001[Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] okay we're ready to go Nikki I think so yes I gave us thumbs up [Applause] okay we're noisy tonight aren't we welcome everybody uh we're gonna go ahead and get started we will start our meeting as always with the Pledge of Allegiance so for those who are able for one mind standing please [Laughter] Justice thank you we do have six of our seven members Mr nelon was not able to join us tonight so we'll go ahead and call a quorum official meeting in session Dr Roberts if you wouldn't mind taking us through Mission Vision exactly yeah thank you so each board meeting we do want to review our mission vision and core values as a school corporation the vision for our school corporation is to be the choice
002to learn work and play the mission that we've set forth is to develop expert Learners by partnering with our community to invest in people we do have a list of six core beliefs that starts with we all can rise to the challenge of high expectations learning is most effective and we have Choice flexibility and see relevance we Thrive when our physical social and psychological needs are met our community and School District are stronger when we partner with one another we flourish because the diversity and variability in our community in our democracy and Democratic institutions are strengthened by civic-minded citizens it drives the Strategic plan for our organization and we'll go into recognitions Mrs Wilden plague thank you good evening glad to see all of you here this evening what of an exciting night before we
003get started for our actual recognition for the person that is here I would like to give an update last year at this time I was standing before you announcing that bcsc teacher of the year was Veronica Buckler and if you've been paying attention to the newspaper as well as our social media post and parent Square messages and Veronica last Friday was just announces Indiana Department of Education top 10 teacher of the year so she is moving on to the process this is our fourth year with this type of recognition but with the previous three all did make it to the top 25 and Veronica making it to the top ten makes us very excited the process next for her is to go in for an interview with a committee of Educators past teacher of the
004year recipients as well as community members so we're excited for that and proud of Veronica buckler who is a teacher at CSA new tech for the special recognition and for dedicating her time to bcsc now it is my honor to be here tonight to recognize our bcsc teacher of the year for 22-23 Mrs Molly Fountain from Northside Middle School Molly if you come up and join me please recognizing our bcsc teacher of the year is a momentous occasion to celebrate the remarkable dedication and unwavering passion that all Educators bring to their classrooms in which our students directly benefit each day bcsc teachers invest their time energy and passion into creating meaningful learning experiences fostering critical thinking and nurturing the love for knowledge this year's honoree Molly Fountain exemplifies the extraordinary work that teachers across our
005district undertake going above and beyond to inspire and Empower their students Molly joined bcsc in 2009 as a teacher at Northside Middle School she has taught seventh grade world history in 8th grade U.S history over the years she is currently teaching eighth grade she received her Bachelor of Arts in social studies with minors in political science and economics in 2009 for Purdue University over the years she has served as a Cadet teacher Mentor social studies budget coordinator new teacher Mentor professional development facilitator transitioned to teaching cooperating teacher bcsc udl summer Institute presenter spell Bowl coach PBIS Committee Member cic member and participate in the James Madison Legacy project and Cass summer Institute she has been an Indiana academic Coach of the Year finalist and has received the Ross Wallace Innovation award for her nomination as
006teacher of the year she received letters of support from a colleague an administrator and a former student here are a few of the statements from their letters from an administrator she works tirelessly for her students to create the most interactive and creative classroom she brings history to life for her students as she does so in a humorous way that allows her to connect with students she has created a community in her classroom where students knows she cares about them and they learn to care more about each other she works hard to create a relationship with parents every single year she begins with a million word essay where parents are asked to write about their child in a million words or less it helps her learn their Hobbies their struggles and the deep love that parents
007have for their children there are not enough words to describe my deep respect for her as a teacher as a colleague and as a human being from a colleague she has been a constant source of guidance and inspiration to me as well as other teachers on her team and in our building she has the unique ability to connect with students to develop positive relationships as well present Concepts at students level and make inherent sense to them this has been described as her ability to engage in kids speak through her love for her students her consistent leadership and a tireless work ethic she exemplifies everything a bcsc employee should strive to be a former student which was also a student teacher with her last year I can delightfully state that she is a wonderful human being
008my middle school experience with her was a defining moment in my decision to pursue a degree in education is where I fell in love with U.S history and a certain style of teaching that's once in a blue moon he has always been so helpful when it comes to watching and giving feedback on lessons taught as she says half the teaching is making adjustments when things don't go as expected it's the sign of a good teacher the north side nomination committee also noted that she is driven to be creative Never Satisfied and a constant learner and that she has a unique ability to create a classroom culture that all students thrive in over the course of this school year Molly will work to create her portfolio to apply for the Indiana Department of education's teacher of
009the year that will be submitted in June of 2024. Molly is a representative of all teachers with her endless commitment to educating our youth the impact Molly makes daily the impact that bcsc teachers make daily extends far beyond textbooks and lesson plans as they guide students towards excellent and for that I express my sincere heartfelt gratitude and we're going to give Molly a few moments to share a few words with you before we go further more overwhelmed is the word I typically have been using humbled and grateful to be chosen bcsc's teacher of the year there are a lot of people that I could thank for getting me to this point and I am not going to do it justice because you guys would be here forever but I'm going to do my very best
010to name a few first my husband Mark who handles being married to a teacher with patience and support he jokes every single June that his teacher wife has returned and while he's joking there is definite truth because there are now elaborate dinners right the house is not crazy clean let's not be nuts but it's cleaner right than it is anytime between August and may um and there's no bag with papers waiting to be graded at any given place in the house uh next to my three kids Henry Jack and Caroline who handle being teachers kids with Grace and only a little bit of eye rolling uh and bribed by Donuts in a movie to sit in my classroom while I prepare for students every summer dad and my sister who are some of my greatest
011cheerleaders like I can say enough How Lucky I Am to be surrounded by The Best of the Best for feedback Oz are less than spirals when we just can't get out of our head about what we have planned I have a team that can troubleshoot literally anything in a five minute passing period I have a department chair Lori who has believed in me even when I don't believe in myself and an Administration that are supportive and in my room almost every single day to see what's going on supporting my crazy ideas and how they can help my Journeys to the world of Education wasn't necessarily direct my aunt and uncle were Educators and I found history interesting and I had considered on and on off the potential for teaching but I had not committed when
012I set to off to Purdue in 2005. I didn't really settle into this path until I had the fortune of being paired with one of one of history teachers I have ever met as an introverted and quiet student I was honestly completely overwhelmed sitting in his room for the first few times he would come in and greet the students like a rock star taking the stage it was an experience but the energy he brought to the class was reciprocated those kids loved coming into his classroom they wanted to learn anything he had to share with them and so that ability to engage students quickly became one of my biggest goals and that missions continued now almost well kind of 15 years in while I like to think that everyone finds our founding documents riveting and
013just so interesting I can assure you that's not the case uh when 13 and 14 year olds think that you at age 36 are a fossil they are pretty sure that history is just about a bunch of old dead people um getting excited though about coming to school and getting kids excited about learning again so that some of them have lost when they reach Middle School is probably one of my most favorite parts of my job and with all of the people I have thanked I need to thank my students past and present thank you for trusting me inspiring me rolling with my crazy activities and ideas whether that is turning the Declaration of Independence into a modern day breakup letter experiencing freezing conditions at Valley Forge when Mrs Fountain opens the windows in December
014so it's really really cold or scrambling through an obstacle course blindfolded to experience the challenges of people like Christopher Columbus middle schoolers are the greatest and I am so fortunate to have been surrounded by them for my entire teaching career once again thank you so much for the honor and distinction I am eternally grateful foreign clap for her again because being teacher of the year probably deserves more than one round of applause so at this time I would like Nicole Cunningham the executive director for bcsf to please come up she has a presentation for Molly I can help you hey yes okay thank you um the Valley Forge thing let me just tell you um my son is a sophomore and he still talks about it so um the day you froze my child thank
015you so much but no um I can I can say though that I got to witness her teaching Excellence during covid so that alone I mean we're thankful to her as a family and though I wasn't on the selection committee for this award um we were all just tickled that you were picked so um so the school foundation for those of you who don't know who we are um for almost 70 years we've been a non-profit supporting teaching excellence and I think we've seen it here tonight so thank you Molly congratulations right so the foundation is presenting Molly with a check and a really big one that's not real but it's for 500 to help support her amazing education and to help celebrate the achievement so very proud of you does have a plaque for
016Molly that she can have that announces her as teacher of the year and we also have a plaque at the entrance of the administration building that has Molly's name on it already as full as past member members our teacher of the year selection so you know what one more time just because she was so entertaining even with her speech please join me congratulations Mrs Molly Fountain our teacher of the year thank you [Laughter] [Music] okay can I just point out those three cute kids have books and not devices right now so that's how you know you're a teacher's kid how impressive and they're all perfectly quiet congratulations kids okay we're gonna move on to school board member reports I'll start down as I said no got anything Logan okay Mr Grimes I don't have anything
017we've not had anything down there Mr major the uh the Redevelopment commission met today and they had a lot of good things that they talked about um the Second Street thoroughfare 8th Street uh gateway to Mill Race Park they have a potential unnamed tenant for bachettos they've done some improvement on brickwork to the second Street Garage they had a former probation building that was demolished and they went through and did a recycling study and fortunately just under half of that building uh during demolition was able to be recycled the Taylor apartment complex leasing office is open and accepting applications and providing tours the housing study plans to move forward with initial paperwork being filed in September the riverfront project received a permit from items so that's going to also move forward and that's all I
018have to say but that's not all that was spoken about so I'll leave it at that uh Health Trust is on Wednesday Mr Brown do you have anything to report out all right cabinet reports we have I don't think we have anything there we go all right well that will take us into four policies that we left off the last time in terms of approval so you uh approved as a board a great number of policies but these four have been uh set aside and what I think we're going to look to do Mrs Wilton has maybe set up an opportunity to have some conversation um on these at the one public meeting that we had these were four policies that we set aside had some conversations about so we're working on revising those we
019want you to have a chance to talk about them again before voting on them as a reminder those policies one was 5420 reporting student progress and there is hga 1093 that we're trying to pay attention to but at the same time we were brainstorming other ways that we wanted to make sure and inform parents and keep them up to speed not only with Statewide assessments just but just with how their kids were doing period and then we also had 5610 suspension and expulsion of students so we were making sure we were capturing all of Indiana code with the reasons for suspensions and expulsions but we were reviewing the appeal process there so seeing how that could come to the board and what that process could look like uh policy 8400 uh has some specific things
020that have been changed uh the new definition of a school resource officer does now require that person to be a law enforcement officer with required training timelines established by state statutes so just some specific things outlined in code as for hea 1093 that we need to pay attention to but additionally we're just looking at that process to how do we set plans at the corporation level at the building level and what's the responsibility of the safety Specialists besides just the SRO so it was more broad school safety than just sros and then lastly 8510 this one's going to take a little bit so I believe the next time we will have a chat about policies this one will still be on the back burner because there are so many components this one and our Wellness
021committee has a group of people taking a look at that to make some recommendations for you to take a look at and then see what else you want to change but they are checking through all those pieces because it it runs the gauntlet of of things that we cover as a school corporation that may have something to do with Wellness so those are the four just want to make sure we keep them in front of you we want to make sure and bring them up each board meeting until they're approved but we're looking at some point maybe having a meeting to review those so I can take any questions with where we might be at this one okay all right okay good uh and and just uh as a reminder uh to the audience the
022the board has decided to use a public works session which is what Dr Roberts referred to to help us work through as a team what we want to um put into a policy that then comes to a vote in this meeting so we will announce those meetings as they come up as he said we will plan to have one of those on September 11th we will talk about these four policies we will also start to move into policies regarding books so I've seen the blue sheets we will we will start as a team familiarizing ourselves with current policies regarding books and decide as a group how we want to move forward on that very important topic as it seems in our community so just to put that out there it'll be listed at the end
023in an upcoming meeting so it would be at five o'clock here in the administration building on September 11th covering those policies as well as diving into our book policies for the first time okay and the decisions occur here decisions occur in the public business meeting and that that meeting is just prior to the next regular meeting okay so we're moving on to public comment I'm going to start with just a couple of reminders on how public comment Has Changed For Us given some of our subcommittee changes that were approved over the last few meetings so we do allow public comment on any topic during our business meetings however we still have the same stipulations in that we will limit each spokesperson two three minutes we will only allow 45 minutes total okay and so I
024have people helping me keep track of that some some other notes if if a team is here kind of on the similar topic you can defer to a spokesperson that represents your views and then when your name is called you can just say I agreed with Bobby or whoever that might be okay so you can defer your comments if you're in alignment with someone else who's already spoken um and and then pass if your intending Point has already been made um we have heard several people read books we understand that there's profanity we've we've heard several things over the last few meetings don't feel like you need to read out of a book for us providing a book name and so that we can consider that is is perfectly okay and we'll make sure to
025note that down and keep that in mind as we work through what we want to do on the book topic as a board moving forward um let's see also note board members do receive information from the public in lots of ways so this meeting is one of them email is another phone numbers another so there's lots of ways to reach all of us if for some reason you don't feel comfortable or you aren't caught on tonight you can certainly reach out to us in another way let me see if there's any other notes I'm missing nope I think that's it to start I will share something that Mr Schultz provided to me just before we sat down it is a petition that I will read just for just for clarity amongst the audience Ms wheeldon
026on August 7th 2023 the bcsc board adopted policy changes for policy 0167.3 specifically sub section g that permitted written public comment be submitted in lieu of public speaking by signing the below people affirm to have a relationship to the school corporation as either student parent resident taxpayer or any combination that fulfills the requirements of subsection C enter the first 500 signatures received last week as a public record for this meeting at the request of the undersigned for their request the quoted text is in their written public comment for each individual at this August 21st 2023 bcse school board meeting I ask that the bcse school board Implement standards on profanity and vulgarity that is appropriate for each school's audiences Elementary Middle School and High School these standards should not discriminate against any group of people
027however will hold the bar of decorum for what our children read and its appropriateness within common Society there are a list of names here and then this will be provided to the other school board members via email after this meeting okay so if this is a topic and you feel like this covers your input for tonight then you may you may refrain okay that being said Nikki you ready okay all right I'm going to start at the top and we'll work our way down I did check Mrs Littleton there were no agenda items on there so you can we'll pass and go straight to them you're welcome um Mr John Edwards hello sir okay and Mr Edwards I'm in for anyone speaking tonight there is a timer here at three minutes I cut you off
028I'm a stickler okay so uh hopefully I'll hear it and I'll give you a little motion all right thank you good evening BCS warm board members my name is Sean Edwards and I serve this community in three different areas I'm an elected Community leader for a non-profit organization I'm a pastor and I'm a parent first I would like to say during covet I realized I did not have the necessary experience to be an at-home teacher there were significant changes to How I Learned specific subjects compared to my child's learning however as a parent it was my duty to be involved in the process of knowing what material she was learning and I did so by Community communicating respectfully with the teachers in the administrative staff in other words I actively participated in my child's learning
029with the trust of a licensed and qualified teacher providing me essential guidance I bring this to the board's attention because it takes patience and understanding to teach the children of this era especially while navigating through their political and religious beliefs that they bring the school from home but I want to say I thank the teachers and the staff of this district for dealing with everything they have to deal with and still caring about the welfare of their of our children as a community leader pastor and a parent my main concern was last week's meeting I listened to what was supposed to be a group of people who stated that they were concerned about the children in this district and the material they read but after listening to the adults repeatedly used explicit language that was
030still with children in the room there's no way I couldn't understand how come they couldn't dial it down they could have used abbreviations to get the same point across but oh they still felt it necessary to read this material out loud to me I honestly felt many of them enjoyed reading the f word the s word and some of them even enjoyed using the n-word to you elect officials on this board I don't mean no disrespect do you miss disrespect but we the community expect you to represent everyone in your District not a particular interest group the community expects all of you to represent all of us parents and all of the children so every person every child has an opportunity to learn we the community do not expect you to only benefit and serve
031the ones that benefits your personal beliefs and your agendas if you're not willing to do this or believe you're unable to please step down yes Marlo that we read up in the board says together we learn so I ask each of you how do you define the we as a pastor it's my job to love everyone is Christ loved the church as an elected Community leader I'm to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves but as a parent I'm to guide my child so that when they get old they will respect everyone no matter their lifestyle the religious preferences no matter their skin colors the bottom line is this none of us is God however we must answer to him in the end as how we treat one another foreign good evening
032Cindy fry 1611 Parkside Drive it has been my privilege to collaborate with Dr Roberts cabinet members and building administrators both as a parent volunteer and a professional in economic and Community Development the prosperity of our local economy is intricately tied to the triumphs of this exceptional school system year after year this is the district consistently nurtures well-rounded educated individuals who transition seamlessly into the next phases of their lives beyond High School community isn't it be guided by educational leaders who embody true excellence and we just met one of them tonight Mrs Fountain what a star I extend my my heartfelt gratitude for their unwavering Integrity profound intelligence trailblazing Innovation and genuine compassion for each and every student bcsc stands as a shining example and is a source of admiration not only in the state of
033Indiana but Across the Nation I want to share one example of innovation that I'm personally involved with the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce proudly sponsors the work ethics certificate program in bcsc's middle schools now back in 2017 the governor's work ethic certificate was created but bcsc in its wisdom decided it would have a similar program at the K to sixth grade level sponsored by the mayor's office and the Middle School sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce what we impress upon the students we work with is that employers like the 628 chamber members I work with value not only what a student knows but what they how they behave and while these skills might not be traditional subjects like Reading Writing or math their crucial life skills that we try to cultivate and recognize things like
034collaboration effective communication problem solving demonstrating critical thinking being Dependable accountable and a team player being organized punctual this work isn't about academics per se but these are really essential skills and one effective way for students to embrace these fundamental skills for life and work is by empathizing and putting themselves in another person's shoes when we read a variety of books we step into the experiences of someone with a different background whether it's related to race religion sexual orientation gender identity we're cultivating understanding and empathy this approach should not instill fear rather it encourages growth thank you very much [Applause] Beth Strow foreign Lafayette Avenue I am the current owner of viewpoint books a small business in our community that will celebrate his 50th birthday in October when the Edwards Whitaker family opened the store in
0351973 they were intentional about choosing a name that would be welcoming to all thus Viewpoint books has always been a place where we strive to include all points of view non-fiction from a broad spectrum of perspectives and fiction for all ages that serves as both mirrors and windows books are mirrors when readers see their own lives reflected in the pages seeing ourselves people who look like us a character that has a similar name someone who shares a similar background families that look like ours is uplifting it helps us feel connected and creates a sense of belonging because each of us is different in some ways I'll be a albeit alike and many more for each of us to see ourselves in the mirror of a book requires that the literature available to our students must
036include the beautiful diversity that defines our community books are windows when they allow readers to see lives and stories that are different from their own we may not be able to relate to their life experiences but we learn and grow from Reading their stories we can learn how others overcome adversity and we can see how families change and grow stronger through challenging experiences we can recognize that people that live in different kinds of houses and eat Foods we've never seen are still like us in many ways Books open windows to the world in the safest possible way we gain understanding and compassion without ever leaving home I'm sure it's happened many times during the long history of viewpoint books and I can assure you that nearly every day since I bought the store in 2016.
037parents and grandparents have asked me to suggest folks for children and young readers it's a delightful experience to recommend books for happy occasions it's more challenging when they share that their middle school child is feeling particularly vulnerable or they want rather need a book that includes a character whose parents are divorcing or who is grieving and believing beloved grandparent or pet I've recommended books about Blended families about new neighbors who look different and about loved ones facing challenging mental and physical illness sometimes it's the children's themselves who ask do you have a book with a character that looks like me or my friend feels sad and I want to help the answer is of resounding yes and they need to see those books in our libraries they can't all afford to buy them from us
038thank you foreign thank you Mary Mills I want to say that this school system has wonderful dedicated teachers teachers that spend hours after school on their own time doing lesson plans grading papers and still they do go the extra mile to help a child that may be struggling so I think that we need to all appreciate and recognize the teachers in this community I was truly shocked at what was read at the last meeting and it dawned on me that what do they think our teens are talking about you know when they're on their own and we're not there what words do they think they're using on the bus really that is reality in today's age even in the 1960s when I was in junior high and high school we were talking about sex because
039we didn't know and we shared what we did know um so our city is a diverse City of people from all over the world of different races ethnicities religion and sexual orientation the message I got from these people was that they were anti-lgbt and I felt that was wrong our children need to understand accept and know the diversity around them to cope with the bigger world that we are going to live in that they are going to go out and live in and I wonder what are you these people afraid of are they afraid that the children won't learn to hate who they hate foreign I hope I say this right Barbara hand Ben Franklin arguably one of the most brilliant American forefathers was born into a family of 17 children his parents could only
040afford to give him two years of formal schooling as a teenager he effectively became an orphan after escaping from a life of indentured servitude to his older brother he earned the nickname the water American because in a time when most people drink ale or beer with their meals he saved money by drinking water with his and used that money to buy books to educate himself as an adult Franklin realized that he and his friends could pull their books and share them out thereby benefiting all with the same accessibility to books thus was born the first Lending Library Franklin is also credited with many other societal improvements such as establishing the fire department and becoming the Postmaster General we can scarcely imagine what our communities would be like without some of these institutions he was one
041of the first people to recognize that all citizens can benefit by sharing things that are too expensive for one family or one group who provide for themselves he believed in accessibility of literature and free services for the public which have come to Define our Democratic societies and distinguish them from monarchies Communists and socialist governments and totalitarian regimes today we have federal state Municipal and school libraries where our Librarians who have labored to acquire degrees and certifications curate books that represent their communities and what is that community at Columbus North we have families who speak over 30 different languages at home they're very widely in their values from extremely liberal to very conservative they represent dozens of different ethnicities and religions they come from all ranges of Social and financial backgrounds Librarians welcome them in and
042serve them with free resources which most could not afford to purchase on their own children and their families are just a microcosm of our larger Community I think Franklin with his love of books on all subjects would be incredulous to know the kind of attacks that Librarians are undergoing in this and other communities around the country I think he would believe that attacks on libraries and Librarians are attacks on the Democratic framework of our society which he labored to construct to people who would like to limit what resources are available and included in libraries I say look to your own child you have the right to limit what your child reads if you have a problem with the book at school reach out to the teacher and discuss some Alternatives accompany your kids to the
043county library or your neighborhood bookstore and pick out some books you can read together if you have a larger issue reach out to the school corporation which has an established policy for objections to material and follow the steps of that process however do not expect others to sit oddly by while you try to silence their ability to do the same with their own children other families feel perfectly capable of deciding for themselves what is appropriate for their children and do not welcome your curtailment of their rights or the material which is included in their libraries and paid for from their taxes let the Librarians do their job of deciding what books to include in the library and parents do their job of monitoring their individual children thank you thank you David Spencer foreign members of
044the board my name is David Spencer I am an English teacher at Columbus North High School I am also the 2022 teacher of the year at Columbus North High School my daughter goes thank you my daughter goes to Parkside and my wife is a librarian here in bcsc I'm very honored to speak with so many other community members that are supporting teachers and Librarians and not trying to undermine them the truth is that many teachers that I work with and Librarians feel under attack and there's no amount of jargon or word salad or mental gymnastics that will change the fact that we feel like our jobs are being undermined that our ability to choose books and select books for the students that we work with every day is being compromised one of the books I
045teach in 11th grade English is The Catcher in The Ride by JD Salinger he was a World War II veteran who stormed the beaches of Normandy and he survived with the pages of this novel The Catcher in the Rye in his backpack when he returned from Europe and came back to America he published this novel about a young 16 year old who is struggling to feel a place in the world a place of comfort a place of safety I'm not going to read a passage out loud from that book but about 200 pages in to the book which a reasonable young person would have to commit discipline to after 200 Pages this main character Holden Caulfield finds uh the f word scrawled on the mirror of a bathroom after he's already felt parental neglect and
046suicidal ideation and he's already experienced many traumas surrounding him seeing the f word scrawled on the mirror of the bathroom that he's in just trying to Splash cold water on his face is another moment of alienation the book doesn't have a neat tidy ending the the novel which I teach to students many many times over now doesn't resolve itself with a nice you know bow at the end of the story but it provides an antidote to loneliness I provide that the literature I teach and the literature in our libraries currently and the policies and standards we use to select those books yeah established that the purpose of literature is to provide an antidote to loneliness to provide a gateway to empathy and to provide a counter to despair I have a master's degree in literature
047and my wife does as well and many college educated and licensed and degreed individuals in our school work very hard to provide and serve our community with the literature that we think our students should have access to that includes the libraries and I appreciate all members of the admin at my school and on the board here who have tried to support us and try to make us feel like we are welcome and that our jobs are not being undermined but we would like to continue to urge all members of the board and members of our community to keep in mind that we work very hard at our jobs that is often thankless and demoralizing and we would really like to find Grace and a sense of dignity for the decisions we make at our school
048and we would like to be trusted as college-educated individuals and licensed teachers and Librarians thank you thank you Laurie Thompson foreign good evening and thank you for giving this opportunity um I want to First congratulate the school corporation for getting off to a great year with our students with most oppositions filled and no major issues with the busing so fantastic it is my understanding though that there are some teachers that are not feeling the love as Mr Spencer just noted and so I thought it might be helpful to remind ourselves of some of the accomplishments that have occurred in the last school year and then do and then you can think for yourself does this happen by itself or does it need some caring individuals that support making those those things happen so starting with
049some of the stem accomplishments CSA Lincoln Elementary School State math bowl top 10 CSA fodrea Elementary School construction design champions Smith Elementary School Vex robotics World Championship Southside Elementary School State math bowl and third place Parkside Elementary School Vex robotics state champ competitors Central Middle School science 7th grade team state champions Northside Middle School junior solar Sprint Champions and CSA new tech school boiler Tech Challenge winner that doesn't happen without the care and love and responsibility of some of our teachers so I wanted to go on Dr Roberts won the Indiana edtech Trailblazer award and 2023 Consortium of school network and then also a national recognition as the n-power Ed digital superintendent of the year we had transition to our teachers to program to help current staff members go back to school and get education
050degrees and license and then we had a junior Ms Moon jury uh when the 2023 portrait out loud national champion going on a little bit further the Legato Spanish Immersion program celebrated five years which is just fantastic and then bcsc began implementing the professional development for all of our teachers and and staff four times a year I'd venture to say that that is an outstanding record for the people in our community and we ought to appreciate our teachers and the administration that make it happen thank you thank you [Applause] Amy Menefee hi I'm Amy Menefee I am speaking today to encourage board members to create a subcommittee to address the concern of multiple books found in our school libraries that contain adult material that should not be available to minors I would like to commend
051the board on the development of recent subcommittees that have allowed for more transparency and communication with the public I believe the concern over book content warrants the necessity to develop a policy that creates clear guidelines to assure that adult material is not available to minor children in our school libraries as a parent I would have never thought that our school libraries would be yet another place that we would need to make sure that our children are not being exposed to adult content I want to make it clear that I believe this is a process and policy problem and not a problem with individual teachers providing these books intentionally to children I believe most teachers would be just as upset as parents to find some of these books available to Children there needs to be some
052process to review how these books landed in our school libraries the current policy is not adequate to address this problem currently a parent would need to discover a book then make a complaint and file a form for review of the book at that point a minor could have already been exposed to adult content that they are not mature enough to process it is the responsibility of the school corporation and the board to assure that minors are not exposed to sexually explicit material it is also unfair to put this responsibility on parents when it is impossible for parents to know what all is available in the school libraries there is also no process in place for schools to notify the parents of what books are being checked out of the libraries even if a book has
053an overall positive message it does not negate the fact that the book needs to be age appropriate for the reader if we allow books that are not age appropriate to remain in the libraries we are also creating a double standard when it comes to disciplining students if any student is caught searching on their Chromebooks some of the words and content available in these books they would be disciplined if they are caught speaking some of these same words they would also be disciplined it is simply not acceptable to have higher standards with the students than we hold for the adults who are responsible for supplying their reading material a public subcommittee would be a good start to address this problem any Community member can give their opinion and voice their concerns it is also an opportunity
054to realize that most community members have more in common than we have differences when it comes to the goal protecting children I asked the board to begin the process of addressing this concern so parents can be assured that the policies of bcsc are working with them in education and other children thank you [Applause] thank you Dakota Hall foreign I'm a librarian at the public library many of you probably recognize me from the library board meetings where the same topic was discussed at nauseam last year I'm hoping to save all of you and the school librarians some time and money because we did this work already I have the report from our year-long study about these topics so part of this includes a survey from the community and one of the very interesting points in the
055survey is that about 90 percent of the community trusts the Librarians and teachers there's just a loud 10 percent that likes to get their information from Facebook lists of books with salacious texts taken from them out of context and um but ninety percent of the community that we surveyed trusts us to be doing our jobs correctly so I hope that you can take that into account because as has been mentioned we do all have master's degrees in this and we know what we're doing so thank you I'm going to give you all got homework tonight thank you Dakota Barbara day my name is Barbara day and I'm a Community member here too I have the um distinct honor of telling you that Miss Hazel fadre was my first grade teacher she's a beautiful lady and
056she pointed out things on the wall with a ball bat so we we got our numbers and our letters right first of all I'd like to thank you for listening and for I'm really impressed with how things may be opening up and finding the parallel between the parents and the teachers because it's there we just have to dig for it last week I heard the ladies ask anybody that was a minor to be removed from the room so I saw a note last week two weeks ago I saw No Children Here hearing those horrible things that were read that made everyone's skin crawl and yet those books are in our schools we know they're there and that's what the parents are asking for these aren't just community members ninety percent of them are parents I'm
057a grandma and a great grandma and I just want you to all know that everyone no one hates anyone I didn't hear any lgbtq bashing I heard people saying our kids don't need to read porn and I'd like for you to all think about that and find that parallel it's there thank you [Applause] Decker convoisey Rosie hello my name is Decker I am also a public librarian I am here to speak in support of our wonderful bcsc Librarians and teachers I have worked extensively with with many of them and the effort that they do to create communities out of their libraries communities based on information and books and mutual concern is wonderful and that's the exact type of community that we want our young people to have I will also say that um I think
058that the books that are under Fire here the ones that do deal with the tough topics the ones that have Cuss Words oh my gosh the ones that have um that deal with themes of racism or sexuality or questioning sexuality or violence or even sexual violence those are often the books that the kids need the most to feel safe to feel identified and it's my opinion that no Library bored no um excuse me School Corporation board no Administration should have the power to create barriers to those potentially life-saving books the books that the kids often do need the most and these are books that are written with this audience in mind there is no adult content going into these libraries these are books written by authors specifically for middle schoolers for high schoolers for Middle
059graders for children to try to get them through tough times it is not the role of librarians to force every kid to read these books but it is their responsibility I think to make them available for the kids that do need them and that is what our Librarians are doing an excellent job doing thank you foreign ER I was uh gonna comment on the Ali in the book situation but since it's already been done and since you announced it a book policy an actual official book policy is in the works I'd like to instead speak against uh teachers forming close personal relationships with students some new information has come to light the last time I spoke against teachers forming closer personal relationships with students I vastly underestimated the amount of pedophiles in public school staffs
060the estimation was based on recent years newspaper reports of Staff members arrested for sexually abusing students in the United States which was about 365 per year but an article in education week from way back in 2004 has just come to light it looked at a different metric student reports granted student reports consists consists of a lower quality data but let me quote an excerpt from the article extrapolating from data collected in a national survey for the American Association of University women Educational Foundation in 2000. roughly 290 000 students experience some sort of physical sexual abuse by a public school employee from 1991 to 2000. I think it's safe to say that the 29 000 per year reports exposed the 365 per year arrests as representing only the tip of the iceberg and I think it's
061safe to say that a 100 times greater estimation of pedophiles in the public school system further further confirms that closer personal relationships between teachers and students is a very bad idea thank you foreign at the last meeting I read from the book push which deals with a child who has been molested and sexualized by her parents and other family members from infancy into adulthood the book contains many racial slurs and slangs as well as very graphic details of the repeated molestation involving intercourse and oral sex with an infant along with acts of violence against children and women at this meeting I'm not going to read any more of that vulgar filth intelligent and responsible adults instinctively know that books that deal with adult sexual matters do not belong in the hands or minds of minor
062children instead I'm going to ask that the school board stop condoning the placement of these types of books and materials by bcsc Librarians as suggested by the Ala the books and materials that are being suggested by the organization known as the American Library Association are being used as tools to sexualize Children across our nation the ala has suggested for librarians to accept and secretly place these vulgar obscene books in school libraries with one goal in mind and that is the goal of furthering their own woke agenda of creating generations of sexualized sexually confused indoctrinated and weak children can't even begin to understand why an organization such as the Ala would want to contribute to the delinquency of minors and why bcsc would want to follow the Ala lead in contributing to that delinquency of this
063community's children thank you chucked out I was gratified to hear that there is somebody else in this room that knows who Hazel's father is I I am I am a friend and acquaintance with several of you on the board and many of all of you form the leadership of our school system I am a follower of Jesus Christ and I hope that these words honor him I was dismayed by the word spoken in the last meeting school for me that the same building in this building our teachers read to us books designed to teach morality and values and I could assure you not a one of them it contained the words that I heard from the last meeting I was even more distressed to read the email from sent by Dr Roberts to the staff
064representing Dr Roberts opinion of those remarks I remind each of you that your positions whatever they may be for the purpose of educating our children who attend the schools in Bartholomew County it neither serves you nor the community well to minimize the concerns of parents at that meeting the following suggestions are concerned are are given by this concerned grandparent and a citizen of Bartholomew County change the process by which you would address the performance of teachers delete set criteria as schools attended length of service and any other non-essential criteria intended to confuse the process results are all that matters graduation rates and test scores are measurable and understandable Mental Health and Social Engineering should be left to other experts you are Educators let's get back to those basics your first and only goal should be
065to make schools in Bartholomew County number one in the state of Indiana a position that was held by this school system when I graduated in 1958 thank you very much Amy Ardis my name is Amy Ardis I live at 3325 Brent Cross here in town I would like to start off by saying that I'm a product of some was greatly benefited by our Public Library especially the bookmobile and I am very very thankful for both I am also thankful for you and for your service and I trust in my heart each one of you is doing the best of your ability to fulfill the Mission Vision and core beliefs of this Corporation but I also ask that you remember that there are and will always be people with personal agendas beliefs values and morals I
066would like to see those agendas beliefs morals and values become public policy even if it is not what is best for the public so I asked you I beg you that did you continue to struggle with for how to fulfill the Mission Vision and core beliefs of the Bartholomew County School Corporation in this community that I think we all agree is diverse in so many ways that you will put aside your personal agendas your personal beliefs your personal values your personal morals for just a moment and consider what is truly good for our community as a whole realizing that there is no way you will be able to please everyone and as you do this I want you to know you are in my thoughts and prayers whether I agree with you or not God
067bless Infamous artist oh my I'm gonna go with the first name okay I think it's jabin h J Ben J I'm so sorry sir you might want to say your name because I'm sure I got that way wrong my name is Johan hubby Hadar and John [Music] give mostly I just want to say thank you to a lot of different people I'm listening to some of the other people speak about their backgrounds their educations and things like that I realize how much they put into their jobs teachers Librarians it's just it's very humbling and I just feel so much gratitude that I wanted to share with with them and with the community and with the board and it's not just what they do today it's what they get here I mean how many of us
068have master's degrees that's a big deal yeah I mean some people do but that's a big deal and that's a lot of work and a lot of effort and I just I just feel so much gratitude for what all these people all our teachers our Librarians our staff everybody did to get to where they are today and for all the time and energy they put into our community so thank you Dr Roberts I'll single you out I was not aware of the accolades and awards you've gotten that Laurie mentioned I'm not surprised I just want to say thank you also for the leadership it's it's only been a few years but I'm just so grateful that you've been here too thank you [Music] okay um so we are at 45 minutes which means the stickler
069in me has to stop okay so um I I am going to recognize however that we have one two three four five six seven eight nine ten more people who had signed up and I appreciate that you came here to speak to us I I agree I think we all deserve a round of applause for investing some time into into this school system I I apologize for not being able to continue tonight but I I do thank you and please know that we are available and we'd love to hear from you and and all of us stay after a bit after the meeting if you'd like to speak with any one of us okay all right we are going to move on to requests for approval old business um the only thing we have up
070here on Old business is minutes from our school board meeting from August 7th 2023. yeah do I have a motion from my board a motion to approve minutes from August 7th 2023. thank you Mr major do I have a second okay thank you all those in favor of approving the board moments from August 7th say aye all those opposed motion carries Dr Roberts thank you Mrs Wilden as we have set up our agenda a little bit different my next line or request for approval is under new business so items new before you include field trips and professional leaves our supplemental contracts school fundraisers a list of claims and payroll we have the claims dated today August the 21st a little over a million dollars we had a pre-run for the month of July that was
071about 4.2 million dollars and we have a payroll for August the 21st for 2 780 107.35 and just a reminder that though that payroll would cover the regular payroll dates of July 14th and July 28th and those payrolls there were no bus contracts for nine-month employee wait just a little bit less than would be typical uh additionally Mrs Chef had a large list of budget items for you as she goes through these title uh grants for the first time these are all federal grants we have Title One Parts A and D title two part a title three part A and title four party and additionally we have from Dr Bozeman permission to process a change order to Roofing contract I would guess that you'll want to do that since it's reducing the cost of the
072roofing contract that's not typical so it asked for those items to be approved thank you Dr Roberts you're welcome do you have a motion from the board I would move that we approve uh number five letters b through K as presented by Dr Roberts thank you Mr Grimes do you have a second yes I'll second the question thank you thanks thank you after that dramatic cause all those in favor oh yes I forget that point that's why I was like a little hesitant on the second okay uh is Miss Shaffer Dr Roberts whoever so the questions are all around the title One funds uh I noticed that we called out parental involvement as part of the part A funding proposal can I get any details or general awareness of what those funds May or what
073those activities may be and I had three follow-up questions as well sure as a part of the title funding um that is that our federal funds including parental involvement as well as parental feedback of our title programming in each of our four uh title schools is a part of the requirement of that Grant so um it looks a little different we have meetings at the beginning of the year we have a parent advisory group around our Title Services specifically for the students and staff in those buildings follow up on the same title A funding is I believe it was in North high schools when we asked this question but I noticed a call out for contracted Counseling Services I thought this was told as a pass-through entity in which they build insurance providers and or
074Medicaid to offset their costs but are some of their costs also offset from our Title One funds as well while I'm new to this and learning all of the pieces yes I believe there are some offsets with our local Family Services as well as Centerstone services in those title schools am I correct in that no doctor yes and then on the other the other part is on part A and Part D I noticed the call out for a lot of funds being directed to non-bcsc schools is that I'm assuming that's just part of the that's the Equitable share that is part of the the grant funding Federal requirements okay and then the other the final question I had was around the administrative costs for part A it looks like it's roughly 20 of the entire
075about 17 percent I believe of the total part A that seems a little high compared to bcsc in general I believe and I talked with Dr Phelps was about two and a half two and a half million across the non-bcsc admin cost for our education fund so is that is just require a lot more admin time or it just seems like a little bit more percent weight of admin cost than the general education fund budget so that may be Dr Phillips I apologize um part of the reason is that we pay a hundred percent of the administrative costs for a full-time administrator as well as administrative assistants all out of that Grant so they don't come out of any um of the education fund operations fund and so as a proportion it's much larger okay
076so it's really just proportional for the opportunity because they they spend 100 of the time supporting dedicated Grant funds okay I appreciate it that's all thank you okay so any other questions or comments no okay okay so I have a motion and a second to approve item five the letters b through K all those in favor say aye all those opposed motion carries Dr pleek our last item request approval of HR recommendations as presented this evening and this evening there are three recommendations thank you do I have a motion I move that we approve the HR recommendations as presented by Dr click second all those in favor of approving your HR recommendations say aye aye aye all those opposed motion carries I hesitant to say this out loud you're winning congratulations nicely done okay we
077have board input and review I'm starting at this side of the table Mr Bryant I don't have anything thank you thank you Mr major yeah I just wanted to say thank you to all of the unsung heroes of the corporation but I wanted to Target uh the custodial the cafeteria staff and the bus Department both the staff and the drivers the maintenance teams and the ground Crews that keep our sights looking great and running great I don't think that often enough they get to think use obviously we think everyone else is well for all their efforts but I just wanted to highlight them to just say hey great start uh you know with the with the kid at East I only heard of a couple of complaints uh one day the building was kind of
078hot air conditioner wasn't working great but I've heard nothing but good things outside of that so thank you everybody that's worked on all those areas Mr Stenner sure sure during this last week thanks to Mr and Allen who did the scheduling I was able to tour Parkside and East High School a big thank you to Mr Smith and his staff at Parkside to Dr Parsons and his staff at ease as Mr major said school year seems to be off to a good start everywhere um I don't have a high schooler in the house anymore but I've heard a lot about lanyards so far this year and I wanted to give a shout out to an anonymous staff member at North who's seeing a young person in the hall without a lanyard ask questions a young
079person said well I lost it rather than saying you know go to the office now and get a replacement staff member said let's go together to the office and get a replacement and that's when it turned out the person without a lanyard did not belong in the building so a big shout out to the staff members that are enforcing some popular ideas and rules and Concepts this year so far I wanted to thank all the speakers that came out tonight we appreciate your input and in particular we thank the teachers the Tas and the staff members bus drivers and others that have gotten us off to a good start this year yes we have this saying at work my quality leader says it all the time and he says thanks for nothing because in quality
080when nothing happens that means that you've done your job and and so it's met in a positive way and hearing Mr major Mr Stenner here things like buses as Miss Thompson pointed out and our cafeteria and all of the people that are keeping buildings clean they often don't get the things for nothing but everything's going smoothly because that team does such a remarkable job so I'll just say it for a third time I appreciate the people who are keeping our kids happy and healthy and safe uh first off thank you to all the all the members of the community that took time particularly the last two or three days to send emails and thanks to all of you who were took the time to be here this evening and and provide your input as much
081appreciated uh secondly congrats again to Ms buckler for being uh Indiana teacher of the year final 10. and Mrs Felton once again for being selected this year's bcsc winner thank you to Mr Edwards uh our secondary director for the AP data that was shared recently in regards to the the new numbers results at North and East thank you to Mr Burnett for the communication connections newsletter which first appeared August 14th for its tips for teachers administrators bcsc staff on on how to better communicate with with families using canva parent Square social media posts all kinds of tips and tricks encouraging the use of new regular newsletters so on Etc so thank you to Mr Burnett for that and then lastly best wishes to all of uh well to the cross country tennis soccer and football
082teams at Columbus East and Columbus North this week as they come one another during rivalry week so I just lost all four of my things right back it's okay it's not a competition no no you're okay [Music] some that's came out this spoke that's sent emails regardless of the Viewpoint that you or others may share just know that we we do strive to represent all and we do take I mean I know I've received personally I think two dozen just the last 24 hours and I appreciate every one of those emails because I learned something new and I had a whole field but as Miss Williams already said we're going to talk about it September 11th so no sense in spealing on that but I do want to say is we share a lot more
083in common than we think I know as I entered into this understanding like you open your eyes and you look at books and I was not an Avid Reader my wife is an Avid Reader used to work for the Bartholomew County library and again is you take that you look at it and you understand you know parents are seeking for options and teachers are seeking to teach and there's a lot in common about 80 to 90 percent and so I think once we get into the room and talk everyone will walk away just like we did in the public subcommittee engagement where the solutions were voted unanimously and at the end of the day that's what delivered this process that allowed everyone to speak and although we had more demand than Supply here I think
084it was great that we were able to hear the community and I appreciate not hearing the words and having to take a little bit of a mental break and like the Pastor said at the beginning I mean one of the book I learned about was a lot about racism and police brutality and understanding those topics and looking at alternative books for our fourth graders to sixth graders and I just appreciate everyone's time and so I just want to say thank you thank you for showing Columbus strong and being strong Community United together can I get one more thing real quick no backseats real quick real quick real quick I want to thank Lori Thompson for giving us at least 10 things over the course of the last year that have been identified stem math bowl
085construction Vex robotics I only wrote down 10 I couldn't keep up but I do want to thank you for out doing Mr Grimes tonight thank you good yep Dr Arts yeah I just did not do this during the public comments section I do want to give to you Mrs Wilderness the board members had a chance to see this but there were 14 names on it so I just want to recognize is that our Librarians and Library assistants have a statement or a letter to you just expressing um The Angst and frustration they have felt and again I know that each of you have had a chance to to see that so I want to recognize that and and before um closing uh Chuck I appreciate your calling out my my uh letter and I say
086that sincerely because my response the very next night was based upon heart not head where my heart was [Music] right I had I have a team to take care of I have a staff that was not feeling very good about some things and then and and I needed to take care of them and step up for that and so with that being said I also cannot cannot tolerate the continued statement about pedophiles it is one thing to have comments in here yeah foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] I do appreciate people stepping up and saying whatever's in your heart because we have to hear that we have to work through that and none of us none of us are perfect but but to continue to hammer on that topic is just in a purpose so I kicked
087myself last week for not saying that that was a part of my response on Tuesday night to our staff and and I needed to say it tonight thank you Dr Roberts okay next meeting is on September 11th 2023 we will have a public work session here in this building at five o'clock and then it will be followed by a school board meeting at 6 30 pm here in the administration building okay with that meeting has ended thank you all foreign