was again interest income and also our local income tax in in um Revenue was higher than we had anticipated for the year and the referendum fund we were up 2 and a half% in Revenue over 2023 um property tax revenues were again a little bit higher than we had anticipated strong years we had 96 million in Revenue in the education fund 36 million in operations and just over 10 million in the referendum fund our education fund expenditures our salaries were up just over 7 and a half% over 2023 the biggest part of that is the um salary rate increase that was uh as part of the CBA that was done as well as the additional
032Staffing due to the cohorts at north and east and benefits were up about four and a half% which ties into the salary increases and our other expenses were up about uh almost 20% a big but the dollarwise it's not as much as the other increases show due to um some under $10,000 Tech Supply purchases as well as some testing material purchases that we had and then the transferred operation ations we had discussed at the last meeting as well um for the year we expended 96 m700 th000 in the education fund budget um when you take out the transfer to operations which isn't a part of the approved budgeting through the state's eyes um salaries and benefits were 95% of those expenditures operations fund expenditures salaries were up about 95% that is again due to salary
033increases as well as the fact that we are nearly fully staffed across the board within operations uh we have an operations team meeting last week and as Dr Boseman went around the table talking to each of his team leads um nearly every one of them said fully staffed fully staffed going to be fully staffed after we fill these positions on Friday so it's a great thing the salary increases that the board has put into place over the last few years has really tied into that um benefits were up just a little over uh 2% and our other expenditures were pretty much flat for the year um expenditures in the operations fund overall 35,1 126,000 um just over 4% increase over 2023 referendum fund expenditures salaries uh for our teachers were up 3.8% support staff 2.3%
034benefits 4% Safety and Security increase of 40% a big part of that was some bus purchases that we had had in 2024 and our stem Labs were up about 12% over the previous year total expenditure within this budget was 9.2 million um 9.25 4 million of the 9255 we had budgeted so our fund cash balances when we look at our reserves we look at them in a couple different ways that Dr Phillips has told you about before but I'm going to follow up because I'm new at this with you guys so within uh the education fund we receive funding from the state on a monthly basis so we like to have a reserve of about two payrolls that fits that month time period in case there's a delay in the expenditures um for 2024 we
035ended the year with about 5.9 million in reserves our our two month our two- pay period would be about 5 a half million so as you saw during the budget process we did intend to bring that down just a little bit for 2025 so we have anticipated um spending more than we bring in as a way to bring down those reserves to not be over reserved in that area in the operations fund and the referendum fund those are basically property tax revenue funds so we get those payments twice a year so we look to have more of a six-month Reserve level in the operations fund we have a balance of 15.6 million um a 50 a six-month balance would be about 17 million so we're still building that up just a little bit to get
036to that six-month Reserve in the referendum fund we are at 4.1 million half uh six months would be a little over four and a half million so we're still building that up just a little bit health and dental trust we have a balance of 5.6 million which is an increase of 4.3 million we look at this fund um if we have a a reserve level of 30% of the next year's expected expenditures we then put that extra money towards um hsas for our employees we're not quite at that level yet so that balance is still strong and good and in debt service we're at 2.8 million any questions then on financial report questions from the team okay next is our property tax rate um as part of the budget process uh our advertised rate was
0371.01 78 for 2025 when it was all said and done it came in at n or 9981 which is a slight reduction over 2024's rate and as you can see 2122 those were the effects of the referendum Dr Phillips staff and board at that that time was assuring to the public that we would keep it below 101 and try and reduce that um another thing we've been able to do even with the Envision 2030 projects and the bonding that we're doing we were able to remain net neutral for the year so we're really proud of that and uh State average for 24 was A1 five um we won't have the state average for 2025 for another month or so and when I get that I will bring that information back to you any questions on
038the tax rate the only question I have regarding property tax rate is is there a way to present how that compares to the assessed value increase over over the last couple years because that's that's the biggest issue like our our tax rate is neutral but the sess value is what is hitting everybody and certain people don't understand that so maybe compare those numbers to to bring some light to that could do that um what we can control is uh the tax rate I'm not saying that you have control over that that's the county assessor tracking yeah thank you yeah yeah don't mean to throw her under the bus but yes we can provide that information for you this is a little bit off topic but at the beginning you talked about the uh State Board
039of accounts and the two-year audit uh what was the time frame that they cover covered with their two-year audit July 2022 to June 30th of 2024 okay and then how long are they down here when they do that work um it's changed over the years um they now um sub it out to auditing firms Crow did our audit this year um we began meeting Paula and our staff we began meeting with them november-ish late October early November um back and forth uh they have a website where we can upload a lot of our information they have access to Gateway uh the state site to pull a lot of our information down um and then in January uh they present us early January they presented us with a preliminary report we were able to respond and
040then today was the final hearing thank you and last but not least our extra curric I can't say the word our ECA account um these are funds that each school has for their extracurricular activities there I did it um starting in 21 or 22 we were able to start investing These funds um that fourth column is the amount we have invested currently um at Raymond James uh that total that 947 th000 is not included in the December 24 balance but if you add the two together you can get what each school has um for the year or for the six-month period July 1 to December 31 we were up about uh $400,000 again strong fall where there's a lot of fundraisers that happen and then in the Sports World North and East all of their
041competitions against each other happen pre- Christmas so we have really great attendance really great revenues from those Sports at that time second semester we'll see uh these uh balances drop a little bit so when we come back to you in July with this report you'll see a little bit smaller number as those monies are spent so being new it may be a silly question but who has the authority to spend these funds at each school and how does that process happen he's new to um okay Miss Lloyd so step in on the the school side of how these this function so each building also has a treasure and so there's a um a certified sorry a classified position and so any expenditure is approved by both the principal and the treasurer at the building level
042and there's a whole section of State Board of accounts guidelines for extracurricular account accounting and so at the January meeting one of the approvals from the board was actually a a bond to ensure each of the building treasurers as well these can be used for academics Athletics and any teacher can submit a request this is these are almost 100% um clubs or extracurricular programming so you know the all Athletic program is the bulk of most of the money that's up there but if um yeah if there's a club that's going to do a field trip they probably already have a sub account in there they do a fundraiser money goes in you all approve those fundraisers every meeting and then they expend the dollars thank you and within that our staff does audit this monthly
043at the end of each month we do a Reconciliation of the funds thank you very much thank you good evening uh we are going to give our annual technology update tonight uh can't thank you for your time and your support to help us have the technology department that we have so with me tonight is Brian trivet he is the lead over our operations breny cummer is over uh the education and I'm the technology director we have a fantastic team uh that's listed up there including Asher who's helping out with sound tonight but uh really fantastic group that we've we've been able to work with for quite a while now so by the numbers um this slide is an annual slide but we we have a lot so we have over a 100,000 assets that does
044include devices but also um monitors to the microphones that you're speaking into tonight I have over 14,000 user accounts um and two million square feet of Wi-Fi coverage that we have to kind of update and 100 plus systems so those are software systems some we host some we don't um also include some digital ulum pieces as well but we also have a lot of vendors that we work with and maintain those relationships from year to year so finances it's a it's a very large investment that we've been lucky enough to have in our department we spend about this past year 3.5 million in annual technology needs over a million goes directly to new student devices every first Fifth and ninth grader gets a new device and we'll stay with them over the course of four
045years and seniors get to take their device home after graduation another big piece of our finances is Grants uh we've had almost three million since 2019 that includes funding from federal and state that helps fund internet hotspots cyber security software family engagement Ai and a lot more our state is really strong in terms of their edtech use and support which we've been been able to take advantage of so Dr Phillips asked me to uh like what did it look like before we started so Dr Phillips and I started here uh the same year and I found a strategic plan from 2001 to 2003 which was the year before we came and this is just the Stark difference of what it was like when we started teaching here so from 17 to 28 staff members a
046$1.8 million budget to 3.5 some of the most shock ones are software there's only 13 District programs um that cost the 181,000 and now it's well over a million and we have a lot of software programs and then the devices were all in Labs um we had around 2,000 computers and now again we have a lot of devices around 20,000 Chromebooks laptops and iPads all right so every year we try to cover an aspect of what we do and we've especially the last year and a half has had a lot of questions about cyber security and safety and student safety so we thought it'd be a good opportunity to talk to everybody about that so our technology and I actually talked to a group about this and they were concerned that students were on devices
047all the time and that is not the case so we follow and support our udl instructional framework and that framework is all about having student choice and options and that is how we view technology is as a tool to help students learn and we have a very diverse population over 60 different languages about 133% uh in the El ml group 10% qualify for special education and a device can help you know read aloud can help translate it is one of the most accessible ways to give content to students uh we also make sure that they have a device the devices follow the students all the way through so as they're first grader it'll follow them to second grader and so on up and over the summer we'll move all of the sixth grade devices into
048the middle schools and then as ninth graders they get a new one so uh there's no reason that they should you know kind of use somebody else's tool because everybody has their own device we also work hard to make sure the device fits their needs so there's large screen Chromebooks there are touchscreen Chromebooks regular Chromebooks um iPads laptops uh depending on what best matches students need and we work with uh teachers on that the other big piece uh when we went Ono one and had a stud a learning management system we adopted a digital citizenship uh kind of platform which is Common Sense Media as a parent it's great you can go there and look at ratings on apps that your kids may have or movies but it also has a lot of great content
049for our teachers so our department has helped create advisory lessons for the high schools have made other lessons available in canvas that all of our teachers can use uh on a day-to-day basis and if we get questions from parents we usually are referring them back to articles uh that this platform provides which has been really helpful so getting into student safety we do have a firewall that helps protect uh at least anything any Bad actors from coming in we also have a Content filter that works anywhere so it doesn't matter if they're at school or at home uh and it also sends a report to principles of suspicious searches so there's this long list including uh words in different languages that our El ml Department helped put together to alert our principles if there's something
050that they need to be worried about and we also have a program called bark that monitors all all of our Google accounts and if there's anything in there self harm threats violence then it will alert our principles immediately um so that we can at least be aware of those situations and that has been a helpful tool again for us to help make sure our students are safe over the years all right Brian thanks Nick uh so we've had a lot of support I was putting up little too close we have had a lot of support as far as security uh practices and what's that you're all the I'm all the wayle is this okay right [Music] here okay I'm gonna try to talk and not blow everybody's ears out we good okay all right so
051we have had a lot of support when it's come to uh cyber security across the district um we've talked with other technology groups and other across the state we feel like we have really a leading of the pack mentality when it comes to our practices and procedures and I want to kind of dive into why we think that and what we are doing to kind of stay in the front of a lot of our peers across the state so we operate under a kind of what we're seeing here is a pyramid but the base of that pyramid is made up by what we know as the CIS or Center for in Internet Security framework there's about 150 or so metrics that we measure against our practices our procedures and try to see what we can
052do to make things better or maybe we're doing things already pretty well but we meet monthly and we go to the people spot now where we have a cyber security task force we discuss the framework what things that we're doing well what things we need improve on maybe what's coming down the pike that we need to maybe address here pretty soon um and we have a lot of support from teams locally from other groups nationally that we can bounce ideas off and get some thoughts and feedbacks on our practices and our procedures our third level there we have infrastructure Nick alluded to that a little bit earlier but for infrastructure we have a lot of great Technologies in place um with our firewalls are monitoring we have backups in case something happens we have air
053gaped backups that we can use to restore things if needed there's inpoint protection on all of our devices uh we do yearly pen tests which is we engage the third party to basically try to break into our Network and then give us a report on what they've done so that we can go through and mitigate and resolve those things before someone maliciously tries to break into our Network as well as doing regular updates for all of our devices and that top level there is kind of what we put into practice our two- Factor authentication just another level for our staff to protect their data their students data other staff's data we do self- fishing so we send fake emails like a bad actor might but if someone clicks on it we give them some educational
054prompts to say maybe need to look at this next time or maybe think about a little bit different this way we have tabletop exercises where we simulate something happening just mental exercises but then we mark down and document what we could do in the future if this type of thing happens we have complex passwords again more complexity more security and we limit the admin access on all of our devices so anybody that used to be able to install whatever they wanted whenever not even it can we sit there on our accounts and install something directly on our desktops so a little bit more secure across the board for all of that so there's a few things we try to do that are a little bit more fun I mean Iber security can be kind of
055a drag and sometimes boring but you can see here we've started the first time ever a fishing tournament it started today so there are of these self- fishing emails that are going out across the district um we're going to have building level winners we're going to have District level winners and we'll promote and show off those individuals for their attention to detail and then their success in that but you can also see our little Fishbowl it's a traveling trophy that buildings get every quarter when we do these fishing uh drills whoever whichever building has the lowest uh percentage of people that click on those messages they get a bowl full of candy get the bragging rights for the next quarter and they get share that with all the employees in their building we have you
056can see Nick's face they're taking a good picture of all of us this is one of our cyber security uh tabletop exercises where we're talking through what might happened in some sort of an incident and then in the opposite Corners there we have various security throughout the year trainings and also we celebrate cyber security month and do contests and just raise awareness across the district on best security practices and what everybody can do to keep BCS see safe I think part of that is being proactive so we've met and talked to a lot of districts who have put these into place after an attack and we just try to be as proactive as we can to prevent attacks as much as we can what questions can we answer about security or uh technology will the
057board be participating in this fishing tournament you are more than welcome to participate if you want you will get those emails regardless of want them or not no you did answer my one question of whether it was like I'm hoping that we're not getting fishing into the network so this the self self- diagnosed fishing is all right that's where my question was going so thank you sorry I'm full of questions tonight can you talk just a little bit more about bark and how this may not be a question for you but maybe counselors when a that flag goes up if a student has search something I mean we have a lot of mental health issues and so if a student is genuinely trying to look something up to maybe help themselves and it gets flagged
058what does that what unfolds next so there's there's a couple things depending on the severity of it but the principles are alerted first um so especially at the high school level and the cohorts that whole team will work on it I've seen my wife go through that process the middle schools would work with their counselors and then same on down to Elementary um there's not as many in elementary but we have had a few uh also tied into that is our Wellness team with Jana Norman um and Julie Miller so they're alerted as well uh as well as myself kind of being the system administrator of that so well you know it's not a uh kind of constant alert it's it's ones that you have to pay attention to to make sure that uh we're
059keeping our students safe um and making sure that you know the right help can be there thank you I I don't think I've ever asked about this but typing class When's the earliest age group that would take a typing class good question um that I'm not sure of the answer of uh the only reason why I ask is the two most important classes I ever took were typing and speech we use that we use those every day and it might get rid of some of the LOLs that we see when our kids text us if they knew how to actually use a phone right we've we've had a typing program as a system um but in terms of How It's integrated in the curriculum and when they start using that or if they're still using
060that uh I'm not aware but we can we can get back to you on that one more real quick too um my daughter graduated last year and has her Chromebook still at home but she doesn't use it for college because it wasn't capable of doing some of the college stuff there's going to be some kids that will want the Chromebook and some kids that don't is there a benefit to us to take the Chromebooks back and recycle them or donate those to other schools that might have use for them um rather than sitting at home collecting dust yes um potentially so with the fourth grade devices and the eighth grade devices will take the best of those and you know some are used for testing or some are used for loners uh try to use
061those until we can anymore but we have certainly had different groups reach out um if we have devices and we usually try to satisfy those that does take board approval for or the removal of those or disposal of them so you know kind of every once in a while you'll see that as an approval item um and we do try to do that we don't we don't try to hold them I guess um in anticipation of that but we've we've certainly done that in the past and I think the what I'm thinking like locally you know the kids for the most part that are in schools do have a Chromebook available to them but place like a s Susi might be a good place to you know make a donation and then you know they're
062they're going to make a couple bucks off of them but somebody's gonna get something like that really cheap so yeah and I like Ivy Tech was asking us um if we could actually think about starting the program of seniors taking them home laptops were a little trickier so when we moved to Chromebooks for high school it allowed us to do that because they had several students coming without them so uh you know we definitely try to engage with our community in that so um this is about technology in general I to me I think one of the biggest challenges in technology is how it disturbs us when we're no no that is um is that it's always changing um and I I know I've seen you do a lot of creative things but my question
063is what what's the big challenge you face in terms of training and in service for teachers on the Ever Changing technology and and what do you do to meet that challenge so that's a great question I I think we are extremely conservative in what we adopt as the district and we're thoughtful about it so I could go you know kind of yearby year of like virtual reality was a big thing that a lot of schools invested in and then it's kind of come and gone so having Educators and teachers we have a group of teachers that we work with called Tech Titans that represent every building that we get feedback on so like the adoption process we're very thoughtful about that and practical I feel um keeping up is really difficult especially now that everything
064uh is just in the cloud and they update like I just saw a Google update on a form that I've never seen before and it's like oh a new interface um so we have to work hard to update training offer all the time we try to be creative with it um but it does take a lot of energy and we have a lot of people that we you know kind of try to keep up to date as we can being involved in our organizations kind of helps us weed through some of that as well which is extremely beneficial we'll hear from vendors or hear from other school districts of what they're trying um we're very rarely the first to jump in because of that practicality and not you know we have a large district and
065trying to scale things is is difficult so we yeah I I don't know if I answered your question completely but it it is at least strategic on our point of trying to adopt what we can and support it and train for it thank you I had one question we use we get a little application happy sometimes in my day job and sometimes when you put in a new app you think oh my gosh I can't believe I did that and sometimes it did exactly what you wanted it to and then there's those few moments where you're like that was really handy I am pleasantly surprised with how impactful positively impactful that was for us what would that application be for for you and your department what's one you've put in place that you're really proud
066of I think and again it kind of started with a pilot but parent square has been life-changing for us they got rid of so many other outside communication tools that we were supporting or halfway supporting and having that one constant communication tool along with Josh and his work has been really kind of that most recent kind of revolutionary type of tech that has helped everyone say before that was probably a one learning management system that helped us do e-learning helped us prepare for the pandemic as best we could with one to one but that that next one for me has been parent Square thank you appreciate uh now we are on to public comments so um anyone who wishes to come to a school board meeting and participate through public comments there's a blue sheet
067that's always at the front of the the um house when you walk in the door can sign up um it it helps us if you kind of jot down what you want to speak about and then we do have some um some rules uh we ask that you do not say any particular names or a specific role within the school corporation we want to make sure that our comments are um fair to people uh you do have three minutes there's a timer here that'll keep you on track and and we'll remind you when the buzzer goes off um and then if it's a topic where you feel like someone before you has spoken and said the same thing you can always pass um and just say I agree with with so and so um and
068tonight we have one speaker and it is Mr Cole Bennett Cole you still there good evening everyone my name is Cole Bennett I live on the North side of Columbus and I'm here to speak once again to the issue of uh safety within our schools and since your last regularly scheduled meeting on January 22nd a shooting occurred at anach high school in Nashville Tennessee one student was killed and another was wounded these events are not outliers according to a CNN report done this month 83 school shooting events took place in 2024 across the US that's about seven per month like almost all school shootings today the news quickly moves ahead to the next headline similarly to how bcsc made a statement regarding recent changes to immigration enforcement I would like to see the same being
069applied to school violence we as a community cannot be desensitized to these events kids are growing up in a violent world but kids should not have to ask questions like are we safe in school the worst part is that since Sandy Hook in 2012 the number of school shootings across the US have increased by over six times I've come to these school board meetings over the last last year and I've seen the increase in funding for school safety and that is very much appreciated I'd like to request that information on that money and how it's being used be shared with the community thank you for all you do thank you Mr Bennett next we have request for approval thank you Miss won so we have several approvals in front of you this evening under old
070business we have the minutes of the regular school board meeting uh from January 133 the board work session on January 27th and the executive session of the board on also on January 27th request approval of old business item 6A as presented request approval I move that we approve item 6A minutes from the regular school board meeting the board work session and the executive session Mr nelan and Mr major Mr mcgyver I was not able to attend on January 27th so should I abstain from the approval okay yep okay I will do that okay I have a motion and a second to approve minutes from January 13th and 27th um board meetings all those in favor please say I all those opposed say n motion carries 60 thank you um under new business evening we have
071our routine items of supplemental contracts field trips and professional leaves school fundraisers and the claims and payroll from the January pre- runs the docket for February 3rd and two payrolls January 10th and January 24th of 2025 we also have item 7e which is an additional agreement uh last time we covered one of these it was actually listed under the additional approvals for HR and you have the details of that additional agreement in your packet board members have access to that in your packet uh item 7f is the policy package number three and represents the nine I believe it's nine uh policies that were presented at first reading in Janu uary um excluding it's nine out of 10 the 10th being um I believe that's policy D 27 175 thank you 175 on board uh and
072staff Communications and so item 7f reflects all of the policies that were read in January with the exception of that uh one that was discussed at during the board work session item 7g is a purple star school resolution uh for our secondary schools board has previously um passed this uh resolution for our elementary schools This is Indiana Department of Education Program um that uh schools can go through a certain process uh which includes the board passing a resolution in support uh to become a purple star School uh which honors essentially honors the veterans um who have served um both in the past and are serving now so I believe we're getting close to having all of our schools designated as purple star schools also a reappointment of Dr Laura hack to the baramu county library
073board uh approval of bus purchases this is uh an annual event now that we have to order our buses in February to receive them by the next uh school year I'm saying as in next as in 2627 so in order to get those in the summer those have to be ordered in February uh item 7j is a a change to the guaranteed ma maximum price contract for uh Schmid Elementary School uh to reflect the addition of the bus uh sorry bus lot relocation and item 7K is uh change to the district calendar I brought this up at the last meeting and since then we've discussed it with principles uh cic's and all kinds of different groups um to determine whether or not that would be disruptive to the community and didn't receive any um any
074feedback to the contrary so item 7K would move the snow makeup day from April the 17th sorry it would move the professional development day from April the 17th 2025 to May 22nd of 2025 so the student instructional in inperson instructional day will be April 17th that was scheduled to be a professional development day but at the request of many of our teachers and our uh Columbus Educators Association leadership uh the having an instructional day on April 27th was a much more meaningful use of our time than moving it to the May 22nd the the day before the last day of school so that's the uh request for approval there if if approved we'll put out a new printed uh calendar and update our website U and and uh promote that in the public I also
075want to point out during the board meeting publicly um to members of the community that might have already scheduled something on that April 17th date um if they were going to be out of town since students were not scheduled to be in session on that day um work with your teachers and the principal and as long as the work is made up for that day if a student has to miss with parent permission has to miss for something that was arranged beforehand that can be made as a non absence for those students so some a student has perfect attendance up to that date or they can still as long as they get all the work done and turn it in with a certain number of days they still uh get credit that last one was
076that I don't remember seeing that in the board packet maybe I overlooked it was it was it listed in there just as an approval item there was no attachment or anything like that so I request approval of items 7A through 7K as presented I would like to uh pull M 7j out for discussion just to make sure that I fully understand what that is because when I read the packet it is not very clear and I don't know if everybody saw what you sent me I I believe you three saw it but I just want to make sure that we fully understand what that is did you request to vote on that separately or just discuss the item in more depth fly discussion just just just so fully understand what it is so I think
077normally we do a motion and then we'll discuss after a motion has been made if we're if we're okay with that well I don't I don't think you need to the motion would be to approve 7A through K and then discussion would just happen normally right so Mrs Welden I did get a question from one of the board members before the meeting uh on item I related to the bus approvals as a reminder I don't believe anyone has a technical conflict but we have had board members pull that out so they can abstain uh because our specs normally include commum engines and with some of our connections on that we have pulled those in the past okay okay would anyone like to make a motion excluding item I um excluding I yes okay so so
078I would move that we approve um items 7 a through H and J and K as presented Mr Nan do have a second thank you Mr major and and then um I think we want to discuss item J so um Mr Glick do you want to share your questions for discussion yeah so the graphic that you sent me which is item l22 as subcribing the packet uh um I don't know if Jason or Logan received it Whitney I don't know if you reive it or not um I have it pulled up if you want me to share it with you but it's basically I want to make sure I'm clear I know what exactly the project entails because there's I I saw the layout that was in the packet but I don't know exactly where
079this million dollars is going to be put so wasn't clear to me either because is it I know what the parking lot looks like now and based off this I it says bus lot sure yeah so um so yes it's the purpose of that is to separate um pedestrian pedestrians and vehicular traffic from buses so at Schmid currently if you're familiar there's uh staff parking to the Northern end of Schmidt and the buses pull in between the uh that parking lot and the building and unload students and there's a lot of um pedestrians that walk across the bus lot quite frankly to get to and from the building um so this was this was originally intended as part of the project when we put this out to bid with all the other bid categories um
080a little over a year ago we chose at the time not to approve uh bid Package 2 mainly because um we wanted to we we did the same thing with Parkside um mainly because we wanted to make sure that the budget um was safe quite frankly um and we didn't have any surprises when we came through and started construction so now now that we feel comfortable budget wise uh we rebid the project it came back in right about the same pricing we had previously actually had a couple more biders this round um so we're awarding it the budget has not grown overall it just wasn't awarded the first time this big category wasn't awarded the first time time that we um that we issued when the board approved the other big categories um and the
081design hasn't changed in that last year it was just a safeguard for for budgeting purposes so but to answer your question a little more specifically the so the cars um and the buses are two separate Lots um in the new design so the buses would come off 27th Street um into the bus lot and then Right Turn Only onto um Home Avenue to go southbound um and it just it just separates those buses from from car parking and also that bus lot can be um used as event parking for basketball games or something if it needed to be as well so and then the the road along the South Boundary that goes around the field yep um are we expanding that a plan yes correct so it'll be uh the width will be doubled so
082that's a car line now to get um car pressure off of the adjoining side streets that was done many many years ago um but car lines have grown at our schools at all of our schools so um the plan is actually um with your approval that will be done this summer in the summer of 25 to um double the capacity in the car line basically to get them off the the city streets and the bus lot to North to the north be done in the summer of 26 yeah I just want to make sure the graphic wasn't entirely clear and the packet didn't have this graphic in it at all and some of the wording is completely eligible so appreciate your ask absolutely I I live on that street and so I'm in the middle
083of the the heart of the congestion every morning so St B's Norths side North Schmid so on and so forth and I will say that is one of the most hectic areas I would say in Columbus from 7:30 to 8:15 I also pass the car line that goes all the way down California Chestnut wraps around onto 25th Street and lines up in front of Greeks and the snow conb place and I can't imagine being a parent sitting in that line I also watch kids Dart across that bus lot every single morning in the dark um um parents drop off on the street or they they park at my house or my neighbor's house and they walk their their kid runs across there and so I think it's a great I think it's a great investment
084I think it's a huge safety concern so yeah I think I think the only call out I have and I I wasn't aware of the drawing so I apologize um is I think whenever we're doing scope changes like we need to have some clear standard work like here's the scope of the ask here's the original budget here's the new budget cuz like even when I'm looking in here guaranteed maximum price goes up 1.1 million but then the sentence at the end says we're within budget but it doesn't tell me what the budget was and so I think when we look at like because we're going to have a lot of these right there's there's change amendments there's expectations across all the facilities I think we just need to make sure you we have like when
085we get the memorandums clear scope of work budget change of contract and then I think whenever we supplement stuff to other board members just be good to go ahead and disperse to all at that point to the point about to the point about money I think it is a good point right I mean I think I saw a note in there that it said that we had saved we made improvements and saved well if we've offset it then we're still spending the same amount of money so I don't it makes it easier to approve but if we said our our original budget was 17 million and we're going to spend 18 million now now it's where do we come up with the million dollarars and so for me me that's where it was it was
086just a little bit of uncertainty there and I I appreciate you showing me and confirming I understand what that is now better and it makes sense because if you're going to tear stuff out of the parking lot and you're going to replace that and build that bus lot it just wasn't really easy to tell like the before and after on on what was sent previously so from a from a need to spend the money I can see it now it's if we've made improvements or if we have an original budget I looked at uh I looked at the original budget from the Invision 2030 and what was in the packet from November of 2023 didn't have Schmid on it so that's where for me it was like I can't I can't compare because I didn't
087I probably could have found it if I'd have gone through every single board packet but it was more of a do can we get here today and ask a question too so do we know what the original Schmidt uh estimates were that were voted on the total budget for Schmid that was approved through um through bonding was 20.4 okay and so you're still even with this what it's roughly 17 and a half so uh so you're two and a half under uh that does not include soft cost for Architects um which is about 1.3 and a half or so you're one point two under yeah okay that's easier yeah thanks thanks for your question so um I appreciate the questions that realizing now in hindsight the you hadn't seen much of the Schmidt content since
088we you had approved it almost a year ago so moving forward I'll I'll um include two things um in your approval one any visual of scope of work that can be of help um to your point Mr Glick and then also a summary of a just review of of to budget and where we are on on the project that's that's before you so thanks and and one thing too just for transparency for everybody else too one of the things I mentioned to Dr Boseman was um we've talked about this in the past this board packet comes out on a Thursday night most of us have a job and we're working on Friday you get to look at it at some point over the weekend which leaves you about this much time to ask questions and
089get answers um so and and then if you do get an answer sometimes you don't have the ability to digest it quickly because you're working on Monday so one thing I would ask again um because I asked this about a year ago is can we work to try and get the board packets available to board members in the public one week in advance of a meeting so that we have the ability to come in and get these questions asked so that the meetings aren't as clunky trying to get questions that could easily be answered in a five minute uh conversation versus uh trying to do stuff over a weekend when it's really hard to contact people or respect their weekend time okay you want me respond that so just just so you know Mrs um
090Chrisman since uh since we switched to board docs we have I believe every time gotten the board pack it out to the public and the board members by 9:00 am or or 10: am. at the latest on Thursday and doing so has pushed a whole lot of approvals and work up in the up in the time frame um just to get them ready for that Thursday morning and so um the answer to your question is yes but um it will cause a lot of things to not be approved on the normal cite that they are that they that they would be otherwise maybe better with the four weeks between board meetings that we're going to have you know that we started with this year the delay from January's board meeting got pushed back a week
091so we had one fewer week in there but when we start getting four weeks um you know it it could be possible but it it was a lot of work and thank Mrs Chrisman for and everyone else who gets the all of the content that comes to you um to to us in time to have it reviewed and to you by Thursday morning I have a motion and a second any more I have additional questions my bad uh line item uh where is it I is that the standard Cadence now for buses I noticed we got three general education buses to looks like four specialty buses is that what the G is that should that be the I think we pulled that one out though it's okay we're on my bad I'm sorry okay well
092I'll I'll hold the question okay you're good okay uh Mr mcken is here also He's our transportation director so he he can answer additional questions that that you may have um the answer is no for the most part to your question so um it does follow our bus replacement plan yes um you may recall we have a goal of having no buses older than 12 years old so that follows with that U what Mr mcken and his team have done have entered produced um as scheduled they you know this has been a plan for for a while now of replacing those activity buses that you see here on your um which is not our typical Gaines but was planned um he can give you more detail but those activity buses um typically there're 14 passenger
093white buses which you'll approve tonight are actually uh two different types of activity buses um but they they run for girls golf they run for students that are under kimy vento that we're transporting between counties um he has a team that that runs students to Indianapolis every day for um specialy schools um and they are um they're a need of replacement so um if that answers your question right we have a motion in a second for seven a through H and J and K uh all those in favor please say I I all those opposed please say nay motion carries 70 and I would make a motion that we approve item 7i approval of bus purchases second thank you Mr Nan and Mr Glick I will abstain from the vote all those in oh any
094further comments or questions on 7 I I already took my out turn so it worked we're got okay okay great um all those in favor of approving item 7even I please say I I all is opposed please say a motion carries 6 Z evening uh the five Human Resources recommendations this evening consist of one appointment three resignations and one leave of absence I request that you please approve the Personnel recommendations as presented I move that we approve line items A8 Alpha through Bravo this time sorry Mr Glick do have a second Mr major any questions or comments if we are going to date a and b there are no additional Human Resources recommendations for this evening all those in favor of approving Human Resources recommendations A and B as presented please say I I I
095all those opposed say n motion carries s z thank you okay board input and review uh Mr major we'll start with you again yeah I would like to uh just congratulate Mrs udy the East girls wrestling Southside spell Bowl team I think everybody will probably say the same thing there um the big one I wanted to talk about is I think we have a future Hall of Famer uh in in waiting here in Mrs Haynes uh Mrs Haynes was ultimately the leader of the robo Rodeo event that was held at East uh just a week or so ago and uh that that event had probably somewhere between 60 and 70 teams I can't remember the exact number um from what I had heard I'd overheard somebody say that it was the second largest uh robotics
096event in the state of Indiana uh they would have had probably the title for largest if they hadn't had four or five teams back out one of the other things I don't know Dr Phillips if you heard anything different but I think I even heard that it wasn't just the second largest in the state but it might have been second largest in the country so I don't I don't know where we stand with that but it was really a a a great event uh I was able to be there all day uh saw a lot of cool things happening that the kids were doing lots of different designs a lot of creativity uh throughout that I think we only had like four or five teams missed their their queue uh when you have 60 to
09770 teams and they're going multiple rounds uh there were there were several hundred of events that occurred during that day so it was very well put on like to thank those at East uh from all of the administrators all the way down to the janitors that had to help uh clean up the mess at the end for putting on such a great welcoming event for not just Columbus but for those in the state that traveled here to participate so great event and I would encourage uh other others out there to volunteer for those events if you have the opportunity so thank you Mrs haes and all the volunteers Mr major I'm just going to jump bandwagon there uh two things I just got stopped um on Saturday by Mr Wolford Co coach Wolford at Central
098who said the at the event this Saturday the fifth team from Central qualified for state so that means every stem robotics team at Central has now qualified for the state event and then also um I want to because Nick and his team um presented tonight just add the fact that the technology U group and Mrs Haynes has told me the same they could not have done what they did without our Tech folks being a part of that throughout the district even not just with competitions but um you know throughout the course of the year so it's really become like you said the size and scope of how quickly this has grown it's become something that really takes a lot of resources and I'm I'm proud that we have those resources for our kids I'll just
099jump on the bandwagon too so kudos to to Mrs Hines and to uh Mrs Harden I thought it was a great event I got to volunteer upstairs and make robot circuits as part of a senior project at the mini St stem lab that day and it was really remarkable to see the number of students and then their younger siblings who were being exposed to to that those types of activities so great day great great day so and congratulations to Easton Southside this was a great meeting I Echo the comments of Mr major and Miss Lloyd in addition I'd like to point out some Honors that uh some of our students high school students uh have received in recent weeks the Indiana All State honor band has been announced and from Columbus North High School there
100are three members of that allate band Luke Hensley on trombone Santi Duna on tuba and Cameron shoot on percussion in addition the Indiana Jazz Educators Association has announced Its All State Jazz Ensemble with from Columbus North High School will include Grant Barker in the percussion section on drums so congratulations to those students and uh the U directors who make that possible the recognition is going um I wanted to this is near and dear to my heart the Columbus FFA novice and Senior teams which includes members from East North Central and Norths side um um place first place in parliamentary procedure um and they advaned to the state on February 8th for Robert's Rule of Order which again is near and dear to my heart this is not simple um and it's pretty amazing that these
101kiddos have mastered mastered this at the state level so look forward to them going forward um congratulations to um one of the things we approved for field trips tonight was a trip for the Columbus North cheerleader ERS to the National Finals in Florida so congratulations and best of luck to them um also this was in our Friday notes but um commendations and congratulations to six bcsc teachers that um qualified for 15,000 I think it's $15,000 Lily teacher creativity grants um Chad Russel and Amilia Shaw both from North High School Brett Finley from CSA Lincoln Christa Reen and arish Spurgeon from Northside Middle School and Mandy Keel from Southside Elementary and um last a story a book Buddy Story I do book buddies on Monday at Schmidt and and I always start off one of the
102nice things about doing Monday you can start off with a conversation was how was your weekend how was your day going well today one of my book buddies she said I am so excited because today is stem day and I get to go to this my stem class and she seed to tell me all the exciting things that they're doing in stem and um just confirmed to me that it's working our our focus on stem is getting to the kids and and she was just so excited about what they're doing uh I start this off with uh recalling item 7g which is the purple star schools um as a service member uh means a lot to me uh so for those of you who are in the room that may experience this or those who
103are going to watch this my phone is always available my email is always available if I don't know the answer I know somebody that might have the answer so use me as a resource to help with you finding your resources um next over the weekend was uh wrestling sectionals this weekend is wrestling regionals down in Jeffersonville north and east qualifi quite a few and we'll uh continue their efforts through the state tournament and uh girls basketball start sectionals I believe tomorrow so uh East North will be competing this week so that that's going to be good and then swimming as well so uh lot lot on the agenda athletically and uh lastly I had the pleasure of assisting in the Parkside steam event which is a stem night and probably had easily 75 kids show
104up and had four or five different stations all with little trinket uh uh experiments and stuff and everybody seemed to be pretty heavily engaged and having a lot of fun so that was pretty cool to to see that the downside about being at the end is you just start Crossing off all your things that you were going to talk about but it's okay I I want to Echo everything that we we discussed I also want to kind of give a special shout out to Mrs udy as we were looking through her file as part of the committee and not to share too much but the number of students that wrote on her behalf and the number of community members was overwhelming and um a lot of it also is she was also one of the
105key leads for the longest time I believe at Central for the DC trip which is memorable for many um going through so I just want to re-echo that congratulations it was not a very difficult decision to select the hardest part is just picking only one um and so that was definitely a great experience um and then the other thing was so I have two daughters that are also in book buddy so I thought I'd bring that up as a lot of the book buddy mentors are getting them ready for testing and getting them prepared one of mine's third grade and one second grade so both at that critical year um and so I just want to shout out and say thank you to all them I believe I saw Indiana jump to number six nationally
106for uh reading by the way so big shoes to fill this year we we were a big part of that I'm gonna say that Dr hack's not here but giving her credit for that and I'll just add uh thanks to Nancy Milpa and her team for the food for the reception this evening um if you uh before you leave go out through the kitchen and grab something on your way out if there's any leftovers left and then also welcome to Asher who's been helping with sound back here the last couple of meetings um and thanks to Nick and his team I don't know if you noticed but the big speakers aren't in the room anymore and so this is it's been a year and a half they've been trably talking about what might be best
107for this room so um new mounted cameras so when you watch this it's probably going to look a little differently and hopefully sound a little differently and then um just on a personal level you know she's gone already but uh could not be prouder to call Carla yudy a colleague and a friend she like um like Mr Manuel when I was a brand new administrator as an assistant principal at Central Middle School she treated me with kindness and Grace which I needed a lot of at the time so congratulations Carla and her family hey uh next meetings we have an executive session um this Saturday at 8:00 a.m. um so that will be board members only and then um actually right after that there's an isba training session that all of us are going to
108participate in so that will be that will be good for us um new and old board members I think we'll all learn something there and then we have our regular board meeting um on March 3rd uh in this room at 6:30 p.m. okay so nothing else I'll call meeting adjourn thank you