12/14/2020 BCSC School Board Meeting

001join bartholomy Consolidated School corporation's team as a substitute teacher or a bus driver bcsc will help you become a substitute teacher by covering the cost of your background check sub license and offer $140 a day as a bus driver you will be offered full benefits retirement contribution match and pension 183 days of work per year guaranteed first shift hours and a potential $30,000 a year if 8 hours are worked the best part of both of these positions no weekend or evening hours work on bcsc's school schedule and make a difference in the lives of students every day to show your interest in becoming a substitute teacher or a bus driver fill out the form labeled become a substitute teacher or bus driver at BCS schools.org [Music] e for e okay Josh good evening uh welcome

002to the um regular school board meeting tonight's Monday December 14 2020 the Bartholomew consolidate School Corporation um I'm Jeff calwell I'm the president and uh we usually start every meeting with one of our board members sharing Reflections um I get the honor to do that this evening I am um I'm pleased to be able to close out a 10-year run as a member of the bcsc Board of Trustees this evening having retired from Cummins last December after 38 years there I do have some experience now at stepping away from things and at the risk of sounding TR you do tend to miss the people much more than the work I think that's a trism of many I think that it is a trism of many in my generation that your personal identity is defined by

003what you do with your time and I'm pleased that part of that definition for me has been being a part of this body the various roles I've had on this board including this my third year as a president have all been both challenging and rewarding I do recall when considering the role of board president for 2020 I had already decided to step away at the end of this year and with the tough referendum on the docket I thought I was ready for what the year had in store but Co what remember that a short year ago it was it was a new item on our in our language when I joined the board in January of 2011 to complete the term uh of p o Conor who had joined the County government at that time

004a former board member told me that two most important things School boards do are one reflect the community and our policies and our approach to education and two hire a good superintendent if the if the that opportunity arises it's clear that our policies evolve as our community evolves and and I believe that we have continued to reflect those changes including some of our most recent changes reflecting new state and federal requirements and even our board uh and bcsc employee communication policy that's up for a second reading and a review this evening I've also had the Good Fortune to work with two terrific superintendents during this 10 years I think all five of us that are on the board today who are a part of Dr Robert's hiring in 2016 can continue to feel that we

005hit the mark on that important piece of work as he has led us through the tough work of educating 11,000 plus students every year he's shown the ability to listen exhibit a sense of humor and identify and promote a strong leadership team at cabinet Administration principals and teachers level to enable us to continue to maintain the high standards our community expects Kathy Pat rich and Jill were all here when I started in 2011 so you guys have got no one to blame but yourselves for the past 10 years and the fact that they will continue along with Julie and joined by Todd and Nikki in January really make this an easy transition for me like all state customers I know we are in good hands I do look forward to encouraging you all in the

006years ahead I'll be away from the center of activity but I'm available if needed I miss you guys ready I really do [Music] thanks if you're uh able to would you please stand join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we have um five members in attendance and two more joining us uh via uh Zoom are we on Zoom yeah I think right Zoom this evening so we have a full attendance the Quorum is here I'll call this meeting to order our bcsc mission vision and high expectation objectives are listed on this room and will continue to be um guidelines for us as we work

007this evening Dr Roberts I'm going to turn it over to you for a couple of uh recognition and presentation items all right thank you Mr Co well we do have some student recognitions to start off our meeting to tonight unfortunately just with the conditions is the way they are we we are doing it virtually or at least having some photos of them but what we know in uh Bartholomew County uh in our school corporation we have students that Excel all kinds of things and one of those apparently is spelling um and we have a couple of very specific examples of that for you tonight so um if we look at uh this year's spell bow um competition it was done differently just you mentioned covid-19 Mr cwell in your opening remarks and covid-19 has affected

008just about everything and and certainly the spell bow uh competition was one of those things and so it had to be conducted virtually but our students just miss still understood exactly how to go about the process of winning and did a great job doing that in the at in the Middle School rounds or at the middle school level both Northside and Central Middle School qualifi for the state finals and then in going through the State final competition Central Middle School emerged as the 2020 State runnerup so congratulations to Central Middle School you see a list there on the screen of the team of spellers as well as the perfect scores in the round of state competition a list of near perfect scores which means they missed one the perfect scores in all rounds of the

009state competition and then our near perfect scores in all rounds of the state competition I'm going to change the uh screen a little bit so you can see each of our our students names but a tremendous uh job by uh Central Middle School and our students there uh we do have a nice photo of them with their pass on in the hallways of Central Middle School so a round of applause for the Central Middle School State runner up Scholars additionally at the high school level Columbus North High School participated in the state championship and was determined to be the 2020 State Champions so congratulations to Columbus North High School you see the list of spellers there as well as the the two perfect scores we had in the individual round of the state competition you

010remember I'm sure that Columbus North was here last month and we celebrated uh the boys and girls cross country teams including uh the state champion boys cross country team and here we have a Columbus North uh state champions in spelling and there is the team uh on on Zoom uh congratulations to our Columbus North High School spell Bowl state champion team team all right always great to celebrate the success of our kids so we'll put the spell piece aside and move to our presentation uh for tonight we are fortunate to have uh with us this evening via Zoom Miss Kimberly Easton our Multicultural coordinator uh for the school corporation and Charles Edwards who chairs co-chairs our diversity council with Mr Jenson and serves as assistant principal of Columbus East High School and so I am

011going to turn things over Kimberly and Charles to you you guys uh once you give us a little test there make sure we can hear you good evening all right yes Kimberly nice to hear from you Charles good evening all right awesome well you guys just let me know I will start uh working through the presentation here and when you tell me to hit go I'll I'll keep moving through the presentation sounds good uh but before we get started I'd like to uh um take a quick moment to thank the board for this opportunity to present a snapshot of the kind of work being done by the diversity Council and by extension the Multicultural and diversity coordinator um my name is Charles Edwards and I'm a long time assistant principal at Columbus High School and

012uh as Dr Roberts just stated along with Bill jinon I co-chair the dcsc diversity Council next slide please Emily H hello everyone good evening it is a pleasure to be here thank you um for inviting me to this meeting tonight it will be a pleasure to share what uh we've been doing with our four District directives um we have been we are now in our second Academic Year Charles thanks so diversity doesn't mean inclusion um it simply means we have differences and there are any number of ways that you and I can be different as a school building with over 1,400 kids or a school district with 11,500 we know that no two individuals walking in will be the same and that presents both a challenge and an opportunity for us next slide please oh

013inclusion is the goal but diversity is where we have to start right because again as a school building with over 1500 different people faculty and staff included we have to first be able to recognize appreciate and value our differences before we can get to this idea of this concept that everyone deserves to be included and not only they deserve to be included but they have a right to be included which is what we're talking about because we don't want to just be diverse that's not an accomplishment not in and of itself we're diverse by Nature what we want is to make sure everyone is included regardless of what those differences might be now slide please and this is what started it all for us how do we provide Equity of access how do we provide

014a seat at the table for everyone no matter his or her identity that's the mission of the BCS diversity Council to ensure that no bcsc students success or failure is ever determined by any part of his or her identity because identity should not matter whether it's an opportunity to learn or an opportunity to Le and that's a big charge it's a pretty lofty goal so where do you even begin next slide please for us we started by looking at the number of faces of color and the number of those from underrepresented populations present in high ability programing the thinking was that this would give us a snapshot into the equity of our program was in high school you can self- select in the high ability classes but when we looked we weren't seeing diversity by

015contrast the makeup of those classes was quite homogeneous that didn't seem to make sense to us because statistically there are high ability students present across every demographic in each of our school buildings so then we looked at the pathway and what we found was kind of a pipeline from AC uh which are of course the academic challenge programs that students had to test into in elementary years and then they're supported with more High ability specific programming in middle school but we we saw kind of a pipeline from AC to high ability courses in high school next slide please and that caused us to ask questions uh questions that eventually led us to look at our processes our personnel and our environments all of these questions later became conversations and then uh we looked at them

016as identification of issues really is what they are next slide please so once we know what those issues are we want to know how it affects our students so we study then we look at recommendations and implementation so the council meets every other month and we focus on the identification and study of issues that affect Equity of access for all students but we also zoom in on the equity piece as it relates specifically to our underrepresented populations next slide please because what we know is that when we make learning better better for some we make it better for all next slide please so each of these conversations has turned into an opportunity to improve our practices for those who are marginalized and for those who are lucky enough not to be next slide please in

017a few seconds you'll hear from Kendall Easton the Multicultural and diversity coordinator for bcse she's going to talk about the work she's doing in the district and in the community and again uh the work can be framed as people processes and or practices in environments next slide but at the end of the day as a council our job is to solve complex problems so that more of our students have more opportunities to be more successful Kimberly thanks Charles wow I get to show you a little bit of the nitty-gritty work that we've been doing to accomplish all the work the the diversity Council has been doing for the past several years so it is a privilege to present the work of four District directive guide teams they all use the bcsc stakeholders process to do

018all of their work as you will see the family academic achievement Network also known as fan its articulated challenge statement is to support underrepresented students through an organic parent Guardian engag engagement Network the second districtwide directive underrepresented teacher Recruitment and Retention focuses on administrators and teaching staff to reflect our diverse student population third the diverse curriculum guide team it strives to ensure instructional practices are culturally responsive and restorative justice to it works to on a uniform process of discipline but also to restore and repair harn done to the victim next slide please so all of our district initiative guide teams as I mentioned are using the bcsc stakeholders process to do all of their work currently in the co cocreation phase with that I'm going to talk specifically about the family academic achievement parent Guardian

019Network now within BC C we have found African-American boys have the most difficult time transitioning from grade to grade and school to school the team is working on projects and partnership to address such disparities disproportionately affecting African-American students specifically boys at one point during our last Academic Year we had a group of African-American boys at one of our middle schools all failing at the same time our underrepresented teacher Recruitment and Retention next slide please so that you know about our underrepresented teacher Recruitment and Retention guide team it was sparked by data showing very little representation of underrepresented Administrators and teachers especially teachers in our classroom bcsc data show student population of our under represented segment is currently 30% and growing while the number of white students is showing a decrease in numbers and has been

020for the past 15 years the current percentage percentage of all under underrepresented staff is 8% but underrepresented certified teachers and administrators is only 6% with no significant change in the past decade despite the changes to the student populations our underrepresented particularly Black and Hispanic students are not achieving academic at the level of their right peers and are over represented in behavioral referrals and under represented in gifted in advaned placement courses according to the long impact of same race teachers published by Seth girther Cassandra Hart constant linday and Nicholas papor an IA discussion paper if a blackmail student has at least one black Mill teacher in the third fourth or fifth grade he is significantly less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to Aspire to attend a 4-year College This research also

021States a disadvantaged black Mills exposure to at least one black Mill teacher in elementary school reduces his probability of dropping out of high school by nearly 40% diverse curriculum has had one uh work session thus far it was sparked by the concern for a lack of diverse teaching materials in our learning environments especially in regards to our stem courses this guide team has been proactive prior to the recent election results and created the post- elction document for our district to guide potential post-election conversations this was also well received by the Collegiate and business community at large now this guide team again recently held a work session its very first and had a whopping 70 people in attendance with our guest speaker Gracie patino a former bcsu student and kindergarten teacher from Clifty Creek Elementary School

022as for restorative justice it was sparked by continuous Community concern and outrage over the flagrant use of racial ethnic slurs directed at one of the least represented student populations within bcsc our African-American students restorative justice is a Cooperative process based on repairing harm healing and the prevention of future occurrences of said Behavior restorative justice will hold its very first virtual work session this week December 16th 2020 at 7:45 a.m. with our guest speaker being the honorable Judge Kelly Benjamin each of these sessions have lasted between two and two and a half hours with 30 participants next slide please and I'm going to wrap up before I'm before yes that's fine we can stay on that slide thank you for a final note I would like to say each of the guide team directives have about

02310 to 12 members from within bcsc including Community stakeholders all guide team meetings are held every Thursday except when school is not in session all four teams are in the third quadrant of the stakeholders process will and we are currently focusing on developing strategies for future implementation while also creating Innovative projects and future Target dates to measure measure progress three of the four guide teams are working on their second Zoom workday sessions each team will host either again a 2 and 1 half to 2our work session on Zoom with identifi goals and outcomes as for the family academic achievement Network also known as fan it's working on the gateway to a connected Community a mentor partnership with the NAACP that has a talented list of local volunteers ready to address the systemic gaps in academic

024achievement to assist our African-American male students in particularly the NAACP plans to introduce the gateway to a connected Community Partnership to parents this December 15 2020 and December 22nd 2020 I'd like to thank you for your time and attention to the work of the Multicultural diversity office thank you Kimberly and Charles uh hopefully have a moment just for some questions perhaps if we we have some from our board members Mr cwell any questions board members yes so I'm curious Kimberly and Charles if you could speak to is it the group or your Collective committee that's working on the high ability issue and what goals you might be setting for cuz that process comes up already in Spring of 21 great question Charles would you like to start with that I'm happy to speak to that

025that uh so the high ability issue was something that we uh talked about early uh on in the uh life of the diversity Council so that work was something that we looked at uh pretty hard early on and again um so so what we did was we reached out to schools uh we wanted to know how kids uh were tested into the high ability program um and then what what what we found was that um not everyone was being tested and so um there and there were good criteria in place for you know the folks who were tested but one of the things that we talked about was well let's just test everybody let's just see let's just see what happens um and so that is something that again uh with the help of the

026um Elementary curriculum director uh was that that that happens now everybody gets tested so what we didn't want is we didn't want kids you know slipping through the cracks because what we found was when you start young and you're challenged young uh kind of that success builds upon itself it's like a muscle um and it it works on your own selfefficacy like you know it's like hey I belong in these class I belong here so when you get to high school and you have the opportunity to self- select into a class if you haven't been in a challenging curriculum like that it's really hard to just kind of self- Select in and just dive in as opposed to being in that group the whole time they kind of move through as a cohort your friends

027are in there they you know what I mean so it's easier when you start younger and you just move through the system in that way we just wanted to test as many folks as we possibly could and get as many folks uh uh that opportunity so that is some of the work that was done uh I know that um again back when we first started we were making phone calls to folks we were talking to Department chairs are their kids uh in the English uh General English classes that should be in you know more challenging English classes or kids in you know science classes or or or social studies that should be a more challenging you know social studies math classes that sort of thing and we were we were making phone calls home so

028we I mean we really got in the Weeds on that and got in the trenches and tried to up the number of of students that we were offer in those opportunities too fabulous can so when did we start testing everybody oh um I'm not sure I can answer that question okay um but it was it was I don't know maybe maybe five seven years ago oh okay so have we seen the percentage at that lower level increase that in the I'm I'm sorry I can't hear you has the percentage in the elementary AC increased as we've been testing everybody um I don't have an answer to that question I don't have an answer to that question so what we did again was kind of you know start that work but um other other other conversations

029and other issues have happened uh so I I don't I don't know that I have um those numbers okay thank you it's a great question though rich thank you um I'm really excited about the important work that you're doing and I I know that by the time you get to the third quadrant you've already identified what why we're doing this and and who should be at the table with us um I'm interested have you identified particularly for the category of underrepresented teacher Recruitment and Retention have you started to identify some catalytic projects and can you give us some teasers some ideas about things that you'll be working on yes as a matter of fact um we had held two two and a half work sessions and there were recommendations and these are just you know

030initial recommendations that we would hopefully like to work on some more and kind of redefine uh before presenting them to the actual school board but I'll give you some idea uh of what can now that that recommended recruitment strategies for possible adoption uh some of them were you know marketing you know what are we really doing on social media uh and and let making sure people know what bartholomy county has to offer perhaps teachers and administrators who would not think about naturally moving and living and working here in Columbus Indiana um maybe also you know considering mentoring maybe Pro potential underrepresented substitute uh substitute teachers or people who may have a desire to eventually become a teacher and and Coach them along uh connecting them with other established entities once they do get here because

031once we get in here we want to retain them um as teachers and connecting them with perhaps you know Columbus young professionals or or or other community groups and churches where they feel a part of the community so that we may keep them so that recruitment a part of that recruitment is also retention keep them as well um and then you know the Strategic creative recruitment where we have control over the you know finding people that we in places we have control over like um our recruitment fairs Etc but being willing to leave the area to find underrepresented teachers uh maybe go as far as um you know Tennessee or Washington DC or Chicago and really go to fairs where we know there will be underrepresented teachers potentially looking for work uh so there were

032a number of um of of suggestions that were uh that came out of this and we're excited because we're going to have another underrepresented teacher Recruitment and Retention work session right before the recruiting session on February the 10th thank you Kimberly this is uh Jeff calwell I I think this is a fair question because I think you've been with us about a year and a half now um on whatever your wish list looks like as our our um uh leader in this work what more could you ask for from us as a school board is are there are there actions uh visibility what what do you need what how can we help well that's huge and and I guess if I I'm speaking on behalf of of four different guide teams and we always hear

033um sources and resources and having the resources to actually be able to implement some of these some of this work and uh that's a challenge across the board as we all understand uh however with upcoming recruitment one of the greatest needs appears to be making sure we have the resources to be able to send our human resource team to areas where they can recruit active recruit from uh different uh Career Fairs or universities HBCU or wherever we need to go uh to make sure the funding is there so that we can can do the job and do it well so that is one of the the immediate needs uh and and working with family academic achievement Network um making sure that we have a very diverse pool even though the NAACP is offering its group

034of people to help with the with our African-American uh multi-racial boys I think it would be also really really awesome if we we could also help in that regard and making sure uh we are assisting um the students with the help they need immediately uh that is one of the pressing needs for the family academic achievement Network and so you know unlike the Latino education group uh and program the African-American students do not have a com a very strong at this point a strong enough base to actually get the information to parents that their kids can be in uh High ability courses they just aren't getting the information and the students aren't getting in early enough to be to be a part of that process and by the time they learn of it it it's

035a little too late for them because they're not going to do well because it's they're behind the eightball so there there are several needs of course and I I I wish I I could wave a magic oneand just like you do um but I I do think you for asking that question because I'm able to at least present some of the pressing concerns that the guide teams have okay fair enough thank you no other questions thank you Charles and Kimberly for the your time this evening and and for sharing that information with us much appreciate before they log off Mr cwell let me second that Kimberly and Charles thanks so much for your work extremely important stuff and I want to acknowledge Bill's work as well Mr Jensen working alongside supervises Kimberly's position and and

036works closely with Charles on this and and whether it's identifying opportunities like with the high ability piece and trying to put those things into motion and and and get rid of barriers that exist uh we we do need to to pull up some additional information to make sure we can share that with you but but it is is they're working on uh that identification that removal and hopefully resulting in some very positive change for us as we continue to to develop our strategic plan our plan on the page those kinds of things I think we're working we're doing some very important work every day I'm not sure what's more important than the work that those these two individuals are are doing and I would acknowledge when Mr cell you ask about Kimberly and and things

037that maybe we could do to help making her a full-time person would be one of those things and so we we're going to do that and make sure that she has uh I would say to make sure she has the time to put in I think she's already putting in the time we're acknowledging that she's putting in the time with moving to that position good it's a pleasure to be here and to serve thank you thank you okay great presentation by those two again very important work that is happening within the school corporation and will make a difference as we move forward uh with with many of the strategies that are being implemented uh next topic for us from a presentation standpoint for tonight is covid-19 it's it's a constant on our um agenda uh

038as I noted at our last meeting we had reopening plan here at the top and we've kind of moved past that since we're now at the end of first semester incredibly uh we began this this work to get into 2020 2021 with uh uh a lot of time and effort in June and then solidified some things at a Schoolboard meeting in July finally started school on August the 10th uh moved into fall break after 8 weeks of inperson instruction with 29 positive cases and here we are in e-learning today and so uh just uh to to summarize that with all the time that we were able to spend in in-person learning uh we initially went to e-learning which is where we are today uh for all students uh on Monday November 9th started that uh

039we originally said let's get to Thanksgiving week which would have put us through Tuesday November the 24th prior to getting into that week and taking a look at our current circumstances whether it be still Staffing challenges Andor the increase in numbers uh locally we made the decision to stay in e-learning uh from Monday November 30th the Monday after uh Thanksgiving break through winter break so that's where we stand today is that right now we are uh We've announced uh with the statement we put out around Thanksgiving that we would be in e-learning through that time so we're not looking ahead to what comes after winter break just a reminder our next scheduled school day after we start winter break is Tuesday January the 5th I want to show just some information to you that Kelly

040Thompson put together Kelly has been as I mentioned Bill and acknowledge his efforts with with Kimberly and Charles with so much work with our diversity Equity equality inclusion efforts Kelly has been in the lead uh with Dr Boseman and other members of of our cabinet myself with just trying to tackle this covid-19 stuff and putting together the necessary data so we can make some decisions I I think the next series of slides will all kind of show the same thing that whether it be our students or our staff we got down to a point around fall break so that point there that's October 3rd October 9th where we had kind of zeroed out the number of students staff members who needed to be out because of positive test cases and or being identified as close

041contacts or had symptoms or whatever the case might be and then after we got back from uh fall break and started school and got through the month of October we we hit a big spike around that November the week after Halloween so October 30th and through November the 6th you see secondary elementary and and programs represented there for all students and that again that huge Spike uh and then we see that with elementary students you see a similar time frame that's each one of our buildings represented there at the elementary level and don't worry we pay too much attention to the numbers on the left because we scale it differently based upon the group that we're looking at um but you can see that we we got down to around zero for fall break and

042then started climbing after fall break and secondary students large increase end of October 1 November we jump into staff large increase in of October 1 November uh here we have non-school meaning buildings that that that don't have students in them a secondary elementary and some of our programs that we have and then we have uh Elementary staff out of the building Spike at the same time second staff out of the building Spike at the same time and then our Administration ISC and and tnm buildings Spike at the same time so just again just an interesting situation in terms of how we started the year um obviously the community had some cases we had a few cases we had some close contacts with other people that we were keeping out because of symptoms whatever the case

043might be but then at the same time uh we see that Peak uh where we had a lot of people out of our buildings and and just reminder that as we saw our uh number of cases increasing within our school corporation within the community a driver to us going to e-learning at that time was the number of people out of our buildings specifically from a staff member standpoint and specifically the impact that was having on classrooms and school buses interestingly enough as we got into the e-learning time and also needed to continue feeding kids our cafeteria staffs took a hit uh so as they were all coming in to work at at the same time we had a few buildings that that uh suffered from a positive case close contacts and so forth and as

044I talk with colleagues across the state and when it comes to staff the main challenges are in those three areas can we staff our classrooms can we staff our buses can we staff our cafeterias if we can we can we can kind of hold on and and maybe weather the storm uh if we can't then we run the same challenges that that bcsc did way back at the beginning of seems way back now at the beginning of November uh just to bring you up to speed there on today current state uh this slide is uh up to date as of December the 13th so yesterday so our our positive cases uh on a per capita positive rate from that standpoint have gotten over 100 as high as as about 106 uh they are down uh

045as of yesterday to 82.7 so we've had a a decrease over the last few days again a very high number so acknowledge that uh when we were uh having Schoolboard meeting meetings in in July and August and looking at red as a as a as a 10 uh we're we're higher than that and and still in the red obviously um in terms of percent positive test rate uh that number has been going down a little bit uh so we got as high as in the 50s and now are at 40.4% that's the most recent number with with pending numbers still to come that that rate trend is also decreasing again acknowledging that's still a very high percent our test turnaround time uh thanks to the hard work within the community that's a number that that

046went green uh a week or so ago and has stayed there with with the most current number being a test turn around time of 2.4 uh which helps us to get information back identify close contacts and and just contain the spread a little bit more easily uh hospitalizations remain high theyve been as high I believe as 59 I think that's the high water mark thus far so about 60 right now at 48 uh so staying that that red number so that's again uh the data as updated as yesterday and this is the uh chart that would be on the uh community's covid-19 task force website today so most up to date just a reminder that when we put together our our plan back in July and into August that we had a a green yellow

047red where substantial spread as determined by local officials uh we would make some decisions uh on instructional model model and e-learning environment uh might be that and that's that's where we are today today additionally something that occurred during this semester that wasn't in place we made some of our own um created our own metrics and started following them in July and August is this state map or excuse me this county map so the state of Indiana 92 counties each County listed here um the colors go from Blue to Yellow to Orange to red blue and yellow blue would be the best yellow would be the next best for a long time we were in one of those colors um and now uh the ENT ire state is either in orange or red you can see

048where we are with a 2.5 staying in Orange We Believe based upon the data that we have that will be in Orange again this week so we're treading water so to speak in in terms of that color and staying with that color and as a reminder we also had you take a look at this based upon the state coming out with their color chart we tried to align one locally with that color chart still paying attention our own local metrics but also paying attention to the state's designation and in that case with our bcse operating model considerations based upon recommendations from the governor's office and the State Department of Health we said in Orange that elementary schools may continue full-time Anders option however we made the decision to go to e-learning uh around November the

0496th in large part because of our staffing challenges uh middle and high schools may consider a hybrid learning model we went to e-learning for the high school or Secondary School to same reason challenges with Staffing uh classrooms buses Etc and then face coverings and other preventative measures in place we would of course continue all of our mitigation strategies and no assemblies or large group activities and we had scaled those way down from the beginning of the school year anyway from an extracurricular standpoint extracurricular activities may be postponed or limited and consideration given to hosting events with no Spectators we have continued our extracurriculars and other and co-curriculars other events with limited participation mostly family members of those who are participating uh school buses would run all regular routes if we were on the hybrid model

050that would uh continue to be the case although we do not have students necessarily in school we actually do have about a thousand students in our buildings every day we are running some school buses for for prek or for some special education students or for C4 uh legado is still in session so we have a variety of of programs or or opportunities for students to be our buildings and we still do have buses running for those students as well as delivering uh food to certain locations within our community uh meals are available at the schools there's a bus at each one of our school buildings that is providing a c a curbside service from those cafeterias to students who come from a meal iare continues to be provided in three sites I believe about 150

051students somewhere thereabouts uh that we've been able to accommodate uh C4 classes follow the school instruction model that is continuing to be the case um our our C4 students are in session and secondary school buildings are open for Wi-Fi access uh so and actually we have Mount Healthy also open for Wi-Fi access it's been kind of interesting to see that number of students grow from when we started being in e-learning at the beginning of the year uh if you go through a high school building now you'll see many more students um in just trying to get access to the internet than you saw in early November for example they might be at at a cafeteria table or in the resource area or something like that so that that is managed if it goes to Red

052then um we have a list of things there to consider as well but I'm highlighting the orange just given where we currently are uh and and reiterating reiterating that we are in e-learning but the models that we put out were to at least give us some flexibility some options uh in case we we found uh it able us able to get back into inperson learning at some point in time so on that note um as we look to move forward uh we are considering just uh again local metrics State designation of color and then our just own internal numbers so since Monday August 10th our first student day we've had 305 positive test cases that is 178 students 95 support staff members and 32 teachers if we put put that into perspective going into fall

053break so Friday October the 2nd we had 29 cases uh basically a month later the end of of the month Friday October the 30th we had 82 cases so from 29 to 82 since it was that following week as we saw numbers increases increasing we had cases uh with staff members we had close contacts we had symptoms and had to start having people out of the building uh we made the decision to go to e-learning we've had 223 positive test cases since October 30th the average per week then is 37 the range of weeks since that time has been between 27 and 47 so relatively consistent and even as our our most recent data point this past Friday December 11th when we released that information publicly 39 positive test cases were reported at that date

054so we're actually pretty consistent since the end of October to the to this Friday December 11th so what are our next steps well I mentioned at the beginning that um we we had announced that would be an e-learning through winter break no commitment as to what was going to happen after that so right now we have this Tuesday January 5th that's out in front of us a few weeks away so we're trying to determine that potential for re for a return to in-person learning on Tuesday January 5th so the things that we are doing to try to understand and figure that out um if we would be able to there's a question mark here because if we would be able to get students in person what might that model initially look like well based upon

055uh the thing from our orange designation uh we could consider our elementary schools uh continuing full-time in person and our middle and high school is considering a hybrid model so that was what we established in that orange designation so perhaps grades prek through six in person 5 days per week with that remote learning option and that is a big piece because we started out the school year with a very robust uh e-learning option remote learning option for our students and we had over 3,000 students take advantage of that when we got to fall break had a pretty good August September in terms of numbers parents decided that all right I'm going to send my kid back to in-person learning just at the elementary U level alone thinking of bridge specifically we had 700 students come

056back into the building so as we look at January 5th there may be parents that are are saying the numbers are still too high for me I'm still not comfortable with sending my student back to the building we want to ensure that if we do go back to inperson we have made sure that that remote learning option is made available to parents because we once they committed to being back in the the building we didn't have a lot of wiggle room at that point in time Following fall break we we we tightened that down and tried to become more consistent from a staffing standpoint on how we could approach both the inperson and remote Peace So opening the door back up here and saying asking parents um if if you're interested in the bridge option

057let us know uh grades 7 through 12 hybrid uh the hybrid model uh allows us to maintain physical distancing you have half of your students in the building it doesn't change the number of staff that we would have it's one of the reasons we didn't go straight to that model back at the beginning of November because it didn't change again the number of buses we were running necessarily the number of people we had in classrooms because I I I don't reduce the number of classroom teachers I'm using because by keeping the same number reducing the students I can have half the students in my classroom and make sure I have uh physical distancing or uh I can maintain physical distancing so as we move forward and look at these kinds of options as our models

058for January 5th We are continuing our dialogue with state and local medical health professionals I was on a call again today with Dr box and ktie Jenner at the state level just talking about what schools are doing what the options are what is what is best practice um we are surveying our elementary teachers to expand the pool of prospective teachers for bridge so as we look at January 5th we believe that we might have more students going back to bridge if we start in person that would mean we need more teachers in Bridge what is our pool for that the deadline for completing that survey was today at the end of the day so we should have that information accumulating now we also put out an enrollment form for bridge to all parents of elementary

059students again this is a planning situation looking at January 5th um deadline for completion for parents of all students is Wednesday December 16th and notice that the wording is enrollment form versus survey because we are wanting people to to commit to that it's hard to make Staffing decisions if that number is is constantly moving back and forth and not only are we asking for it to be an enrollment situation and not just the completion of a survey but committing to it for all of the third nine weeks so not the semester but at least the third nine weeks so that we know what our our maneuvering movement of Staffing is so we can lock that in and then the last bullet point is preparation time for staff members and so as we look from now

060to January 5th or a date thereabouts what preparation time do we need for our staff members to to transition from the environment we're in today to a different one whether that be in person um as stated here with Elementary and perhaps hybrid with secondary or whatever other model might might work for us but this is where we stand today I think that is my last slide um we will continue to uh look at the information we uh I mentioned the meeting I had today that was a state level one uh our covid-19 indicators group gets together again this Thursday at 9:00 that will be I guess the last Thursday in a while probably Kelly because the next Thursdays are Christmas Eve and and New Year's Eve and not going to require necessarily somebody to to

061meet then that doesn't mean we won't meet at some other point some other day other time to to stay on top of this information the interesting thing here as we project forward it was one thing for us to head into the Thanksgiving break a break that actually had three days away that weren't work days and then come back here we're talking about almost two weeks and so as we commun continue our communication with our public uh we look to have another statement out to uh our community into this week first of next week saying here's where we are today and if we're able to do it this is what we're going to do and and uh put that in place because as we prepare we don't want this when when the week of January 5th

062comes up or again thereabouts as we look at that day and and maybe some some flexibility we don't want to say we can't start because we didn't get this information we didn't know how many teachers we needed for bridge we didn't know how many students were be going to bridge we're trying to get that information out so we know so whether it's January 5th or some other date we go back to in-person learning we have the information we need to make that that transition and and the proper preparation time in place for for our staff members so that is where we are on Monday December the 14th and as I State often we will reserve the right to be smarter tomorrow than we are right at this moment thank you Dr Roberts board members any

063comments or questions for Dr Roberts this evening Rich I'm I'm wondering Dr Roberts do you think there's a clear uh a clear understanding among staff and parents and teachers about the duty to report during the 14 days off and when when you're in school I'm wondering too about the number of students we're out of school yeah so so I think Rich your question is in regards to since we've been out on e-learning uh if we have a positive test case are we getting the reporting of that information uh like we would have if if the student hadn't been at school for 10 days and developed a case of covid-19 they even think to let the school know yeah and so so based upon our relationship with the health department if there's a positive T Test

064case who that is a student we get that information it if and if we're the employer are we getting that information as well I I I believe so Teresa any reason we wouldn't be getting that information now we're made aware of Kelly any seeing the head nod that that that has indeed been the case that that we feel comfortable with the test cases that that have occurred we've been made aware of those and then I'm wondering too if we've been able to develop u a sense of the ratio um one positive confirmed case means how many bodies out of the buildings yeah yeah it's a very good question I don't know that I have a number it it it ranges yeah uh secondary has has taken a lot more people with it than Elementary and

065then based upon the nature of that staff member and just what that job entailed how many buildings he or she is in or was it confined to a single classroom at the end of the hallway or there's a lot of factors there we could average that out I I don't have an average number though for you Mr sen I'm just thinking of that that Spike that you sh sure yeah and and driven the large number that time driven primarily at the secondary level with with the scale on the left and seeing that that numbers but what was interesting I think with those various graphs was regardless of how high that number was there were spikes occurring that the the largest number was occurring during that uh latter part of October first part of November thank

066you you're welcome other questions um just checking online James or Julie any questions from you no not right now okay um just just to confirm Dr Roberts if if this plan as laid out here on this next steps if we're able to provide that that would imply that for grades 7 through 12 we would not provide an option for a seventh or eighth grader to be in school 5 days a week that's correct that's correct okay all right they would be able to maintain the option to stay remotely which we'll have students do and we'll continue doing that and might even have some that will um even with the hybrid move to that now fulltime again um but but yes it would be just the hybrid bottle for at least a transition time frame here

067okay all right uh we could have 7 through 12 total e-learning is that what you just said no I said we could have 7 through 12 and if my seventh grader was in the hybrid they would be in person School two days a week but the other three days they're not in school right I I misunderstood with Dr Robert in response so so Dr shed we have students involved in either um our Columbus virtual pathway or or Bridge already and and that's 5 days a week so they would be unless they choose to come back because maybe we're in hybrid they would stay in that so they're in remote learning 5 days a week and we may have students who opt to to go to that that that aren't comfortable being in the building at

068all and would want to be in Bridge or CVP and would have the opportunity to do that so did Bridge enrollment forms go to 712 you only listed element right because because of of how we're we're balancing uh staff across the corporation with the greater levels in need it's just a different there's different mination that's that's occurring with those two and so at the secondary level as enrollments would occur they'll work with that individual building principal and or guidance counselor to to see if there's a to see how that could work out Bas on schedules classes uh the variety of options that are available there okay that was just our staffing conundrum earlier so I'm trying to figure out what we learned from it but assuming we have let's say 5,000 students in grade 7

069through 12 y whether 1,000 of them on a particular day or in e-learning or and now in the future at least and and then another 2,000 of the other 4,000 are there you're going you're you're going to have about two to 3,000 every day yeah yeah all right and except Wednesdays in this model then you'd have 5,000 right the entire Corporation actually on Wednesdays so so all teachers are going to have to be able to to handle e-learning uh classes and all yeah and all students are going to have to be able to accommodate e-learning classes in that model yeah that's you yeah thank and all students are yeah right it it's complex it is complex and and and this is where the the important thing is is trying to look look at what's what

070is the best situation instructionally for our students and trying to balance that out with with safety right and then also trying to look at the situation from a staffing standpoint and what we can manage and address I I I will say that the hybrid model with with secondary teachers going back and forth the entire week with inperson and remote is is the biggest challenge they have uh it's it's an easier thing to be either all e-learning or all in person balancing both is what the secondary teachers would be doing in this particular case which is why Wednesday is an important day to be able to to navigate and have a have a pivot day in there to try to balance those those two pieces yeah that's sort my ACT I did not I should have

071for tonight put those models back up there since I I've mentioned hybrid but a reminder with our hybrid model is that we have half of the alphabet half of our students in on Monday and Tuesday same kids everybody out on Wednesday and then the other half second half in on Thursday and Friday Dr Roberts um a couple of your comments here just in the last minute have made me we've talked about it before but the idea of professional development or sharing best practices among teachers and the learning must be ongoing every hour of every day do we have formalized opportunities for for folks to say here's what's working for me in this subject matter yeah yes we do and and whether it be our udl facilitators or our technology team regularly organizing times for for

072teachers to uh log in and participate in those professional development opportunities uh and then I'm I'm sure each building is is having some either formal formal or informal opportunities and we all know how teachers collaborate and get together uh I don't know Nick or George if anybody else wants to speak to to that grab a microphone please if if you would but uh we we definely have plenty of of opportunities uh available yes so some of the not yeah for for those online we have Nick doing a number of things here come on Gina step up back there how about we see an opportunity for improvement Nick we're going to put a microphone back on your table now to okay so yes um that is a great question and it's actually been quite inspiring because

073support staff training for example we've added more and more because every time we offer something 80 people show up to a zoom over things that we just wouldn't have time or they wouldn't have time to attend and now with zoom we can record so easily and make it available whenever they want and we've seen the same with teachers I think um we had one professional development piece go out that we did similar last year and within the first day we had 90 people putting in entries of completion so it's been inspiring um the work that the teachers are doing with students but also improving themselves thank you yes go ahead George um just to add real quickly Ronda lawell and Tina green our two udl coordinators are also working with building principles on uh sort

074of specific request to to for them to do trainings whether it be virtual or visiting well obviously they're not visiting classrooms now but uh when we were in they were visiting so they're still continuing to do that work as well and working with um Nick and breny so that we're all connected yeah they've done a phenomenal job and and and take the opportunity just to thank our our teaching staff for uh the back and forth that they they've had to do it's been quite an interesting year uh as as we we've navigated back and forth between a few instructional models and uh appreciate the work of of the professional development individuals we've talked about here are administrators and then recognize the job our parents and kids are doing as they've had to navigate back and

075forth with this as well I compared I I gave this analogy a couple of days ago that I don't know how many of you grew up that one of your first big roller coasters was the beast in Kings Island but it was mine and and that first of all it's it's a lot of ups and downs but it's a wooden roller coaster and it shakes you a lot and this year uh it's been like that we've been up and down and shaking all around in terms of just that that the kind of of year it's been and that's for every single person that's our teachers our all of our staff members our parents our our our kids hopefully at some point second semester we get in that Rhythm and this is the way it is

076uh for the for the remainder of that of that time but right now we're we're we're preparing to be back in school the week of January the 5th uh we need to do that and and be ready if if circumstances and conversations and and and so forth allow us to do that and so that's that's what we're working to accomplish at this point in time thank you Dr Roberts you are welcome I'll then move to public comments I don't know that we had none y okay unless Dr Van Horn had something he wanted to say I think we're good on public comments any more thanks George okay all right thanks um board commendations Mr stanner thank you Mr cwell just a big thank you to everybody that's trying to keep the wheels on uh working

077to keep things going uh and then especially tonight uh commendations to all the folks that are participating in the diversity inclusion and Equity work I'm really excited by the the potential that they've identified thanks thanks thanks Mr ster any other board members Mr cell I'll just make a comment I had to be on our website today doing policy homework and I noticed that our applications for prek and Legato and CSA are up and they'll be accepting them until the end of January and I I don't know it just felt good that we're planning for next year in a semi-normal way it was really nice to read so just to say in a little like yeah fill out those applications good all right are there no other board accommodations School Board member reports I'm guessing very

078few that's corre if any I don't know that we've had not a lot of outside Comm meeting right stay halfwire yes the uh education Hall of Fame met on December 4th and the committee went through the nominees and after you know a little bit of deliberations it's tough going through all the applications because they're all worthy of the award and everything but we can only pick one so we did uh have a majority of uh to choose an individual and that individual and uh name and everything will be released uh next early next year so then we can uh have a reception and things for our new uh education Hall of Fame so that's in the form of a teaser there isn't it all right thank you thank you Kathy all right good deal thanks

079to Kathy for her continued work with that that committee and team and and yeah made look a little different this year Kathy as we plan for reception and giving the award and whatnot but we'll see if we can we'll celebrate it properly or at least as properly as we can well let's move to Cabinet reports Mr Phillips before I have uh Chad respond on cabin reports and I'm not a board member but just a quick commodation in terms of Nick and Josh's continued work to make this these hybrid using that word differently here not instruction but for making our meetings go and then you may have noticed in the Republic there was a nice article about the efforts that our kids are doing with Josh's assistance and Leadership of streaming a lot of ball games

080as we've cut way back on participation or attendance we've tried to make those available to to our community members so nice job to thanks to the public for covering that and thanks to Nick and Josh for their work J Josh and I can speak from experience I know that's not only important to our uh Community uh have a friend who's a Brownstown resident uh his his father had not been able to see his granddaughter play ball this year but when the Brownstown girls came up and played uh they saw our live stream they just loved it they thought that was the greatest thing you know that here they could finally see their daughter play in her senior year so you you guys have had some really far-reaching effects so that's been very cool awesome right

081Mr Phillips just to add the comments on on that topic I think it's one of the many things from Co that won't go away demand demand for that will exist for uh for a long time to come and not just because we get to hear Dr Boseman on Friday nights that might be one thing we change oh yeah so even The New Normal might not be as expected okay that's right I've heard the students do do a really good job too your report yeah thanks so uh just a just a piece of good news our the the department of local government Finance dgf returned our budget order for 2021 they've gotten much better at getting that back to us early uh used to be mid to late January after we already started spending the money

082before they told us how much we could we could spend so the the final tax rate for 2021 is a dollar and 1.1 so 1.0 one10 our goal was 1.01 so we were within one/ tenth of one penny of where we were trying to get so um just a piece of good news for you excellent thank you Chad that includes the referendum tax right he's shaking his head yeah I could hear r y I say that Shing his head yeah exactly it it was almost exactly uh 15 points the the referendum is 15.6 cents yes the increase is 15.7 cents over last year's rate okay perfect and that's been some continued good work in maintaining that tax rate while we've improved the ucation quality that's we've we paid with each dollar thank you Mr cwell

083we should probably never pass the opportunity to say that we're still below the state average which 101 yes yeah it'll take a while before the DG puts out the 2021 list but um as more and more districts pass referenda they're going to continue to go up across the state yeah that number would be that rate would be 7 cents less than the average that we were um sh in last year during the referendum process we'll assume that that dollar eight or so is going to go up I don't think it'll go lower it's not going lower okay thank you Chad Mr Cole I just added a couple of slides under cabinet reports um I'd sent out a message just checking about legislative priorities Chad provided some information and as I looked to edit those I

084didn't need to do a whole lot so there they're basically some things that we just went back and forth with so just an FYI as as the legislative session kicks off and we have a lot ofver ation with uh legislators uh we want to make sure that they're investing where the critical needs exist today uh looking at summer school Appropriations or mediation Appropriations to address loss of learning uh that certainly are are good possibilities making sure to still keep up with per people funding with inflation addressing virtual education that's extremely big Chad just mentioned things that won't go away uh we're going to continue to have virtual education in a higher enrollment than we had previously protecting schools from liability uh might be some frivolous claims that that are made and so we want to

085have some protection and then just other unnecessary legislation that sometimes comes the way of school so just a a few ideas uh that that we might look at to uh uh have conversations with our legislators about moving forward if there are things that you would like for us to add to the list or to consider please just shoot me a message or give me a call and we can add that to the things that um we'll talk about we do regularly have the opportunity to meet with our local legislators as well as people at the state level so interested in having that that continued dialogue the content of those two slides is no different than what you shared with us corre email right yeah with it was yeah uh officers and and Chad I think

086had seen that all right thank you nothing up there about Labor Day or teaching handwriting yeah no no no calendar conversation or or cursive handwriting or other things trying to stay with big rock topics right now Mr Stenner so boring let's move to item four on the agenda uh Dr Roberts I think items 4 a through I you have for us thank you Mr coell so the list of of items I have as my request for approval starts off with the minutes of the regularly scheduled board meeting back in November seems like a while ago since that one occurred uh a list of supplemental contracts that you have in front of you uh we did not have any fi trips for professional leaves or school fundraisers on this list uh we do have claims and

087payroll two sets of claims there from the month of November uh one that's a little over $3.6 million one dated today that's a little over $2.1 million and then uh three sets of payrolls November 6th 20th and December 4th that included uh new contracts retroactive pay as well as teacher appreciation Grant monies and some stiens for support staff that aligned with that teacher appreciation Grant uh and those those amounts are over or near $8.7 million and then we do have a three-year calendar approval for you and so here is the three-year calendar um I think the the most the thing uh to note uh probably most importantly the beginning of school is is relatively the same if you think back to this year 2021 2020 2021 we were supposed to start on a Thursday or

088August the 5th I think think the calendar kind of lines up again for next year um and then uh off on Friday uh excuse me Thursday Friday this past year next next year's calendar would have us starting on a Friday uh Labor Day fall break similar fall break I think is one week later Teresa so October 11th through the 15th so all of those individuals may be paying attention right now who've been waiting on us to certify a fall break October 11th for to the 15th is what we're putting in front of you uh Thanksgiving break still being three days winter break basically being two weeks uh and then we have the Martin Martin Luther King Jr day um snow makeup days would actually be done from an e-learning standpoint uh we would not use

089that spring break uh we would not put two weeks at Spring break where the first week would be used to make up days we would instead go straight to spring break one week uh March the 14th through the 18th so with everything that we've learned about e-learning we are comfortable with saying if we have a snow makeup day in 2021 22 uh those first 5 days we will do e-learning and after five we're not so comfortable anymore we want we do need inperson and some days might go toward the end of the school year a good Friday would be no school Memorial Day no school and right now the last day for students is an early date so we have some room between May 20th and graduation on May 28th to add some days if

090if we felt that was necessary but um basically uh in terms of what people are looking for uh in this calendar fall break a week later October 11th through October the 15th spring break one week because in the past we've designated a a first week of two for makeup days we eliminate that one and we go to e-learning for makeup days it does get us out earlier May 20th does give us some flexibility flexibility with makeup days in case we need to go a different direction than the first five being e-learning and that repeats itself over those the next two years of that calendar 22 23 and 2324 questions well we can get into questions when you ready to approve it um the next piece besides the calendar is a revision of board policy 3112

091we had the first reading the last meeting and really two changes one was changing some language under the social interaction uh part of the policy to um get away from that uh uh U it was it pretty harsh in terms of the wording and being unethical conduct I believe it's not on here but unethical conduct yeah and so just just strongly discouraged given the potential legal liability making sure that people are clear that we have to be careful when we're interacting socially as board members and the and members of our staff and community and then uh from a public comments standpoint wanted just to make sure and clarify that all staff as any member of the public may make comments or present concerns to the board at a public meeting in compliance with the procedures

092of all other speakers which we post and publish each meeting these procedures include refraining from using the names of individual students and or staff members so this is the second reading of that and up for approval we have our 2021 tax anticipation warrants which is standard at this time of year really key this year to being able to start spending some referendum dollars as early as January and then we also in your packet had two bids for eate internet access uh naming some vendors to to make sure that we have appropriate access within our buildings those are my items for this evening thank you Dr Roberts do I have a motion to uh approve items 4 a through I as presented so moved so moved thank you Kathy deal dwire and and I'll get a

093second there from Mr peringer thank you James what questions do you have for Dr Roberts on items 4 a through I Dr Roberts if you'd go back to the calendar I would note that 23 24 looks like one of those awkward years where you you get to start school in the second semester on a Friday if you're a student and go back on a Monday for the last day of the year isn't it that's yes it is no way to slide that I guess un unless you really go on much later right yeah it's also a leap year that one day is it a leap year okay yeah 2024 I guess so yeah Dr Roberts I was not on the calendar a different topic I was wondering if we could get Mr Phillips to review

094the uh tax anticipation warrants just got a little confused looking at the handout that we received Mr Phillips sure no problem Mr Stenner the uh looks a little different than what it has in the past although this is an annual step that we take every year uh we used to use a private attorney that did this calculation for us and then went out to bid these this is the first year we're using the Indiana Bond Bank that provides financing to to all municipalities across the across the state and by we feel like by pooling our borrowing uh with other school districts cities counties and those kinds of things um we can get a much more competitive rate and and many of my peers use the the Bond Bank so this form U that's in your

095board packet just looks a little different than what you've seen before um and basically uh the total that we will borrow for 2021 is about 18.3 Mill ion that's that column uh total to be received on 128 2021 that compares to Prior years last year we were at 22.8 million and the year before about 23.5 million so we did uh reduce the amount that we're borrowing even with the addition of uh the referendum fund the operating referendum fund and and the main reason for that is we're not getting anything in investing our money right now so borrowing that and keeping it in the bank you we're just paying interest on it and not getting anything back on a return so uh the summary is 18.3 million and again that's about 4 million 4 A5 million

096less than last year thank you Mr Williams the the other uh question I had was on our our providers are are either of these changes the WAN internet for you service is is a change and it actually matches our the WAN that you guys approved last year the the other one that provides internet access for half our district is actually going to be with the same vendor but it's about $358 43 cheaper per month okay per month okay thank you Nick thanks Nick any other questions hearing none I'm going to ask for a Voice vote first all all in favor um uh those online uh Dr bills we still have Julie do you know yeah but she's muted okay she's calling in so I'm not sure how she reverses that if I could see you

097Julie you could hold a hand up but I can't I may have to just have you as not voting here so I can't hear you Mr Persinger I thank you all others here present uh in favor please raise indicate your right hand I guess it really didn't matter which hand I believe we have Dr Bill's unmuted now okay Dr bills yes I vote Yes sorry I was trying to unmute myself thank thank you Julie okay so that motion carries unanimously thank you thank you Dr Roberts hello Miss honey item five is a request for approval of Human Resources recommendations thank you I request approval of the human resource recommendations as presented this evening you do I have a motion to accept this Z's recommendation so move thank you Mr Bryant is there a second second

098Dr shed thank you for the second any questions from Missy I have a question but it's not related to your recommendations I know that you have you have been uh pushing for some substitute both uh support staff I think bus drivers primarily of the positions any success in the last couple weeks I was just looking at the list we have about a hundred folks that have applied or indicated their interest in being a sub so that that's very positive that's fantastic at least you've got a a new pool of candidates to be talking to outstanding thank you for your work on that thank you so we have a motion the second to accept the recommendation from Miss honey all in favor I'll do it the opposite way here in the room raise your hand please

099uh Mr Persinger how do you vote hi Dr bills how do you vote hi thank you that motion carries unanimously thank you Miss honey let's move to board input and review and we'll also start with our our U members online Dr bills anything this evening no thank you thank you Julie Mr peringer no nothing for me thank you James Mr Bryant I want to thank uh Mr person here for serving on the board he's truly going to be missed and then this other guy next to me yeah thank you for being on the board and gu you are love there Mr Mr healthware um I too like to thank both you and um James for serving on the board um you know I appreciate leadership and um just being able to talk differences and everything

100is just really I think brought a lot of different uh thought processes and experiences to this board that really kind of make us help to make good decisions or recommendations so I appreciate both of you serving on the board thanks Kathy I'll I'll Echo that I've I've learned from working with Mr cwell and Mr ping here I've learned some really important things that will live on in the board as I continue to serve because I will continue to use what I've learned from working with both of you uh as we try to fulfill the mission that we've got as an organization so thank you both for your service and thank you for being teachers to me Mr Stenner I don't know what to add to that I'm I'm sure there's so I've I've learned so

101much from both James and from you Jeff I appreciate that you both were leaders um I think we are a very strong board and we're very strong because of what you brought to us um we're a crazy wild diverse group group though people may not think so but um just the very the experiences the perspectives asking great questions and making us think hard um I just appreciate it so much and I think we're a stronger School Corporation so thank you thank you Dr Roberts anything for us this evening I'll wait to uh say something about you and James until the next thing on the agenda which is recognitions um echoing everything that we've heard so far but I do just want to acknowledge and i' put a placeholder on this slide uh we don't necessarily

102have you approve some positions or some changes um so the human resources piece already done but uh just reminding everybody since it is now out and about in the public that Columbus East has only named their third football coach in their history 1972 I think the first year of Columbus East High School and this is coach number three uh Eddie has some big shoes to to fill I think the first coach is the stadium might be named after him and I'm guessing coach Gattis might have something sometime somewhere great success by Bob and and Eddie is is stepping in that role and it has deserved that he's he's uh the great assistant for Clum in that program so good luck to him and his family as he embarks upon the football coaching job at Columbus

103East and then I I was able to reference Kimberly in moving to full-time status that's an important part an important step for us as a school corporation to designate uh the time um to to that make sure and prioritize that position and its time and and how important uh that work is so just wanted to reference her moving to that that level thank you Dr Roberts and and I would I would also say again I'm excited about the the new board membership next year I I I know the both James and I will regret at times not being able to be a part of the the process uh but uh I I I know personally at least I felt like it was a good time to move on it's been um 12 years since I've

104had a student in my household that was here at at the school corporation and I know uh specifically uh uh with Nicki Weldon who's replacing me has three that are uh middle school and younger age so so I I I value greatly that perspective on the board of someone who's living and breathing uh every day the the um experiences of parents in this so I think both she and Todd will be terrific additions to this board next year Todd obviously as an educator also helps by bringing that perspective and I think that's always a strong uh voice on the board so thank you guys all for your kind words and for uh the the mutual learning that we did together again uh if if there were bad times Kathy Rich Jill Pat you brought it

105on yourself sorry you you guys you guys hired me 10 years ago uh so um and then the voters uh uh uh agreed that let's let's keep him in there for a couple of terms so I appreciate that but thanks very much uh you have one more uh item assume involves me it says he did school board members recognition so uh we do have two board members that are this is their last meeting uh for us uh we do want to thank both Jeff cwell and James Persinger for their service to our school corporation uh I was uh pretty new to the school corporation when James came on board so we kind of learned together over the last few years me in my position and he in his in in terms of of what makes

106this Corporation tick and learning a little bit about each of you and as Jill said I each of you bring Jeff you James you and then the other board members as well some diverse thought and and challenge Us in different ways and that's great in terms of of helping us be better and meet the needs of our students I just want to thank thank you Jeff for your leadership of the board we've had a lot of breakfast meetings together I think you've been an officer for much of the time that I've been here and appreciate your leadership guidance uh I think Dr shed mentioned the challenging questions those are always important I I think we I have a quote that says you don't get better um by by what you just say and do you

107get better by the questions you ask and it's uh those those questions that are asked sometimes uh most of the time take us forward and make us a little smarter uh and James again appreciate everything that you've done I know you've you've been all over the place and had to work extra hard to to get to meetings and and and make them work in one way another and and have been able to do that and again appreciate uh your perspective as as as Jeff indicated having kids in the system it gives you a a unique perspective on what's going on and it allows us allows you to challenge us and make sure we we're doing the best job that we can so thank you to both of you I do have some gifts from the

108corporation to provide to you James will have you pick yours up when you are able and Jeff I'll hand you yours thank you so for both of you from the bartholomy consal school Foundation uh architectural book Susie has a few of these and she's making one available to to you and James additionally make sure I have the right one here we plaque for you and recognizing your years of service James four years of service to our school corporation and Jeff you with 10 so this plaque says Jeff cwell bcsc School Board member thank you for 10 years of support and service to our students staff and Community 2020 thanks you're welcome all right I'm just going to say it's here okay J James we're going to have to get out of here quickly before Bryant

109has any more uh Wise Cracks uh is there any any last comments from you I just want to thank you all for your kind words and uh appreciate the honor of being able to serve on the board these last four years um it has been an incredible learning experience and I want to just say thank you all uh you know to the five of you that I've served with for these past four years that really helped me out and you know kind of show me you know the ropes from the get-go uh you guys made me feel very welcome from the beginning and I just really appreciate it thanks change we remind everyone in closing that our next um school board meeting will be our uh annual reorganization meeting that's on January 11th we'll meet

110right back here at this room uh at 6:30 p.m. on January 11th 2021 there are no other questions or business for this board this meeting is adjourned