001okay we have 6 30 I think we're ready to get started um we'll go ahead and do the Pledge of Allegiance for those who are able please stand s okay we have the entire board here tonight so we do have a quorum meeting called the order that wasn't loud eating call to order Dr Roberts thank you Mrs Wilden at each meeting we do like to just review our vision mission and core beliefs for the school corporation so a reminder that our vision is for bcsc to be the choice to learn work and play our mission as a corporation to develop expert Learners by partnering with our community to invest in people and then of our six core beliefs we all can rise to the challenge of high expectations learning is most effective and we have
002Choice flexibility and C relevance we Thrive when our physical social and psychological needs are met our community and School District are stronger when we partner with one another we flourish because of the diversity and variability in our community our democracy and Democratic institutions are strengthened by civic-minded citizens thank you Dr Robert we will start with another budget hearing with Dr Phillips and I believe since this is a public hearing Mike do I gavel out yes yes okay out of official meeting into public hearing Mr Dr Phillips good evening thank you very much this is uh this will be slightly different than uh two weeks ago in that I'm uh only going to highlight anything on the slides that changed from the presentation two weeks ago to today and then um we'll give board members a
003chance to ask questions and interact go back and forth and then I'll go sit down and we'll take comments from the board if that if that works for everyone all right so this is the same presentation just a few slides removed and anything that we that's changed in the meantime is updated that slide stays the same tonight's the public hearing and then the next step is a adopting the budget at the October meeting must be done for November this is just a copy a screenshot from the notice of tonight's hearing that was published more than 10 days prior to this evening and you'll notice that the numbers at the bottom the budgets will match in the budget estimate column will match the table on the next slide there and I do have the three line
004items that changed between last week and this week the first two relatively insignificantly the first line and the The Debt Service line and the referendum debt service line just changed because the fees for the bonds weren't included in there the the annual fees we pay so this debt service line increased by fifty five hundred dollars and the referendum debt lines increased by eleven hundred dollars the referendum uh operating referendum line increased a little more than a half a million and I'm going to get into detail about that on on the slides for that when I when I get there but the the budget is still overall uh increase of 5.1 percent over last year's total uh appropriation requests this slide Remains the Same with the exception of uh this number is updated to reflect the
005salary and benefit expenditures are six point up three 6.3 percent over last year's that included added position and that change is reflective of the change to the operating referendum budget so here are the things that changed in the operating referendum budget after the questions we had we had last last board meeting I realized it doesn't it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to continue to come back each year and do an additional appropriation for that first line the teacher and salary and benefit for the teacher salary salary increases to reward them for sure is already reflected in the expenditures right up here on the education fund side so if we recorded them as an expenditure twice it would be double counting that and you'd be appropriating those 250 000 two times to be
006expended so instead it's reflected as a transfer between funds and it comes off of this appropriation total so that you're not appropriating that same quarter million dollars two different times so the the approved amount was increased by the 860 000 for teacher salary increases and then decreased by the 250 000 that went on to that line still would intend to transfer those dollars and request approval to do so but that'll come later in the in the new calendar year the the column labels so the the numbers for 2023 those were the budgeted numbers for 2023 is that correct and you're saying that the top line that says 5.3 million was budgeted for 2023 we're actually going to exceed that correct because we have or we will make some additional Appropriations sometimes when you're going through
007a budgeting process you have like a year-to-date column did you include that as you were comparing what the 23 budget was and what the 24 budget was you you were cognizant of thinking about where we actually are correct and that's where you came up with the six million one hundred sixty thank you you're welcome I wanted to make sure I understood that that's correct when we build the budget It's actually an 18-month budget you build from July through the following December and so it always takes into account the first six months expenditures of the current calendar year so one more slide on the operating referendum fund again after the last board meeting um we talked and and I decided it might be helpful to put together um a visual for you to show that the
008options available to us for the transfer of the 250 000 for curricular materials to the education fund and the education fund is one option it's obviously the most appropriate fund for the expenditure we're spending money on materials for kids that are using them in the classrooms the there are annual revenues coming in every year into the education fund so that's a positive thing but if we were to only take that 250 000 from the education fund as opposed to transferring the money there it does reduce the amount of funds that are available for salaries and benefits for for all employees that are paid from the education fund the operating referendum fund is is close to similar to that in that it it's an allowable expenditure from that fund there are annual revenues coming into that
009fund each year to uh replenish the funds and then the use of excess Levy meaning dollars that we are collecting above and beyond what are budgeted expected expenditures are by using those for these curricular materials it doesn't reduce the amount of dollars that are available for teacher for teacher salaries and benefits we will still even with the 250 000 transfer we will still collect a little bit more next year in uh 2024 in this fund than we will expend and then operations funds it's not an allowable expenditure from the doe standpoint the State Board of accounts and then last the rainy day is an allow it's an allowable expenditure pretty much for the most part that board has the authority to uh to authorize any expenditure from the rainy day fund or transfer um there
010are no annual revenues though coming back into the rainy day fund to replenish those since next year uh legislative session is not a budget year we don't expect this to be a topic that the legislature would cover and so it would be at least two years of 250 000 we're reducing the rainy day fund by that without any revenues coming to replace those so that's the hence the last bullet point there that reducing funds available for emergencies I think that's the last slide on the operating referendum fund any other questions from the board on the operating referendum fund yeah I got I've got two um one of one question I think I'm pretty sure I asked last time about the experience Gap and if a 20-year employee moves in and they only get credit for
01110 years do you have you had the opportunity to put together what cost estimate would be if we were to pay everybody for their experience it would be about seven and a half million dollars in the first year and then that would result type I ran it for all 769 or I think 68 teachers we were at last week when I ran at 768 and it that would cost about seven and a half million dollars and there would be somewhere in the neighborhood of I think it was 120 or so teachers that in that scenario don't get any raise for the most part the people at the top and the people at the bottom of the scale there so that's before that seven and a half million would come out before applying raises for all
012employees that just moves folks into their current Experience line thank you and then the other question if if you go back to the numbers where you've got your support staff why why is the only thing on here that does not increase is support staff salary why why are they not moving up um they just we appropriated enough these were estimates um particularly these two lines these are all things that um we could expand or contract as needed with the budget these were estimates made in 2019 going into the operating referendum at basically how many employees do we have how many people would qualify applying that and projecting it out over a year um we estimated very closely in year one and then in your larger amounts as time goes on that budget has obviously continued
013to increase where I support staff salary and benefits that's an hourly increase on their rate of either one dollar per hour or two dollars per hour and that doesn't increase so the only thing that would really expand that is if we change the amount of that incentive or hired more people okay and so to Rich's point about a year-to-date number you would expect to see teacher salary above 5.3 and support staff below 1.4 correct okay thank you you're welcome I'm sorry if I'm stealing somebody's time no on the on the following slide I did have a question about um in the past when it was legal and we charge parents fees for curricular materials and instructional materials where did that money come in so if the stanner family paid the fifty dollars where was that
014money received and where was it spent from that money was receded into the textbook material fund and then it would have gone out for expenditures in four different places one the largest amount is going to pay the to buy textbooks so I mentioned last year last two weeks ago that we spent two and a half million on on math adoption last time so that's big checks going out directly doesn't come to the schools doesn't doesn't necessarily impact School budgets from a supply standpoint curriculum materials in the classroom standpoint the second would be the education fund so some of it went into the education fund and funded some of the supply budgets there but it was a relatively small amount third place is the school um the school level extracurricular accounts and so there were some
015of those fees that went into the main extracurricular account for the building the tech fee that went to every student not necessarily attached to a course it went to the to the main Supply budget for the building where they could purchase toner cartridges things like that to maintain the tech at the building level uh that was directly related to student use so student printers and then the last place we had some separate funds set up for art music and PE that simply gave in science sorry science art music and P gave those specific departments budgets based on the amount that was collected each year for them to purchase classroom curricular materials all right Grimes I think you were next maybe more of an observation slash comment but I'm sure it will be worthy of a
016response from you the last bullet point under the operating referendum fund um you know I I would see how it could possibly be argued that using the excess Levy while I understand that the money the original monies going toward salaries and benefits will remain there um you know I think it could also be argued that that money collected in excess being taken away that could potentially be distributed on Down the Line towards salaries and benefits of teachers and support staff that that that does potentially mean a reduction of funds available and and my big concern is it's it's money that would be taken away from the referendum fund to be used on an item that was not part of the question on the ballot and so yeah I just I'll stop there and I'll just
017I'll just point out the old your observation is correct the the dollars collected above and beyond what we budgeted each sorry the dollar was collected above and beyond what we um what we budget each year for expenditures could eventually be allocated to anything that the that the board decides the only point I'm making is that that it doesn't threaten these line items up here at all we can fully fund the current salary benefit structure for both classified staff and teaching staff but I understand yeah so I have several questions around that transfer and one is maybe restating what Mr Grimes was just saying um I I get that it's not part of the regular contract negotiations for salaries and benefits but for example if if is it possible that using the referendum operation that there
018might be negotiations negotiations around what might we do for first through fifth year teachers that we're not currently doing and use referendum operation funds for that that's possible yes and my other question around these is is it it's eight years correct so what happens with leftover money at the end of eight years the um I think we spoke briefly about this last time but one of the um because the the dollars were not able to be levied and budgeted until January 1. we started these teacher and support staff increases in January 1 of a school year and so part of the reason for accruing eventually over the eight years several million dollars in the cash balance at the bottom not on this slide but um the cash balance that slide that I showed last time
019was to make sure that we can fully fund the full the full school year of the last year if for some reason the operating referendum was not renewed by the public that we could still run and we would run out teacher contracts go all the way through August and so there's 17 pays in there that we would need to fully fund to make sure we can we still meet our obligations for that school year and I think as the slide after this that showed the four options one of which is not possible yet so the rainy day fund there's no annual revenues going into it does interest accrued go into that no we invest all the dollars and then use the interest to fund operations and education fund so the those interest earned dollars only
020go to those two places out of anything goes into I'm sorry interest out of anything goes into the education except for the Health Trust the Health Trust is the only one that we're legally obligated any interest earned from that needs to go back into the Health Trust And so all of our large Investments are split 50 50 between the education fund and the operations fund and then the health fund goes right back into itself and then finally Mr Grimes stole my concern too that that when we were campaigning for this referendum I mean the state did this to us so of course it wasn't on the list but it wasn't on the list of things that we were asking people to fund I realized the State has put us in a funny position because they
021they took away part of our funding sources but that's still a concern of mine shots back to the reference the expected projection of Revenue yeah it'll actually be on here on the Levy instead of nine point three plus miscellaneous revenues which I think are expected to be about a half million miscellaneous revenues every tax property tax levy fund I'm going to keep doing that online as long as I'm holding my glasses I feel like I'm good I don't sorry every property tax levied fund also collects excise tax financial institution tax and Commercial Vehicle excise taxes so those should equal about four to five hundred thousand dollars for that fund so be about 9.7 or 9.8 million and then go into the slide with the different funds one more time I'm echoing the statements but Mr
022Grimes and Mr Nowlin around the fact that this was not on the ballot and honestly is a concern to me is as we ask for more you know it gets into scope creep but if we go to the one more slide I think I recognize that you say operations but it's not allowed right and I I agree statute has that clearly labeled however from education operations so right now by my knowledge of the proposed budget did transfer from education to operations is jumping about 1.6 million or 20 I believe and so could we essentially the money is going to come out of an expense that was to the operations by by the form of a reduced transfer and that would essentially offset the 250 000. is that within the bounds of the State Board of
023accounts or yes yeah that would be allowable so I mean in reality it can't it can't necessarily the operations fund cannot remit the payment for the 250 000 but it doesn't mean that it can't pay for it by a fun by form of reduced transfer that's correct okay my my preference from from my standpoint would be um to move to the rainy day fund over over that one just because um the existing cash balance in our operating fund operations fund could be spent three times over on our facility needs and so if we were going to do something different than the proposed operating referendum fund that would be my and then if we're at a place sometime in the future where there are funds available to replenish those we may take the action to make
024the transfer and replenish those funds but that's just that's just my recommendation based on my knowledge of the funds the last thing that I will note too is is that because of this change by moving this 250 000 down here instead of up here um we don't have to make a decision about this tonight so this is not part of the and it actually you're not making any decisions tonight anyway it's approval at the next as part of this budget process we can make the decision later on because all we're doing is appropriating the 250 000 in the education fund at the October meeting so that doesn't otherwise I would change your posting correct nothing would nothing would change this would not right correct otherwise if we were showing it somehow being expended from since
025it sounds like there's General consensus that expending the dollars on the the expenditures is appropriate from the education fund then it's just a question of where the money is transferred from or offset by a lower operations transfer please keep going Dr Phillips will do the next slide is these are Revenue assumptions for the education fund and there have has been some positive developments on the ADM side uh the last slide had 101 negative and we're when I sent this last week it was about 65 today it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 down so we continued to enroll students and I did go back and look the the did that she had actually projected us to be down 113 this year and so positive development from that in the fact that we're generally outperforming
026what the what that was supposed to be and then I always reflect in The Following fall flat enrollment compared to this fall so those are updated on this slide no changes to the expenditure assumptions on the education fund side those all remain uh remain the same as last time and also no changes the education fund budget overall Still Remains with 95 percent of that budget allocated towards salaries and benefits also no changes to the I'm sorry any questions on the education fund before I move on to operations actually this is something that our working session made me think about this when we talked about um [Music] textbook fees and other course fees so Department budgets went up eight percent and I know this may be true of other departments but I'm thinking secondary science departments
027in particular collected fees to cover their they have lots of they have lots of expenses for materials for chemicals and all that so did there did we somehow help them with their budgets or will we be helping them with their budgets because it seems like they have lost they're in a harder position than many departments because it's not it's a lot more than just textbooks that's the 250 000 so I went back and I went and calculated over the last three years how much money had gone to fund those budgets for departments um and so the eight percent mentioned earlier is in addition to adjustments made to Department budgets that were receiving revenues from families paying their fees that's the 250. so so those were all just textbooks overall Supply budget went up by much
028more than eight percent because of the additional 250 000 thank you you're welcome on the operations fund side the also no changes to the assumptions on revenues or expenditures we went through these in detail last time but I'm happy to answer any other questions you have about them also no changes to the operations fund budget from last time still up just one percent from the prior year a Debt Service fund I mentioned earlier that the bond fee annual fee payments weren't included in the total so that's the 5500 increase to that budget I didn't pause last time and asked if you had questions on the operations budget do that again and then the second Debt Service fund again I went by up by this eleven hundred dollars was listed here but interest was actually eleven
029hundred dollars lower formula after the spreadsheet and so the only change from last time is the Eleven Hundred Dollar increase on this this bottom line reflected in the interest payment there any questions on the two Debt Service funds okay and so this is again just that summary slide that reflects the the changes in those three those three funds in a 5.1 percent overall increase this is just it's informational only at this point but if if we approved the budget that I just shared with you tonight in October then the advertised tax rate will be one dollar and 2.03 cents per 100 of assessed value you can see our history there we always advertise at least a couple of cents higher than where we end up in the end and I would anticipate that would be
030the same thing uh this time so that would be the advertised tax rate and then we would come back and I would let you know probably at the first January meeting what the dlgf landed on at the end but we would Target would be to keep it right in this one dollar to one dollar and one cent range any questions on advertised tax rates versus adopted tax rate and then again the next step is a vote in uh at the October meeting to adopt the meeting prior to the the November deadline you know the questions from the board before we move on to any public comments next school board meeting October 23rd if with the decline that you've been seeing in the ADM if it continues I'm sorry the decline in the decrease right which
031is really an increase yes the Improvement that you've seen in the ADM estimates that you're making I'm sure that the board will be interested October 3rd or 4th to find out where we actually ended up and it actually started to interrupt Mr Center it actually there's about a three-week cleanup period That's the date that schools just lock in and say every kid enrolled counts and then we spend about three weeks cleaning up you know this other school district also claims that that student was enrolled in that day it takes it takes about 15 days for that okay so do you think we'll know that number by the time we vote on a budget on the 23rd we'll be close yes yes all right within a few students at the most okay I'll put the mic
032down and let let you take comments from the public okay we now have time for any members of the public who would like to ask questions I do have a couple of people who signed up on the blue sheet and under the um topic put budget so if you want to if you want to talk about budget now is the time in the public session of the meeting so so go ahead just step on it and I don't think we have a Time on public hearing Nick yeah this one okay thanks hi good evening members of the bcsc school board my name is Megan Hearn and I serve on the executive board as the membership chair for the Columbus Educators Association the labor union representing teachers in bcsc I'm here to speak on behalf of
033teachers regarding the bcsc's proposal to use the referendum fund to pay for the shortfall in textbook fees and curricular materials teachers support textbook and curricular materials being free for parents and families though of course we are disappointed that the state of Indiana's budget did not fully cover these costs we do not however support taking money from the referendum fund to pay for these materials cea proposes that the board do the following to address the textbook and curricular fee shortage one use money from the rainy day fund and or lower the amount transferred from the education fund to the operations fund to temporarily cover the budget shortfall two collaborate with teachers to help State lawmakers understand why the amount provided in the last budget was not sufficient and must be increased in future budgets and three
034collaborate with teachers to look for ways to cut career makers in the middle when the community voted on the referendum the wording on the ballot stated that the money would be used for staff salaries and school safety textbooks and curriculum materials do not fall under either of these categories so we believe that using the referendum fund for this purpose would violate the community's trust and negatively impact the viability of the referendum renewal in 2028 furthermore given that the primary purpose of the referendum fund is to increase teacher pay using this fund to pay for textbook fees and curricular materials feels like teachers are once again being expected to dip into our own Pockets to make up for Education funding shortfalls teachers in this school corporation already spend thousands of dollars of our own money every
035year on basic supplies for students we should not be expected to cover the cost of textbooks and curriculum materials as well we also understand that in the short run it would not take away from the five ten or fifteen thousand dollar referendum retention money for this year but if it's going to happen for two years that's half a million dollars plus the interest accrued coming out of the referendum which in the long run will affect us directly especially in the end of the year those 17 pays that we're trying to make up for to get through the entire school year rather than expecting teachers to shoulder the cost of the state funding Gap teachers believe that bcsc should use the money from the rainy day fund to temporarily cover the budget shortfall work alongside teachers
036to help State lawmakers understand why the amount provided in the last budget was not sufficient and work alongside teachers to look for ways to cut costs as part of a good faith effort to meet fiscally conservative lawmakers in the middle thank you for your time Mr Grow did you want to speak on the budget okay sure that was good all right the purpose of bcsc is to educate our community's children it's period full stop all the rest is nice but it's extra the primary way the education happens is by our teachers we need more teachers and they need to be paid before we even start discussing budgeting anything else we have lower elementary classes with 27 and 28 kids with their share of behavior issues and English Learners or one ta is split between many
037classrooms why are we talking about things like moving up the timeline for a one million dollar upgrade for football field lights you think not having Friday Night Lights would be an emergency I I agree that it's an extremely important issue but it's it's not the emergency that falling short on education educating our children would be no matter how great a teacher is having too many kids in one class is detrimental to education sure a teacher can pull it off but how much more effective would they be if it were 18 instead of 28 and if teachers had the 18 first graders in the full-time ta that they should have they would be feeling more accomplished in their work happier with where they are the sting of being underpaid would be much less and bcsc would
038be fulfilling their purpose much better in educating our children [Music] and our budget should be worked starting from that direction right now it seems like we are seeing how much money there is in the fund for teachers deciding how many teachers that can fund and then figuring out how to distribute teachers to even out class sizes as best we can what we should be doing is working the other way seeing how many kids there are hiring and assigning however many teachers those kids need by setting an ideal and an absolute maximum class size or something like that each of these kids comes with their own funding let's think about this in terms of we get X dollars funding per student and the ideal class size is however many now let's figure out how much is
039left over to fund the rest I know teachers contract negotiations are going on right now and I saw what I would call a how unwelcomed they were to the public meeting for negotiations two weeks ago that's not how one party accommodates the other to negotiate and get Faith and it's clearly not your first rodeo in this teachers if you want to find stakeholders that will support you look to parents we will fight for you like no one else because it's our own children that are at stake here and you are the most important factor and yes our Clause will come out sometimes too because these are our kids we're just passionate about it but I'm confident we have a lot of common ground here so I have a very hard time imagining our community is
040going to agree to a referendum the coming referendum tax increase to give more money to bcsc if they do not believe current funds are prioritized appropriately and there's you know a possible breach of trust aspect of this with how the current referendum money is getting spent which the previous speaker spoke to I completely agree and Echo everything she said also I don't believe I'm alone in opposing further funding to an institution that can't figure out how to keep inappropriate materials out of school libraries and curricula and I I know this is something that you guys have started to address and I thank you for that um but this is just all things you know to consider with the coming referendum that's going to retroactively impact budgets and future budgets um I know others don't hold
041that same opinion but I must add you know we are not quote attacking Librarians or teachers this started simply fortunately the answers were not what we expected and only furthered the concern you know we would have we would love nothing more than to be able to go back to not worrying about this issue and focus on issues that really move the needle like our teachers so you know like I said all of this stuff is it all of these factors are going to greatly impact the Budget moving forward I just ask that you guys really you know take a a foundational refocus on this so please reconsider the budget from the ground up focusing on bcsc's purpose as a government School thank you anyone else from the audience would like to speak on budget tonight
042foreign in regards to the referendum this Board needs to hold a special a special session she reviewed the budget closely in the eyes of the public these costs have become outrageously High compared to other school districts before bcsc comes asking for more funds this board and administration needs to take a hard look at fiscal responsibility are we taking funds from teachers are we concerned about class sizes and lower grades are we providing them just on buildings and raises than we are on what's inside the schools I want to make it clear that we support our teachers students and parents and we'll be holding the board accountable for all of our needs as the book conversation as to the book conversation we are all pretty tired of it we just want you to do the right
043thing this Board needs to put out standards the parents can see and moderate for our own children it is irresponsible to assume that a parent can read or know every book in the library no different than a librarian where the saying if there is a desire for this board to keep books that are controversial by your own policies then create a section that parents can opt their children in for the books that takes away no rights provides clear policy Direction puts the decision in the hands of the parents and protects the corporation from reliability with the upcoming legislation lastly I did want to provide a little material from last week to a few members because I feel like maybe some people aren't aware of the material that we're talking about and I want to read
044it I I think um you so if you would like to talk about something outside of the budget yeah section but do you she signed up did you sign up okay you can't you can't oh yeah yeah no I understand you can come back up and speak during the public comment section I just want to make sure it's in the right part okay will you decide when I call your name okay thank you okay well well she's Distributing this does anyone have anything else they'd like to add on public hearing for the budget okay if not I will gavel back into our regular board meeting and we will move on to school board member reports nothing Mr nowen sure Mr Schultz um a couple items of note from the school Foundation exhibit service here there
045will be a dime to donate at Jagger's October 3rd to to help fund bcsc robotics also good news the Custer and Nugent foundations have approved a grant to supply care cards to each school that the carts will be equipped with student care items that uh students and then lastly Mr Nowlin Mr Schultz and I attended the isba slash Indiana Association of public school superintendents conference this morning and I I personally was able to attend the delegate assembly where the Indiana school boards Association voted on legislative priorities and foundational statements for the upcoming calendar year and I would just like to share that the number one legislative priority for the school boards Association this upcoming year is teacher retention and the student services support grant program and the more details certainly will come out in in
046the future regarding that and then also lastly Dr Roberts who was recognized this morning as the president-elect of the Indiana Association of public school superintendents so congratulations to Dr Roberts um I I serve on the diversity Council there was a meeting last conflicted with another Board responsibility ahead so I will um check in with Mr Edwards and get an update for the next session we have a business Advisory Group met on the 13th went through the facilities and finance program that Dr Boseman and Dr Phillips are sharing with the community so it's a good opportunity to gather some comments I'll try and do this fast for the Redevelopment commission Columbus Redevelopment commission they updated the central TIF district and it's been amended to extend for the long State Street and Bar Road there were other
047areas modified near West Tipton lakes and west of I-65 at the Wellsboro exit Second Street Gateway project is more moving forward a little bit at a time that is going to impact the downtown area near the jail and the Taylor complex that's being built is going to narrow the lane State and slowing speed in the downtown area it will offer increased Green Space and improved drainage that project should begin in March of 2024 and in August the our Riverfront our Riverfront project received its last permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to move forward there will be an RFP going out soon and an accompanying economic impact study will take place with that report expected in Thanksgiving there are other projects that are ongoing and a housing study will be completed in June of 2024.
048the Health Trust met this morning we're going to meet again next week we're looking at three different scenarios that will hopefully give the best overall value to the participant and we're doing everything we can to minimize any additional cost that will be incurred by the participants so we're trying to do our best there um and then uh we'll we'll end up meeting I think what two or three more times in the next month or so too so so uh hopefully by the next school board meeting we'll have a little bit more to speak to about that tonight do we want to come in on the public work session at all at least a highlighter or update on that yep thank you um Public Works session so we we did meet immediately prior to this meeting
049that's been our Cadence for the last few sessions it seems to to be accommodating to the board's schedule so um you'll see that in at the end in terms of our schedule going forward um we did meet on two different policies that had been left over from a previous review policy 5420 which you will see up for um vote tonight as well as a wellness policy who which is on the agenda and we'll work through what we do there and then we we Dove a little bit deeper into some of our policies regarding curriculum and and book adoption both in classroom and in library just so we could get familiar with those policies and changes that we we need to to make in order to stay current with statute between now and January so we
050we reviewed those we had some conversation and then we talked about how we're going to progress through that in our next work sessions that's anything I missed from the team on that okay cabinet reports good evening I'm here to share an update of our teacher retention for the 2023-2024 school year and just a reminder of how I do calculate that it's the number of teachers that work the first student Day last year and it was 762 teachers compared to those same teachers that worked this first student Day this year because otherwise it would be consistently changing and all that so the easiest factor is just choose one day and stick with that year to year as the basis so in looking at the teachers that started in 2022 on the first day compared to the
051returning teachers for our teacher retention rates 91 percent just a little bit over so we had 762 teachers last year returning this year 694 of those teachers returned so um so nine percent of our teachers decided to choose another Direction and just wanted to provide the board with the update at that time any questions for Dr Blake when when when that nine percent leaves do we have a good exit survey that might help us understand how to keep them in the future yeah and some of them for instance I mean I have some breakdown of information about it um for instance 10 of those retired um so a 68 left so 10 retired left us with 58 and then we did have 15 which is around 2 percent of our teaching staff choose to go
052somewhere else and teach and then we had some become stay-at-home parents less than a percent I'm about two percent change careers completely from education some it was a mutual decision an agreement some for personal reasons about under a percent for personal reasons and we had a little over a percent move out of state but that's often because of spouse or some of their obligation work related and unfortunately we did have one deceased so um so yeah so we have a thing and we do collect input and all that information as well more than that but we do know their reasons for leaving thank you yes could you remind us how that compares to what our retention rates were prior to the operating referendum so the referendum I do know I believe our first year of
053the referendum our base year was 89 percent let's pull it up right now to see as as Dr Phillips 89 the first year um I do know actually 1920 was 87 retention rate then 89 19 20 92 for 21 22 is 92 22 23 89 Now 23 24 it's going to be 91 percent so we're seeing an uptick from last year a part of the referendum that range was it was 87 to 90 and so I think the last three years you have 92 89 and 91. correct and I did look to see because I figured one of you would ask what the state retention rate is or the nation I was trying to get that information trying to pass some Forefront um the latest research I could show is a um an 84 retention
054rate across the U.S usually eight percent decide to leave the profession and eight percent leave for another similar position in another district and then the last time the the doe had something listed it was around I believe uh 77 percent for the 21-22 school year and that was the last data I've seen published Mr Schultz so that was my question okay good thank you uh the other question I had was was there a defined goal believer Target for the corporation I believe the referendum had a Target or an estimate I believe it I believe it was 90 is our goal right Dr pleake out outside of the 10 retirees what might be the average years of experience those that left I I guess I'm assuming it's probably people within their first five years maybe not
055correct the ones that child you said outside of retirees yes it's usually in the first few years and just a reminder that our retention rates are posted on the district website under the referendum tab any other questions thank you Dr pleek thank you okay we are going to move into public comments so just a reminder of our policy you need to sign in on a blue sheet so for those who maybe didn't sign up this is always kept by the by the door on that table um I will call you up you will have three minutes and you'll get to see your time on that on that clock we stick to three minutes so I'll usually let you finish the sentence because I hate to cut people off but I will I will do it
056at First Break um that I have in the in the sentence there um if there is a group of people here I'm speaking on the same topic it is okay to defer to a to a person to speak on your behalf if a point has already been made you can come up and say I agree with so and so and take a seat if you don't want to expand further that's perfectly okay please don't use names of individuals students staff members or specific titles that are just tied to a person that is effectively the same thing and then again we'll limit remarks to three minutes and I'll always say if if you need to reach us in any other form there's lots of ways to do that our emails are listed on the website most
057of us are happy to have a phone call or what have you just catch us after the meeting if that is more appropriate for what you'd like to talk about okay with that I will go ahead and get started at the top Miss Hearn you've already spoken did you want to say anything during public comments yeah yep sure please please step up hello once again uh once again my name is Megan Hearn and now I'm just going to speak to you as a Spanish teacher from Columbus North High School um I have had the opportunity the blessing to be able to create a small Library within my own classroom through donor's Jews and bcsf which has generously matched every donation that goes through donors Juice by the way a little plug for them that my
058my students have helped create a library of books that interest them and I checked through our English Department to make sure everything was um appropriate for what they teach and to try to help them as well Dr Roberts read one of the core beliefs at bcsc at the beginning of this meeting and it says we flourish because of the diversity and variability in our community and in my opinion I I teach Spanish if there's any place that this Corporation can show visibly that diversity and variability it needs to be in our school libraries that is a place where where kids can find books that interest them not because of what a teacher those things lead to learning tolerance and as a teacher I think that's something that that's a learned behavior that's something that we
059should be trying to teach our kids even teach adults all the way through every day all day what tolerance is and and how do we display it those things are immensely important for those opinion if we look if we try to narrow things down to a singular perspective I mean my job is to to bring the world to the kids especially in when I teach culture in my classes and to broaden their Horizons and and you can't broaden a student's horizons with a singular perspective you just can't do it and so all a singular perspective Fosters unfortunately is ignorance and we should all know by now historically speaking the immense damage that ignorance can do to a society if we don't teach tolerance instead and that comes from education that comes from knowledge so I
060would just ask you to please I would urge caution when making decisions on what we do with our school libraries and and if if we start limiting things then this flourish because of diversity and variability it's a hollow belief if we start limiting what our kids can learn thank you [Music] we live in a diverse community our children are fortunate to live with all this diversity around them children don't get to choose their gender their color of their skin the families they're born into there's sexual orientation whether you think they do or not they're religion they don't get to choose but they can learn from those around them and from books books can take children places that they can't go physically books can take children into the past and into the future and imagine what
061it might be books can take children to imaginary places and help build their imagination and their thinking skills it is important that our children are not limited I was shocked at some of the books I saw on a band band book list books like brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin when I related this to my sister-in-law who has a masters in remedial reading taught in the Detroit schools and open three different Learning Centers in that area because she saw a need she was absolutely shocked she had Dr Martin as one of her professors at Oakland University in Michigan when she was working on her master's degree think how limited we would be what we wouldn't have if it weren't for writers like Jules Verne Laura Ingalls Wilder and even the new writers I'm not
062as familiar with the Harry Potter books children know they're not that witchcraft in these books is not real they are aware of that our children aren't stupid they know that there really isn't a place called Narnia that they can't walk through a wardrobe and be in a whole new place as much as they might like to I think some of us as adults wish we could do that but it is important that our children have access to books and where it is important we trust those that are selecting the books that we trust the teachers who are trained and the librarians so again what are people afraid of what are they afraid of foreign Johnson would you like to come and speak thank you uh Mr niemoller I would like to commend the board for
063starting its progress into the process of discussing a library book screening policy it's a good move in the right direction One of more transparency and public engagement the board has listened to public disagreements and is acting accordingly and it's only common sense to have a book policy that's aligned with the policies in the school's own handbooks all of which prohibit students from using foul language with that being said I must address something uncomfortable something that is not in the direction of more transparency or public engagement and that is censorship censorship can take many forms one form is when disruption from the audience prevents a speaker from speaking another is when the board does not control the disruption or maintain order another is when the board actively sides with the disruptive audience and uses an illegitimate
064excuse to censor the speaker obviously I am profiling what took place at the last meeting these kinds of actions only serve to reduce transparency and public engagement this is not the direction we want to go no topics should be censored from public comments besides the position that resorts to censorship is most likely the one that lacks Merit not to mention that government censorship is a violation of the First Amendment but this is great it's good that I have been allowed to finish my comment tonight let's continue in this direction thank you thank you Mr Neymar checked out thank you I have a hearing problem and so if I speak too loudly it's because of that so I apologize for that but I'll try not to do that um at our last meeting 15 speakers spoke
065and brought their concerns to you and the board 11 of those speakers spoke on the subject of books available in our libraries my impression was that if one had a concern about content of books this was taken as an attack on the profession of librarian in America no book should be banned nor should they be however concerns that some parents have is that no guard rails are in place as they relate to BS bcsc students in America we are free people mature adults are free to live their lives as they wish that this Liberty comes with responsibility I believe that we are responsible to our creator to take care of the resources he has entrusting us parents are responsible for their children and because those parents accept this responsibility they demand the same responsibility from
066you the administrators when their children are in their care therefore guardrails must be in place to ensure that children are safe both physically and academically age-appropriate reading materials are one of those guardrails currents social norms of the day have no place at the table when responsible leaders of the community parents and schools administrators have decided on what those guardrails should be thank you Lisa engelas English thank you did I get that right you were close okay Lisa Angelus Angelus yes I reside in District Six I have a daughter who presented her results of her survey to you last time and I'm a bcsc graduate proud one as you consider policies to library materials I want you to know that I support the freedom to read and I support the professionals that have been hired to
067select materials for our school libraries I'm also I support the use of professional best practices and guiding material selection so we know that those exist today they're publicly available and that's what we should be relying on I understand and respect that some concerned parents believe that censorship can protect children and restore what they see as lost moral values but under the First Amendment each of us has the right to lead protected ideas we have the that it's an absolute right if there is something that is a constitutionally protected idea we have that a right to read about it even if others find it offensive I'm calling on you to uphold the freedom to read for all students in our community the views of those promoting censorship by creating a rating scale and definitions of appropriateness
068are not shared by all if parents do not want their children to read a particular book then they're free to request an alternate assignment but don't infringe on the rights of others to read the book or tell other parents what is appropriate for their children to read in school I believe removing books teaches children to avoid asking questions about topics that have been deemed offensive or inappropriate kids will learn the way to deal with difficult Topics by avoiding them that's really the message that we're sending whether we intend to or not the understated message is that someone's notion of decorum supersedes the Quest for knowledge better to embrace reading a wide variety of topics as the most benign way for kids to learn about the world optimally with further discussion at the dinner table with
069parents or Guardians Let's help our kids navigate hard topics instead of trying to remove anything controversial from their sight so yes let's have a robust updated policy on material review and selection and let's ensure we follow them but let them be back by professional best practices and not the preferences of a set of individuals it is unwise and damaging to remove materials based on the number of profanities or the subject matter alone the value of the work as a whole must be considered as any book is reviewed lastly these views aren't my own I mentioned my daughter's petition it now has 2100 signatures 1275 are from Hoosiers over a thousand of those are from Bartholomew County and surrounding counties given the board's input and wish for input from the public I hope you take that
070into consideration thank you thank you Steve Jasper my name is Steve Jasper we live in a diverse Community maybe not urban center diverse but certainly South Central Indiana diverse this is something we should embrace for the benefit of all bcsc students the diversity of the student body manifests itself in many ways different languages spoken at home different cultural histories different holidays to celebrate different religious practices some immigrants both documented and undocumented some born in the U.S and some born elsewhere some gay some straight some transgender there are also a wide variety of family structures represented maybe the majority are the typical two-parent family a mom a dad other siblings but some kids have two moms some kids have two dads some live with a single parent some are being raised by Grandma and Grandpa and
071some live with foster parents some kids lived live in households that offer opportunities such as travel and participation in a variety of activities that expand their Horizons however other kids may come from households that are one financial crisis removed from homelessness some households deal with substance abuse and mental health issues often as a result of these challenges kids become victims of physical emotional or sexual abuse and are and or neglect so what does all this have to do with libraries I believe that it is critical that all students in bcsc regardless of their cultural heritage their personal experiences or their family structure should be go should be able to go into a library and see themselves represented there simply put it validates their humanity and be exposed to histories and experiences that might differ greatly
072from their own to the board I say we have Professionals in charge of our school libraries your task is to establish policies which support these staff members in their work of helping each student move toward a better understanding of themselves and of the world around them thank you for uh for listening were you okay with speaking on budget or did you have something uh air growth again I did two quick things um I think a lot of us are genuinely confused about how this became a discussion about diversity and tolerance I mean I think we all agree with that and those are good things I mean you know tolerance is good because it can be loving I think maybe where we're off it's not loving to tolerate that which is harmful or evil That's the
073postmodernist Law not all ideas are equal so I just wanted to say that I think there is a lot more common ground here than most realize um and then I just want to encourage you guys I know you're starting to be active in in discussing if we want to do procedures or process changes around this uh the the book topic and I've been listening to that and I just want to encourage you guys to kind of like think outside the box like don't think about what the state law says in the federal law says I mean that's very important stuff we have to stay within those bounds but that's secondary like focus on what bcsc needs focus on what our community needs what our community standards should be and you know you can create and
074just making sure it falls within the bounds of the state and federal law versus coming down from the federal and state level and saying well how how should we do this so I just want to encourage you guys to think about it that way but thank you thank you okay that concludes public comments for tonight now we will move on to approvals Dr Roberts thank you Mrs Wilden um under old business we have the minutes of the public work session from September 11th and of the regular school board meeting on the same evening additionally we have a policy recommendation based upon what I heard during the during the public work session tonight the report that one on the wellness policy 8510 we've tasked Mr MacGyver with just checking to make sure as we made significant
075rewrites of that that all citations federal and state are still correct for that so at this time I am recommending approval of policy 5420 the revisions to it reporting student progress thank you Dr Roberts do you have a motion from the board Mrs Wilder I'd move we approve request three a minutes of the September 11th meetings and request 3B just the first one policy 5420 approval tonight thank you Mr standard second thank you Mr Schultz all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed motion passes Dr Roberts thank you under Doom but excuse me under new business I have field trips and professional leads and a reminder to you we have an extra sheet in front of you tonight that had an extra field trip we're taking advantage of we had one come
076in and we wanted to make sure the students had the opportunity to participate in that and you do not have another board meeting until October 23rd so we got that in front of you for this evening so field trips and professionally supplemental contracts our school fundraisers additionally claims and payroll claims dated today a little over eight hundred thousand dollars uh payroll for this time uh about 3.6 million dollars and he covered one regular payroll September 8th which was for the work period of August the 14th to the 27th and it did include the start of returning teacher contracts this is prior to Collective boarding which is in process now as well as our B and C schedule payments those are appendices in our collective bargaining agreement that pays for some of the extra duties that
077staff members have additionally I ask for a resolution to adopt approval of the resolution to adopt a mended Health Trust agreement our Health Trust has worked hard to get that document revised and then also an approval of the Cummins providing us with some additional dollars so we can improve our stem offerings so those are my recommendations at this time real quick can we do the motion for through G I can't do H I agree I agree and and Miss can I back up for just for a second I'm looking for Michael procedure here Mr and Allen was out during our first vote you snuck behind me I didn't see you um we did approve 3 A and B policy 5420 oh can I still vote it yes you sure could we didn't need it but
078not that we don't need you but on that one we were we were unanimous so it passed but we do have opportunity for conversation and I didn't want you to miss out if you had anything you wanted to say okay all right thank you sorry we're back okay so my recommendation based upon Mr Majors request there is first if I could have approval for items um c d e f and g so C through g under new business I move that we approve items C through g under item four new business hey thank you Mr major all those in favor of um requests are approving items four C through G say aye aye all those opposed thank you and I would also then ask for approval of the grant for stem in our Corporation this
079time I move that we approve item 4H as presented and so this one with the Cummins grants I actually lead the community involvement board for Cummins in the Columbus area so I am going to abstain from that because three quarters of the grants that they do I see and so I've advised them that they've actually just so everybody knows they did some really awesome work with robotics last spring there's several hundred kids at Columbus East I was totally aware of what they were doing but I told them I had to stay out of any money related things just because of the conflict of interest so that's why I'll stay and just as an employee of Cummins I will also abstain from the vote so we will leave that up to the remaining board um a
080motion before you is to approve item four H approval of Cummins Grant agreement for stem all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed motion passes thank you for that approval okay Dr pleek I request a approval of the HR recommendations as presented this evening and there are four of them thank you Dr Pique I move that we approve the HR recommendations as presented by Dr pleek under number five second thank you all those in favor approving item five human resource recommendations please say aye aye oh there's a post you should pass this and I request to provoke the additional human resource recommendations as presented this evening thank you Dr pleek do I have a motion from the board I moved to approve item six additional human resource recommendations as presented thank you
081Mr Nella all those in favor of approving additional Human Resources recommendations please say aye aye aye all those opposed motion carries thank you okay it's time for board input and review I'm going to do something weird and start right in the middle with Mr Stenner just to keep you on your toes um yeah it worked it worked it was a good meeting uh I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the uh presenters and the speakers this evening like some of you I enjoy Dr Phillips presentations and I I think we're lucky to have him helping set the budget for us every year that'll be all about here yeah I've got uh got four things here I wanted to note so earlier today I was able to go sit for just a little bit I did recognize a
082couple of other people that were at the Commons Mall this morning for the youth leadership Bartholomew County and so I just wanted to say thank you to everybody that put that together today that helped all those kids learned a little bit about leadership and a little bit more about the great Community they live in there were roughly a little over 100 students I believe that were in attendance and and just coordinating not many kids even though they're in high school and they're all seniors can still be a little bit of a challenge so thank you to everybody that did that last week I attended the Columbus North and Bloomington South soccer match the varsity match kicked off with what I thought was just an absolutely wonderful rendition of Our National Anthem sung by Delaney Parker
083and Amelia Maddox they did a wonderful job both of them are in show choir so I would just if anybody needs a singer for anything those two girls are very good I also have had interestingly enough if you believe it or not I've been invited to have two different interviews on book bedding and censorship so I've had great discussions with both of the seniors that I've had those discussions with and I think the one thing that we are lacking we've heard from one or two students but I think when we've talked about people in the community having an opportunity to speak about books we really need to include the students as well and so that was a request from them and so I'm relaying not to everybody here that they need to have a voice
084too one last interview I had was about it was another senior that had been doing a paper about peanut allergies and how they can do a better job of communicating those interestingly enough as I entered the school the cloud the conference room was occupied so we went to the cafeteria and we went to the cafeteria he says where would you like to sit and I said where where can you sit if you've got a peanut allergy who knows what's on the table or around the table and there's no there was no peanut table in in that cafeteria area so there's things like that that he's seen that he wants to bring to light to others just so that they're aware of you know just some of the hardship that some people have and so it
085was really good to have those three seniors reach out and it was a lot of fun trying to just answer questions so thank you that's right you're okay Mr now um so I assume that the required process for budgets of repeating the information is is not for board members that are slow learners but but it works well and I want to commend Dr Phillips for his patience in leading us through that process and his patients and expertise in answering our questions so thank you very much no sport input and review I do have one question I believe Dr Phillips has the answer we talked about it is the budget will be online available tomorrow just for those that wanted to see it so that was one thing I wanted to call out um I want
086to thank Dr Phillips for the budget that's helpful to be able to review it and look line item by line item he provided us uh past history I think back three to four budget years so that's very helpful I also want to commend Dr pleake and her staff I mean I work at Amazon on the on the people side to whenever you're at 91 retention you're a gold star and in reality your attrition's 50 regrettable 50 you can't you're non-regretable and so this is an outstanding uh Pace to be able to retain teachers at that rate and um so I think a lot of that does go back to the trust that we had in the referendum and I think that ties back into the feedback that we received and I feel is is heard
087and then on the rest of I just want to thank everyone that gave their feedback and through public comment on the budgets and on the public comment in general and I believe I mean transparency and processes makes things move a little slower I'm a little bit more painful but at the end of the day it comes to a better outcome and so I think that's where we want to be and I think that's where we're going to get thank you I had the opportunity to be downtown Saturday morning for the start of the Mill Race marathon and in front of a crowded downtown full of I don't know 3000 or so participants running participants and probably that many or more Spectators senior Gavin Foley of Columbus at Columbus East did a just a wonderful job
088with the uh with the national anthem so I wanted to congratulate and thank Gavin for that and then lastly thanks to a grandson a niece and a brother that inaugural season for bcsc elementary cross country and so many thanks to Mrs Newell Mr Finley all others that had a hand in in organizing that and I bring that up largely because you know I think bcsc is a corporation that oftentimes takes things for granted and so I you know the the introduction of this Elementary cross-country season is just another example of the many many different choices opportunities that that are out there for for the kids of BC bcsc thank you Mr crimson um on Wednesday last week I got to participate in the teacher reunion bargaining process I have been part of several Union bargaining
089processes before and and this one was was unique and a little different in several ways but I just want to thank for people that don't know how that process worked and I'm a newbie they were representatives from ISTA cea I was there from the school board several administrators and there was also a principal and vice principal in attendance I think Amy London did a really nice job representing the needs of teachers I thought at the beginning their thoughts were very organized and it was just really obvious that everybody wanted the best thing for teachers even though there are different roles that were played that was really clear