001e notan Le or David Clark but I am I'm I'm Robin Kane and I'm the assistant tennis coach and was asked to be here today to to recognize our team and and some of our individuals that had just outstanding Seasons this year uh the north tennis team finished 22 20 excuse me 24 and two and we're State runnerup this year and we're very very proud of that accomplished this was our sixth straight trip to the state finals and our tennis has had a great deal of success not in the small part due to these three young men that are standing here uh first one to introduce is Hank Lynn Hank is U our number one singles player and Hank uh was 22 and one this year and was also State runner up in singles so
002outstanding job by Hank this year and uh his overall record he's just a junior is 69 and3 so we're really glad to have him than back and uh he'll be our captain next year he's also been First Team all state singles for three years and um you know he's done just an outstanding job for us the north team uh this year not only with the outstanding record that it had we're conference in IND Champs again and um one of the things I'm particularly proud of these group of kids is they were uh First Team all stake academics again so they always represent us in the classroom really well looking forward to having Hank back um but we're going to talk a little bit about our doubles team um enve atam okay enve uh has been
003on the team for four years uh their record this year was 28 and2 uh as a singles player he was uh 19 and three and his overall doubles record uh for four years for us was 72 and seven okay first team all academic in doubles for um three years and then for the second time in two years he and his partner were individual double State runner up so outstanding season uh Emer Carr okay amitt played uh Varsity for four years he played at all at doubles his record this year uh was get 28 and two and his overall doubles record was 91 and 12 in four years okay he is All State uh first team doubles for four years he was a a outstanding cabinet and a captain and he also was all state academics
004as well so that's just a that we just got a seniors get the awards and he was ours this year so congratulations to these young men uh it makes our job easy that these kids are not only outstanding tennis players but wonderful students and a great representation to our community and uh very proud of their accomplishments and thank you for the opportunity to to work with them thank you very much thanks [Applause] coach up okay so we are going to move into our public hearing I think I gavel out of our normal meeting and now we are in public hearing moment I'm looking through our signin here um if you intended to come and speak tonight about um the the hearing topic you can go ahead and do that at this time at any time
005you don't have to wait until our public comment section but if there anything outside of that topic um we'll wait for that section so that Mr Phillips thank you m pH Mr Gro do you want to wait till Dr Phillips or we can we can have you come up up to you okay okay so let me let me just set the stage real quickly Mr Gro um there are three different at least three different opportunities tonight for a public comment there are two public hearings to start the evening the first one is an additional appropriation hearing most of the topics that I covered during the last board meeting about the additional Appropriations the second hearing is about the facility projects and then there's the public comment sheet that Mrs Wilden referred to so this first
006first one will be just about the additional preparation thank you so um this evening we the the first uh hearing is a requirement that anytime we're going to spend beyond what the board appropriated last October for the calendar 2023 year um we're required to hold an additional appropriation hearing for the public to um comment on that just as they would a regular budget hearing in the prior year and then the board has a resolution the end of the evening um whomever's in charge of the slide can you give me one click please thank you so these are the items uh that are on the additional appropriation requests for this evening all but one of which have been discussed in Prior budget meetings so um really quickly the the first one is just the non-english speaking
007grant that used to be separate from the education fund that moved into the education fund this year therefore we're going to spend Beyond uh for that purpose what was appropriated for this year because nothing was appropriated for this year for from the education fund for that purpose the second one is as a result of the collective bargaining agreement that was approved we will we will spend about $1.7 million in salaries and benefits in 2023 beyond what was approved for the budget that third one under education fund is the one that we hadn't talked about before but that's actually I believe in your approvals for later this evening it's an education fund grant that the Doe's required to distribute that to the education fund most of our grants that's not the case but this one requires
008us since we're going to spend those dollars even though the state's going to reimburse us for those expenses it's an appropriation that needs to be approved uh under the operating referendum fund again we spoke about this one a couple of meetings prior uh but the teacher salary and benefit portions for the retention increases from the operating referendum are going to exceed the budget for this year by about $425,000 and then the last one again we also mentioned this one that um we had four buses that were delivered earlier than expected they weren't supposed to come until 2024 U but they arrived early so we want to pay that invoice now and so that's an additional appropriation request in total uh just over $2.5 million in Appropriations again above and beyond what we're appropriated for this
009year and um just to point out in each of these cases the revenues expected to be collected in this calendar year um meet these meaning uh there's enough revenues to support each of these additional Appropriations without going into deficit financing we won't spend more than what we're bringing in revenues um will point out thank you to Mr stinner who caught the fact that that there was a cell eliminated in my formula for what was in your packet versus what's on the screen all the line items were correct but the total at the bottom was missing that $161,400 and so this slide that you're seeing now does have that corrected um and that's the total so happy to take any any questions or comments from the board or the public on this 2023 additional appropriation request
010the the only question I have about the robots for autism is I saw there's a grant is that $80,000 including the Grant and is there it was hard for me to understand exactly what the grant amount was it looked like there was a total and then in the in all the after it looked like there was a smaller amount like 25,000 I think was the gr amount and then there was like a 50 or 60 or 70 that was another number so I I guess where I'm long-winded right now is the $80,000 is what we will spend but it won't all come from us so what's the difference the 8,600 is the amount of the total Grant and it will cover all of the expenditures okay but because it's running through the education fund the
011board has to appropriate those dollars okay again most of our grants that's not the case you don't have to go through a public hearing every time you get a grant this is just an exception to that rule any other questions from the board okay any questions from the public on this topic all right Miss Dr Phillips we can move on thank you the next public hearing is a requirement anytime that the board is going to uh issue bonds above a certain dollar amount um and this is the I believe this will be the fifth time that we've talked about this topic during Public public board meeting going back to the beginning of March of of this year um and so Dr Boseman I believe is going to kick us off give me one one click
012um he'll go through some of the the uh uh sorry facility portions of the project and then we'll review again the financial details um after which we'll allow for the the public um questions or comments Jim Funk is with me from CSL AR there he is he was over there and now he's moving further away I don't know uh good evening uh thanks for for making the time um this is this information um is a review of material that you've been exposed to um already and um our attention tonight is to give a highlevel scope overview of the projects um Jim is with me here he'll he'll add some um some detail to a few of the slides and and um happy to answer questions here as well um just as a reminder this is
013the first of two public hearings that we'll have on the projects um no action from the board tonight but we'll come back together um on December 11th um as well last time we were together we had a strategic planning session to where we had um brought to you a recommendation of making significant improvements to our to our um facilities mainly at the elementary building um without tax without raising the tax the tax rate uh Dr Phelps Dr Roberts and I and some others Mandy Keel from CA met with I think 37 different groups and more than 425 people that all voiced strong support of the projects and um strong preference of doing so without increasing the tax rate so this is a a synopsis of of those uh those recommendations this graphic on the left
014you're you're familiar with um anytime we make any improvements to our facilities these are our guiding values and principles by which we we abide by um and if you've been around for a while you you recall that back in 0809 and 10 we we had the opportunity to make sign significant improvements to the learning environments at the high schools um so now we are um primed and due and and financially able to to make similar improvements at the elementary level over the past several months um we've we've met with you and members of the public to uh go over a list of facility needs that we have in bcsc this is a synopsis of those needs most of our uh pre- to6 learning environments are um of the same age dated um I'll go through
015each of the slides here in just a bit programming needs um of our students have changed over the over the the course of that time um North Side Middle School um I I'll speak to that here in a bit as well but is is in significant need of of renovation really hasn't had much work since the 91 L's wines Apple Edition was was built um we also have some capacity and enrollment um items to to address in terms of demographic shift to the west of the community and then um need to accommodate some facility growth that we have um or or need to accommodate some growth at facilities to accommodate C4 extracurriculars Etc just a reminder on the financial um piece of this also as I mentioned the the feedback we had from the public
016was um so long that we can do so uh to address these these projects in an appropriate manner the preference was to do so without increasing the tax rate which was our recommendation um to you and also just a reminder of these funds of lease rental bond funds they may not be used for salaries uh teacher salaries classified staff salaries Etc with the exception of a a construction project manager um but they may not be used for for increasing of of of teacher funds teacher salaries I I'm going to let Jim explain this but um this is a graphic that if you've um you've seen before we have CSA do a CSO do a master facility study every four years and our Our intention of these projects um is not to spend the same amount
017of dollars at each space our intentions are to elevate the learning environment um of each of our schools to the same level so that may that may cost more in some places than others um but that's our intention I'll let Jim explain this to you a little bit more so the the top chart is kind of where your facilities are now and if you remember that slide a couple slides back um we looked at you know there's six are seven categories there uh safe welcoming uh Community efficiency in ation accessibility and flexibility and and the elementary environment really The Innovation and flexibility are the the two big ones for that and and if the second chart down you'll see um what we hope it looks like when we're complete and that's that's going to be
018a few years from now to get there um and you'll see most of the improvements are on the elementaries um you'll see a few other places like North Side um of all these you know North Side Up Up and Down is the the worse uh just because of age and condition so you'll see that getting improved but on the element side you see a lot of uh so the ones are are are good the the threes and fours are are not as good and and to read that and you'll see a lot of the threes hopefully going away um and you see a lot of ones and twos replacing that so as we look at buildings we're we're hitting as many of these as we can um you know some buildings need a new mechanical
019system as part of this others don't uh so it's finding what what is the highest needed each facility to to help improve it and spend the dollars you know where they need to be spent obviously you can't you know there's no way to renovate every facility every 100 square ft you know 100% of every square footage every building for these dollars when you have 2.4 million square feet of building uh so this is very targeted and and trying to make best use of dollars thanks Jim will be back in a minute to answer all your questions uh so I I will go through these and not read all the text to you but you can you can see them as a reference but I am going to slide through um each of the um Elementary
020buildings and speak to them a little bit so Southside in no particular order here Southside Elementary you can see a synopsis there um the first bullet you see on here is is our you'll see that on nearly every slide for the elementaries and and those are our non-negotiables that we have interest in incorporating in each of our each of our elementary buildings um I will read those to you just this one time but the inclusion of a dedicated stem lab small group instruction spaces flexible learning spaces prek classroom new finishes new instructional furniture and technology and wellness areas um and and I won't give detail on all those because you you guys have heard me speak of the those their importances um in the past uh the other thing I'll mention about Southside Elementary is
021um the you may you may be aware that that was originally designed and built as a junior high school and some of those classrooms are relatively large and others are relatively small there's more smaller classrooms than larger classrooms at the Southside and we hope to uh make improvements and Corrections Corrections there um on the right hand side of all these slides you'll see a a quick synopsis of of of um relatively major projects that the buildings have seen um we'll see that on each one of those Taylorville Elementary um the main the main thing with Taylorville um is there's a lack of um opportunity for Collaborative Learning in that building so we hope to address that um through this project as well at Taylorville Rock Creek Elementary uh you may recall in 2016 would actually
022build um four a four classroom addition to the north end of this building that's that's um functional and well and and would not be addressed with this minus some HVAC um but there's major HVAC renovation needed at at Rock Creek Elementary um expand the geothermal um that was put in there in 2016 uh during that that space um and probably is you see on there the last major renovation there was 1994 it's probably one of our more dated visually dated buildings um in the district at the elementary level Richard's Elementary uh Richards is is an interesting an interesting place in that it's in terms of square footage it's one of our larger spaces but the way that the buildings uh laid out makes it a little more challenging for um just because how the corridors
023are and such the gym is right in the middle of the building um rock Creeks the same way makes it a little more challenging in terms of Renovations there so you'll see later on a slide for additional square footage um as part of our estimates and this is building that would have additional square footage added not to expand Capac capacity of students there but to allow those flexible learning spaces and those those collaborative learn learning spaces to be able to be um Incorporated just because of the footprint um of the building the other thing I'll mention about Richards is um it's uh vehicular traffic pedestrian traffic and bus traffic on this site is challenging so it is one of the few um spaces that we have targeted for a separate bus lot which would in
024my opinion make sense to put to the South there's space available there uh which can double as a Hardscape play area for the kids and then event parking in the evening uh Mount Healthy full disclosure is probably one of our more um questionable on what the appropriate approach is uh if you've been through Mount Healthy you're aware it's it's an open concept School CSO has done a good job of of making some minor improvements in that space for example several years ago um enclosed the cafeteria which made a tremendous amount of of difference in the in the space uh but it's still open concept school so there are certainly challenges there to the learning environment that we that we need to address um and this is a this is a good example of a building
025that we would um work very closely with the staff in that building to make sure that that all parties are in agreement that the design is going to help solve the struggles that we have with that with that learning environment um due to the nature of it so uh the next couple CSA and fod and Lincoln the these are two buildings that have seen uh relatively significant Renovations recently so um you know you hear me talk about parkite a lot but fodrea um if you've watched the halls of fodrea um you'll see a lot of of common learning space opportunities we need to expand that a little bit um but a lot use of natural glass and natural light and that sort of thing um so fod and Lincoln uh fod more than Lincoln would
026not see significant renovation uh the place is in pretty good shape and and if you've been that would make sense to you um but as I said before uh there are a few opportunities with stem lab um inclusion new instructional technology Furniture Etc Lincoln Lincoln is similar Lincoln um Lincoln had renovation back in 2019 through U as that building transitioned to a pbl building um but there is opportunity Lincoln's footprint is rather small as you're probably aware you can see it's the smallest building in terms of square footage at the the bottom of all these slides um but we do think we can um double up some space and create stem lab in there and address a few of those other items that are that are on the screen Smith Elementary um is is a
027building that is in need of a little more um love and attention than than others in terms of renovation and repurposing of space um the the image on the bottom is a is a thought not a plan but just thinking of how we can uh better configure things over a little bit but we do have some opportunity for site improvements at Smith Elementary um the classrooms are due for for renovation and significant improvements as well um HVAC is in pretty good shape in that building you can see we just addressed that back in 2015 Clifty Creek also had some work done um not quite to the scale of fodrea but when it uh was transitioned to a a pbl Academy um Clifty has a they do have some traffic things we need to address there
028in terms of site um and then could benefit from um the addition of um expanding those learning common spaces that are not in place now and then the 12th Elementary um this is not existing now obviously but um it's a synopsis of information I've shared with you in the past about availability um in our in our opportunity on the west side of town so this slide is a is a quick synopsis of um I'm a little hesitant to um write write my write my checks in blood on these things but these are things that we've identified and that CSO has has um addressed through estimates of our opportunity to improve um by each of those each of those sites and then the um new square footage and existing square footage that I that I mentioned
029before North Side Middle School that's that's a healthy list on the left-hand side I won't read it all to you but that is um with 170,000 ft is our is our largest building that that frankly needs address in terms of um square foot footage so you can see the the list on the left hand side of of opportunities that we have um there at North side and as I mentioned the the building really hasn't seen significant upgrades um since the um what you see picture there that was built in 91 with the liters wines Apple Edition um couple just while I'm here a couple um I do not have slides up here for every building there's no slide for McDow there's no slide for Johnson um Central Middle School equipment so those are those are
030part of the plan in terms of Equipment Technology that sort of thing but um you didn't want to be here till 10:30 at night and I thought I would just hit the highlights so but happy to answer questions uh these are a synopsis of um as you've heard from me before the the needs to expand our our demand um student demand in terms of enrollment at the C4 programs and then a quick synopsis also of um scope of work at East North High School to address the PE and extracurricular um areas of as as we've discussed so I'll let Jim speak to this a little bit as well and add any thoughts that I missed this is my last slide but this is a synopsis of um the information at the top that you saw
031a moment ago in terms of the elementaries that would be that would be targeted um you you do see all the buildings list on this slide um all the all the buildings that that house students and then running totals um adjusted for inflation in there as well soft cost and hard cost just for clarification Soft C hard cost for construction costs soft costs include um what we pay Architects what we pay bonding fees what we pay for furniture equipment um construction manager fees all of that so um I'll turn it back to gym for additional information on this slide and then answer any questions you may have or from the public you kind of requested kind of seeing what was happening in each building so we try to do kind of a checklist to help
032with that I know know that with with the number of buildings you have it's it's hard to remember at each um so you know we created some you know which build had Renovations um obviously some get more than others and and and the cost associated with some of those will will help you with that um and which ones get additions you'll see that with the new square footage um also which ones get you new furniture obviously the the elementaries all all do to a pretty good extent now the the high schools and middle schools not as much that's more targeted um stem Wellness um again all that at each of those and then and also some at the middle school as we get through this um and then you know side improvements where we're doing
033solar where we're doing Roofing I mean all those things to help keep maintain those buildings over the years so um important things and then as anything we do we're always looking at security and how we can improve that um so there's a lot of new gamer systems and other um strategies within a building to help um be be more safe and and effective if there's an intruder happy to answer questions you may have questions yep Mr Center looking at the uh before and after ratings on the different buildings um some of the buildings that we'd be touching um we we still don't have a plan I guess to reach level one for accessibility uh there's a couple of number twos left in the accessibility row what what kinds of barriers are we facing that uh
034keep us from H hitting a number one in those areas accessibility is is only one that's a two that's Smith um and that's a with all the um derpal tubes not all those those are ramps but they are not truly compliant um you do have a couple elevators in there uh we could probably get to that um you know is it worth spending that much dollars to to do it that's that's kind of the the question um in that building it's because of you know you can get from point A to point B and it's almost in compliance but it's but it's not and so you know that's kind of a choice you make of how you spend your dollars and then could you say the same thing about Lincoln and Mount Healthy um a
035little bit yeah oh to yeah Mount Healthy because it has kind of the the kind of those pods there's like three pods and the costumes kind of Step Up um um only typically only one classroom and of each out of the six is accessible um and you know typically you can make that work but it's not like every everyone is accessible um you know simp if you go to a hotel get a hotel room you know the law doesn't require every room to be accessible they have a you know a certain like 5% um there not really a rule for schools other than you need to be you know provide accessibility for for any student that needs it and so typically that's going to give you that ability to do so but you're still not
036it's not a fully compliant building thank you can I ask follow up to that um particularly thinking about Mount Healthy because accessibility is a huge challenge there so does it two mean that if there's a student in a wheelchair they could still attend Mount Healthy um K through six it's just they would be limited to specific some specific classro there may moving a teacher around to a certain room to to address them but they can get to you know art music the cafeteria the gymnasium all the restrooms everything they need to get to is they can um it's just you know putting them in the right classroom um so they can you know so that classroom is accessible good as long as I stole the mic can I ask another question so first of all
037I assume efficiency means HVAC is that yes mostly yes yeah and community means what community is um how the building um you know like one thing we're doing is putting wellness centers in elementary schools um because it's it's a service that actually does support the community and and also that we are um you know lot of your buildings you know done by famous Architects they're part of the fabric of Columbus and so we're taking care of those Investments and protecting them and and so so that is I think is important to the district as well uh because some of that time sometimes that Tak extra dollars to to do that and and you know we have some challenges um from that um but I think it's it's that important incist to do thank you in
038in in order to improve our welcoming and Community scores are we going to have the ability to bring back uh parents and allow them to go sit and eat lunch with their kids safe there was some elements of safety and space that were conc concern before so I don't know if I can I can I'm hearing your question two ways if it's a facility related because of space then that would be something that we would address and we start doing design with with the buildings if it's a matter of process of you know who gets to go through where then I'm I'm not your guy to answer that question but if it's a space restrictive thing then yes it'd be addressed from when we get to design with the uh with those with those building
039teachers and leaders so they should have space to sit with their kids in if if that's if that's the intention of the building and and a priority of theirs then yes we had uh so I don't I don't know what other slides you have I know that there's been slides where we've talked about the total amount that total amount and this is for everybody to kind of hear cuz we had a conversation yesterday um both Logan and I with uh Mr Boseman to just kind of go over some of this and make sure we understood some things a little bit better that 306 million is a floor it's not a ceiling right and so what we talked about was a lot of the stuff we see is estimates it's timed out there's a there's assump
040for inflation that are in there so I guess for me one thing I know we've got a list of bonds that we'd like to have at certain amounts but what would be really nice would be to have a list of here's the general schedule we know we're not going to get down to the we're going to build this bathroom out on this day but which are the schools in which order so that we can understand a little bit better do we approve $300 million today or do we approve $75 million for these three schools four schools five schools and then one to two years from now have a better understanding of our estimates for cost based off of what we've seen happen here to prevent that 300 from being a oh my gosh we have
041to come back in and uh do additional Appropriations for another 1 to 200 million and so I think it would be safer for us better for us more um I guess good stewardship of the money entrusted to us if we were able to do this bits at a time rather than just throw a big number out there all at once Mr major I'll respond to part of that and then let because there was some facility questions in there around schedule yep so as far as the the board's our requests for approval from the board there's no action tonight but the would be at the December meeting would be to approve a project resolution that is actually a ceiling and not a floor and so the what what that resolution would allow the district to do
042is borrow up to 306 million no more could be less and will be less you know like you mentioned each of the years and we do have a schedule of borrowing in one of the future slides when we get to the finance portion but um as far as what the board would be authorizing would be a maximum of that 306 under this umbrella the board could turn around next month and borrow money in a different Manner and issue a geob bond the next year the year after that so but out within the context of the projects as they're described in the the bond resolution the project resolution that you'd see next time it's a ceiling of 306 but that cost is not a ceiling that's that's where I'm headed is whatever we do that cost
043is not going to be 10 years from now $36 million we don't have any change orders added in we don't really know the true inflation adjustments there's a lot of stuff my dad was a construction superintendent for 30 years and I've talked to him a lot about this project and there is no way going to be 10 years out at $36 million yeah I if this takes 10 years I I won't speak to that I'll let Mr Funk who's our construction uh and architect expert speak to that but just as far as the the board's actions is what I was talking about with the ceiling versus the form yeah I mean we've made some inflation assumptions and put them in here um obviously things can change that we could have a recession and costs go
044down we could have more inflation and costs go up um and and those things we we'll have to deal with as goes along you can nobody can predict the future like that and um so you may get more scope done than you think or you may get less at the end of the day um and you know I know there's other funds to keep the tax rate that Geo bonds and stuff because there still you're still going to do roofs and other things that are not part of this that will happen too so um so it's kind of a combination of multiple things but if I had a crystal ball it in terms of time what's the schedule indicate number of years by 2030 to seven and each each project we' be approved individually so
045so just the framework is set and then each each time we come for approval of each one yep and and only reason why I'm asking is tonight we also have a approval for an additional amount for additional construction work and you know it's just one of those things where I've never in my life seen a governmental entity only spend the amount they're approved there's always something that will happen and I just I want to make sure everybody comes out of this and realizes that that might be the number today but it's not going to be the number that's correct yeah no nobody can predict I I've had you know the past four or five years we've seen excessive construction inflation that seems a a peak now um you know back in 2009 I planned a
046project a new building that was supposed to bid at like 45 million and the recession head and it bid at at 30 million so you never can predict well that's that's another reason why um another question I was going to ask is how do we accomplish this without reduction of capacity in individual schools that will force the need for an additional school because right now if you look at our ADM over time it's flat and projections are negative so we're talking about a $60 million school that today the numbers don't predict we need but if we do have reduced capacity of 60 kids 70 kids per School whatever the numbers are whatever they average out you will build the need in for an additional School even if we have the land ignore the fact that
047we have the land doesn't matter to me but how do we do it without reducing capacity so if you remember back to the demographic study there's there's um eight years 10 years out but eight years out from now flat enrollment across the district but growth in the west side versus decline on the east side so um as we as we mentioned before um the solution that we may be facing then is bus and kids from the West to the east where we have where we have space so that was something we had talked about during our public sessions that uh folks were not at all interested in um so it's a fair question we've had the you know I've had folks ask me that question and you probably have to um but um in the
048interest of of not having north of a thousand kids or north of 1200 1300 kids at Southside Elementary as predicted um our recommended solution is building a school on the west side of town we have a financial opportunity to do so um by avoiding having to bust kids across the River Etc um cuz nobody was overly excited about that being a solution do we have any plans then in the future cuz right now South sides at 800ish if it does get to a th000 then that's only 200 kids in the new school new school is going to be capati for 600 kids are we going to move kids from the East to the West uh so that's one of the next steps that we we talked about last time is is who the who is
049and and how you populate that building which um you know building a new new school is going to take three years you have a year designed and and two years of of build so um there'll be a lot of folks having those conversations and part of committees with our distri facilities and others to to establish that so I I can't give you an answer on on who who fills that building now um but that as we said before that'll be some of our immediate next steps as we as we um move ahead yeah and I'm not I'm not trying to play I got you but you you just said that we won't want to bust kids from West to East but now we may bust kids from east to west so all I'm trying to
050do is make sure that we've 150% thought this through and we're not spending $60 million on a school for 200 kids and then having to Bus kids from east of the river to the west of the river to fill a school that we possibly might not have needed is is not our our targeted number of students or less in a building 700 so if we got to th students and had a building on the west side I I don't think the it's going to be 200 students in the one and a thousand or 1,200 students going to be a Southside I don't it would be 700 500 or something like that Chad do you want to you got several slides on finance do you want to speak to that on the on the projects and
051then I can I can stick around for questions also and if there are others on facilities or from the public I thanks Dr Roseman and I have uh Mike Shoemaker with uh steel Public Finance these are his his slides we we jumped forward and showed one of them second AG but he'll go over um some of the financial information required for the hearing and and we'll answer any questions about the um the bonding aspect and the tax rate aspect all right thank you good evening so we went through a lot of these slides uh last month but I wanted to go over them again um obviously the proposed 306 million would be paid back out of The Debt Service fund over time this graph right here shows you a picture of uh the current outstanding
052payments on all the various bondage issues you've issued in the past and you can see current payments in 2023 are roughly 18 million and then they fall off quickly as as debt is retired in the next four or five years then when we look at how that corresponds to your current total tax rate this graph shows um the The Debt Service fund which would be non-exempt debt not passed via referendum exempt Debt Service which would have been passed via referendum your operations fund tax rate and also your operating referendum fund tax rate so again the the goal of the school corporation historically is to keep that rate just under a dollar um which you have done in 23 and 24 it is right around that dollar and then it starts falling off over time where
053you have capacity to do projects um bring more debt on with the goal of keeping that tax rate under a dollar in the future um again our assumptions were fairly conservative um over the past 5 years your net assessed value has grown by about 5.8% we assumed a 2 and a half% growth rate for 5 years and then zero thereafter uh because the school corporation wanted to make sure it could tell the community that it was conservative in assumptions when they say there should be no tax rate um increase in the future again this slide was up earlier this is a rough guess of when the money is needed and these would be um Bond issues over time uh one one per year this is likely to change many times depending on which project goes
054first again this is a best estimate if this changes we would restructure the payments in the future um to make sure that the tax rate stayed under a dollar so you know we don't really care when that 306 million happens over the next six years we can work around that to to keep the tax rate and match up with the with the draw schedule this is a graph of before and after uh for the to the total tax rate the blue is what you have currently and the different colors are the various Bond issues coming in between that would come in between 24 and 29 uh showing that you would still stay below a dollar tax rate using conservative assumptions these are maximum legal parameters that uh we are required to share by law at
055this hearing uh the maximum amount of the the bonds being proposed is 306 million um all cost and all costs associated with those Bond issues we've used a very conservative 2.6 million which would leave you with just over 33 million for hard and soft construction costs estimated Max interest rate of a 7% right now you know rates are as high as they've been in 15 years if you were to do this debt today you'd be at about 4 and a half% interest rate we're using a seven because who knows what happens between now and 2029 so we need to be conservative because if we put a lower amount in and the come back in four years and it's higher you know you have have trouble doing that um estimated total interest cost if the interest
056rate were 7% would be just under 198 million the maximum annual lease payment is the maximum payment C can can I stop you on that one quick so I saw this too and that number just was like interest of almost $200 million is that is that inside of the 306 or in addition no that's an addition that would be equivalent to a mortgage so so the true cost of the $36 million is closer to 500 million if interest rates are at 7% which they've never been close to that yet they certainly could get there uh two years ago they were 2% what what what are they today what would the real cost be in today's terms so we have and I'm thinking of how do you establish a range to say if it was 0
057% it's 300 million yeah and if it's 7% it's 500 million so if it were 3 and a half% it would be years three and a half% it would be 100 million um rates have been lower than that over the past two years again we're we've reach kind of a high Watermark of what we've seen lately I think a lot of you know more experts think rates are going to go back down I'm not going to sit here and tell you that they will um but if it were you know more of an average at 3 and a half% you're talking 100 million ion in interest uh based on where today's rates are right now you're probably at um 125 million over 20 years so so not only do we risk uh construction cost inflation
058in the 306 but now we're looking at the potential for inflation risk of the interest rate as well that's always a possibility we're not predicting that just when we set the parameters we've got to set them very wide I want everybody to hear that yep understood um based on a maximum annual lease payment um of 38 million again payments won't be nearly that high but we want to maintain flexibility you're required to say the tax rate in Impact would be 70 cents but that assumes you don't have any debt outstanding uh with the debt outstanding that you have and it being retired quickly over the next few years there's estimated to be um no tax rate impact associated with this um and a couple other pieces that were required to show is um max annual
059pay payments as a percent of N Net assess value of 7% and direct and all overlapping debt um within the district that is paid by taxpayers is 88.1% I think that is the end so Havey to answer any questions that you may have Mr senner thanks and I'm not sure if this was a question for you or for Dr Phillips but um the alternative to borrowing money and I we've explored this in the past would be to if we know we have $300 million worth of projects that we want to do start a savings account and put money into that account every year until we hit 306 million and then start to authorize the projects and let the let the contractors go will the state of Indiana allow us to do that okay I know
060he knows the answer but he's U no absolutely not so we can only Levy a tax rate um based on certain factors the operations fund uh taxpayer approved operating referendum and issuing debt to pay for Capital um Investments those are the only ways that you can uh that you can acrew cash you you can acrew cash and put it into your rainy day fund which we have you know about $6 million in the rainy day fund um but that's money that has been just uh added over time in smaller amounts you couldn't build millions of millions of dollars because it would have to come from one of those other buckets those are the only revenues coming into the district from the state um or one of those other buckets and so um theoretically could you
061get you get there in 70 or 80 years years maybe but by that time the cost of the projects would be you know $2 billion I'm making that up I don't have any idea but essentially the answer is no you have to you have to issue debt in order to do significant facility projects in the state of Indiana if if I know we were not hoping to pursue a referendum but if we did a referendum and it passed that saves us the interest right absolutely not no the interest is built into sorry this is your know yeah no the interest would would be the same on the debt um selling bonds passed via referendum or not in the market will result in the same interest rate um so no it would be the same the
062the only difference for the district uh there's if it were to go to a referendum and be approved by voters the district would collect more in the operations fund I it would lose we would lose Less in tax caps which is why about 12,000 ta taxing Parcels would see an actual increase in their tax bill not their tax rate but that shift in the two in the two lines on the tax bill would result in an increased tax bill for about 12,000 Parcels all right we have would it be one more real quick request for in the future would it be possible to ensure that as we look at this we understand the total cost and so in the future have the 306 construction costs and then the financing costs of use an estimated per
063interest rate whatever whatever you do there right I mean 7% doesn't sound realistic but if three and a half is that way it gives us an understanding of the true amount that we expect to spend sure thank you and so before we open it for public comments sorry Miss Wen did you have a question yeah I just wanted to take a step back and think through so next meeting you're going to you going to get there we're going to have a second public hearing and we're going to talk as a board and and try to make a decision as to whether or not we we want to move forward and let's say we do what are the next steps in terms of we have the schedule of when we would issue bonds and but how
064does that play out Dr Boseman um with you and your team on like the design work and what are what do some of those steps look like and then decision as they come to us what can you take us through that process at a high level please I'll speak to the next few months quickly and then let Dr Boseman talk about the construction side so at the the next um board meeting on December 11th there's another public hearing it's required that we hold two public hearings for this purpose but if the board wishes to reduce the ceiling from 306 to anything less uh we generally need to know that within the next week or so because all of the project resolution documents and everything that that you'll need to approve have to be prepared by
065by the bond Council um and then the public notice you know prepared with that revised dollar amount if that's the the desire of the board um and then that following week after the I believe it'll be Saturday the 16th public notice will run in the paper that you all have approved the preliminary determination which then starts that 30-day weight period for uh um signature collecting um and if signatures are collected then we have to start working towards the ballot um question in May if signatures are not collected um then we can move forward with the next process which is design and uh and prioritization yeah I can I can speak to that briefly as best as I can um all three blue suits line up here together in a row um so um once we
066get through those steps as Dr Phillips mentioned um then we will work closely with our districting facility team and the board and um all the all the stakeholders on on first of all what our priorities are what our orders are um what comes first what comes next Etc um and then start on on on those designs obviously so my opinion would be if if part of the project is a 12th Elementary that that would start early on just because of the duration of it and obviously um you know part part of our our interest in making improvements at Southside is contingent on a reduction of capacity um you know as we talk about adding these flexible learning spaces and adding spaces spaces for students with special needs Etc um that's really hard to do if
067you've got a school design for a thousand kids so that's that's an assumption that's built into that um so um so that's I wanted to mention that that's that's that's part of that um but the board will see all of that information so there there's we mentioned this before but I'll reiterate again um this this is nothing near a December 11th approval and then we'll let you know when the building's open um kind of a thing so um everything comes back just as everything always does to the board for contract approvals um you know public bid approvals all all those items so okay thank you any other questions from the board okay and and now I think I would open it up to the public for comments on or questions on this topic yes sir
068step on up I just have a question uh I want to ask the financial gentleman he said there would be no reduction in in interest rate if we passed a referendum and paid for it as we go is that what I did I understand you say thaton no I don't I don't think I'm understanding my question is that should we decide to pay as we go and not issue bonds what that's that's that's there would certainly be a reduction in interest would there not be in both cases but however if we if we is issued referendums as we went and paid the paid for them by referendum and pay and certainly would raise the tax rate because I'm a tax and I know I okay but how how then how does uh um you're you're
069educating me how how then does it uh increase the tax rate do to to retire the debt is that what you're saying yes oh okay all right excuse me sorry it's okay Mr D just trying to educate old man thank you yep you're welcome yes yep Kristen M um I live at 1055 Tanbark uh here in Columbus I uh am a parent of two bcsc students and I just wanted to comment quickly that uh I am all in favor um of these cap Capital Improvements and and bonding to get them done um I think it's critically important that we invest in our buildings um that's a critical part of our kids education and they deserve um to get that education in modern buildings that are keeping up with the times and how education has changed
070um I also wanted to just speak quickly to um Talent attraction and retention and how our schools play a big part into that um I think everybody with coid knows now that um a lot of people have the choice to work from anywhere um if we're going to continue to grow and Thrive as a community we want to be a community of choice and our schools are a big part of that um if you think that people aren't looking at the schools when they come to this community um where they're making a choice of where they're going to live they absolutely are um I think if you've walked through some of our schools you might see the need for some Capital Improvements um and I think our kids deserve the best possible environment um as
071far as the financing I think I thank the questions that were asked I think it's important to be fiscally responsible um however I know when I took out a loan to buy my house I didn't calculate all of the interest into the cost of the home even though I was aware of what that was going to cost me over time so I see that as a cost of doing business um and I I trust uh the numbers that have been presented and and the thoughtfulness that's gone into that uh on behalf of our kids thank you very much appreciate that any yes yes Carla Craig um to Mr Major's question about putting students in a new school I will tell you that there are at least parents of a hundred kids that are going to
072Mount Healthy at least a hundred who would be very happy to have a school closer to their home than what they have right now although I not saying I would like to lose them I'm just saying that there are a lot of people who can look at Southside from their window but have to go to Mount Healthy thank you M Craig I I would say I've heard that same comment from other people too so there's no disagreement right I'm not necessarily against a new school I just want us to understand the true cost and benefits from it thank you any other questions from the yeah Eric to y you're next sir I see you back there no no go ahead I guess a couple questions popped up um so I was following The Envision 2030
073um early on for a while and it seemed like this was all geared up for a referendum and then I mean even last meeting I was at it seemed like we were talking referendum but since then um um we've kind of changed directions and we're talking about issuing it through bonds and not doing a referendum and I just didn't know if there was like some reason I feel like I'm kind of catching up here um why why the quick change between meetings to go from referendum to bonds okay I don't know who yeah I think Miss Dr Phillips we talked about that last time maybe yep so first of all to answer I'll answer your question in just a second but you and both both you and Mr D mentioned that the difference between a
074referendum and bonds and I just want to be clear so everyone understands in both cases the district would be issuing bonds that's essentially the request of the board is to authorize the district to issue bonds to borrow money um the only difference between referendum and not referendum is whether or not the payments on that bonds are paid through property taxes that are within the tax Caps or outside of the tax caps and that's the that's the reason that the only people that would see a difference in their bill between the two are the people who are already at the tax cap so in both cases they bonds being issued so I just want to make sure that's that's clear you're welcome um and then to your point um we did we did talk um the
075last couple of meetings about so about a month or so into our presentations after we started getting initial feedback um from members of the public uh as well as our internal stakeholders um there was there were two pieces they were very concerned about um number one was the fact that there were 12,000 taxing Parcels that would see an actual tax increase If This Were passed um and obviously that was a concern of everyone going in um but that was pretty clear feedback the second portion of it was um making sure that we um don't sacrifice our ability as a district and as a community to be able to successfully uh renew the operating referendum in 2028 so the operating referendum now is operating and not Capital so there are no bonds issued for that one
076it's just collecting property taxes and then using them for the purposes that the board authorizes that operating referendum was passed in 20120 and under the current law it expires in 2029 if it's not renewed by the end of 2028 um those are generating right now this year it will spend about $6 million on increased salaries for for more than 500 teachers in our district um and so folks felt like in a feedback that we got was if you take the referendum route you're going to the public every four years and asking them to continue to approve more money even if it does keep the tax rate flat if you can do that if you can accomplish the same investments in the facilities without needing to do that every four years and avoid raising taxes on
077those 12,000 Parcels that would see an increase in taxes if you pass this on a referendum why wouldn't you choose that route that number one doesn't increase the taxes for those 12,000 parcels and number two protects our ability or potential for being able to renew that operating referendum in 2028 and keep those salary increases in place for our teachers so it was like Community feedback essentially you said it much short I didn't didn't mean it that way okay um yeah and that actually rolled right into my next question um I might have been mistaken on uh what I saw on the screen but I was going to ask if bcsc plans to ask for that operating referendum moving forward because I the way I looked at that chart it looked like we didn't have that
078built in to the tax rate for a future um it is is and we it is in there okay great good good um at least I'm saying that from my opinion there may be different board members on the board at that point in time and the public would of course have to renew that if the board elected to um put that on the ballot again before 2020 baked into the cake right now though it is baked into the overall tax rate just under a dollar um I guess I'm trying to understand like the why behind we want the board to approve the whole 306 million for a 10year project versus kind of doing it as more like a line item as projects are approaching I mean I assume there's some like advantages to doing it
079this way or there are some small Financial advantages initially um as you mentioned we were on the road to a referendum and that was um primarily as the finance guy it was much more advantageous for the district for us us to do a referendum and so when we brought the challenges that we were facing to the board the board said if we're going to have to consider a large project that is subject to a referendum then can you bring us all of the projects you think you're going to need to tackle in the next 5 to seven years so that we can look at those at one time so it was a response to that request from the board that we did a an tremendous amount of work and Mr Funk and Brett and his
080team um came forward and said here's where we think think we are in our needs over the next X number of years um and so it um from a from a financial standpoint saves us a little bit of money on issuing bonds multiple times over that that period of time um but also basically gets us to focus on we know that the board is authorized to to bond for up to $36 million and so the facilities folks and The Architects and the plans can move forward with all of those moving parts and and there are a lot of moving parts to this project outside of what's happening tonight with you know what buildings would be renovated first where students would you know would shift within the building when redistricting would occur what students would go
081we it would be very very difficult to tackle each of those things um if we had to um come back and have this discussion about whether or not the board authorizes these one item at a time those were just some questions that popped up through the presentation really short comment um I think all the proposals in The Envision 2030 project would be nice to have and even useful um I would support funding them and I think most of our community would too um but only if we fund the more important priorities first and the funds are still available after that for example we have first grade classes with 27 28 kids our family experienced this firsthand how impossible and unfair uh that workload is to a bcsc teacher um and a very good teacher at
082that how do we get that 28 class size down to 18 with a TA in every class providing an opportunity like this to be CSC teachers to really show what they are capable of is something that will impact the results of our children's educational proficiencies more than anything else I can think of but it will most definitely impact them more than auxiliary gyms and weight rooms athletic offices building facelifts Etc and even the more useful and and even the more um useful and important parts of the proposal like the C4 um addition for example to me seems very important and very impactful um but it's still it's there are still priorities higher than that that should be funded first so please consider the stewardship of our community's money and put approval of funding the proposals
083within the Envision 2030 projects just on hold not you're not saying no to it it's just on hold until you're positive other projects that improve the education of our students at a higher priority are approved for funding first thank you and thanks for your consideration okay I think there was a gentleman in the back as he's coming up Dr Phillips um does this impact at all the ability to pay staff is a $36 million Bond on a capital project impact the education fund and what's available for staff members it does not we districts are not per um it's not permissible for a district to use Bond proceeds to um pay people again without with the exception of the one exception that Dr bosan brought up a possible project manager to manage the construction you can't
084Bond as a matter of fact some districts have got in trouble financially in the long run by doing just that and so the state prohibits that thanks I have one question that came off of my mind he was next Logan no I'm kidding I'm kidding yes if it's going right to that same topic right I get that we cannot use these funds however there is an economic tradeoff because that operation referendum is built into our rate based on the rate in which it currently sits at so if there was a desire to focus on smaller classrooms sizes and increase Staffing we the board would be handcuffed in its ability to increase that operating referendum fund without negatively impacting the tax rate in 2028 is that correct correct the board could you know with that within
085that dollar Pi if you look at the dollar as a pie chart um if you reduce the amount spent on debt and increase the amount spent on the operating referendum that money could go to a project that would include could include class size reduction um but if you wanted to also invest in the facilities you would have to increase above the dollar that we've we've committed to to staying consistent thank you yes sir hi uh name's Charles goodlow um I I we may have to go back maybe to the beginning slide it was almost like a chart kind of had a circle on it with the welcoming and some of the others oh yeah um way no I'm not sorry okay was it the so I guess while that's being found yeah there we go
086um the the one kind of comment I I wanted to make was us having to kind of reassess over the years I don't have necessarily have a problem with that uh as a community member um what it actually forces me and I would think a few other U members of the community to do is to um get involved uh understand the cost and the budgeting um I would hate to kind of sit in sit in the seat and actually think oh well we'll just let them kind of handle it they know the numbers and things like that without really asking the types of questions that we're asking right now I think that's totally important so um I guess maybe that tips my hand in that case but um to the actual graph here I just
087had a had a quick question because the welcoming uh tab there uh says facilities are comfortable and inviting to students staff and Community uh design reflects the cultural diversity of all I guess I was just needing someone to kind of Flesh that out as far as what that meant precisely Dr Boseman I can I can do my best so um these are all um as I mentioned these are all guiding values and principles so any time um anytime we do anything large scale or small scale we we remind ourselves and remind our staff that these are items that um the board at the time had adopted and and developed and strategic planning our districting facilities team um had put together so um so those are for lack of a better term those are things that
088are important to us as a district um they could be you know small things in terms of um how an entrance is designed or could be or large things or it could be small things is what what's what do you see on the walls and classrooms in terms of reflection and that sort of thing so I guess just to follow up with that so on a cultural basis how does that correlate because I get the because it almost seems like that would fit into the accessibility category honestly so I guess that yeah I guess what what is the cultural aspect to that that kind of correlates with kind of what you mentioned uh that that may be more of a a classroom practice and um you know for for Mr Edwards or Dr hack to
089kind of speak to better than I can in terms of instruction and that sort of thing um but and I don't I don't disagree with your with your point in terms of being over better fit in the accessibility um the accessibility category but um but these are as I mentioned these are these are things that we're just trying to be mindful of and that are are valued you know as a district and as a board as we as we look to make improvements so I don't know if those two can add to that better than I can in terms of the academic and instructional piece but I'd welcome that addition while they're while they're arguing over who's going to respond that I would just differentiate between the two accessibility and welcoming because I think accessibility
090is is more the physical can you access a space or not um can you access the facility physically whereas welcoming is is what does it feel like when you're in it and so that's that's where I would differentiate between the two absolutely we know many of these things blend together so we never we have those opportunities to look at wording we think well this could go there that could go there but we definitely in our district talked about Windows mirrors and doors and I don't know if you've heard that phrase or not so we want our our students to be able to see themselves not only in the Stu in the uh the staff that's represented in bcse but also in the curriculum and also in the environment and also anything that's on the walls
091so we want our students to be able to see themselves and be represented uh by by their culture in in that work we also want to see um opportunities for our students to peer out and have that um that be able to expand their Horizons to their culture and not be limited by space not be limited by curriculum not be limited by what's on the walls so that's another piece of the windows mirrors and doors experience and then we want to take we want them to take their learning um opportunities and go out in the world and learn what they've done here on bcsc and make great things happen yeah uh I'm going to go in a different direction but I support everything that Dr hack just said and that is work that we uh
092have tackled in the district but when I look at that um to me it's goal State it's like we when we're going to spend money and we're going to make the building um the building that we want it to be then we have to look at what our goal states are and we want kids to be uh comfortable in in their surroundings and so when when we are uh putting together these plans and bringing folks in and taking a look at uh what are our kids need and what does the building need to look like um again it's it's goal State and we want kids to like being there and so when you incorporate what Dr hack just talked about the windows mirrors and sliding glass doors if kids see themselves and see opportunities for
093themselves in those environments then they're more likely to want to be there I mean it's it's go State Charles I just might add as as you're moving to your next question is um an example might might be a specific example might be um the Legato program at Clifty Creek Elementary School as we went to that pathway which was a a cultural it it imersion in the Spanish language and so when we with moving to that pathway we made sure the design of that building uh Incorporated um that into the various things we were doing in the hallways and in the spaces classrooms um um signage and so forth in in that design okay I and I understand every thank you by the way um and I say this being a product of uh IPS schools
094um let's just say in a what would be considered a diverse area um with all of that said none of that made an effect on my education whatsoever do we have any other comments today on the got one back oh yes sorry thanks hello I'm uh barthol my name is Janice Morris um I'm a barthon County resident for about 35 years now um I just want to say that absolutely our kids are so important and their education is very important but sometimes I think we lose sight of what education really is and I think big nice pretty facilities and new facilities and sports to the nth degree and all that um that's not all what education is is education is family and community and um learning from one another and um having good parents uh
095being taught morals and loving your neighbor um I think it's really easy to get up here and talk about spending $300 million on new buildings just so someone can have a tick mark behind their name that they did that while they were on a school board sorry that may seem a little charged but that's just how I feel I feel like America is losing right now because we are so far in debt that we just spend spend spend spend spend and I think a lot of the questions that's been asked here tonight about let's make sure that we're making the right decisions on how much money we're spending and I don't understand the opposition toward why people are upset about doing line item at a time instead of just approving $300 million for people to
096just do whatever they want to do with and then people get busy with their lives and nobody holds people accountable and so I think we need to look at this really hard as a community and realize what this means and spending money constantly is not necessarily going to bring about good children and good Society it's about Who We Are who we teach them to be and um how we treat one another love one another it's not about spending a bunch of money on a School athletics and all that so I think we need to think about that thank you thank you okay yes sir thank you I'll try to keep this brief my name is Kent ml key and I'd like to point out I don't know how many of you guys shop here at
097the local Walmart but recently they began advertising the fact that they were going to start having sensitivity hours for the special needs Community within our community that means they're going to be lowering lights lowering sound so the people that I used to work with in the special needs Community would have more easy time shopping there if you've ever worked with someone from the special needs community in one of those environments that is a very traumatic experience a lot of times so while it may not benefit me and I may never need that those people do and so therefore I would support any project that would include any student in our classrooms thank you thank Youk okay I think that concludes our public hearing going once going twice we are gaveling back into our normal board
098meeting I think we have some people have patiently waited in the front row um to give a presentation on a really important program for our school corporation that definitely has an impact on children very measurable that's our book buddies program Gretchen do you have a okay make sure that's working good um thank you all for inviting us to speak about a program that all of us standing up here love um my name is Gretchen shaning and I'm the director of book buddies um for those of you who don't know about book buddies we are in our 18th year we began in 2006 um in an in an initiative through the Bartholomew County Literacy task force um and a group of people got together they did a bunch of research and they created our program at
099the time when it was created um we focused on serving only second grade a few years later we decided to add third grade to our program and serve those students and part of that was in response to um I testing through Indiana um our program has over the last 18 years pretty much remained very much the same um with a few tweaks um our biggest challenges occurred as with many programs during the pandemic but book buddies still operated um our site supervisors who are paid staff ran the program without our volunteers um and as of the end of last school year our program has served over 2,600 students within Bartholomew County um throughout that 18 years our mission has remained the same which is that all of our second and third graders will read on
100grade level by the end of the school year um I'm going to introduce Kelly weed our program assistant to speak a little bit thanks scretchen school board members I also want to thank you for the opportunity to talk about book buddies with you this evening it's been a lot of fun being part of book buddies as a program assistant for the past six years um four years before that I was a book bu's volunteer for one of the schools um in our community and I'd love to tell you about the great group of people that work together to support the students every day at book buddies um there are just under TW 20 um bcsc uh part-time employees on the book buddy staff um there's a site supervisor at each of the 11 elementary schools
101who uh oversee the program we also have a few site super visor substitutes who step in as needed um the site supervisors plan and organize daily lessons for all the students in the program and coordinate the days of the week the volunteers will be there and pair the volunteers with the students um the site supervisors also work closely with second and third grade teachers to identify especially in the beginning of year identify the students who will be part of the program um program staff trains um recruits uh and supports new volunteers and we also um have asked the site supervisors to provide updates um to the teachers and how the students are doing throughout the year um we're grateful for all the building administrators at each of the buildings who um find a space for
102book buddies um to be comfortable for the volunteers and students to work together they also make sure they have a Time um set aside during a busy um daily schedule so book buddies can meet four days a week Monday through Thursday and at the heart of our program right there in the middle um the biggest component of our program are community volunteers we have a lot of volunteers who have been with the program near um all nearly 18 years and uh several volunteers who uh we welcome on an annual basis um new volunteers complete an online enrollment form attend a one-time new training and then they get placed into school of their choice and most of them donate an hour a week to our program late August all the way to Mid April um I'd
103like now to introduce uh one of our site supervisors um who's going to continue to talk about our awesome volunteers and students she leads the program at Schmid Elementary Nicole wiltrout thank you thanks for having us tonight I wanted to give a brief overview of the numbers of our program this year so as already mentioned book buddies exist at all 11 elementary schools in the district this year we're serving 107 second graders and 48 third graders for a total of 155 students to give you a little context of what that looks like at a building level at Schmidt one of the larger programs um I currently have 19 students that are in the program we select students like Kelly mentioned the first few weeks of school primarily on test data um NWA I read if
104we have it or any other reading assessment that the students may have taken at that point in the year but we also rely quite a bit on teacher recommendations both the teacher that's been with them for those first few weeks and also the teacher they may have had the previous school year and we're seeking students that are anywhere from 6 to 12 months behind um at that point um they are not at grade level and we find that that window is really served well by the structure of our program um um we can't serve those 155 students without our 275 volunteers this year um each student reads with a different volunteer each day of the week so because most of our volunteers stay for a full hour and work with two students it takes a
105team of four volunteers generally to serve two students coming every day Monday through Thursday um again for context I have 41 volunteers at Schmidt this year um our volunteer makeup is pretty diverse everywhere from high school to college students which you'll hear more about community members which make up the vast majority of our program as well as bcsc staff and we're grateful for their support and making the time to participate in the program I'd like to introduce Emma Jensen who's the site supervisor at Lincoln yes good evening thank you so much for having us um as Kelly mentioned she talked a little bit about the site supervisors and something that we have to do with lesson planning um so a way that we can provide structure for our volunteers when they come in we have
106a binder for each of them uh that has a student's binder and it has this helpful lesson guide um it's something that you can break down and what does that usually look like you know typically they're there like she said for an hour which means that they'll work in two 30 minute sessions and we break those 30 minutes down into um a reread site wordss uh new book word study and then it transitions again to the next um session so we'll usually start like we said for the first 3 to five minutes and it gives the volunteer um time to ask maybe a few questions from the previous book they read the day before maybe they have the student pick three to five pages to read from it just so they can listen to them
107and then it gives them this time to move into site wordss and it's a great way to practice each week they have a set um an example here would be for the week 10 and it also gives them that opportunity to work on vocabulary maybe they find a word on there that they don't know it gives us that time to work on that as well um after they've worked on their site words they move into their new book and this is usually the biggest chunk of time we try to give them about 15 minutes to read the new book with them we also have questions um at the back of each book so then they can give some time to um check for comprehension to see how well the student actually understood the story if
108they don't finish we have a bookmark handy ready to put in there and it can be part of the reread for the next day and then at the end of our session we usually spend about seven minutes getting to play a game which is usually the students favorite part of the session and we focus on a word study um for two weeks at a time example would be the long o here and there's 30 word cards that will go with that um word study and they play a game using those cards and this leads into um something that we had a unique opportunity to work with with I uh Indiana University back in 2021 um there was a need for more volunteers and at the time some of the schools were struggling to get inperson
109volunteers and so we were able to partner with you and provide students who are in um in an education program who are needing to fulfill Field hours we were able to have them work with students through virtual and we are still doing that now we have nine schools that participate in that program and we currently have 13 IU students who are participating in that and now I'm going to turn this over to Karen she is a senior at Columbus East who is also one of are um volunteers at Richard's Elementary hello so when I was in second grade I was introduced to book buddies I had a horrible relationship with reading and was terrified to um like read in front of people so my grandma introduced me to book buddies she was a first grade
110teacher at unhealthy and I ended up meeting my book buddy and I couldn't have been more wrong about reading I became an amazing reader um this program not only helped me gain a better relationship with reading but it also helped me gain new social skills with my book buddy now as a volunteer I realize not only um does book buddies benefit the student but it also benefits the volunteer as a volunteer you gain the same connection with the student as a student gains with you so you're able to learn the same social skills and the same communication skills and the same relationships with every single one of these students I've been able to make goody B and learn more about them in their home lives um so it's just I'm very grateful to have been
111a part of the program not only as a student but as a volunteer in both senses of the program so thank you um we're also going to show a video from another one of our senior project students um Sierra um Perkinson um so we're going to let Nick play this hello everyone my name is Sierra Perkinson I am a senior at columus high school as you all know in order to graduate we were required to do a senior project um so for the future for me I wanted to pursue journalism and improve my writing through my senior project so um gret and toning was looking for someone who could write articles and volunteer for book buddies and so that is what I began to do for my senior project however through working with these students
112and seeing these volunteers and seeing how these students have grown and learned and progressed because of our health I decided that journalism may not be the career for me and so now I decided to switch careers and study Pediatric Speech Pathology and I can say with full confidence that it is because of book buddies and the amazing students that I've G to work with and the volunteers as well so thank you so much to book buddies and everyone involved for helping me choose my new path I did I okay oh okay um just to kind of sum things up for our program um I wanted to highlight some things uh about our impact last year during the 2022 2023 school year um last year we served over 150 students we always say 150 plus students
113because um we had 150 students officially in book buddies but we do have students that come in as a substitute if our regular uh book buddy students happen to be absent our calendar um was set for 105 days um if a student was able to attend attend all 105 Days of our program that gave that student 52.5 individual hours of reading practice with a caring adult in the school during the school day um by the end of the year 82% of our second graders second graders who attended at least 75 days read on grade level 90% of our third graders who attended at least 75 days read on grade level and um 92% of our book buddies students who were third graders passed IAD which we think is amazing considering all those students started below
114grade level at the beginning of the school year um our tagline is an hour week can change a life forever and we truly believe that um goals for our program they're pretty much the same almost every year we continue um to want to recruit more volunteers um most of the many of our students within the District that are in book buddies this year do not have full teams of volunteers um we also have students on a waiting list who do qualify for our program but we do not have volunteers to serve them um finally another one of our goals is to F fulfill our mission that all students will will read on grade level by the end of the year and our last one is to continue to fund program expenses for book buddies through
115fundraising and our Community Partnerships um we thank you all for letting us come and speak to you um we're happy to answer any questions that you may have about our program yeah Mr I've got a comment and perhaps a question but the the numbers you shared there about the impact of the program and something that uh Mrs day and Mrs bless shared um with has stuck with me too that 100% of their third graders um involved in book Bud's past the I learn so you know I I guess my question is this in a perfect world um knowing that the potential impact on kids in their future that this program helps to provide how many kids would you say are out there now that still need a book buddy and in a perfect world how
116many volunteers would you say you are short um in a perfect World I'd say we'd take every volunteer we could have and we'd serve every student whether they fell in our six months to a year behind reading level or not um the benefit of our program is the fact that we get the kids during the day when they've been fed when they're fairly fresh and um they're they're more open to it the individual attention is a huge part of our program it allows our staff and the volunteers to focus on individual goals for our students um in the past the numbers for volunteers with book buddies at one point reached over 500 volunteers so we would easily be able to double our volunteers if enough people um chose to come and into our schools and
117help our students you any questions so I have a couple questions on maybe it's Dr Phillips maybe it's you on the funding aspect is is it bcsc funded is this grant funded is this state funded would you like me to kind of cover bcsc pays all of our part-time employees salaries um all of the other materials that are used in our program are through donations and fundraising um with the exception of bcsc does allow us to to loan us some um technology um some computers for our staff um and some computers for the virtual that we do with the IU students um and they allow us to have a space within their schools but all the materials that you see in those pictures binders all of that are fundraised um which by the way we
118will be in December having our gingerbread house fundraiser so um all of our volunteers and students create gingerbread houses and they're placed in Grahams Bakery please go down to grahams and make a small donation to vote for your favorite one um very sweet good anybody else any other questions from the team no no questions just two one comment two people so to both to unfortunately Sierra's not here tonight but kin you know great job with what you're doing to number one go from a kid that was probably it sounded like scared to be part of the program to be an ambassador now for it so very good job in that it shows that you know as you've grown up you've matured you've understood the value of those things book buddies from the experience I've had
119with book buddies um I see book buddies and C4 is two of the best programs we have book buddies helps the kids that are young get a good start if you don't get a good start you don't have a good finish the good finish comes in C4 where they get a really good experience in test driving job so hopefully like Sierra your experience here helps you figure out what you want to do when you grow up and move on to the next phase of your life so very good job to you and thank you to all that are working on book Buddies thank you okay any other questions or comments from the team no thank you all job thank you okay next we have Schoolboard member reports I will start down the end Mr Bryant
120do you have anything to report no thank you Mr major uh no Redevelopment commission meeting in the last couple weeks um Health Trust I think we all saw the good work recently so I think uh for me I'm good okay Mr stunner not this evening thank you thank you um I'll give a quick update on our Public Work session that was held just prior to this we reviewed um three policies 2510 2520 and 91 30 um we were not prepared um to necessarily uh vote on those tonight we had a few changes that we had aligned on um and we expect to talk about those again December 11th and and and more than likely put those up for vote at that time um that's it um myself and I believe perhaps another colleague or two
121are going to see more tomorrow evening for the Indiana school boards Association regional meeting where we will hear uh 2024 legislative priorities of the school boards Association and then also uh any new cases legal decisions that um are are currently in the mix and um from from legal counsel that that we can take away from and then two items uh from the school Foundation U please look for the uh BC SF school bus um bus not bus bus um at the Festival of Lights Parade December 2nd at 6 o'clock it will be back and then uh two weeks from tomorrow is uh giving Tuesday and so a note from executive director Nicole Cunningham that we really hope that people will consider the school Foundation is a part of their year end uh charitable giving this
122year and and I'll end with just a quick positive testimonial from Doris hooker of busy bees who's been employed by bcsc for 22 years I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to bcsf for their unwavering support in funding and choosing projects throughout the years the projects that have been made possible through the funding and donations from bcsf have truly made a significant impact on my students learning the smiles on my students faces are a testament to how much your support means to them and their education thank you sincerely and thank you Doris that's it see thanks so the ccic meet uh committee met I believe it was Wednesday last week um we talked a lot about the public facilities update so we won't go over that because that's been hammered out here uh the
123ca agreement um we discussed some concerns and ways forward possibly around social media and cell phone usages um PD days and upcoming Wellness initiatives that will come to this board so and then I believe the Hall of Fame committee meets Thursday I'm looking for Sherry for confirmation but I believe so we'll be meeting as well on that um the iupu board of advisors soon to be the IU Columbus Board of advisors met last Wednesday um and just two things that connect to bcsc that I wanted to share one is they do a um Civics camp in the summer for I think it's fifth through nth graders they have a much flashier name for it than Civics camp but um but it sounds like a great opportunity for kids and they actually um work with the
124foundation for youth to help transport kids back and forth after the camp um and the other thing is one of the new topics they talked about was they're looking into certifications um Beyond just getting degrees or instead of getting degrees that students could get specific certifications and um it just kind of verified for me that bcsc is um on the right path and that we already do that in fact um they may be contacting Dr hack in C4 to get some advice at some point down the road good okay cabinet reports Dr Roberts thank you Mrs won so under cabinet reports that first item you've referenced a little bit with the Neola revision recommendations this would be the second reading this comes from an update out in July 2023 that was based upon newly passed
125legislation most of that legislation going to affect July 1st the policies you reference are going in January 1st which is why we are taking specific time on those that would those would be probably the first group of policies to pass in that group so again we don't have any to put forward tonight looking at December so I'm going to like really fast go through the various ones U that we had because you've already had a chance to think about those and have those in your packet so you reference the three um the other pieces that we have um we do have a first reading of a new policy and that was on payment methods for school sponsored events um that Mr major has put for so this would be count as a first reading for
126that draft that he provided and then uh we do have a high school well before I move on maybe a question on any of those policy pieces before we turn things over to Mr Edwards for a high school team's update any questions okay Mr ards so I want to take a few minutes and talk about uh the cohort model and teaming at the High School um spoke with you earlier this year and and talked about bringing you a quarterly update um so that's what this is and I just want to start by saying I've met with the teams this year so far this year I've had an opportunity to meet with teams to kind of observe how they do what they do uh be part of their team meetings uh experience firsthand what they focus
127on uh and then kind of look and see how they use the common sheet to to drop live their their meetings and so I I gave you a copy of the common sheet and there's a the C it's in the board packet again tonight but it's one of those things that um we looked at earlier um but I also had an opportunity to meet with the academic coaches to understand how they operate uh what they focus on and and how they set priorities and what their scope of work is uh when compared to to each other north north and east um I've been in the buildings uh walk the hallways uh stopped some folks to inquire about how the teaming model is working in the building and and recently I sat down with each of
128the eight teams to have those quarterly meetings and so if you recall when we were proposed uh proposing moving to this model I I stood here before you and said really we had two goals we we wanted to get to know families and students well and we wanted to get students across the state so we wanted to get them to graduate um I also told you that uh when we went on our visit I heard stories um and I told you selfishly I wanted those kinds of stories for our kids and so really in those stories were things that are leading indicators of success so the the graduation rate itself is a a lagging indicator right it comes after everything comes after the tests comes after grades are submitted it comes after the homework it
129comes after everything tells us it gives us a snapshot of how we perform some some of those things that kind of lead uh us to that end result and so in those stories were some of those leading indicators um and then somebody asked me and I and I I don't remember who and so I apologize somebody asked me hey Mr Edwards how quickly do you think we're going to see results and I said immediately right I immediately said immediately and it was one of those things that um I said very quickly and and really believed that we were going to see immediate results with the teaming and so I'm going to lay out some of those things for you here and give you an opportunity to ask some questions but there's been a general increase
130in in the level of communication uh that has been reported by each of the eight cohorts so the communication across the district is up there are regular meetings regular phone calls um uh with other buildings principles and program directors so the the communication uh with mcdal is up with CSA CVP in between the high schools the the communication is up there is increased communication with with parents and so when I uh sat down and I met with folks uh the number that was presented to me is high uh it's very high and I'm going to say it out loud and it's going to sound one of those incredible things but there's been over 5,000 contacts made and so when we go back and we talk about what does it mean to get to know students
131and families well one of the things that we have to work on as teams is trying to figure out what's what's a meaningful Communication number right so included in that 5,000 is is any kind of communication that has gone uh home from the teams and so um when we look at the number of uh sitdown meetings and that sort of thing and meaningful phone calls we need to figure out what a meaningful number is so that's one of the things that we need to spend some time thinking about and asking questions about uh but there's been increased communication with teachers I universally heard from each of the cohorts that through the cohort structure teams have been able to provide consistent followup faster feedback and better overall communication to classroom teachers um and so again the
132the the cohart model allows us to look at information in in new and different ways not new information but we're looking at it in in new and different ways and so that has provided us some opportunities um to to get better at some things because we're looking at it on a more consistent basis and we're seeing how it changes from from week to week so we can see in real time when students are having issues uh we can see uh because we have access to data uh we we can respond pretty quickly we can be prescriptive um we can be proactive uh this model really has allowed us to uh have some quick intervention and one of the things that um I said I was going to get up here and talk about um one
133of those quick interventions we uh saw at one of the schools there were uh a pocket of kids who were not doing well in some advanced classes and so what they did was they watched it over a cycle of weeks and then at the nine weeks made a decision hey we're going to level we're going to put these students in a more appropriate level so they can find some success in in this class and when I asked about that they said it's something that we've never done before we didn't have the capability to to to do it because we didn't have a way to look at it in this way so that's a win um in a way it's Innovative right I mean it's not off the charts Innovative but it's pretty Innovative and and
134another Innovation that came out of of teaming or that has come from teaming uh is is uh they call them great agreements and so one of the schools is using a form called a grade agreement and it is a goal setting conference and so they sit down with their academic coach and they write their goals down on papers and then there is a TW week cycle of check-in and so uh one of the students who was in this two week cycle of check-in requested hey can I can I get a can I get a one-week cycle of check-in because I I need that accountability which is a great story because now we're teaching students to advocate for themselves in a way that they I can't say they weren't doing it before but inside the team
135structure we're seeing kids start to to advocate for themselves so that's a win um how's it being received by teachers I have to say that this is anecdotal and it's from the perspective of the cohorts so when I met with cohorts I asked hey how is this being received by teachers um and this is what I was told um they've been supportive they're appreciative of the team they're appreciative of what we're doing they see it as providing more structure and accountability they feel supported um they have been appreciative of the consistency of followup and communication it's going well I have to na navigate personalties sometimes and sometimes I have to help them remember why and I thought that was a really interesting comment that I have to navigate personalities and so when I dug a
136little bit deeper in that what the individual told me was well I can't say whether or not we're dealing with the personality or if we're dealing with the process right because um I I see evidence that they like the process and so I'm going to assume that it's personality so sometimes I have to navigate personalities uh for the most part it has been received positively they appreciate our ability to respond and communicate quickly it's more communication than they're used to uh there's a teacher who sends me names of students to follow up with and this was a good thing and so we've got a teacher who is saying hey I need you to check up on this kid I need you to check up on this kid I need you to check up on this
137kid and so um that's what we're seeing we're seeing high visibility in the hallways the attendance has increased so the attendance rate has actually increased um and then somebody said there you know there's generally uh pretty well received but there are some ripples uh it's been an adjustment and there's been some education so when when we're asking what a kid can do uh continually continually what do we what what can this kid do what can this kid do what can this kid do we need to let them know that we're not asking for a grade change and so sometimes when um that's that's how it's been received and so there's been some education on the teacher part saying no we're not asking you to change your grade we're asking you to tell us what this
138kid can do and how we can help this kid uh or this student rather pass this course there are some who have not bought into it because of the price um and so I answer that the same way now uh I I did back when we started talking about it yeah it was uh a spend there was it was a big spend right but we had the we had the resources um we had the opportunity we had the blueprint for something we thought would work really well and so we had a responsibility to act and so what we've seen is it is working and the results have been immediate attendance is up critical discipline is down ISS OSS expulsions those things are down number of failing grades from midterm to now is down significantly and
139let me talk about that you see numbers here this is an old data sheet and in in the parentheses you see numbers from this time last year or the previous year uh on this sheet right and so our teams didn't have that number there were some opportunities to go back and look at what they had done in the past like the past year grabed some numbers but we didn't have an Apples to Apples comparison so what we saw was they took a look at the midterm number so we're halfway through the nine weeks we're going to take a look at this number uh and do a practice run on this on this common sheet and then from then until now the number of failing grades is down significantly uh an average of more than 37%
140each cohort can tell you the names of students who are credit deficient in the case of the 2024 cohort at both high schools they know right now who is in danger of not graduating and they have plans for each of those students each cohort can tell you their graduation right as of right now so yes we have realized an immediate impact and so uh I'm going to share a few stories with you and then again um talk about what's next for us and then give me an opportunity to ask some questions but um earlier I mentioned the grade agreements and uh my perhaps I don't know if it's my favorite story it might be my second favorite story there uh was a student doing uh a grade agreement um so they checked in with the
141student at the twoe Mark and nothing had happened no improvement so we're going to check in with you again in two more weeks right these are the things you said you would do we need you to do them we're going to check back in with you in two weeks they check back in with the student two weeks and is not moov the needle and so the student says Okay um I don't know how to do it and I don't know how to ask for help which was a momentous I mean that's huge for a student to be able to say I don't know how to do it I've been you know I've been stringing you along here I don't know how to do it and I don't know how to ask for help so I'm
142asking for help help me and so to have a relationship of that kind at this point in the year where a student can say I don't know how to do it I need help um that was a significant win uh and that team celebrated that um heard from someone on on one of the teams that when I was in the classroom I was frustrated with the speed of things I thought they should be moving a little bit faster on the administrative side or in the office side and when I wrote a referral now that I'm working on the other side of things I have a different perspective and so I thought that was huge um as a teacher making a transition to the team and understanding that hey these folks are grinding they're doing everything
143that they can and they're working hard um and then to be a part of you know working really hard and and then having that you know light criticism or that criticism um now that person understands exactly and so that I thought that was a great story um now this is my favorite story so uh the um freshman team at uh North High School runs a fun kind of competition a month once a month they do this fun kind of competition and this particular competition was a uh how many candies are in this candy jar competition and they did it for a week so they've got these jars and they're different size jars and there's different candy every day and so the kids or the students rather have to try to figure out how many candies
144are in this jar and so after day two they notice somebody standing back and doing like this with a ruler trying to estimate the dimensions of the of the canister and then trying to figure out the estimation how big the candies are and then trying to do the math to figure out how many candies are in that jar and to me that is a beautiful story because you're taking what you learned upstairs you're bringing it down stairs in the context of this team competition and and you're and you're you're practicing the things that we're teaching you and I thought that was just such a a great story and I'm not saying that it didn't happen prior to now and to teaming but we didn't have the story prior to now and prior to teaming because
145we didn't have the structure so we didn't see those things and we couldn't recognize those things there's another story about a kid who was going to drop out I'm sorry uh father thought he should drop out uh team went and did a home visit on a couple times couple occasions got him in um made that student understand that they they really cared about him and and now he comes every day comes to the office every day and he's really proud of himself and his accomplishments and those are their words not mine we are providing and this is a quote and then again I could tell a a bunch uh we are providing the resources we are creating the relationships and now students are stopping by the cohort offices on their own the office isn't a
146place where students go because they're in trouble we are seeing that Association disappear okay last one I promise it's made a big school feel smaller and more manageable okay so uh next steps we need we need tighter processes between the two schools so I just told you about uh a competition that happens at one school and not necessarily the other there are some minor differences in the way that uh one school does their cohort sheet uh as opposed to the other school and so again uh one of the things that we heard when we were learning about this is that you really want them to be as similar as possible but the other part is we know that North and East are a little bit different schools and so we want them to be able
147to interject a little bit of personality so there's some calibrating that needs to go on there um and we're we are we're going to we're going to work on that um again I talked about meaningful data what does meaningful data look like especially when we're talking about parent contacts so we we we're going to work on that um continue to Define roles who does what we started with a good plan uh and we knew it would evolve and it'll evolve into the future I know that but as long as we're working on the process um we'll continue to get better um and then I I I really those are the things that we're GNA going to work on in the short term so anyway um that is my report to you um are are there
148are there questions you going go ahead so the question one of the questions I had was you just mentioned that the there's Improvement on the uh assignments here for fs and the way I was reading it it looked like they all got worse so I'm trying to make sure am I reading it right or am I not you're you're reading this right and I apologize I skipped in my excitement to bring you such wonderful news I did not tell you that this is all fake data and the reason this is fake data is because I I can't I didn't feel good about putting student level data into a report that would be broadcast here and then also um um emailed to so many folks in the in the board packet so I I apologize for
149that thing in here is yes okay that makes that makes a lot more sense we were questioning the number of students at North too I should I should have started there no note to self okay Mr we talked about I think is is is sending a a board report so they can see that and see some of the specific data I think from each of the the cohorts yes so yes so Dr Roberts and I did talk about Dr Roberts and I did talk about that putting together a board report so that you all could see that and have a little bit better look at real numbers and real data student names and IDs yes no student names no IDs that'll come to you in a Friday report so the the other comment which that
150saves me from the next one because I was like some of the comments there seemed almost on pii so I was making sure that we weren't I didn't find anyone uh when we when we're getting that board report I would like to see this team come up with those key performance indicators and trending metrics so like what is our trending graduation rate for team 2026 at what is our trending gradu that way we're seeing at least where's the trends and what's that critical x's and how you're going to identify those critical xes and drive down that behavior and I don't know what's the Cadence of a reporting but at least maybe it's at the end of each semester or at the end of each year however that best Works quarterly seems very um unnecessary just
151because movement may not be there but at least at the end of very semester you should see some movement yeah so let me let me clarify a couple things and so they report uh their um they they will report quarterly on this common sheet okay U but they look at it weekly yeah so and and they do have those key performing performance indicators that they look at on a weekly basis they look at their graduation rate and they see how it's moving they look at um the attendance rate and they see how the attendance rate is doing they look at the critical discipline they look at the number of students who may have moved in or out of the school so for instance you know did we did we have to send somebody to restart
152um and what does that mean it means we have to uh now communicate better with restarts so that we can continue to to watch development of the student so they they they have those kpis and they look at them on a on a weekly basis I mean they're they're they can they can tell you yeah there's a lot in terms of the trends I would just add Mr SCH it's probably a semester basis just because that that those are earned credits by that time and actual data that we can that we can Trend that's fair enough and then the last bit of a feedback was how are we going to do like survey or feedback collection and I'm saying this from a critical aspect right is as we went into this vote there was a
153lot of unfavorable feedback from CA regarding the implementation of this program I think it would be wise to reach out again and have CA pull them now that they're seeing it in action um and at least that way you have same Source same Source same pool same pool we'll be able to see is that behavior really driving the change of behavior within the teacher population and then I also think you have a unique situation obviously this is fake data right so not 48% of the parents but you have the ability maybe through parent Square I don't know Josh would have the better expertise there but in terms of being able to give that survey out to parents and say you know how is this benefiting me or what level is this almost like an NPS
154situation sure and and I didn't put it in here but I have lots of again anecdotal feedback from teams uh based on conversations from parents and that feedback is good but yeah we can figure out how to survey parents that's all real quick just to throw on top of what Logan was saying the the last piece for me that would close that out would be to the extent that it's available to have historical data as well right so if you know end of first semester a average grade point average average or the projected graduation rate whatever those kpis are to be able to look at the last maybe 3 to five years just to show us you know this the trends are not just inside of this year but across years move in the right
155direction so have some history to it so I would call this Baseline data I would call right now right here right now Baseline I think we can look back and and and see some things that have happened in the past um but uh again going with an Apples to Apples comparison I I don't think it would be that but we can we can definitely produce that data yeah it would I don't expect it to be Apples to Apples until four years from now right when you've got your first fresh but it might just give you enough to be able to show this is doing exactly what we wanted to do four years ago I'm going to make a number up four years ago graduation rate was 75% right now we're projecting 85 % right and
156I I think that just shows the trends Mr Jalan um first of all I can't tell you how I'm excited I am that your favorite story was a math estimation story so thank you it's a great story um and I to just reiterate what Logan said so we did get some push back in terms of a survey I voted for this because I thought how could teachers not benefit from having help with attendance and help with homework and help with academics um but I would like to see um the high school teachers who are involved in terms of their students to to get a chance to to get I love the anecdotal data but to get some hard data um and I also appreciate that your your comment that graduation rate is a trailing indicator
157um particularly I'm thinking Juniors and seniors we don't have as much chance to impact them um and I appreciate that it is really a three or four year thing um so I would just say we will try to be patient thank you for that okay yeah Mr so I I'll just start by saying that uh I am absolutely gung-ho about the model um but it's no secret I was a naysayer um to the cost um and and quite honestly continue to be so but so and I kind of geek out on this stuff so I apologize because this is kind of this is what I do all day every day and so um I have a laundry list of questions I'll try to narrow to two things um sure one advisories at the high school
158how are they those kids do not stay with the same teach for four years is that correct an advisory still yet under this model they um I'm GNA say that they do not yeah I I don't think that they do okay yeah and all right yeah I I don't think that they do okay and it just seems like that would be another tool to help you know the future success of this program and then the other thing that I would say is um you know just Echo I think we saw a sheet that had um all concerns on it and and you mentioned Mr Edwards some of the interventions and some of the results but um to Echo what these guys said I I mean some hard data would be y would be nice and
159what I would like to see in the future maybe spring break time or or sometime between now in the end of the year a team or maybe a team from each school just to kind of see what a day in their life looks like and and uh you know in terms of making parent contacts and um interventions with kids and so forth if that would be possible so I I'm going to catch up with you afterward and try to understand what that what you mean when you say that well just you know a team 20 26 from North a team 20 25 from [Music] East the the team of people the the instructional coach the assistant principal yeah their team just to come in and talk about kind of what you know a day in
160their life that's the clarification right so come in and and speak okay absolutely yes and I will check on that advisory question because I can't give you 100% oh and one more thing I'm sorry that's okay and and also in this and I realize it's it's bogus data if you will but I notice General diplomas are not listed and I know the legislation has changed that corporations um there's been a prescribed amount and I know it's lowering each year that the state wants to see in terms of percentage General diplomas but I've seen some past bcsc data where I couldn't help but think how many possible kids were lost because they didn't get shifted to a general diploma yeah because at least in my opinion the reality is a general diploma is more relevant for
161some of our kids yeah um and so I can tell you that that's always been a strategy uh to if we if we couldn't get the core 40 to look at it General that's always been a strategy um and um I you know so we are when we look at 20 when when I look at the 20 24 data there are some students who are pursuing a general diploma so that um again that is a a reality of our situation again we're far down the line with that cohort and so not as much time to affect change or difference um and when you look at the uh cap that is coming again by uh imposed by the state legislature then we we we are under the cap so um and it will continue to slide
162backward for for several years the acceptable cap there yeah thank you thank you Mr Edwards okay um I'm going to call a f minute recess all right just and and I'm I do that knowing I have quite a few people who have been very very patient to stay with us and still want to speak um but I do feel like we might need a f minute break just amongst the team so if you will all permit us that we will come back in 5 minutes I you'll hear my annoying alarm go off um thank you all for giving us just a minute or a few huh are they okay we talking through to see whether [Music] okay as people get um back to their seats I'll go ahead and remind everybody we are back in
163I'll gavel even we're back in all right it's official um public comment time just to remind everybody of um kind of how this works so you will get 3 minutes um to speak and that will be represented up here on the clock and Nick will start the clock for us and there'll be a little buzzer that goes off when you're done and we stick to three minutes um I think we've got about 13 or 14 people to speak here tonight um as it stands maybe a few less if their earlier comments were the extent to which they wanted to to say tonight um if you are here with a group you can defer to a spokesperson um if you have one to find you can pass if your point has been made you can say
164I agree with so and so and and pass that's also okay um do not use names of individuals or specific roles of people it's the same thing so um just avoid from kind of personal comments um speak speak at large if you will um and then also I'd like to make sure we maintain an environment that is comfortable for all speakers ERS so I will um ask that the audience do not cheer or dear okay if you want to if you want to say I agree with you please do that afterwards if you don't agree with someone you may do that afterwards too but do not clap um just please keep keep a calm environment it can be really intimidating for people to get up here and speak and I want to make sure everyone
165feels comfortable doing so okay with that we will start with Denise Mor Morris Morris Morris I'm so sorry Denise Morris that was very NE that was my fault um hi again I'm Denise Morris um member of the community for uh 35 years um I just want to go on Note um that I support um the uh Amendment uh proposed by Mr Schultz for the policy on the uh having certain books put in an area that only kids can get to them with parent uh permission um I feel terrible that I haven't been more involved in this system for the last 35 years that I've lived here to be honest with you uh um I think that it's awful that I have to be up here asking for vile things to not be in front of
166children and um it actually makes me pretty ashamed be to be part of this community to know that I have to come and ask for vile things to be hidden from children and really saddens my heart and my soul um that there are parents that want their children to see vile things but if that's what they want to do we live in America and as of right now we're still free people and um they have that choice and they can do that at home um this isn't book Banning this is because you can buy the book on Amazon or somewhere else and if you want to read it to your child at home you can do so but vile things do not need to be in school libraries um as far as I'm concerned adults
167shouldn't be even looking at that but especially not children so um I also want to say that I'm a member of The Homeschool Community I've never had a child in this school system and that's part of the reason that I haven't been involved um but I don't know if you're aware that the homeschool community in this town is immense and growing for some of these very reasons right here that we're talking about and unfortunately because um a lot of the home school Community have a lot of children they haven't been involved because they're educating their children at home but that's going to change because I'm going to be an advocate in that and we're going to rally the troops and we're not going to allow children to be sexualized and um demoralize our community any
168more than it already is thank you okay oh I'm um I'm sorry I just asked the audience to please refrain from cheers or deers if we cannot maintain a nice environment we will have to move on in our agenda okay thank you we will move on to Mary Mills we live in a diverse Community we live in a diverse World our children in this community come from all different countries all different socioeconomic situations they are different races ethnicities and the children need to they have this opportunity to learn the cultures of others and learn to be respectful of the diversity among them I I'm not an advocate for homeschooling I'm going to be blunt about that I think children gain from working with others from learning in a classroom situation with other children of diverse
169backgrounds and that's how they learn to get along in the world in which we live um children don't get to choose the families they're born into they don't get to choose the color of their skin they don't get to choose their ethnicity they don't get to choose whether they grow they're born into poverty or wealth it is our job as as adults teachers School staff to embrace all of these children teachers have the responsibility to embrace all these children to work with them and to bring them up and it sounds like the bartholomy county school district is doing a great job of that and I think we need to commend them our school staff and not add further burdens to them with demands on books that they got from some list somebody in an extremist
170group has put out there and it is an extremist group I'm sorry when you walk in the door of the schools when the staff walks in you need to leave your biases your personal prejudices outside that door just as I had to do working in public assistance believe me I had them but I learned to put them aside and actually to understand the people I was working with far better than I would have had I not worked in that situation so I think that that's something that we need to remember we need to remember that we advocate for every child in this community whether they come from the same background or religion that we did you know because they don't get to choose and we need to give the children that understanding thank you Miss
171Mills uh Amy mene hi I'm Amy miny um I just wanted to speak tonight to say that I um also I support um the amendment from Mr Schultz to um require parental consent for some of these books that are in the school library um that we have you know that we've all been talking about for weeks now um uh I wanted to talk about some of the concerns that was brought up in some of your meetings about having parental consent on some of these books um one of the concerns mentioned was if there's a restrictive area then kids will be drawn to this area um and they'll want to see the books I mean my response to that concern is if we are con concerned about children being drawn to a specific area that might
172require parental consent that maybe we shouldn't have the book in the school um also the concern of there being difficulty identifying like what books we going to um require parental consent for them I can see where some of that could get difficult and it could be kind of hard but we know that there are books in the school that are clearly sexually explicit and they're in the school libraries and they're in front of miners we know the books are there we had books read here in you know in these meetings that made people from all sides angry that grown adults were up here reading that material they were upset that it was being read out loud it made the whole room uncomfortable so at least those books it's clearly obvious that if you're going to
173keep them in the school I would think that it's not too much to ask for a parental consent before a kid can just um easily get that um book um I do think that that's a compromise on uh Mr major and or Mr Schultz's part to add that Amendment because he's just saying these books can stay in the school but there are some books that we should be asking parents if they're okay with that or not I think if you vote this down and you say no we want to keep it the way it is then you as a board are saying that you're aware that these books are in our school that they're sexually explicit you know they're there you're okay that a kid might get these books a minor will get these books
174before their child their parent could possibly be aware of it and that you're okay with that and you're okay with parents addressing the issue after their child has already been exposed to these books so I just ask you to consider that before you um do the vote hopefully in December you do a vote so we at least as parents can know how to proceed from here um with some of these books that are in the school all right thank you thank you I'm Sorry Miss I who is that Mrs Whit can you please refrain from clapping I'd really appreciate it okay we will move on to I I if if if no um La last Board of me I actually asked for neither and if there was anything behind you I didn't I I didn't
175hear it um okay I'm I'll have to go back and look if I if I miss something I do I am sorry um but I just really like us to not not do any of it tonight yep no no thank you okay libr would you like to come and speak okay thank you hello my name is Lee Brit I mean berd Lan um I'd like to begin by thanking each of you uh for serving in the capacity of school board members and for our bcsc Administration um I'd especially like to thank Mr Pat Bryant for being my District representative so thank you Mr Bryant uh your time and service are much appreciated um I have been passionate about public schools since I was in the ninth grade when I was asked professionally what did I
176want to do I was influenced by my high school geometry teacher whom I much admired Mr George and because of him I chose to teach mathematics and have done so for 33 years at both the high school level and the collegate levels my commitment and passion for Education um remains my mission today which is why I've chosen to speak my husband and I moved here 31 years ago raised two daughters who attended kindergarten through 12th grade in bcsc public schools they went on to graduate and move on to public universities both IU and Purdue yes we're A House Divided um but it was due to their first class educations and opportunities provided by bcsc I'm grateful this is a great Corporation I'm proud of it you all have had a tough job these last few
177months you've tackled issues that are important to the parents of the children in the corporation you've examined opportunities to expand and renovate our facilities as well as the means to make it happen the state of Indiana hasn't made it easy for you thankfully thankfully we live in a proactive Corporation where policies such as policy 9130 are in place and in practice in the form of guidelines for our Librarians to use and selecting materials for our libraries in addition bcsc has policies in place for parents who do not feel certain aspects of curriculum suit the needs of their children alternative assignments are determined between parents and teachers this needs to continue it's matter of Common Sense due to the proactive nature of our bcsc Administration parents who have concerns have a pathway for literary materials to
178be reviewed for age level appropriateness it's my wish this continues it's a matter of common sense as the corporation explores options to renovate our facilities to meet the needs of our future and explores options to fund building a new elementary school I'm hopeful the board will continue to examine all sides of the issues and find Creative Solutions this is how we move forward it's a matter of common sense I'm an optimist influenced by numbers I am passionate that the Miss of mission of this Corporation is to prepare our students for the future it's my intention to join you on the school board in 2024 my name Lee Brit will be on the November 24 ballot for District 5 for bcsc school board it's my wish all sides of the issues will continue to be considered
179and for common sense to Prevail thank you thank you Miss Brit uh Jackie Talent hello I'm here tonight to protect the children I feel so responsible and I know all of you feel responsible and I want you to look at those sweet faces that were put up on the screen earlier and think how to protect them how to make them feel loved and appreciated to have these books that are not adult that are adult books available for young children that's a big responsibility that you're taking on and I feel it's your job to protect them please protect them and stop the nonsense thank you thank you Miss Talent how clever okay Kristen mun Kristen Kristen's not here okay uh Merl Milan Marl hello you know A wise man once said the mind can only absorb
180what the seat can endure our seats have endured quite a bit tonight so I'll try to be brief my name is Merl milone and I'm a grandfather I hate to admit that but I'm a grandfather of two children in bcsc um I'd like to start by thanking all of you for your service to the community and on this board um I would like to thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight and the third thing I'd like to be appreciative for is our state legislators for passing some legislation that requires improvements and uh I guess what I consider improvements right in in these uh uh obscene and harmful to Children topics right which is I know you've had a lot of discussion about that and we have so far tonight so I'm thankful for
181all those things I'm disappointed that it was necessary for our legislators to have to pass legislation that the public outcry has been so loud right that they had to do it and maybe you weren't the board but I'm disappointed in the boards in bcsc that allowed that to have to happen as well but you all have an opportunity okay so as you talk through to adopt these new policies that are required now to meet the new legislation right you have the opportunity to make improvements and to make changes that protect our kids I want you to protect my grandkids I'm going to look every one of you in the eye right because they're important to me along with hundreds of other grandparents and parents okay nothing more important I want to urge you as a
182board to really consider the the amendment that Mr Schultz has put forward you've heard some discussion about that already okay I really am in favor of that amendment in lie of something better something that's that's more stringent um for the crowd that may not know it right this amendment is really about trying to find controversial books that maybe fall below the standards of the new law but might still be controversial and it's a it's an attempt to I'll say quarantine the books and let parents opt in let parents say I want my kids to adopt or see that material rather than having to go Shield them and opt out I think to me that's a that's a common sense approach right and some of the comments I heard earlier in the meeting were we may
183need to get this done quickly and don't have time or we need to just adopt the minimum requirements from the state and I would say if we have time to deal with cultural diversity in all of our buildings surely we have time to come up with good policies that protect our kids from obscenities and sexual grooming thank you thank you Mr melhan Susie melhan thank you I'm the other half of him um but first off I Echo some of what he said that um I appreciate you opening up the meetings and allowing people to come and speak um first I was again thank you for opening up the public meeting that I was in earlier I guess I'm a little concerned about that meeting um that I was at um you know I appreciate everybody
184trying to work together but there was some I had some concern that again I I would appreciative that the opinion and option was brought up to you know either seek the minimum of what the state was you know requiring um or the option to go above and beyond that that was a you know a great novel idea and I would say that if it is for our parents and our children that we would go above and beyond I mean I'm from this school system and I can tell you that when I went to this school system which was many many years ago we were above and beyond when it came to the children and I would say I would hope that we take that option um and I I hate to get graphic but there
185was discussion about a book and whether raping a child was something that you know did it have the minimum was well was that the entire concept of the book or was it in one page or two pages or the or the overall you know the whole entire book and well that was a matter of opinion whether that was harmful to a child and I'm like I don't care who you are that's a criminal offense why would anybody have any thought about whether that book should be in a school library that's a criminal offense that's harmful to any child I don't care who you are again so I don't want to be critical I'm you know I'm trying to be you know um you know offering of of support here for Logan and I think that
186his proposal is is a a good option because again to get the win-win here for everybody I think that that proposal is amazing because for the parents that don't want any um uh I can't think of the word but um you know they don't they want the books to go in they don't want any um I can't think of the word but they don't want you know what I mean any yeah oh the controversial side but the other side of it they want um I can't think of the word dang it but they don't want any books to be censored censorship oh my gosh but you know it's a win-win because you can you can meet both parents' needs because you can have those that are against censorship that you know put the books in
187a special section and then the parents that don't want their kids seeing them those books you can have you can meet all that and you can meet the school's needs and everything else so again thank you for letting me speak I appreciate it thank you Miss Mohan David Spencer Hi my name is David Spencer I want to thank all of you for for uh having these public comments and letting us speak and uh I was just hearing Todd earlier talk about the advisory in the high school and I was just clarifying with him that we do have advisory at the high school level and the the students do Charles have all four years with the same advisory teacher um I also just want to promote uh the achievements of our school as the coach of
188the Columbus North High School spell bow Team we went to the state finals and uh we ranked sixth in our class for the state finals at Purdue University so was very proud of my kids and uh the achievements we had there um it's very late there's a lot of rhetoric and uh a lot of people have a lot of opinions and that seems to be uh where the conflict has come up uh as a teacher at Columbus North High School myself you know I see a lot of these conflicts sorted out in the literature that we study and many of the books that we teach also have um characters that engage in controversial behaviors um the Supreme Court already ruled in 1957 in Roth vs United States that obscenity and sexuality are not synonymous um
189I teach several books that have sexuality within them and they're in our curriculum at the 9th 10th 11th and 12th grade English language arts level and those have gone through several you know vetted processes of teachers and people with degrees in their field who have decided what would be a great context to study these books within um the context matters and cherry-picking and pulling specific instances of books or words or f-words or cuss words out of a larger text um is is not the experience that our students and our young people have when they engage with reading um it's it's my wife's birthday and uh she told me not to call her out but she is a librarian here in this school district and we've spent the last 4 hours here tonight um engaging in
190this Civic process process and I appreciate some of the democratic processes that we are allowed to participate in here um the library is also one of the last truly Democratic spaces that our society has and that young people and adults alike can engage in and uh you know I'm frankly ashamed that my wife and our family feel the need to have to come here because she feels under attack and there's been a lot of militant language used tonight um a lot of verb choices that have been militant and aggressive in nature phrase is like rallying the troops and I feel like that's you know frankly rhetorical and divisive and I think most people in here would agree with that um I would like to just continue to urge that we support teachers support Librarians and
191I think one of the greatest way to encourage smaller class sizes is to attract more teachers and hire more teachers and Librarians in our school and I would really like to celebrate my wife's birthday tonight without her feeling attacked by people that don't work in her field thank you thank you Mr Spencer Mr D you told me you were okay with your earlier comments right sir okay um Mr girl would you like to speak on this topic or were you on budget only or would you like to speak or good evening um I just wanted to um urge you all to adopt the proposed policy change to ask for parent permission for their children to to be given what is clearly controversial and inappropriate material by this school district the island this issue seems to
192have gotten wider and wider and this proposal is the result of aside listening to their opposition to understand their perspective and offer a proposal that solves the issue at hand while accommodating the lines of all sides sides this compromise would not limit access to any in our community protecting their intellectual Freedom while also preventing the school from providing content to a child against their parents will as some icing on the cake it would also provide protection for the district by removing potential liability I can't see any reason anyone would oppose this compromise besides the difficult challenge it poses in rating in the reading of the books and where to draw the lines but I know none of you believe rising to a challenge of high expectations is a reason to deter from a solution and
193a solution is a clear and obvious that is a clear and obvious issue um that sorry and a solution to a clear and obvious issue for our community we aren't talking about to Kill a Mocking Bird or Grapes of Wrath or Dr Seuss we are talking about books way outside the window of any reasonable standard for our community if bcsc wants to allow extremely controversial books to be available in their libraries then the burden should be on bcsc it's unreasonable to expect parents to come through entire catalogues to prevent exposure for their child the burden the burden could reasonably be placed back on parents if bcsc would either remove the extreme content outside the window a reasonably controversial because our community would and had for a long time accepted the reasonably the reasonably controversial material
194within that window or if the board would accept the proposed compromise to ask parents before giving their children controversial material then after bcsc carries their water the burden can then be placed back on the parents the results we are currently experiencing from current policy and adherence to it are here they are real they are a huge problem for many of your constituents so please support the proposed compromise discussed in the public works sessions um presented by Mr Schultz regarding the library materials at bcse thank you thank you Mr Gro um Barb day my name is Barb day and I've lived in this County born here here and lived here over the better part of a century I'm a mother a grandmother and a great-grandmother and I'm going to piggyback a little here and that I
195want to go to school and have lunch with my great grandkids too but I'll tell you what I'm really here to say I'm here to support Logan I'm here to support the program the policy that he uh has laid out to stop the access easy access to some of the books that are in our schools and and I heard those books read one evening and we all know what they what they contained I'd like to tell you what I said one time to a Mr H who was a principal at Central years ago and we had a conflict and I won him over and what I said to him and what I'm going to end this with was let me parent my child thank you thank you Miss day Johnson not tonight okay um Kermit
196Merl key thank you for your time and opportunity to speak I am a writer and a parent of one current bcsc student and two graduates I am also a former bcsc student I've been following the ongoing debate regarding the new state legislation and how to ensure that bcsc policies meet the requirements by the first of the year I was confused as to why some board members felt adamant about exceeding the state requirements and pushing for an MPAA rating system until I read an article from the USA today dated October 11th 2023 entitled what's behind the national surge in B book bands a low Tech website tied to moms for Liberty in part it read these so-called challenge these so-called challenges appeared to begin locally with no obvious connections but they shared a Common Thread the
197book review material submitted by local parents was not written by those parents instead it was taken for word for word from her website called booklook dorg the the site launched in 2022 to Showcase a book rating system that has been used by right-wing political activist group moms for Liberty it continues but how out of the thousands and thousands of library books to know which titles to complain about and how without reading the books first to make the case that they were unsuitable for young readers that's where book looks comes in the website says it has no affiliation with moms for Liberty an examination of its history calls this into question on March 25th 2022 someone registered the domain named booklook Org the next day March 26th the brard County Florida chapter of moms for Liberty
198posted a graphic showing a rating system for books from Zer to five Rockstar volunteers the post read we look we would like to give a shout out to our amazing book Review Committee for developing such a detailed and professional system for reviewing and rating books found in our school libraries moms for Liberty is an American conservative political organization that Advocates against school curricula that mention lgbtq plus rights race and ethnicity critical race Theory and discrimination multiple chapters have comp campaigned to ban books that address gender and sexuality from school libraries I recommend reading the article as it outlines in detail what I and many others have observed from some of the board members recent candidates and their supporters it illustrates how a movie rating style system is meant to streamline the process for these far-right
199extremists to challenge any material they consider Progressive or woke without ever reading the material just as they did and reading exerts excerpts out of context that would be akin to focusing on all the rape murder incest and genocide in the Old Testament and throwing out the entire Bible without ever getting to the love of Jesus in the New Testament it is easy to see how the board became so divisive when we have members acting in bad faith pretending to have local concerns yet using the national Playbook of moms for Liberty their push to go above and beyond state requirements leads me to question what other ideals they may copy and paste from the group during their time in office thank you okay that concludes public comments for tonight thank you all for sticking with us
200I know it was a very long very long night all right next on the agenda we have items for approval requests for approval yes so uh the first item I have are is from old business minutes several uh groups of minutes here so of the executive session from October 23rd of the regular Schoolboard meeting from October 23rd of the public work session from October 30th and from the special Schoolboard meeting of October 30th we will scratch letter B the policy revision recommendation since we weren't prepared for for those yet so just 3A I believe yes so I'll ask first for approval of 3A please I move that we approve um the minutes of the meetings in found in item 3A is presented by Dr Roberts second thank you so we have a motion a second
201are there any comments or questions no okay all those in favor of approving item 3A please say I I those opposed say nay thank you move to new business under request for approval with new business we have letter C field trips and professional leaves supplemental contracts school fundraisers we have claims and payroll for you the claims for November 13th dated today about $1.1 million payroll for November 13th uh six about $7 million and then pre runs for October 1st through October 31st $3.1 million that's the claims and payroll resolution for an additional appropriation that goes back to Dr Phillips and his uh information shared on the during the first public hearing this evening approval of 2024 Health Trust officers we are asking for John Green as chair and Jesse schae as Vice chair approval of
202the contract with Maxwell as the CMC for the Schmidt Elementary project approval of classified special contracts and administration salary increases uh piggybacking on the last proposal during the last board meeting you um also approved the collective bargaining agreement uh approval of the robots for autism Grant award that was covered in the Appropriations public hearing earlier approval of the special education PA professional training Grant and permission to review the agreement to join the Indiana Bond Bank budgeting Pro program uh should be renew the agreement actually apologize for that permission to renew the agreement to join the Indiana Bond Bank budgeting program I think that is all under letter four new business okay have a motion from the board I move that we approve all items of new business found in number four letters C through M
203as presented by Dr Roberts thank you Mr Grimes do you have a second second thank you Mr Schultz any comments or questions from the board before we go to vote yeah just a real quick question uh two questions actually on the robots is is that um something that will be at a specific school or is it transferable between schools good okay I that's good and then the fuel program just one two small things on it um I'm assuming is there a cost to be part of this program because I don't know that that I don't remember if it was in there or not and if there is a cost what is our kind of historical savings number uh both good questions it's a 15 cent per gallon premium um and and that the floor and
204ceiling is set once once we once we You all take the action basically um last year was our first year as part of that um which we basically this is an insurance insurance policy for us if there are to be any significant surprises in fuel it's better for budgeting and um so last year we um we did not exercise that um we did not need to exercise that because fuel prices didn't didn't Spike above the threshold um last year was our first year participating in it um we we I work with a lot of folks in the same position as I am and they've been in the in the uh the Bond Bank many more years than we have and have exercised and highly recommend it so we're we're going to um recommend to do
205it again this year so questions any other questions okay I have a motion and a second to approve number four items C through M as PR as presented all those in favor say I I all those opposed say nay motion passes Dr Robert thank you okay next up Dr ple I request approval of the HR recommendations as presented this evening there are five recommendations on of resignation and Four Leaves of absences I move that we approve the HR recommendations as presented by Dr pleek second thank you Mr Grimes and Mr bran any questions for Dr pleek No okay all those in favor of approving human resource recommendations as present presented by Dr ple please say I I I all those opposed say nay motion passes and I request additional approval of human of one human
206resource recommendation this evening thank you Dr I move that we approve the additional HR recommendations as presented by Dr pleet second thank you Mr grams and Mr Schultz all those in favor of approving the additional human resource recommendations please say I I I all those opposed say Nate thank you Dr okay board input and review uh Mr nelan can I start with you um I really appreciate the presentation from book buddies in fact I appreciated it so much I started to sign up to volunteer and then I thought I'll wait till I get home to finish that um and the other thing I want to add is that um Mr Stenner and I recently visited Taylorville Elementary and two takeaways from that one um we heard from Dr hack about signage as a welcoming thing
207every sign in at Taylorville is in English and in Spanish um and with their population that that just really stood out to me um the other thing there were many things that impressed me but I'm just two um the other thing is that they have an active food pantry um and it made me I don't know how hard this would be to gather but I know our two high schools do a food pantry I I think that and any food pantry involves a lot of volunteer time from from the staff and the faculty and and Volunteers in many cases from students as well um and it made me wonder how many families we actually feed as a school system I mean we always think about the things that go beyond reading writing and arithmetic and
208taking care to make sure that families have food over the weekend and different times is one of those things so I'd like to thank uh Dr Boseman for walking us through uh Mr major and I just went to fodrea and we've almost wrapped up all the elementary portfolio I believe we've got Smith tomorrow and Schmid uh the week after Thanksgiving so it's obvious and evident and it's great when you're in public and you can defend the ask with you know physical se you know SE feel uh you know responses to these folks that are challenging some of the 306 million um also want to thank book buddies my daughter is one of the ones that is receiving that benefit at Southside so highly appreciative of the volunteers and the efforts that are being made there
209uh with her um thank you for the public comments uh unbeknown to me I was uh identified um multiple times um and so I just want to say as I'll most of my comments on that topic for the next meeting but at the end of the day I do feel some obligation to at least share like my as a as a person who's been in the professional field I've always been told you you put that customer at the center my current employer at the head of the table we leave an open seat because that's the customer and I see this role no different uh the difference is is at the end of this table is the parent and so at the end of the day I always will air on the side that parental consent
210when it comes to these toughest subjects are as necessary as an engagement opportunity because they're the head of the table I'm just a part of the table um and so I don't feel it removes diversity I feel if anything it in it enables engagement um and so just wanted to I'll save the rest of the comments for the meeting in which we covered that topic but I felt obligated given the number of call outs U thank you to all the members of the public and bcsc State holders that um hung with us here this evening for attending Andor speaking uh thanks again to Mrs tring and others uh for the book buddies presentation uh such an important program for the future success of kids and and to end on a positive note uh just coming
211off of uh Veterans Day Saturday uh a big congratulations and thank you to the corporation and all 11 uh bcsc elementary schools for earning purple our recognition for their support of all those that serve in the military thank you awesome um I'd just like to say I uh personally I've had just a bit going on the last I don't know 3 to five days and um and I've noticed it play out in just me the last few days too so if I have um made anybody feel uncom able or anything like that um I I do really apologize and and I do feel like that I gain a lot from the things that people tell me here and outside of here um and I do I do like debate that's part of my personality so
212I it doesn't bother me but but I I did just recognize that I've been a little off and I felt like I should say that out loud um the other thing is just for others to I work in a place I get to work with with a lot of great people every day and and I'm really blessed to have those many like interactions but um this time of year is particularly hard for a lot of people it just has hit me the last few days and so I just encourage us all to be kind of kind humans the next couple of months holidays can be very joyful for some of us but it can also be kind of a rough reminder for others so it was just a another tidbit in my mind that has
213nothing to do with school board whatsoever with that I will pass it on to Mr St before he goes to Mr St I think to was actually World kindness day it probably says something that we have to call that out was it I didn't I didn't know that okay uh thanks to all the folks involved in the presentations we heard tonight I I especially appreciated the update on teams in the high schools um the uh book buddies program the financing and Facilities presentations the experts that we had available to answer questions that was all helpful uh one thing that stuck with me from the first part of the meeting was the number of times um the tennis coach talked about academics uh and and how important that was and I I really appreciate the parents
214uh the staff the volunteers that work with our student athletes and make sure that academics are an important part of what they're doing and then lastly it was exciting to hear about the success of the spell bow Team from North yeah so Logan mentioned uh big thanks to Mr Boseman and I just checked my phone to see how long the phone call was yesterday but it was 1 hour and 54 seconds um so you think uh it was bad tonight um that was at least two pages of questions I think Logan and I had that he was able to be gracious enough to give us some of his time yesterday to get those anwers so thank you to him him um I had a uh very close friend reach out and um tell me that
215he was able to be a participant in one of the Veterans Day programs last week and I will tell you uh when my daughter was at Richards that was one of the highlights of the year was to be able to go to Veterans Day program just the the level of intense patriotism and God bless America that we had in that meet in those in those meetings those those events was great so all veterans that are out there but specifically all veterans that are part of bcsc uh I want to just tell you all thank you and uh just thank everybody again as we're coming upon Thanksgiving next week just a reflection to say thank you all for what you do and uh you know make sure that to whatever level it is that you can
216enjoy next week please do that with your family and uh enjoy them as much as possible thank you I'd just like to say I thank the book buddies for being around it was uh it was something that uh several of my friends have volunteered and have did that uh up in Taylorville so uh I like the idea of that U the other thing is for all of you to have a great Thanksgiving holiday and we'll see you in December I guess okay yes with that our next session is on December 11th we will have an executive session immediately prior to the board meeting and then the board meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. okay everyone have a nice night thank you