12/11/2023 BCSC School Board Meeting

001[Laughter] good okay good evening everyone I have 6:30 um if everybody's ready to get started we will do so I'd like to start with the Pledge of Allegiance if you're able please stand czy to flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all okay the entire board is an attendance so I will call the meeting to order um Dr Roberts if you wouldn't mind thank you Mrs Wen we try to start each of our meetings just with a restatement of our vision mission and core beliefs so a reminder that BCS C Works to be the choice to learn work and play and our mission is to develop expert Learners by partnering with our community to invest in people our six

002core beliefs we all can rise to the challenge of high expectations learning is most effective when we have Choice flexibility and see relevance we Thrive when our physical social and psychological needs are met our community and School District are stronger when we partner with one another we flourish because of the diversity and variability in our community and our democracy and Democratic institutions are strengthened by civic-minded citizens thank you okay we are going to gavel out of the meeting first thing and go into our public hearing so Dr Phillips if you wouldn't mind getting us started Dr Bosman as well thank you Mrs Weldon U this is the second of two public hearings uh related to the Envision 2030 project timeline um and the next slide shows that timeline um going back to the spring this

003is just a review many of you would have uh seen a slide similar to this in the past but we started back in March with um a public planning session with the board um leading into a lot of work in the spring and summer defining what our facility needs were and then uh two more public input or I'm sorry two more planning sessions with the board in July and at the end of October in between those two meetings we conducted uh somewhere between 35 and 40 um public input meetings with more than 400 stakeholders giving us input and feedback and suggestions um and then last board meeting was the first public hearing tonight's is the second public hearing and the approvals are part of your packet tonight so following the second public hearing um we

004have request for approval for three of uh resolutions which are the same resolutions that we would have for any uh lease rental bond issue um and then of course as we discussed last time between um 2024 and 2030 then each year will be a series of bond issues planning design work with the staff um and then of course the uh facility work itself okay good evening thank you for affording us some additional time um don't fret I won't take you through all 26 slides like I did last time of all the individual although I would love to you know I I enjoy those things but I will not uh tonight because you've seen that and and the public has as well but just um three slides for me is just a reminder of of where

005we are and what we uh what limitations we have in place and how we propose to solve them so you see on your screen that um The Learning environment primarily at the elementary schools are in need of renovation um to match our instructional styles that we have with our our fantastic teachers that we have in bcsc North Side Middle School um in need of renovation as well uh we have capacity enrollment restrictions in place due to our facilities currently um we've talked um to the point of exhaustion about uh the demographic study and the projected shift from the East to the west and what our plans are to to combat that um as well as um renovating and adding facilities at our high schools to accommodate demand there in the CTE coursework and extracurriculars and

006uh frankly I I am not excited to be at the table to make decisions on districting and how we're going to serve students in this community if uh if we do not have the facilities to support them um busing kids from from west to east across the river longer bus rides uh that is not excitement I'd like to avoid that if at all possible as Dr Phillips mentioned we have Financial opportunity to do so um as you see and I and know as you have heard without increasing the tax rate um in terms of Renovations this is nothing new from what you've seen before uh but just to reiter reiterate and recap renovate our prek to6 learning environments at the elementary level construct the 12th Elementary on the west side of town renovate North Side

007Middle School and update equipment and furniture at Central Middle School as well as a few other sites and then expand our ctec for programming to meet demand as well as extracurriculars it's the same um graphic that you had seen last time and that has been made available publicly uh but it's a synopsis of the existing square footage that we have in our buildings as well as projected um additional square footage to accommodate these needs and then a checklist of uh the potential scope of projects on the right hand side by building um that we've used with cso's cso's partnership and and and help to develop the estimate that we have that you see at the bottom there're totaling around $36 million this last side is just a summary of the three resolutions that you um

008we were requesting approval for this evening as part of the the packet later um the first one is the the the most important one and that's the authorizing a maximum bond issue of 3 $6 million for the facility improvements that Dr Boseman described and as we have shown shown you in the past with a bond Uh current bonds rolling off of the books and maturing and being paid off um steel public fin Finance came in last time and you heard from those folks that we do have capacity to complete these projects without increasing the the property tax rate like Dr bosan mentioned and um it is our strategy um our recommended strategy as a district that we do not pursue a uh referendum for that purpose because it would raise the actual taxes on those

009folks act at the tax capsule already whereas if we do it um in the if we do not go collect signatures and have it put on the ballot ourselves um it avoids anything changing for the tax structure for any taxpayer in the State uh in the city right now or the the entire School District taxing district the second um the second resolution there is one that actually starts the the public notice of the determination that'll run on Saturday and then the third one is really just a formality it's something we do for every bond issue that allows us if we spend money for example running the um the ad in the Republic on Saturday we can reimburse ourselves from Bond proceeds for dollars that are expended prior to the bonds being issued we we very

010rarely use that with anything beyond um you know 40 or $50 for public notice cost of Public Notices and that's it so we're happy to take any questions uh I'm not sure how you want to handle handle Mrs Wiman from the board first and then from the public as we did last time yep okay anybody from the team have any questions we've heard this a lot hasn't changed much but just the case so just for clarity purposes this approval is to set that ceiling every project will still come before the board for a subsequent approval of scope size and deliverables as those are scoped out that's correct part of um it'll be two parts one side will be the finance part and that will come each fall when we do the budget basically we'll have

011our assessed value and we'll know how much we're going to issue that fall of that year the other part on the facility side will be Dr Boseman and his team um bringing the facility plan to you for that that following year okay anything from the team okay at this time if there's anybody in the audience who'd like to ask any questions you can step up to the podium that is separate from the blue blue sheet since this is the public hearing portion of the meeting hi Mr Delp my name is chub Delp and I live here in Columbus uh I'd like before I begin I'd like to wish each and each of you Merry Christmas and I would especially like to thank Dr Phillips for his education for in finances of this bond issue I

012really appreciated the effort that you put in thank you very much sir all right you will be voting uh approving a $36 million addition to our physical Plan before you do this I wish to inform the board of facts that I believe are relevant to your discussion over the last six years homeschooling is the fastest growing educational system according to a study conducted by The Washington Post and is growing at a rate of 51% private schools have increased seven 7% during this time and public schools have dropped 4% in enrollment over the same period it is important to note that this study was conducted in Eastern Kentucky and Manhattan New York school districts excuse me the the increase excuse me I'm lost my place in Anderson South Carolina the rate of increase was was 378

013per. and in Bronx School in New York the increase was 38% the point here is that these changes are crossing urban and rural cultures the primary reason for this changes are parental engagement I make no judgments on the above facts however I do believe that this board should do would do well to seriously consider them when considering when deciding on classroom materials and large increases in physical plans that encumber a school system financially thank you very much Mr [Music] D good evening my name is Mandy keel and I'm one of the vice presidents for the Columbus Educators Association and I'm also our CA representative on the bcsc districting and Facilities committee I last spoke during the board meeting on October 30th about our members overwhelming support of financing any facilities projects through the route that

014bcsc is currently pursuing as I shared that evening it is mutually beneficial to our members and to taxpayers within our community if we Finance these projects as existing debt rolls off which keeps our tax rate neutral without an increase in taxes for any of our local taxpayers our members are also aware of course that these funds may not be used to hire additional staff or to increase compensation on a personal note I have taught it Southside for over 15 years now and consider it my home away from home even with its of maligned brutalist architecture style I love it um however when our school was built over 50 years ago it was never intended to be used as an elementary school and I've often asked my students to guess what subject was taught in my

015classroom during its days as a middle school while they eventually stumble upon the correct answer through a classic game of 20 Questions none of them have ever identified the clue hanging in plain sight in my classroom the leftover remnants of a World Language classroom are the metal metal Contraptions that still hang from my ceiling with the bulky old headphones mostly hidden from view inside that at one time some of you may remember this would have been lowered from the ceiling students would have put those on as they listen to passages and then their teacher would have been able to listen in all of the elementary schools in bcsc along with the original Northside Middle School were built 40 to 60 years ago and while our members continue to do an outstanding job of teaching in

016these often outdated spaces the children of our community deserve the types of collaborative and updated learning spaces that are now so visible at Parkside Elementary again we appreciate bcsc Administration and the board's efforts to preserve the eventual renewal of our 2020 referendum in 2028 as it established a higher compensation model that has made such a significant impact for our members and on bcsc's ability to retain staff and has and as and as has been the case with the Parkside and the Schmidt renovation project we look forward to continuing to be part of the planning conversation surrounding Envision 2030 thank you thank you Miss K else Kathy good evening uh my name is Kathy Orin and I work for the Community Education Coalition we're a nonprofit that works in partnership with employers with community and education

017Partners on a mission to increase education outcomes aligned with the needs of Workforce and I'd like to make two points today as you consider uh the approval of the capital projects before you one is that the capital projects um tonight that you're you're reviewing are vital a talent attraction and talent retention strategy to our community and they're also key to the Future of our Workforce and our economy the second point I'd like to to make is that putting the capital projects to a referendum would actually be a lose lose lose for students for taxpayers and for our current and future economy I'm asking that you vote to approve the capital projects um I would like to ask for your support that these projects move forward seamlessly without a referendum and without the risk of increased

018property taxes the national Workforce short AG is a critical challenge facing our community um as well as the nation having highquality facilities that support 21st century education models and aren't overcrowded is a vital Workforce Talent attraction and retention strategy we need more people that want to live here while they work here the preschool expansions that were mentioned here our community is a child care desert with parents struggling to find Affordable Care so they can work the expansion of capacity for three and four year olds is again vital to helping more families participate in the workforce and access to highquality Early Learning opportunities are a predictor of better education outcomes and really better overall life outcomes for our kids it's true that over 60% of our jobs need some postsecondary education After High School and a

019majority of those jobs need something less than a 4-year degree and that's why the Career Technical education expansions that are part of this project plan are really going to help more of our students be ready for work and ready for life after school and finally the addition of the 12th Elementary School is really about planning for the future the need is real and we need to enable bcsc to plan for that reality the cost of not planning for a 12th elementary school will be detrimental to students and detrimental to our Workforce and as you've heard there's enough Debt Service rle in off to enable these projects to be bonded over the coming years with no increase to taxes that demonstrates good planning and good stewardship on the part of bcsc leadership board approval of the

020plan will enable bcsc to plan and execute the projects in the most financially efficient and effective manner if the community gathers signatures and petitions for a referendum and if the referendum is approved we know that property taxes will go up and if the referendum is not approved facilities expansions will be delayed and will be pieced together over time in ways that are not financially efficient the cost to the taxpayers even this will cost taxpayers even more money over the long run and we'll have schools that still aren't up to 21st century standards so I thank you for your consideration I hope that you will approve the capital projects proposal and I hope that you will encourage this work to move forward without a referendum thank you very much thank you Miss or mayic Gro I'm

021a Bartholomew County resident and father of three and I just have a quick comment more than a question um the budget that you guys would uh be voting to approve this evening is a half a billion dollars not 36 million and you know maybe that's okay I'm not necessarily trying to say that it's not um but it is a half a billion dollars um and I've spoken with many um community members many of your constituents and um I just think there's concern over um ensuring your community that commun not only is that only those dollars being spent [Music] both improving education and necessary dollars um but efficient um which I appreciate um but there just questions over the efficiency of that money you know when it comes to gymnasiums and weight rooms and things like

022that um those are nice to have and I like to have them but um is are we funding the most important things first um to educate our children um and then I I don't know just a reminder to the board just just to ensure that we understand where the boundaries are I think there was some confusion um last time on a budget boat with the high school teams model um you know when you vote this money through does does that roll it out does that allow the bonds to start being issued just we can collect the money we just can't spend it until your approval or what does that mean and and why would that be different than um just kind of doing it piecewise with the board just some some thoughts to think about

023before you approve $500 million um of our community's money so anyway thank you for your time and consideration I I might ask Dr Phillips it's 306 million not 500 million can you help with the discrepancy the 36 million is the the amount of the bonds that we would issue the total payments it would include interest which was approximately if the interest rate was what um the folks from steel shared last time which was I believe 7% was the was the maximum that would include about approximately another 200 million in in interest but it's the actions of the board as have been the case any of these Bond issues the board only authorizes the issuing of the bonds right right to that dollar amount and and then I think just to the other point I think

024Mr Schultz said it being we would approve every year in the fall what bonds are issued as well as the specific project details that's correct available right each year okay right thank you H sir good evening my name is EXC me my my name is David da and uh I thank you very much for all the effort that you all put into this and your staff has uh I am a representative of the district facilities committee that uh serves on your behalf and that committee has spent many years uh uh listening to all the reports studying all the elements uh that uh the staff presents to us and so we've asked a lot of questions on your behalf about these uh various uh projects and uh this one I think is quite creative in that

025uh you know our goal your your goal is still always as representative our community to work on the best educational opportunities uh for our students within the the budget constraints that you have to live within and so I think they've done a really good job of that in analyzing that and from the district facility standpoint I think uh we strongly support uh this effort in trying to provide the best education facilities while still uh maintaining uh um the physical responsibilities that that you you have for on behalf of our community um we have visited the Parkside and seen the elements that have done we are also very aware that you've got buildings that are 40 to 60 years old uh they just don't meet the the needs of our students and again I think it's

026important that uh uh that you uh reference that and I think you're taking a good good um uh good efforts in trying to make sure that happens uh there is uh continuing to be growth and shifts and uh I've always been reminded uh in this committee that there is a four-letter word called redistricting and uh you really want to avoid that if at all possible um and I can speak from that from past experiences uh having also U uh heard things uh at the board level uh again the learning environment is important uh there's been many good points made so far I think it's really a A plus to your creative staff to think about the financing that and the value that's created uh through this creative financing and I think that will be very

027beneficial and uh again I think um uh the flexibility of your facilities uh not only for today but for the future uh you know 60 years ago or 40 60 years ago people planned on these things thinking they were flexible well it's pretty inflexible nowadays and I think that's one of the things that we've seen from some of the uh professionals that your team has hired to uh look into uh those future uh facilities that not only do a good job for you today but will also serve our community you know the 20 40 and 60 years from now thank you very much thank you Mr D good evening my name is Kermit key i' like to thank you for your time and wish you all a happy holidays uh the reason I'd like to

028talk to you guys is I'm one of those victims of the redistricting uh my oldest daughter went through Southside from kindergarten through fifth grade she went sixth grade at Mount Healthy her and my old son had to get up at 6:30 to be at the bus each morning at the bus stop at 6:30 to ride from Countrywood Farms right next to Shadow Creek that goes to Southside all the way out to Mount Healthy now thankfully you guys got some of the transportation issues works out but still I get up and I take my daughter to school my youngest who's in third grade I take her there at Mount Healy at 7:45 in the morning but I have seen all the growth out in that area I've seen Fox Ridge I've seen all the houses being

029built at you know Terrace Lake CU I drive through there all the time and you just see the growth and it's obvious that a 12th Elementary School is is going to happen I don't study National statistics to learn what's going on in my own neighborhood what I can see with my own eyes and verify so I definitely recommend that we move forward with this project and I encourage you to vote yes thank you thank you sir good evening board my name is Jeff logston and I'm a lifelong resident of uh Columbus I'm a product of bcsc through Taylorville Northside and North two children K through 12 at bcsc a wife that's a 25 plus year teacher in bcsc my oldest son is now in his second year teaching in bcse um I'm the president of

030Applied in BLX Laboratories here in Columbus we employ 175 uh team members and growing I say all that to let you know I'm very vested in the continued uh success of the school corporation and what we do I'm encouraging you to uh vote an approval of the capital projects plan for two specific reasons uh the first is Columbus exps high quality facilities in our education system sufficient is not enough as I said my wife teaches here in town she actually teaches at Parkside I've seen firsthand the improvements in that facility I've seen the benefits for the educators the students and actually for uh employers from the standpoint of we are trying to attract and retain new Talent into our community they may not be able to see the long-term quality of the education we provide

031but they will see our facilities they will judge us by our facilities sufficient is not enough the second reason is you have an efficient tool in front of you tonight we as taxpayers hope that our governmental entities are efficient operationally and financially you have a tool before you you can approve the capital projects plan instead of going to referendum that tool allows you to be efficient both financially and operationally those are expectations from from us as community members I would ask that you vote in support and pass the resolution for you thank you thank you mrst good evening thanks for having us all here today um I'm Laura Garrett I'm a mother of elementary students and I wanted to ask you as well to follow actually Jeff nailed a lot of what I was going

032to just say so I support what he said but also to say I mean what a treasure we have to be offered such a significant plan with no increased to make our schools the very best they can be as a parent as someone who moved here and grew up here and um we have excellent schools but our facilities need help I also think another big benefit of this with the new elementary school is the neighborhood schools that we've lost so as our community gets more and more disconnected and our kids are busted farther and farther away from their friends having a school close by is important and we need another school on the west side of town so I I first commend you bcsc for coming up with a plan that I is such a

033win-win scenario and it again proves to me while we're here and why we have our kids here that you're looking out for us so thank you and um have thanks yeah Miss scar hey Nikki I have a question for so Dr Phillips was brought drew the public comment that it's a decision before this board on whether it goes to a referendum or not my understanding is we are approving the project resolution that decision sits with the community and anyone in the community on really if it goes to a referendum of my misunderstanding that's correct the this one was unique in that back in March we were thinking that as a district we would actually lead the drive to to put this on a petition but but after receiving feedback from the community and and CA

034um we decided that wasn't the best the best path for us for us so it does rest rest with the community then essentially on a refence correct that's correct and then the other question I had for Dr Boseman I think four folks mentioned the Parkside experience and so I just want to make sure his parents are going to hear and I know many of us have toured myself included and seen the great Wonders that is Parkside is that the parental expectation of standard of quality quity that we're expecting to see based on each school's unique challenges and the ones that come off to the top of my head are Mount healthy's open open concept CSA Lincoln's restrictive square footage um Miss Keel mentioned southside's lorious uh cement and concrete barriers so I mean I know

035all these will be challenges what's if I'm a parent in the community what's my expectation or experience of my school that's a great question in terms of quality learning environment the answer is yes how that looks May be differently um achieved um than what we we've done at Parkside so Parkside as you know is about a $1 19.5 million um project we have um we spoke last time we have some other other facilities that we think we can get to that um high quality learning environment without spending $1 19.5 million obviously uh you mentioned Lincoln is a good example fod is another another good example um you know I know you know this but Columbus uh Columbus only has three schools um off the top of my head that does not have architectural significance to

036them our buildings are very unique um that's both a challenge and and and quite frankly a really cool opportunity for us so um those things will look different in different facilities uh but some things that we've committed to um that you've seen in previous presentations are um high quality learning environments they are pre- six buildings which include dedicated stem Labs Wellness areas uh for for therapists and those folks working with with students um new furniture new technology um I'm missing one off the top of my head but those we've dedicated um as a top priority for all of our facilities moving forward but to your point that would look different uh differently in some places versus others so thank you okay any other questions or comments you already had a turn you can do do

037you really have something okay yeah like respond question that were asking yeah okay I'm just um I'm just trying to understand the what exactly it is that you guys are voting on I guess when we're we're voting through you know the $500 million but then we're saying each year we're going to vote again I'm trying to understand like what the difference is between just doing those you know yearly blocks of voting this through versus you know what are we doing tonight voting it all through is it does that make it irrelevant or I'm just trying to understand how that process works sure if they vote say you guys vote it through tonight and then every year you just say no it's like your vote tonight didn't happen or I'm good good question Dr Phillips I

038think you understand the question I do I'm going to answer it in in two parts because they're two separate issues the the approvals that the board will will make going forward in the following Falls are related to the the budget for the following year and so we will adjust the amount that we borrow in that given year um based on the the assessed value growth to make sure that we achieve keeping the tax rate flat which is the commitment that we've made publicly 72,000 times in the last few months um and so that's all that the the board won't say yes let's issue bonds this year for 40 million million they will approve the budget that pays the rate against those issues this is the only only time the board will have to approve the

039actual issuing of the bonds that's part one and I'll let Dr Boseman chime in on the other part if need be but these projects um the the the from a management standpoint these projects need to be approved um we need to understand as a district that the board is supportive of moving forward with with these projects so that we can plan how they're going to be phased in over the next six years because it is incredibly complicated um how each of those Renovations is going to occur at the elementary schools and how that would play in with when the 12th Elementary is built and how U we figure out how to house kids in those buildings during the time that the renovation has happened so it would be really difficult for us to move forward

040with just say three or four um Renovations of elementaries now not knowing whether not the following year the board was going to approve the 12th Elementary for example so um knowing that the board supportive of all the projects being done in a in a tax rate neutral manner allows us to move forward with planning and design allowing our Architects to move forward with designs um without having to wait each year to do that um and coordinate in an efficient way that allows us to redistrict one time and not multiple thank you Dr Phillips so how does that differentiate the two situations though so I mean just saying like hypothetically this board could vote support for the 500 million we start our projects but then the next board votes no in the middle of a project

041or something like that like we vote through the the three projects you were talking about and then the 12th Elementary the next board could vote no to or is it already locked in because of tonight's vote the request in front of the board tonight is to authorize a maximum of issuing $36 million in bonds what boards do in the future is up to the boards in the future I can't begin to predict what that might be I can tell you that's what the request is in front of the board tonight so the the bond would be issued but you would the district would have the money to spend but it would just sit there without the board's approval or how would that work I guess is what I think a lot in our a lot

042in our community are trying to understand if I can suggest perhaps we finish any public comments or public comments during the public hearing portion and then we can close the public hearing and at that point staff can respond to any additional questions that they'd like yep I think that sounds like a good motion so I think Eric if you can give us a minute to move on and then we will have people available for questions I hope that's clear to all the board members before they vote tonight thank you yep thank you okay any other any other comments or questions of course sir I'll keep my comments brief hi everyone my name is Cole Bennett and I just want to speak in strong favor of vision 2030 I'm a Columbus resident born and raised attended

043Parkside North Side graduated from Columbus North in 2019 um I can truly say without my C4 experience I would not be a nurse today um so I spent the last three years in the northwest suburbs of Chicago where I got my nursing education it was interesting to talk to my peers about my experience in High School getting to go to clinicals at Columbus Regional Community Hospital and some of my friends were like what we've never had that experience before we didn't have opportunities like that so I really want to speak in strong favor of of Envision 2030 uh so that my children and their children can have the same experiences that I did with uh bcse thank you so much thank you Mr Bennett okay I think that concludes our public hearing we are going

044to gabble back into our um um meeting and we will turn it over to Mr gel for best practice sharing and instead of Josh G we're going to have Whitney gains you didn't look like Josh I'm sorry about that no Josh was unable to be here this evening so Whitney's going to take over and give us uh our presentation on the Columbus virtual pathway yeah so I no offense to Josh but I think I'm probably a little more prettier than Josh Keel but um he really wanted to be here today he had a serious family emergency and I'm just grateful that he trusted me to present to you guys tonight so I'm going to talk to you about CVP um creating a community of virtual Learners and I'll skim through some of this stuff I

045know that you guys receive the slides so um if there's anything you want me to revisit I can do that too so our vision here at CVP is to set the standard for virtual learning um and our mission is to provide students a safe flexible personalized online learning environment that Fosters academic personal and social growth in a competitive Global community so we have like six pillars that we try to focus on at CVP um accountability balance flexibility Community growth and empathy and I'll touch a little bit more on community later in the presentation so where have we been um or where did we start kind of I am also somebody who grew up here and CVP was not here when I was in school so where did it come from so we started in 2018

0462019 um because people were seeing a trend and some of the parents were taking their students out of inperson school and leaning toward an online learning program so we wanted to make sure that we could capture those students and still keep them in the district and provide support to them so that's kind of why you see our numbers were lower initially and then something happened in 2020 I don't know if you guys remember um there was this thing like a pandemic or whatever um but obviously our numbers skyrocketed and I think what we saw is that a lot of families when when being exposed to the program that this was a learning style that really worked for their families so our numbers have been pretty steady over the last several years um right now our

047current number is 346 in our full-time student enrollment and 386 in our part-time and part of that decline in our full-time enrollment is because this past year we did eliminate RK through five learning program so that um caused some decrease and typically our numbers will increase in second semester specifically for seniors and some of the other things to or into mention is that we do serve a lot of diverse populations so we have 177% of our students um receive special education services um we have multilingual Learners and 50% of our students are free or reduced large and where are we going so now we kind of get into the good part um so obviously we want to set the standard for virtual learning we want to ensure sure that bcse has a viable option for

048any student that's seeking an online education and we don't just want to be a regular online platform because they already exist that is something that we know we want to make sure that we offer services that stand out above what they can already receive and how does that happen so as we talked about one of our pillars were community and how we do that um is with facilitator accessibility opportunities to connect high quality instruction and engaging families and everything that we do we always are really intentional to make sure that we're doing it in a way that promotes the Universal Design for Learning so we get to talk about facilitator accessibility so one of the things that's special about CVP is our staff Works in a physical space so we work and are available during

049school hours Monday through Friday um and people don't have to schedule an appointment students can come in parents can come in like we are physically present um for our families and we also are part of the community so one of the things that you'll recognize with a lot of online platforms is you probably will never meet your instructor in person um most likely they probably won't live in your town they might not even live in your state so there's definitely that connection piece that you probably will not have with somebody that understands the dynamic of where you're actually learning so all of our instructors are part of this community other thing that we have been intentional with is we understand that when students are online virtually they sometimes miss that organic social interaction that comes

050with being an inperson school so this year we definitely have been more intentional of trying to kind of bridge that Gap so we've started a connections Club where our students and sometimes their families get to come and we support other activities in the community or we have our own um this November we definitely had um Connect 4 competition and turkey bowling and I never saw myself as like a bowler but after bowling with the frozen turkey I really think there might be a new future for me sorry Dr Roberts but it might be my new calling um we also have a student Resource Center which is similar to like the high school resource area um but it's really been impactful because even though our students are online virtually sometimes they really struggle with like a

051course or content or a specific lesson and they really just need that in-person instruction sometimes mom dad or Grandma also need that inperson support so really happy that we can provide that too um we do study group sessions and we do senior projects which is really nice coming from somebody who actually did a senior project at East a while ago we won't say when but I did one and so I really love supporting our students high quality instruction this is something that's really important to Mr Geo our principal um so basically the way I understand it is we did some research to figure out what is the top um online or virtual course provider and whatever it was that's what we wanted so that's what we have we switched this year to Ed minum um

052and they are Indiana's top virtual course provider for 5 years running so they are the best um and it's been really effective um I know as an educator we found it just the ease of it and the variety and the high quality of instruction one of the things we're also able to offer at CVP is like live lessons so what that would look like is Miss Caruso who is here somewhere from CVP for her US history class she does lessons where some of the students are able to come in person and they're really able to do like work in group projects and really like do a deep dive on a lesson um and so they get that connection piece but they're really able to work together and Foster that type of learning and that's been

053really successful as well and this last part is really important because I think what I've seen um as a parent and now as a teacher in imperson school the teachers have a lot of contact with the kids they play a large huge role in their success being able to monitor them redirect them all of those things but in a virtual platform our parents are those people in a lot of way so they hold a lot of responsibility to kind of be our eyes and ears um for the students so we understand that so we really work hard to engage the families like the whole family so we do like quarterly Open House events we do workshops and some of those workshops look like us helping families learn to navigate a Chromebook learn to what parent

054Square power school and that they're two different things um and just also how to navigate aded minum it's really hard to monitor your children if you don't know how to navigate their thing because we know if you ask every child did they do their homework they're going to say yes um especially if they know you do not know how to double check um it also allows our families to have regular contact with facilitators and administrators and really like they don't have to have an appointment like it really helps to build those relationships and Partnerships with our cohort team like our principal is really great about he attends their cohort meetings regularly they're always in communication obviously we have a large part-time population we also have a lot of full-time students that might take a C4

055class or an exploratory in person so really fostering that communication so that none of our kids kind of fall through the cracks has been important and lastly our senior celebration we just had our first one this may and it was great um and it was nice because like I said previously like when some of our students finish school it feels like the whole family finished school because the whole family was probably pushing them along this process so we did a nice celebration we were able to celebrate the whole family and some of our students the idea of like going from having school at home to being in a graduation with a ton of people is extremely overwhelming but we still want to celebrate their accomplishments so that was really great and I know you guys

056could listen to me talk forever but I know that the best way to really understand the impact that we have on our students is to hear from our students so our first one is Carter Gant she's a senior she's a full-time CVP student and East is her home school so we'll hear a bit from Carter my name is Carter dant and I am a senior I chose CVP because I went through a really hard time with my mental health and I was struggling to learn in the classroom setting CVP has been a tremendous help with me being successful these teachers have open arms and are willing to help you and do everything they can in their power to help you succeed you just have to admit that you're struggling with school and find resources that

057help you I would want other people to know how flexible and welcoming CVP is around here it revolves around you if you want to come in and do one-on one um sessions with your teacher that is amazing and they really appreciate that but also if that doesn't fit into your schedule then you can just do a Google me or Zoom to make it more convenient for you so around here it really does revolve around you you are the main priority and everybody will do anything to make sure that you succeed after I graduate through CVP I plan to attend Huntington University to play golf and my major is undecided and one thing special about Carter is that although she was a CVP full-time student she was still able to play play golf for East um

058and the next ones these two are special to me Javon and Dante Lawrence um they both have IEPs and have autism and I teach special education so I am their teacher um and they are in 11th and 8th grade they've been with CVP for a couple years and they are thriving like they are doing so well and we get to see their family and meet them and I think all of my colleagues agree like they just bring so much joy to to us as teachers um because this type of learning environment for them really allows them the opportunity to thrive and they are just excelling so now we'll get to hear from the Lawrence boys and Dad Lawrence Javon what do you like most about CVP I I like how easy it is to get

059like help and resources because it's it's literally you can literally get in like a click of a button I like how you can go on your own page you know if real school you kind of go on more of their P than rather than your own place and there's no rush to get like super rush to get something done I just really like that all right Javon what would you like to do after high school I I I would either like to be like a photographer or a firefighter After High School nice are you taking photography class no no no not yet but I would like to Dante what is your favorite subject in school art and what do you like about art I love how you can be creative like there's so many different

060styles of art it really just interests me in art I mean like I said it's just art all right what would you like people to know about CVP um CVP is a great program I just like to let people know that your family you can have more family time with your children you can get to learn different lessons the easiness of how you can navigate through the programs it's been excellent and it's just a it's a good program to to to be in sometime it takes the peer pressure of being in school and you're at home with your family you have more caring about your sub you get to spend more time to research different things you can work on things it's just a fun program CVP is the best program I wish that when

061I was in school we could have had something like that and I did not pay him to say that just flag um so yeah and we have a couple more testimonials I won't read those in detail you guys can read them um at ear Leisure but we have part-time students who sometimes just use CVP to take their government and econ which is great when I was in high school it was long Dr ago um we had to take it like in summer school like during the summer before our senior year or we just had a really full senior case load so that's been really great and then we have some other um full-time students that you guys can read so thank you so much for having us and now I will try to answer your

062questions and if I do a great job I take all of the credit and if I don't do a great job it's Mr gel's fault yeah what questions do we have yeah Mr n um first of all I want to thank you for your presentation and and we visited a while back and and to to see what you have done to put yourself what I would say above the typical Virtual School the supports and the focus on relationships and things that would be easily lost otherwise my only question is you um said 50% of your students are free or reduced lunch so do they have opportunity to have that free or reduced lunch and do they take advantage of that that's a good question so we don't serve lunch at CVP but I don't want

063to give you the wrong answer so I will let Mr G give you that answer I will not get myself in trouble but I will make sure that he'll give me answers tomorrow yeah thank you thanks yes thank you very much I Your Enthusiasm is much appreciated and I what might be your best guess as to the students served CVP 6th through eth graders as opposed to 9th through 12th graders as far as like enrollment yeah the yeah the total numbers the percentage of middle schoolers versus high schoolers Yeah we actually let's see if I can scroll back to that we have that I think oh yeah oh yeah okay so our sixth to eighth graders are our smaller pocket yeah and it gets more and obviously we have made a lot of Juniors and

064seniors um who it's been really effective because CVP allows them the opportunity to graduate on time that they probably wouldn't have any person school thank you and I apologize no no no thank you for I saw that I spaced it I've have one question on the same slide so I'll take advantage um what would you say is your best explanation for the inverse relationship of an increase in really part-time since covid I mean of course we had a lot that were full-time at that point but it kind of it looks like that's trending upwards and even though the fulltime is trending down so what would you contribute that most to yeah so I actually talked to Mr gel about about this one as well but so our part-time enrollment has increased for a couple reasons

065so one of the reasons is just um we're becoming more knowledgeable like people are becoming more knowledgeable about CVP um and the other reason is because right now all three high schools offer like a designated resource period where they can work on their online courses um so it's something now that the schools are um encouraging some of their seniors or Juniors to do as an option um because it's something that they're able to get that support while they're in inperson school as well so that has also contributed to a lot especially having the cohort teams if you have a senior and they are not you know they have a class they need to make up then their their advisor might suggest it as an alternative while they're here is to add in a course um

066through credit recovery program at CVP so so just to follow up on that that so you said they have a resource designated resource time that's with a staff person to kind of keep them on track and and moving forward right yes a staff person at their home school so whether east north or CSA and then the other question I had was for middle school and for I guess early High School is there an intentional effort to like through the through the traditional schools to get the word out about CVP like is there any knowledge about it sh during orientation I mean I haven't personally heard about it but I've seen the building and plan to visit and so I was just wondering is there any Communications effort from the home schools to kind of get

067that word out there um I'm I'm not for sure about 6 through eight so I don't want to misspeak I know for our high school ages it is something that um the new teams like they are aware of and one of the things that Josh does he meets with the cohort teams and they're able to assess like students that might be a better fit for CVP um or you know we don't want it to be students just want to go they want to be at home right so we really assess each student situation do we feel like they would be a good cand and do we feel like they would be successful at CVP thank you question so so I think they slowed the assembly line down there of questions um first off you've done

068a great job tonight so I know you kind of said I don't know that I'm ready for this but you've done a great job so thank you I hope they caught that on camera so I don't know when your next review is but two thumbs up right so um I I think somebody mentioned home school earlier and there was a article on a paper in June uh funny enough I received it from somebody outside of this room about a week ago and um it homeschool is growing right it's something we can't ignore with this being the closest thing to homeschooling that we have do we have any ability you probably can't answer this today but it's something to think about especially from a marketing standpoint do we have an ability today to show those students

069performance when they were in school and when they went home or just their performance period and so I think this this helps us show that if this is a good path for a student it could replace homeschooling some people are going to want to be home at their home no matter what um but this might help us to try and take a little bit away from the homeschool population and pull into this if we can show the value of it right yeah so I don't have specific numbers and I don't want to missp speak but I do know as parents are talking to their homeschools about maybe is unenrolling their children for whatever reason I do know that that CVP does come up in a lot of those conversations like hey we have this option

070this might be you know something for you to consider thank you as a daughter who is a part-timer and You' think having a mom on the school board you might have a resource to help you navigate school but she does not okay she is on her own and she found this program and is taking an art history class I think online and so she can fit Another Science in and that's just a great opportunity for kids to get ahead she's not sure what she wants to do she can double up on things so it can really Propel students and again I don't know how she got the information but she she seemed to get it so you guys are doing something right thank you very much for that thank you so much yep good any

071other questions no thank you very much thank you as you can tell Whitney really was nervous about presenting thanks thanks [Applause] Whitney I wish I look like that when I was nervous not I okay a school board member reports um I will we'll start with Public Work session since my name is up there so we held a public work session last week um we primarily focused on the two policies that are up for um vote tonight which is 2520 and 9130 so we had a lot of discussion as a team it was an extended Public Work session it lasted about an hour and a half just to make sure we all understood each other's perspectives we could ask each other questions um we had the benefit of having some Librarians in the room I appreciated

072them leaning in and giving us some information to help us all figure out where our heads are at on those topics so that was the primary um focus of that session last week and then Mr Schultz would you like to go through Hall of Fame yes for the education Hall of Fame the team met virtually uh made the selection and that award and name will be given in the February Schoolboard meeting very good okay I will start down at this side any other um where are we at board member reports any other board member reports Mr Bryant do you have anything no Mr major um Redevelopment commission uh met a few weeks back and we met with the city council uh it was a joint meeting and there was talk about the riverfront project that

073uh just this last week city council approved so um that that along with some tip creation uh for Sixth Street and Washington Street mixed use development um no Health Trust meetings in the last two weeks so uh pretty light right now good Mr Stenner no report even Mr Gs yeah I've got a couple things here if anybody can take me serious while wearing this suit but um so uh Mr Nan Mr Schultz and I uh last month went to the Indiana School Board Association region 10 meeting at the Pines in Seymour where we're able to talk and hear about all the legislative priorities of the school boards Association um coming up in in in uh next month's short session of uh the Indiana legislature which is scheduled to run from January 8th through the through

074March 14th the word is already out that they aim to wrap up by March 8th making it a uh an even eight weeks but just uh to highlight there are many legislative priorities from the school boards Association just to highlight a couple uh their number one priority is teacher retention and student Support Services grant program there are currently three unfunded uh grants that that Focus around largely school counselors and school psychologist both of which uh Indiana U I would I I'll say it uh fails miserably in terms of the recommended ratio of school Personnel to to students and and so the School Board Association recommends that those three Grant programs be combined and uh and actually be funded a couple other highlights in regards to uh referendum issues um the the School Board Association is

075is making a case for um the the state to clean up uh very wordy misleading language in in terms of uh ref referendum matters that appear on ballots and then just one other uh one other highlight uh to mention um in terms of curricular materials I I think most of us have heard about this uh isba seeks clarification on is seeking further clarification for just what schools um can issue fees for in terms of curricular materials and what they cannot and uh is asking the legislature to certainly address this year's shortfall uh by mandating that textbook fees be eliminated um when the budget reopens in 25 um in terms of um what the state legislators are prioritizing one is um I read three and looking at uh what to do with the school with the

076state's third graders that do not achieve the cut score on I 3 uh roughly one in five third graders across the state were below the cut score and another priority uh of theirs being what to do with chronic student absenteeism uh again roughly one in five of the students across the state were chronically absent last year meaning 18 plus days of absenteeism per school year and if you drop that to 10 to 17 days of absence a year uh 40% of students across the state last year were going from school 10 to 17 days so um yes all those things and then um lastly um from the Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation uh last you know the Saturday before last December 2nd the school Foundation had had a good presence um in the Festival of Lights

077Parade uh many of us walked along the school bus that was all lit up and distributed uh candy C4 also had a float and the band was well represented and then a couple notes from the executive director Nicole Cunningham uh she wanted me to pass on that uh the end of the year is coming near and it would be a great time to consider a donation to the school Foundation um a reminder to anybody out there that may hear this uh scholarship application deadline is March 1st and bcsf stars.org is where you can go for a list of all the scholarship opportunities out there and then lastly congratulations to Caitlyn Hodes of Rock Creek and Jonah henriksson of Parkside for being the school Foundation students of the month thank you Mr sh hard act to

078follow isn't it Mr n um the high ability broad-based planning committee committee with the longest name around um met last week I think it was and um a couple things from that uh one is that that the group of people that organized the high ability um meeting the needs of high ability students they do a better and better job every year of making sure that they reach um every possible kid so that kids aren't overlooked and that everyone is tested to see if they would qualify the other thing is so at least when I think of high ability I traditionally think of our um academic challenge programs but we have many many students that are identified as high ability and they're either in grades prior to academic challenge or they chose not to go into

079academic challenge so a lot of our meeting was around those students um and they are um the people that run this are working on professional development for the teachers who have a cluster group of high ability students in their Elementary classroom it's it's a little tricky finding the right balance of how much do you prescribe what's done and how much flexibility do you leave because those programs are very different from school to school in terms of how many students there are um but there are a lot of students out there getting high ability needs met that aren't an academic challenge and the last thing I'll throw out is that it was mentioned in this committee that if um the the staff person in charge of hi ability if that were a full-time position more attention

080could be paid to hi ability secondary students so I'll just throw that out there thank you Mr Nan okay we'll move on to Cabinet reports Dr Robert yeah the only one we have specifically listed up there is just a reminder of the various policies we still have in Fr front of us uh these were introduced in October again uh last November and then I'm just putting them in front of you again no specific recommendation on approval of these tonight we have those other couple that you mentioned earlier Mrs Wen from last week's Public Work session but these recommendations are based upon legislation changes and and just getting them in place too so we'll be bringing those back to you in January for formal approval that extra list cabinet members any other reports okay all right

081move on to public comments so um just if you're if you're new here today just to uh make sure you understand the process when you come into one of our meetings there are always blue sheets up on the table up there and if you'd like to speak you write your name on the sheet um I will call you to the podium in order that you've signed up you will get 3 minutes It'll be listed here on this um clock and you'll get a buzzer and I'll ask you to stop when the buzzer when the buzzer goes off so you'll be able to see your time as you go um if you have intend to speak on a topic and you feel like somebody is already represented your thoughts you can pass or you can come

082up and say I agree with so and so and and pass that's okay to do just let us know where your head's at um please do not use the names of individual students staff members or specific roles it's the same thing as using name so um just please refrain from doing that and keep things General um I think I've covered the 3 minutes and then lastly it's our practice um you know getting up in front of room being on a camera having it recorded can be really intimidating for some folks so we want to make sure that uh we conduct ourselves in a way that makes it you know open and welcoming to everyone so please no cheers or deers this includes outward gestures clapping any verbal cues um any creative ideas I think the

083idea is we just want people to feel like they can come and talk and and have their voices heard and be respected while doing so okay so with that we will start with Amy London good evening um I'm here this evening to speak on behalf of the Columbus Educators Association I am Amy London I am the president of the uh teachers union CA um on behalf of the association I want to thank all of our Librarians that we have in bcse as well as their support professionals um who work in our libraries day in and day out with our students um I would like to praise them for their professionalism and patience as conversations regarding materials in our libraries have been a frequent topic in various places in our community I would also like to

084thank all of those who came to the meeting tonight to support them I appreciate that um the elected CA Association building reps have uh put together a statement that they wanted me to read it is our CA public statement of support for our Librarians and the statement is as follows we as the Columbus Educators Association acknowledge and support our Librarians and educational support professionals and their commitment to acting in the best interests of students without interference as president of CA I can guarantee the continued support from ca for those members who work in our libraries I appreciate the collaboration with the BC Administration on this subject and I wish you all a happy holiday thank you thank you Miss London Lisa angelis angelis I'm sorry I got that wrong I'm sure I got it wrong

085you aren't the only person to get that wrong a lot I'm Lisa Angelus um thanks for letting me speak tonight I wanted to say a little bit about the school material review policies that you're have been debating um in particular after the last working session it occurs to me that the library content review process should not allow challenges based on the suitability of subject content and style for the intended audience and should be based on um alleged violations as it pertains to the legal definitions of obscene or harmful to minors um if not somebody like me or anybody could challenge pretty much any book and it's we're leaving it to more of a subjective open interpretation I see that as a potential really waste of time and money I don't think it's worth doing I

086think that the bar is purposefully set the way that it is from a legal perspective to prevent good literature from being removed from the shelves of the libraries um that being said I also think it's really important that we do not remove materials from the libraries while the review process is undergoing um if we do we in other words if something's being contested don't simply remove whatever it is that's being contested while it's being contested because there may be a slew of things be contested for a variety of reasons depending on how your policy is written um and you might end up with empty shelves like they did in Hamilton County until they got wise so that's just were my thoughts a couple of thoughts about the the policy and the process that you may

087follow thanks thank you Mary mels I want to say that um since we no longer have the right to vote for our school superintendent in the state it is important that we think carefully when we are voting for our Schoolboard members um and the people who are here to serve and I want to remind you that when we vote for you you're here to serve everyone in the community not just your pastor your religion your personal views so you need to leave those things outside the doors when you come in and consider everyone that you represent in this diverse Community doesn't matter what they're doing in Florida or Eastern Kentucky or the Bronx this is Columbus Indiana Bartholomew County and we are an especially diverse Community but I also want to remind you you don't

088just represent the people of the community but you're also here to work for the teachers The Librarians all the people who work in our schools all the way down to the janitors so keep that in mind that the decisions you make affect so many people what I had to say thank you Miss Ms uh Michelle car hi as a bcsc parent I want to thank those who understand that books like the news reflect life that life isn't perfectly peaceful life can be messy life can contain curse words even from the most unexpected person even as a high schooler some of the best people I knew could string together the most Fantastical line of expletives you've ever heard so I assure you that these words are nothing new to today's teenagers just as they weren't to

089myself life can contain Curiosities lack of understanding violence abuse and so will books life will contain love Rel relationships that are good and bad life contains people who have been formed from a myriad of experiences and individuals that learn that no matter what anyone else thinks them being who they truly are is a thing of beauty so two will books represent these Journeys life contains good and bad decisions and being able to see characters live through these experiences can help a young person make a better decision life can hit you hard and many of us have experienced tragedy and Trauma in our own lives sometimes such events can leave us feeling alone and even if we have the best support system it can be really hard to explain these feelings to others and even if

090you have someone that can help you it's really hard to get them to understand so if you can find a character that resembles these experiences it makes you feel not so alone and that can make a world of difference just to know that someone has had this experience or understands this experience can help this alone feeling dissipate and sometimes that is the most important thing in the world in the end books are going to be messy because we are humans and we are messy books will challenge us and make us feel uncomfortable because life is messy and life is uncomfortable books will get comfort and Aid to those who feel isolated because let's face it folks sometimes we aren't great at making sure people don't feel that way and even if a group of people

091or one person doesn't see the value in a certain book doesn't mean that it won't hold value for someone else I understand the need to adhere to the state law and I would like to caution against taking it further than that law because if we remove such Reflections and make everyone read the same rose-colored worlds we lose the opportunity to grow and better ourselves thank you thank you Miss car Carla Craig hi I am Carla Craig um I love out in Ville work at Mount Healthy school and tonight I just want to thank you all you have a tough job and you are not going to make everybody happy so I appreciate your taking on this position I appreciate your hard work I appreciate your time and I appreciate your caring for our kids so

092um thank you very much for that I do really quickly just want to say I am I have maybe missed our Mountain healthy girls playing basketball because of the change in schedule but thank you so much for what you do and I I acknowledge that you have a tough job thank you thank you Miss Craig Kermit key thank you again for the opportunity to come to you again and once again I want to wish you all a happy holidays I am both a writer and a parent of bcsc I was just preceded by my daughter's librarian at M healthy and I would just like to say you cannot compromise with extremists you cannot build consensus without Liars dads for moms for Liberty have no interest in bargaining their principles they have made clear that they

093ideas supersede all others anyone that disagrees with them is called trash the material is child born and therefore its proponents must be pedophiles they appeal to a god they have created in their own image as the authority to what is right and wrong because it is only their reading their understanding and their values that matter is not their intent to protect families or children or strengthen the community but to impose their ideas above all others if you have any let me remind you of this quote from the Republic last week in discussing his thoughts on the draft one board member said I still object to no parental consent for themes of sex violence and drug use but at the end of the day majority rules majority rules that's not a compromise that's a concession that's

094a concession with the promise of returning this fall with three new dads for moms for Liberty on the ballot the public school board must stand up to these extremists the same way our nation did and World War II they must be defeated because they will never compromise or negotiate we already see them changing tactics by focusing on budget issues and targeting diversity as something too expensive to consider they have to broaden their appeal because 33% or 43% will not cut it in 2024 do not add a jot or tit beyond what the state demands let the majority rule thank you thank you Mr key uh I'm going to say Curtis axom I've got a question for so I've been the last month Hey sir could you do do that just um for the recording it'll

095it'll help to make sure people on the on the thing can pick you up all right so in the last month I've talked to three different teachers in two different um locations throughout Bartholomew County all three of them have been tenured and all three of them in the last six months have been attacked by students now that may not be physically that's online that's throughout the student group just throughout whatever the student felt like they needed to do when they've asked for support the emails have been received the conversations have been had but it's been dropped there whether it's been in this building or it's been farther they're not sure they just know that they had sent information in and it went away so they haven't heard anything back asked for responses I know two

096of them have sent email responses through and that hasn't been responded to so if we're not going to back our teachers up we're going to let this go whether it's some kid that's got in trouble and they're mad because they got in trouble right and the parents have let them feel like they had the responsiveness to or responsibility to attack somebody like that that's fine if that was one of you in a professional manner you could take somebody to court and deal with it right we're sticking our teachers out there to fry we've got Johnson County who's growing at a rate faster than bartholomy County and pay rates probably exceed relatively quickly Jackson and Jennings County are growing right now all these are within the driveable driveable commute to Bartholomew County I don't know that

097there's going to be a reason if we let that keep going on and it's a fact it's happening I don't know there's going to be a reason for anybody to stay in Barony County if we're going to let him keep getting kicked and attacked unless we're going to be there to stand up for him and actually deal with it me professionally I see this stuff Nationwide I deal with different school systems and different organizations and I don't know that letting things be quiet and letting things die is a good answer so that's all I got thank you Mr some Mr grow good evening I'm Eric grow and I'm still a Bartholomew County resident and father of three I just want to take a moment just to Express gratitude for being able to speak in front

098of my constituents tonight not everyone gets afforded that opportunity um regarding the policy you'll be voting on tonight around Library content and procedures um I urge you I beg you to adopt a policy that ensures you don't give harmful or potentially harmful material to our children without consent our children are minors they dependents by definition they can't consent to this material so I'm simply just asking you as a father um you know before you give my child um potentially harmful content ask for my consent first and you know I understand the justification under current law and precedent um that the content outside of the potentially harmful within a material um has literary value that justifies um the questionably harmful content um in a work um but you know just consider that I mean we wouldn't

099take a parent that harm their child but more often than not they do good for their child we wouldn't hold that as a standard to say well the the good that they do has value that um justifies that bad I mean I pray that that never becomes our standard um and you think about it another way I could take an actual work of pornography a a Playboy magazine I could cut the spine spread out the pages write a rich literature through those pages that incorporates that material put it all back together bind it now it's acceptable for our libraries because it has literary value even though it contains in its entirety that material that we would absolutely say is not appropriate for our libraries so just some things to consider um with current standard the

100point is is that you know we can set higher standards than than just what's required by the law and I think this is a clear situation where um we're called to do that that it's necessary in this situation um but there's mounds of Publications um of literature on this stuff um one example you know the harms of porn and porn addiction um are well established especially for our youth um so that's just something to consider in all of this um so please you as a father consider adopting um policy that does not that ensures you guys don't provide harmful content to our children um before getting consent to do so thank you thank you Mr gr Mr Delp okay you're good uh Sunny Courier pass you're going to pass okay uh Laura Garrett [Music] she

101I know I know um I'm okay with that I'm okay with that we still have room thank you you realized the Acoustics in this room are horrible oh hearing aids I'm having a hard time hearing Miss would you mind just stay can you hear me yep y good can you all hear can you hear me yes uh good evening clock is on my name is Suzanne Smith my children went through the system here and turned out beautifully they love to read uh they are one is uh and two of them are retired but at any rate uh they also have a hunger for knowledge and they don't take any just anything for granted in terms of information so I'm also a grandmother and a great grandmother I've been a teacher librarian reference librarian and a

102school board member and I want to tell tell you all you stand on the shoulders of giants and I think that uh 30 years from now what you do uh will be past history when I was on the board we were we were not sidetracked by the flavor of the day or the protest of the day or whatever was going on in the country polarizing our world we were able to enact or enforce Title 9 which got girls into sports and we have a few girls I'm sure that are have no idea girls weren't always able to play sports and so we have some title n uh uh facilities we were able to pull our Corporation kicking and screaming scaming into the computer age teachers I was so unpopular with teachers they did not want

103to do it um so we marshalled funds and we were sick and tired of sitting on chairs in the bleachers uh to see concerts in the gym Memorial Gym and so we planned in Marshal funds and so forth to see to it we'd have an auditorium and a music wing and it later came to fruition these things don't happen overnight I just want to point out to you a few ethics uh considerations as school board members um it's a high responsibility but your membership demands that you understand the basic function of a Schoolboard member is policymaking not administrative and you need to know the difference you need to refuse to play politics either in the traditional sense or in Petty um situations and by representing at all times the entire School community and 30 years

104from now your names will not be you know famous but what you decide is crucial what you decide is so important and so uh on behalf of all the teachers here all the parents we very much appreciate your service I would not serve on a school board in 2023 if my life depended on it thank you so much you are underappreciated but we really do appreciate you thank you very much Miss Smith do something about the Acoustics in [Laughter] here I don't know what brought Laura away but I'm grateful she delegated Miss Smith that enjoyed that thank you very much um Richard Stafford good evening hi Mr shepher I'm here primarily to say thank you uh to the teachers and the Librarians of these schools um I'm a grandparent of three children and and the

105school system uh one of them reads well and refused to read for for a couple of years her teacher and the librarian kept working with her to find something that would pique her interest and they succeeded and now she's bringing home books and checking selecting her own books um every week interestingly what got her attention were books in World War II dealing with Germany now there are pressure groups throughout the country we have seen them that oppose different kinds of literature and some of the material that she is and will be reading about World War II about Nazi Germany uh are opposed by some of these pressure groups but this child is learning she's learning not only the facts of history but she's learning what happens in society when diversity is rejected when certain groups

106are targeted some of that material will be violent some of that material could very well be sexually violent because we know what happened during those years but her need to understand not only for herself but for her future is large it is only through the dedicated work of our teachers and our Librarians that she has had the opportunity to grow and expand and who knows what she'll get into next I urge the board not to go beyond state law because there will be always pressure groups to say let's let's not teach this let's not allow students to en encounter that they will encounter it they will get information all of them are on Facebook Instagram you know it that information will frequently be wrong and harmful if they're not getting that information through a source

107where they can process what they are reading thank you thank you Mr Stafford Nancy merbitz thank you it seems that some hope for compromise with those who are oh excuse me with those proposing reforms and restrictions to our School libraries they seem reluctant to realize the Nationwide Christian supremacist efforts underway against the very idea of public secular education so I'm bringing tonight examples from our very own purple for parents of Indiana the acknowledge driving force behind the campaigns of the four dads purple for parents of Indiana is a group avowedly dedicated to exposing the indoctrination and sexualization of children in the public education system end quote purple for parents Facebook page features as its profile picture a cartoon school board meeting where the members prepare to vote on social emotional education and they're attached by

108strings to various ghouls labeled as teachers Union's globalists big Pharma and Marxism a scroll through current and past post on their Facebook pages turn up various items of interest in a video interview with Ronda Miller one of the leaders of purple for parents of Indiana she talks about the Nationwide effort to repeal obscenity exemptions that currently protect reading materials with educational value quote Indiana is one of the many states with an obscenity exemption for educational value there is a coordinated effort across the country I can tell you to repeal this and we hope to make Indiana the first end quote purple for parents of Indiana also supports and promotes donations for the production of a film called The Mind polluters per promotional materials of the filmmakers the mind polluters is quote an investigative documentary film

109that reveals the graphic comprehension SE comprehensive sexed and social emotional learning being forced on children of all ages through the public education system for Christian parents public schools are not a safe or neutral V venue for their children's education the mind polluters exposes the dark realities of the intentional grooming of children into a world view at odds with the Christian faith a worldview of rampant sexuality homosexuality and transgenderism normalized through the use of pornographic and pedophilic materials in a video interview one of those filmmakers says American public schools are quote definitely against Christ our goal is to educate motivate and Inspire others to get involved in their local communities to defend their families and biblical values end quote excerpts from and information about several other individuals and groups specifically allied with purple for parents a

110featured organization public school exit the mission the mission of public school exit is to facilitate an exodus of American Children and Families from government controlled education thank you there's lots more thank you Miss mbin okay that concludes our public comments to for tonight thank you um everyone for coming out and sharing your thoughts with us we do appreciate it um so we are checking our time we're at 10 after 8 um we have our our votes to conclude I'm going to say power through unless anybody on my table says they need a quick break we all okay scream at me okay all right 8:30 is usually my my time so um all right now we move on to how okay Mrs Wen I have some requests for approval starting with old business we had have

111had a few meetings um over the last month so minutes of the executive session of November 13th the minutes of the public work session of November 13th the minutes of the regular school board meeting of November 13th and the minutes of the public work session of December 4th we did have another executive session tonight but we'll have those meetings for you next time additionally uh we have Neola policy revision recommendations policy 2520 is the selection of Library materials and Equipment policy 9130 public complaints and concerns I think you have the most upto-date revisions of those policies based upon conversations that have been held uh so those are my recommendations I understand that you may wish to take these votes in a in a couple of different ways here so I'll turn them back over to

112you for adherence to Robert's Rules of Order okay okay do I have a motion from the board I'd like to make a motion that we vote on the old business as presented by Dr Roberts letters A and B separately and then to further that if I may um under letter B I would like to make a motion that we vote on the policy uh 2520 and policy 9 9130 separately as well okay so um do I have a second to split those I think need a yep I don't think we do either I'm looking at Mike just ask for we're okay so to make it clear for everybody there was a 3A if you go back one slide just there you go so 3A is minutes so I think what we're going to do is

113we're going to vote on 3A and then if you go to the next slide we will vote on 3B policy 2520 and then policy 9130 so we'll break them into three different chunks through individual motions that will come from the board members at this time is that okay Mike legitimate okay a formal motion so Todd made a formal motion to break them into thirds Jason Jason is second all those in favor of breaking into three say I I I any opposed very good thank you now we start over I move that we approve um the minutes under letter 3A old business as presented by Dr Roberts thank you Mr greson Mr major for first and second all those in favor of approving um item 3A minutes please say I I I all those opposed say

114nay motion carries thank you okay and I would move that we approve policy 2520 as presented by Dr Roberts under letter 3B I second okay thank you Mr Grimes and Mr n is there any discussion on 2520 I have a few questions uh so Mr mckyer from a legal perspective a lot of discussion has been around the law and the requirement and I recognize that there is a minimum statutory requirement by January 1st however I do ask is one of the ask was or options presented was collecting parental consent and protecting possible criminal complaints from your legal opinion does providing parental consent provide BCS an incremental legal defense argument in the case of that kind of situation yes or no I have a client that is very fond of saying he wants a one-handed lawyer

115because we often say on the one hand and then on the other hand so I'm going to give you a two-handed lawyer answer there you go if there is a concern that there may be claims filed against the corporation uh related to materials in the libraries I think having a a consent having an optin in Theory May provide an incremental uh additional defense on the other hand what the value of that defense defense would be I cannot tell you I think those claims would generally be hard for someone to Prevail upon and would be challenging to push forward so yes there may be some additional defense there I don't know what the value of it would be and then the second question I had is in regards to the statutes around obscenity and harmful to

116minors does the statutes depict different suitability levels within that in regards to Children let's say 5 to 12 in our elementary age versus those that are 13 to near adult or 18 basically adults in our high schools and middle schools or is it a single standard that's simply applied to all the statute includes one test for materials to meet and that would be the test for the materials regardless of the type of materials or intended age for them real real quick what about location is it because we have not I don't think we've talked about this but um I had in my notes for one of the questions I was going to ask and you it might be appropriate now is um last week when we went to the law seminar um there was a

117lot of discussion about library books but they kind of shied away from books in classrooms how do you propose we include or exclude based on the term Library does that does that refer only to the main library in a room or a library of books that may be in a teacher's possession the statute that was approved includes the word or the phrase Library materials from other seminars that I've gone to over the course of the year when there have been representatives of the Indiana library Federation or the isba present they have have indicated that the legislators um are are meaning libraries the the actual School library not necessarily classroom connections uh classroom collections the policies that you have in front of you utilize that same word School library and I I would tell you that

118my opinion is that that means the school library collection not any collection of materials that may be in a classroom so this this obviously I don't know that anything I say tonight is going to be popular with everyone here but um do we feel like there would be risk to a potential lawsuit for a book in a classroom that may not be managed by the librarian may not be part of a library collection I'm I get a little concerned that if someone says well this is in my child's room and I don't like it um there will be somebody at some point that will say that so generally speaking any materials that would meet the definition of obscene or materials harmful to minor miners those materials are going to have challenges regardless of where they

119are located um but the policy that you have related to challenges and reviews is specific to libraries so if you if you want to expand that policy that wording would have to change whether there is risk there or not people can file claims over any number of things um I don't know that assuming we are not talking about materials that meet that definition of obscene um I don't know that that feels like a a high level of risk for the corporation and I think the the re the other reason why I asked that too is we've I think added correct me if I'm wrong I think we added the suitability element as well and so that poses another challenge and so that's why when I'm talking about risk it's overall risk because there is no

120librarian then in a classroom so who's who would be the one that would be challenged in a court of law then is it the teacher or is it the principal so policy 9130 includes an additional provision that was added after the last Public Work session that would allow for potential review requests if a parent or member of the community within the corporation alleged that a material uh that an item had been inappropriately selected based upon the criteria that are outlined in policy 2520 that list does include a suitability component it includes several other uh criteria as well so that process in the draft that is in your packet is in item J if that policy is approved with item J included there would be a formal process there for those challenges for other reasons besides

121just obscenity or being a material harmful to miners to move forward so so we we have to we have to vote tonight right you have to have a policy by January 1 which which as as we have said several times I think if we if we look at our policy today we have pretty much most of that anyway right we already have cataloging of books we have a complaint process so a lot of the work that we've done over the last how many meetings have we had for this a dozen I I don't know probably a dozen meetings on this and we've already had a policy that I did we we cataloged today and we have a complaint process today so we really had it all solved a long time ago um when it's all

122said and done I my concern is because we've added or proposing to add I think pretty much everybody was fairly aligned with adding suitability and that's why we put it as a proposal um I I don't know if we need to from here forward begin to have some conversation around what's in the classroom as well because someone will consider that either curricular resource material in a classroom or Library material and in order to protect the teacher the librarian the principal and the corporation I think we need to have something that differentiates those okay I would just add in in terms of the policies that we are looking to approve uh in January 2510 would be one of those and I believe based on conversations we want to make a very distinct separation with libraries because

123of the the state statute as Mike has indicated it was very specific to that place and then have classroom instruction materials and other equipment and so forth and so that may be the opportunity to have additional languages in 2510 as as is necessary which to this point has not yet been approved okay okay so I have a motion in a second for item 3B policy 2520 any other questions or comments before we uh at this point I'm motioning to amend policy 2520 to State the following language in the fourth paragraph following the Indiana statute notations that the corporation shall identify and receive parental consent PRI prior to providing access to media that depicts themes of drug abuse drug use excessive profanity Intense or persistent violence inclusive of guns murder child abuse and rape and themes

124in descriptions of explicit sexual acts okay second well hold on Mike I need help I already had a motion in a second and I think I need to make a decision on that before I can accept another motion is that correct I just want make sure I do this in the right order so is I think Mr Schultz's motion is a motion to amend the motion that has been made which I think would appropriately be what Mr Schultz is proposing is that the policy be approved with the additional language that he described okay and so he is asking that the motion in front of the board be amended okay to the updated updated okay so I think just so everybody up here at the table understands um we have a motion in a second for

125policy 2520 adding the consent language that Logan just requested and so we will vote on that Y and then we can and then we can can move forward with anything that might come after that is all right and and yes and it it's really a motion to amend what you would then vote on to approve but yes that is is substantively what you're being asked to do okay okay do we have any questions regarding the consent language that Logan has we're voting just on the amendment is that correct just on the amendment yes okay yeah real real quick just um some comments here uh last Friday I was up in Indianapolis and there was around uh I don't know what 150 to 200 superintendent school board members and school lawyers from across the state uh

126when they kicked off the discussion uh the very first discussion was about library book legislation and one of the first slides that was shown is probably slide two or slide three was amazingly a large full screen explicit material on the way basically is what it said um I was just kind of caught off guard to see in a room full of adults that we had a notice uh of explicit material right so if a notice is needed in a meeting like that with adults why can't we have an opt-in section for students this allows the parents to have a decision to allow those students to be able to have made available to them material with extreme explicit material sexual profane and vulgar material it gives the parent and the ability to make that decision while

127I was there on Friday I talked to several other board members superintendents and uh one of the things I mentioned was this optin and they felt that that is a lower risk option than to leave it open to interpretation by basically doing have we all seen the little disclaimers that come across all of the medical and other uh commercials that's basically what we would do here is give the parents a disclaimer that says this is the material that's in our library do you or do you not allow your child to partake and I think that um when you think about the risk that's out there and the potential for uh someone to um you could call it frivolous uh but have multiple complaints for multiple books I think that by not having the optin it

128leaves us at a higher risk and allows some of that material to be exposed and exploited and put uh your Librarians and others In Harm's Way from a legal perspective okay thank you any other comments or questions from the board members on this topic so we are voting on a motion to amend 2520 to include a consent language that Logan has proposed here tonight okay it had a motion it had a second all those in favor of 2520 with the additional consent language please say I I I all those opposed please say Nay Nay n okay so I think that was 52 um against okay um I think I go back to the original motion which was to approve 2520 as it was presented it was also seconded and we've already had discussion um on

129that I believe does anybody have anything they want to add in terms of discussion on that before we vote okay so the motion in front of you is to approve 3B 2520 as presented to us tonight all those in favor say I I all those opposed say Nay n n think it is again 52 policy 2520 as presented passes okay let's go again I would like to make a motion that policy 9130 be amended to strike letter J from the library uh materials section thank you Mr Grimes do I have a second second thank you Mr Bryant any discussion or questions from the team and to reiterate this Jay could you read that for everyone so that they know what it is Mike please thank you you I don't have yeah yep uh item J

130says the following notwithstanding any provision of the forging matters regarding School library material section to the contrary a parent or guardian of a student enrolled in a school in the school corporation or a Community member residing within the corporation May submit a request to remove material that they contain was inappropriately selected for a school libraryies collection given the guidelines described in policy 2520 selection of Library materials and Equipment any such request for review shall be handled following the same general process as described above including the possibility of a final appeal of any decision to the board thank you Mike yes Mr Nell um so under our current policy where we start with an informal complaint and then if that decision if the person bring bringing the complaint doesn't like that decision then it goes to

131a committee um those our current policy does not limit those complaints to only um things that are harmful to miners or um what's the other on um obscenity so so really what Jay is saying is it's okay for someone to have a concern about a library book that that isn't just those two things let me give you an example this is I'm telling this story secondhand so I'm assuming it's accurate but one of our libraries had a book about um a Hispanic family that lived under a bridge and actually one of our staff members saw that book and said is this really what we want to have out there about hispanic families that they live under bridges and the librarian looked at the book and decided that book wasn't appropriate that that has nothing to

132do with obscenity or are harmful to minors and and I think that um well and I'll say with conversation I have had with Librarians they're okay with wider discussion they had more of a concern with just saying suitability by age they wanted a wider discussion about um first of all the book as a whole and what we're saying is if you see material in our library that you don't think fits our guidelines then maybe you should point that out I I trust the system and the policy that we've been using and to me this is as close to that as we can get with the new legislation and I okay I hear a lot of talk about don't go above what the state requires and I I don't know that it's going above or going

133below I think it's just that we trust our parents in our community to bring legitimate concerns and we trust the process we've been using to filter through those I have a question around Jay um essentially does Jay apply to all levels of of review and the current proposed so for example the administrator the librarian review the committee review The Board review it applies to all levels of the review correct the intent of Jay uh in saying follow the process follow the process described above the intented would would be that that same process including all of those levels would apply for materials that were alleged to have been inappropriately selected so essentially by removing J We're creating two levels of Standards we're going to allow for an informal review that may or may not allow for

134that librarian it's going to be a little bit different because in reality Jay would apply to the recommendation of an informal review but I'm assuming we're allow latitude there but we will then strap all all subsequent reviews to a different level of criteria I I think with with J included with if Jay is not included there would always be the ability for someone to have an informal conversation with a librarian or with a principal there's nothing prohibiting that however if Jay is not included there is not a formal process for it to move beyond that step but to actually remove it you have to meet the standards of the policy so in reality that principle unless they're going to claim a weeding situation or subsequent solution they're they're strapped by a policy 9130 in terms

135of how they review that novel 2520 includes language related to the maintenance saying there shall be standards for the maintenance of the collection which I think would govern what happens in that General weeding situation what a librarian would say is an appropriate consideration for that weeding I think that is a question for the librarian yeah um but in terms of 9130 which covers the review and challenge process if if it is included if if item J is included in 9130 there is a formal process for those complaints for other reasons related to 2520 to move through the system and potentially end up in front of the board if item J is not included in 9130 there is not an ongoing formal process for those uh for those items that have been been asked to be

136reviewed for other reasons to move beyond that informal conversation with a librarian and to be clear that's provided to constituents today by practice and written in administrative guidelines correct the current the current policy only addresses instructional materials but uses the word Library uh books which has created I think some confusion um by practice I think there has been uh reviews in the past after that informal conversation and I I think it's I mean and I appreciate Mr Grim's motion men and I think at the end of the day we have to at least speak truth a little bit about like the the discussions here is we're not talking George Orwell's 1984 or te Kill Mockingbird there's never been an I've never been a part of an ideological argument on books this has strictly been about

137how much adult content is too much and the graphic descriptions of violence graphic sexual descriptions which were read here I mean made the board cringe and honestly sent itself into its first recess in at least a couple years from what I've seen and so I think it's fair to say that the board policy should reflect the criterias all the way through the review process and not provide a offer of symbolic possibility that that may occur C okay any other questions or comments from the board members so the motion that received a second that we have discussed is for item 3B 9130 removing item J yes sorry feel like I have to say it's really not about do we think it's bad content or do we think there's too many bad words in it it's about

138does does it fit the guidelines that we have in 2520 that's really what it's about yep understood understood and it real quick Mike you amended this based off of the last Public Work session right we had conversation at the last Public Work session and in my rough tallying of of comments from various board members I felt that we had a handful that were supportive of including this I felt that we had a handful that weren't supportive of including this and for an ease of your all's purpose I elected to include the language in the updated draft um so that and it's in one spot so that if you all don't want to include it a motion along the lines of what Todd has made can can be made if you all want to included it

139can be approved as amended or as proposed okay okay so I'm going to summarize once again so everybody knows what they're voting on okay it's 3B 9130 removing item J and I'm going to ask for you also to show your hand if you say yay or nay just so we can be super clear who's voting which way and I'm going to ask um Dr Phillips to tally for me okay you watch us like a hawk Dr Phillips please okay so just a a quick quick process question so if the motion made by Mr Grimes passes we still don't have a policy 9130 that would be a subsequent Vote or I I I heard Mr grimes's motion as removing that item and so I think then there could be further discussion but but I think there

140would then need to be a a vote as as amended because I heard him I if the mo if the motion is only to strike that paragraph then I think that's all that happens with this vote if the motion was to strike that paragraph and approve it as otherwise presented then you would be done what did you say Mr Grim I thought you were well CR do thetion go back no it's okay okay do do we want to do it separate or together I don't care I would move okay okay so I'll change my verbiage here a little bit I move that we approve policy 9130 with one exception and that exception being striking letter J okay thank you and I second you second that motion just to be really clear and if that and

141if that is the motion then this vote would would do it if it passes we conclude so we are voting to approve 9130 without item J all those in favor please say yay and raise your hand yay all those opposed please say n n 43 approved 9130 without item J okay move on to item four we'll we'll try this here uh we may have similar um divvying up of items as we get through Robert's Rules of Order and by the way Roberts does not need mean me I've had that think Logan was indicating earlier he had that question it's not not me um so request for approval for new business we have field trips and professional Lees got a list of supplemental contracts a lot of them this time school fundraisers you have our list

142of claims and payroll the amount for December 11th um $1.9 million payroll for November 13th $8.4 million that included two regular payrolls you can see the work periods covered there pre-run from November 1st through November 30th was a little over $4 million and then we have uh new policy payment methods for school sponsored events that uh was presented to you we then have um three uh resolutions regarding um the public hearing today so project resolution a preliminary determinations resolution a reimbursement resolution and then an early literacy achievement grant that was just passed through by the Department of Education and I think that is it and uh so handle that as you may but you may want to take those first few yeah I I'm going to ask maybe in the easiest sense does anyone on

143the board want to take a letter out of the consent agenda to vote on separately any letters that you'd like to be voted on separately I would move that we vote to approve number four letter C through F and letters H through K together and a separate vote on letter G okay is there is there any other input that would say you want a different anything else you want taken out of that batch so it would be C through F and H through K and we'll remove item G for a separate vote take out hi J you want hi J okay all right so that would mean we would do C through F and K we need to put these all on one slide Dr Roberts this is hard to follow in the audience I

144have a I have a piece of paper be able to see them because the print would be so small so we so so I think the proposal is C through F and K okay so fil trips and professional Le supplemental contracts school fundraisers claims and payroll and and the department of education's early literacy achievement grant that would be the first first grouping then we would do G then we do would do hi J hi J together yep okay can I have a motion please from somebody to do it in that order I well okay so prior to uh Mr Brian second I will I will move that we vote to approve letters or number four letter c through F and K thank you Mr major okay so we are voting to approve letter CDE e

145f and K all those in favor please say I I I all those opposed please say nay motion carries thank you okay let's move on to item G would anybody like to make a motion on item G yeah I I move to approve G is written okay thank you Mr major do we have a second second thank you Mr Schultz are there any discussion items for item G yeah just to um just to explain this one to everybody so back in the spring I attended an event at Columbus North High School was a track event was Outdoors um they required the tickets to be purchased through a digital means so they did not allow you to pay cash they wanted you to pay with a credit card I had my bcsd badge was able to

146enter um no issues at all but my daughter who was with me had to purchase the ticket so I attempted I say attempted because the server was actually down to purchase with the credit card through their app a ticket for her um there's probably about 20 people behind me that were trying to do the same thing but again with the server down you're not going to do too much digitally right so I don't know if any of you tried to pay uh with digital means but server down can't pay um so we had some discussion and eventually they put us through the line and they were allowing us to pay with cash there were several people behind me again this roughly 20 people came in behind me and paid me uh with cash so this

147this kind of brought to light uh you know an issue that we have where um I I don't think that there's a problem with the school preferring the method of payment with a credit card but I believe that cash must remain an option for payment for all school events this event made me realize that there are many people out there that do not have credit cards and are not able to be in a position to procure one we have what a 40 to 50% Fair reduced launch rate and that's that way for a reason right not everybody has the ability to pay with a credit card and so while we talk about our drive for Choice flexibility and partnership with the community requiring payment methods that prevent others from possibly being able to attend an

148an event we've in essence broken our partnership with the community this policy that has been written does not prevent a school from having a preferred payment method of a digital choice but it ensures that we have Equitable access to the event by having cash as an option I have a couple comments yes so I mean and I'll keep it very brief because I know we're all running up to time and I apologize as I just did a little bit of research on this cuz honestly this is one area that I've not experienced I've not been to any sporting events in the last couple years my kids aren't there yet but traditionally I wouldn't see this as a board requirement in life I think this is one that there's some local decisions but the concern I

149have here is for parents is this is not a corporate uniformed experience so as you go to school to school it's different um and I think that creates inconsistencies which then creates frustration within the community also I think not allowing cash option like Mr major discussed this is really just saying that it has to be an allowable option it doesn't have to be the preferred um The Wall Street Journal published that our poverty population so in this case we'll look at possibly some of the free and reduce is three times more likely not to have access to credit cards and our Hispanic population is seven times more likely and so in reality um as we want to be the choice to have access to our Ed education we also need to be the choice to

150have access to CR athletic programs and I think if if we're not going to provide a cash alternative um at certain sporting events then we we got to we're going to have to have some discussion because at the end of the day um what happens if Taylorville Elementary decides to make that choice and have only credit card options where the majority of their population is disenfranchised and needs that ability and would honestly like the ability to go there but this will now create a barrier and we don't want to be creating barriers to our athletic events I I don't again this doesn't dictate that this is a preferred option all this says is that it has to be a required option to Grant entry for those that have the cash available to be able to

151see the athletic event thank you any other yes Mr nellan um first of all I personally think this crosses the bar into micromanaging um but also I have to share that in my conversation with the athletic director at North about this he had a list of 13 Reasons and 13 advantages for them doing this things like it actually saves them one staff person in ticket taking um it simplifies their bookkeeping it leaves no room for human error um there's no dispute about where the money went and all of the almost all of those advantages are lost if we go to the Dual system because they're still keeping track of tickets somebody's still collecting money the advantages of of the ticket list is gone when you have both systems together thank you commiss nelan okay so

152we have a motion and a second on um 4G are we ready to vote any other comments or questions okay all those in favor please say I of approving item 4 g i i all those opposed please say Nay Nay n do you need to do hands do we need to do hands I thought I heard four or three but I just want to make sure should we do it again four n three y okay so motion does not pass um okay now we have i a h i and J left for decision tonight to be clear this is the Invision 230 this is the Invision 2030 2030 and the three different kind of bullet points we reviewed earlier today in the public these would be the three resolutions representing the public hearing do a

153motion from anybody at all I move that we approve number four letters Hi and J as presented by Dr Roberts I second thank you Mr Grimes and Mr Allan any comments or questions before we vote I do have a one more clarifying question just because of the public comment this vote does not require the expenditure or issue of B I'm asking this as a question not as a statement does this vote require the expenditure of spend funds and or the issuance of bonds as part of this resolution or is this simply the authorization to put it out to the public to allow them to decide if they want to be in a referendum or not these resolutions authorize the district to issue bonds we legally cannot do so until the public process plays out which

154would start Saturday when we post the notice if you if you vote in the affirmative on these three resolutions this evening it would be the last board action before we move then to start the process of issuing the bonds and closing on the bonds probably in so there'll be another board action prior to the issuance of any bonds not board wide action no just uh a lot of signatures as you probably remember from the last time we issued bonds with a lot of the closing paperwork and those kinds of things um let me confirm that real quick and just make sure there's not another was on the ice Miller timeline that they shared with you last time maybe an easier way to put it is after this is what allows you to borrow money through

155the bonds every vote after this is allowing the expenditure of money that was borrowed correct so the next vote would be we want to do this Improvement it cost $12 million approve yes or no right yeah correct there there are no more board actions in regard to setting the limit for borrowing that's the last of this the first the next step if once the public process plays out the next step for the board would be approving the amount that we would borrow in calendar year 2024 in the projects that would be included there um seeing presentations on the design from Mr fun contam approving contracts for the first of the bond issues that would happen during calendar year 2024 again this is just setting that maximum ceiling and starting the process for the the public

156to to either choose to pursue a referendum or not okay Logan do you feel like your question was answered are you're okay Jason what's that your question was answered I just want to make sure oh yeah any any other questions or comments from the board oh I got I got a few pages okay yeah I'm sorry I'm going to be your um the difference between leaving and staying so um I've apologize in advance but uh you know I just I think that this is a very big deal this is an extreme amount of money and so please just indulge me with a few minutes here so since January Logan and I have been visiting schools unfortunately I wasn't able to go to the first visit which was CSA Lincoln so I have to make that

157one up but you know just curious uh I I've been to almost all the schools in the last year I don't know if everybody else has been to all the schools in the last year or two um it would be interesting to know because being out in the schools you see a lot of things uh during visits we were able to observe make observations on classroom size building age condition of the buildings many other things when we received the full list of improvements for the 11113 November 13 meeting we had better understanding of Facility by facility Improvement plan this was the first time we really had a good comparison especially with the cost and that we saw what was being done by school lots of questions arose some were answered and some were not um

158to reiterate to everyone this is a $36 million bond which means we're going to in essence borrow money that comes with a financing cost of 1997 million that means that this is a $53 million expense that we're going to make a decision on tonight ultimately when we met on 10:30 for a strategy session I noted during that meeting I was sitting over by that column right there that it would be great if we had an opportunity to have a review of this as a board and go through the many different items that are on the list and understand the plan better as I confirmed a few minutes ago we've had probably better than 10 I I said a dozen I'll give them 10 meetings on policy for library books all right there's no money spent

159there and as noted we already have cataloges and we already have a challenge process what we have not had is a full Board review and discussion of this $36 million set of bonds that they want to that we want to issue this is a tremendous amount of money and while there are definitely needs again I've seen the needs I agree that there's a lot of things that need need to be done we've spent more time on that policy discussion than we have in spending based on the questions that I've received from the public and questions that I've had on myself um there's some things that have been noted that I just want to get some clarity so earlier in the year there was a survey that was conducted and there was a teacher that actually

160proposed consolidating 10 through 12 at Columbus North creating a Freshman Academy cons ID ating middle schools at East freeing up Central Middle School to be the new elementary school that would have saved us $60 million I think it's 62 or 64 is what the new elementary school is I I don't know if we discuss that as a group as to whether it makes sense I can tell you I am not from Columbus I am from terot terot North and terot South hate each other as much as Columbus East and Columbus North do and I can tell you that all of you that graduated from one of those schools would probably despise the fact that your school was Consolidated with another but when you think about the future of this County in this city $60 million

161could go a long way being spent in other ways to revitalize downtown or to bring new companies into the community if we're seeking to improve a uh provide an improved educational environment then with this change that we're suggesting what do we expect to see is an educational Improvement no facility has ever made students perform better student performance is tied very closely to teachers teacher aids parents curricular material and as I was reminded today the amount of food that's in their bellies when they start the day the amount of security they have at home to get a good night's sleep right those are the things that are important to students in learning so a great example of another area where I think we can improve we talked about at Mount Healthy and Mount Healthy um based

162on the cost information we've seen there's only two schools that are going to spend less money than Mount Healthy to make improvements Mount Healthy when you walk through it is like a big dut you walk in this big kind of circle you're going up and you're going down depending on the way the Topography is of the of the building there are no walls in between classrooms so in between classrooms sound and noise can travel which makes it really hard I don't know how there's a lot of really dedicated and great teachers that are there every day that you know take it on the chin trying to be able to teach in a classroom where they can hear two teachers down $197 million is what we've set aside based off of the last presentation we had

163this is a lot of money I don't know where it comes from I don't know how easy it is to find $200 million in a Community I know we talk about tax rate neutral I don't know what we've talked about as tax impact and I say that because the money has to come from somewhere and it's from you and I don't know if we currently have a plan to collect this money I don't know if our debt that we've been relieved of allows for this expense um in addition to the 300 million but if it's so easy to find $200 million to pay for financing costs that gains nothing you gain Nothing by paying interest all of you know that that have a mortgage why is it so hard to find money to pay teachers

164why is it so hard to find teachers AIDS I've talked to numerous people about teachers AIDS we don't have enough of them we can't get enough of them right it'd be awesome if we could could have a teacher Aid per classroom I know that that's probably not realistic but there are places that they're sharing a teachers Aid amongst three classrooms 200 million how where could that money go um I mentioned uh yep I mentioned that um the plan that we've got presented again I believe that there are things that need to be done to every school but I have a concern with the reduction in capacity at every school that is being proposed with the changes that we have an example is Clifty Creek currently has 658 students they've gained 41 over the last year

165currently they're at 77% capacity but if we move to the Future capacity post renovation they'll be at 97% that means you cannot grow in that school you just can't CSA Lincoln 366 they already at 105% capacity when we reduce the capacity due to improvements they go to 113% again we talk about overcrowding how many kids per classroom we've talked about how many kids per school but how many kids per classroom on this list that I have here um when we look at the ADM and we look at the future capacity changes uh with Renovations Clifty Creek and Richards have both gone up Smith has gone down that's anomaly on the on the east side but when we look at Mount Healthy and we look at Southside both of them slightly decreased in enrollment over the

166last year that's the side of town where there's growth you've said it you've driven it you've lived it why are the schools losing students in those areas right so I've got a concern there um when we speak of growth and we think about the trends with especially with ADM and demographic studies that were presented to us on 1023 the projected enrollment from 2021 to 202 or 2033 is down it's down less students why are we spending $60 million on a new school if we have less students I understand it may not be popular to move kids or redistrict I understand that we've had several people now at least three now I think that have come in here and had similar complaints I don't I don't disagree that it's not the right thing that it's that

167it's the right thing to do I think it's wrong to do that but at the same time $60 million for a school that we couldn't fill quickly I know there's a lot of talk about um CR and building this this uh new housing and um medical are area on that side of town and that's what this school would um support but even with that that that those numbers are not in the projections that we show so I don't know if that's an oversight or if that's real but there's no increase that I see that would justify 60 million on a new school um one of the last things I have here I've talked to several coaches and athletes I understand the need for space however I do not believe we need to spend $50 million

168on two gyms and two weight rooms we have talked about this in the past I I was able to get a tour Logan was with me as well of St Peter's gym which has multiple area for basketball bleachers they have a front area with locker rooms and upstairs as well um that cost them a little over 5 it was right around $5.3 million with inflation I give him 10 million you could do two gems just like St Peters for 20 million just save you $30 million do we need to build another facility two facilities three facilities four I don't think we need to do that I think if we're mindful I I I made a comment about pole bars and I don't think everybody thought it was funny but it's true the reality of it

169is if you talk to people especially the coaches and others that need this space they need a roof and four walls with a floor that they can play on right football players don't care how pretty it is it's going to get dirty baseball players softball players that are coming in before their season starts they just need a place to play catch to hit balls right so it's it's something that I think that's interesting I had asked previously for PE weight list how many classes how many teachers how much space was needed I did not get a response for that so I don't know when we say it's for PE space I don't know that it's Justified if we can't give a number to somebody that asked for it I know that we're concerned with the

170size of schools and Southside is deemed too large we've talked about the ideal classroom size but we've never gotten to a number I don't know how we get to a number I know we did a survey and there was some public input and they said it was 700 kids would be about right but I just I don't know what the right size is for a classroom does a classroom 30 kids or is it 20 kids I think we could probably if we went and looked we could find justification that smaller class sizes yield better grades I think it gives more personal uh interface between the teacher and the student so if anything I would rather build more classrooms in schools and hire more teachers the last thing is I want to just make sure that

171[Music] um there are 40 schools that have more students in the I 3 um testing than Southside and 21 that are worse um southside's doing a good job they're our fourth best school but we are 246th out of 364 for our I scores that means 68% of the state is doing better than we are all right so I want you to think about this I want you to think about where we spend our money how we spend our money I know we need to make investments in schools I think the keys are we have to look at HVAC security and Roofing as the immediate expenses I think we need to then have a good plan for rolling out the next round I think $36 million today is too much to commit to I think it's

172more wise and I think it's more logical for us to chunk this out one bite at a time and make sure that our investments are being made more in our teachers our AIDS curricular materials along with welcoming back our parents into schools thank you okay Mr major is done do we have any other comments or questions from the board members on this topic okay so Mr I would just indicate that part of what I heard was that um we weren't being very responsive to the questions from the board and um I will say that Dr bosan and Dr Phillips have been over backwards to make sure this board is as informed as is possible regarding this large request for expenditures I I would agree with that I'll make my comment um to give my vote

173away before we vote um I can say that I'm going to absolutely vote for the capital projects uh plan and as a Schoolboard member and again as an educator for 33 years I I absolutely uh sit up here with with kids first and foremost in my mind and um while I agree that the quality of teachers and Tas and other school personnel arguably matter the most in the proper education of kids the the reality is times change and Facilities do matter um and need to be updated and kept relevant for the times and the needs of kids that's thank you thank you Mr Grimes I think I'll join and I mean giving the vote away I mean at the end of the day I support the capital projects on the broad on the the broad

174breath of them I think at the end of the day 306 million with $180 $190 million and uh carrying cost for interest is a large bite and that's why I've asked repetitively you know are we committing I think there are immediate needs I've been in all the elementary schools the only thing I caution is that Parkside is an experience it's not one that can be easily replicated across our school portfolio just given the unique architectural needs of our schools and so I caution that and I also caution some of the later spending so I mean that's one reason why I believe that the board has the ability to essentially move project by project and for example like Mr major I share similar concerns around the gymnasiums which also I have requests of joint requests that

175were not given and so I do have some of those uh concerns as well however for the elementary schools I think there is a lot of opportunity needed and similar to north side which again I attended and I don't think has seen any renovation since my attendance honestly I saw a very similar furniture from when I was there um and so I just wanted to kind of make that statement okay thank you Mr Schultz any other questions or comments from the board okay um so we have item four h i and J there was a motion there was a second um and there has been discussion those are up for approval I'm going to ask for um a show of hands along with your vote just to make sure if I can ask Dr Phillips

176to tally again for me so all those in favor of approving items 4 h i and J please say I and raise your hand I all those opposed please say nay and raise your hand no okay thank you motion passes 621 okay okay I request approval of the HR recommendations as presented this evening thank you Dr ple do I have a motion from the board motion to approve the HR recommendations as provided by Dr ple thank you Mr Schultz have a second second thank you Mr Bryant all those in favor of requesting the HR recommendations please say I I I all those opposed motion carries Dr ple thank you hey Dr ple sorry hey one quick um I haven't looked in a while where where where's the corporation with open positions currently we currently have

177one I believe we have one position teaching position out of a couple thousand it's pretty good odds lot of 769 teachers we have one opening thank you okay board input and review Mr Bryant can I start with you please anything you'd like to conclude enough Mr major yeah I did uh get some responses from some principl so uh CSA linoln Athletics ended their um season for both the boys and girls at 10 and0 for the first time ever so thank you Mr Finley for the update and best of luck on upcoming Super Saturday uh I got a later update that did not hit for the last time from Mr Mai at Clifty Creek and they had a wonderful Veterans Day event the choir performed many songs and created a video that was shared with me

178uh the sixth graders uh helped to greet veterans and to read poems to them the school provided great support to Veterans and the many families that attended uh shared their gratefulness in that so thank you for that um I do have one thing that I would ask is uh I've gotten several responses from um through my daughter uh about the uh Super Saturday being way too early this year and um there are several cheerleaders that are upset because they've not had as much time as they'd like to prepare for that it's usually in January and this this year it's about a month or so earlier so they were hoping that uh some consideration might be put in next year to hopefully put that back to its old time um so that uh the kids can

179have a little more time to put uh into giving a good show to everybody and the last thing I wanted to just uh tell everybody thank you for their time uh be careful if you're traveling over the next uh several weeks and to have a Merry Christmas Mr stanner um wonderful presentations tonight um very interesting how things are changing and work with the CVP to uh try and keep up with some of the changes um I always um am impressed with the U Lily endowment working with the Heritage fund announcing two Lily Scholars each year uh neglected to write down their names but I noted that both Lily Scholars this year are at East High School or enrolled at East High School um maybe one of them CVP or maybe one of them CSA uh

180congratul ations to them both and their families thank you good thank you for M Mrs W for giv me just a moment uh Janet WMA is here in the front row this is Jan's last school board meeting with us she has been a uh been with the Republic for how many years now Jenna yeah so in our board meeting we always invite her to a board meeting before just to make sure she has all the agenda topics and and so forth and I think she's done a great job representing the Republic within our community so wish her the best yay be close to family in Illinois I believe right Jenna yeah yeah thank you okay um I would just like to maybe thank my my peers here on the board we we covered a lot

181of really heavy stuff tonight and kind of put a pin in some things that we have been working on for months and months and months um I also echoed Dr Robert's comment there has never been a question that I have wanted to have that I've not had a very thorough immediate response I feel like the whole staff that we get to work with here does a phenomenal job um helping us understand the situation and forming our opinions and we take this amount of time because we I like to believe we come into this with an open mind and we need to we need to fill that up with information and help us make the best decisions and we've all we've all made those decisions tonight so um anyway it was it was a good night

182in terms of us kind of getting through some some big steps on a few topics um and I also just want to go back to um the best practice the CVP I those sessions I appreciate they are in here because um I have so much to learn the our school corporation does so much work um and you think you understand something and then you see presentations like that and you realize it's so much deeper so much richer so many caring enthusiastic people doing work and it just makes feel pretty good about what we do so that was awesome aome Mr gra first off thanks to the community members that were here and spoke this evening Andor just uh simply came as interested invested stakeholders in the corporation um Lots going on this week robotics has

183some things going on best wishes good luck also uh elementary basketball wraps up Super Saturday the cheer competition um best wishes to the music departments at East and North as they have holiday concerts later this week good luck to the wrestling swimming diving basketball teams at Northeast is the in rivalry week and then um lastly I I would just like to say I I've voted the way I did tonight on on a few issues because as a school board member I feel that my responsibility is to help govern the schools I know I said this at our last Public Work session and and I think there's a difference between governing the schools and attempting to run the schools and and I certainly um you know outside of kids first I I keep that in mind

184as well when decisions are made um and try to uh walk that line between governing and attempting to run the schools thank you thank you Mr Schultz so running after Mr Grimes and listing all the athletic things I had but uh I I did catch one that he didn't have which is a Central Middle School spell Bowl team is going to the state finals so uh congratulations to them also want to thank the presenters and speakers and very similarly to what Mr Grime just to you know justify my position is ideologically right I kind of presented this in a prior meeting I see a child's say education like a board table around it you got family members teachers pastors important figures of this child's life but at the end of the day the head of

185the table as the parent and so I always feel when it's possibly at risk of hurting the child that's where I feel like we have to seek that consent from the head of the table thank you Mr Schultz um so I have three commendations that I want to mention tonight one since the last board meeting I went I attended a meeting at the commons that was hosted by IU Columbus and the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce they brought in four economists from from from around the state that talked about the future of the economy in Indiana and in baramu County but my Commendation is to Natalie Perry who is um an economics teacher at North she was there with 20 of her students oh and I that was the highlight of the thing for me

186was was see that um also since the last meeting I um was able to attend the East High School performance of the Musical Chicago and it was outstanding and I would um send commendations to the music and drama departments at East it was it was great and the other one is actually to well um Mr major was talking about visiting schools um and one of the things that I have Come Away with especially from the elementary schools that we have visited is how above and beyond our teachers go to make situations work that that are seem unworkable I mean when you see small groups of kids working at tables in hallways um and you see teachers at Mount Healthy putting up barriers to make enclosed spaces when there are no enclosed spaces um the list

187goes on and on um and and for those teachers I am glad we're moving forward sorry um with our um vote tonight and I would reiterate that Mr or Dr Phillips and Dr Boseman have gone above and beyond in terms of answering questions sorry good thing is the end of the meeting so one other thing so I was at North High School and we went through four years of of reconstruction and um the year after that when we had the new facility two of my teachers and I were doing a workshop in Westerville Ohio which is a fairly upper class suburb of Columbus Columbus Ohio and and we walked into this very nice high school where we were doing the workshop for their teachers and we all had the same sense that this is the

188first time we've walked into a school and weren't envious um and that was a wonderful feeling and I look forward to when our elementary teachers especially can experience that very good thank you Miss Weldon yes Mr I found that Mr major can save me he knows the names of the two Lily Scholars at East yeah I think it I think it was Sanji Patel and naughty Harris good okay um upcoming dates so we have our next regular school board meeting on January 8th that is a reorganizational meeting so every year we we revote on our executive committee on the board and that will take place on the 8th um and then we have another regular school board meeting January 22nd happy holidays to everybody please enjoy your break meeting adjourned