001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> And Saco, is there any questions or concerns with any of the vouchers or the financial? >> I didn't have anything to do with it. I didn't have any questions. >> I don't know. >> No. >> Sounds like it. Okay. Uh, signify by saying I on paper. >> I. >> Opposed. >> So moved. >> Item C, communications. This is where we're going to move our E1 to. So that is consider staff report and other personnel items. Do I have a motion for that, please? >> I'll make a motion to consider normal staff report items. >> I'll second. >> Okay, motion and a second. Any questions or concerns about the anything on the staff report? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All opposed. >> So I'd like to take
002an opportunity on that staff report. Um, we just approved our Benton Central buys a new athletic director, Mr. Brian Leverenz, and he is here tonight with his family and introduce yourself and say a few words. >> Yeah, I'm Brian. Thank you for entrusting me with your athletic department. I can't wait to get started. Introducing my family, wife Danny, Penelope, Tatum's in the green, and Ledger is in the yellow. So. >> Duly noted. >> TRAINING WHEELS. THANK YOU. >> AND DO YOU WANT TO JUST TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE? You've been an AD, yeah. >> Uh, yeah. So I just finished my fifth year at Winamac. Uh, before that I was a head basketball coach. Uh, before that, uh, teacher, assistant coach. So kind of my experience has brought me all the way way
003to here. Um, you know, we're looking to hopefully move uh, this summer. Hopefully the market is kind. But yeah, we are we are extremely excited. We did a little tour. I took drove them around the schools and around Fowler a little bit before we we we got here, but we're extremely extremely excited and and I can't can't wait to get started. >> Well, we're glad to have you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, we like the green and gold. We think you will find it better in Benton. And at this point you and your family are welcome to go and and have dinner. No judgement on that and for our people who are going to present, we're going to give you the same opportunity when it's your chance. We don't make you stay unless you absolutely
004have to. Thank you so much for the such a treat. So nice meeting you. What a cute girl. >> Okay, moving on down to item C1 donations. Part of communications. Okay, it looks like Benton Central again has really smoked some big donations totaling just shy of $15,000. Recipients High Mileage BPA, Blue Prairie Preschool, Student Services, Health Services, Drafting. >> The BPA I believe that helped them with their national trip to nationals. >> And a couple to auto auto department. And then Prairie Crossing just a little bit over $2,500 and those backpack and other recipients. We have to really thank all those donors. Amazing amount of money being donated to support our schools. C2 curriculum update. >> If you think um I just wanted to uh take just a moment. We are at a transitional point.
005We are finishing up all of that testing. Uh we have another IREAD window that goes until the end of June, so we're in the midst of that, but we also have to do um if the government students have to do a naturalization uh citizenship um assessment that they do and we report to the state that they've done that. This is what's finished up all the AP testing. So, now it's important for us to compile all of the data that we've um accumulated. We're really doing some things now. Um Dr. Zupanc's asked us to look at 3 years of data for proficiency, which is tell quite telling um and helping us to see our growth and we'll be sharing that with you more soon. Um we are working on the formative assessment grant and we're also
006working on the annual reading plan that has to be submitted. Um again, as I mentioned last month, the ILEARN data and the WIDA data because of the standard realignment won't be the proficiency won't be available to to us until the fall, but we are still able to um work with our curriculum status and make those updates to our plans. Um we do appreciate the board's support for PD. We are having uh some PD right after school is out with math for math um a 2-hour training and then we're looking ahead to next year and the fall plans for PD, so. >> That sounds good. >> Do you have any questions? >> And I have asked uh ED to uh join us for a little bit of time during our annual board retreat to give us
007some detailed information on the with the data. >> Okay. I see. >> So, we'll see you there. >> going to ask if that would be available for the board. >> Yeah. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Dr. Zupanc. >> Okay. >> item C3, engineering presentation. Mr. White Moth. Excuse me. >> I am excited to be here tonight to just share some awesome information. Really good news, good things, amazing things happening. Um the big thing up there on the board is something that I would have never expected to have happened. Um we we've worked with Ad Kev for a long time. If you don't know who Ad Kev is, they're an injection molding company over in Woodland. Um they make automotive components. So, they make If it's black and it's plastic and
008it's in the car, they probably make it. And usually the stuff that you don't see, stuff under the hood, stuff behind the dash, things like that. They make gobs and gobs and gobs of it. Um they had donated an industrial robot to us about 10 years ago. Um and it it died. Um and the press release went out on this today, so you can see it out on social media, on the school site, on the corporation site. Um but it died and I reached out to them and said, "Hey, your robot died. Um would you like it back?" Uh and it was just the internal batteries when they died, then it's just it. It's just game over for them. Um and they didn't want it back, and but they said, "Do you want another one?"
009And I was like, "Well, cool." Um but with all the gratitude in the world, we're going to pass because it was an industrial robot. So, in all reality, it needed to be in a full enclosed cell with emergency stops, lockout, tagout, like the whole deal if somebody was going to be using it. Um so, I kind of had to keep it in the closet and bring it out periodically for demos. Um and like delegates, safety didn't allow those kind of things. Um so, they understood that wasn't really conducive to the educational realm. Um and they said, "Well, what could you use?" I said, "Well, an educationally friendly robot would be great." They said, "Send us some Send us some quotes." I was like, "Oh, okay. Um I can do that. Mr. Westner and I, you
010speak in the PD, we were able to go to the Indiana ACTE conference down in Indianapolis. We sat in on a professional development session on this cobot called the M2, uh made by Niro. It's a French company. Uh we were really, really impressed by it and then the guy told us what it cost. We're like, "Well, that's cool, uh but uh we're not going to get one of those." Um and then Adecco said, "Well, give us the thanks." And I gave them a list of the Niro robot, which was the $10,000 super nice French robot, and then some less expensive options. And after they discussed internally, um the owner of Adecco and their their leadership team said, "Well, we're going to buy you the nice robot because we don't want you to have the junky
011stuff that you have to fix all the time." Um so, that was unbelievable, right? Yeah. It's a 9,000 something dollar package. Um it's not just a robotic arm, it's a cobot. So, if the industrial robot was swinging by Mr. Robin, it'd hit him, he'd have no idea, right? It would just smoke him and that'd be bad. Um this thing if it touches a human, it knows it and it stops, it shuts down, it sets off a little light that says, "We're in error state now." And then the kids have to be able to troubleshoot that. Um it has the robot, so it's a multi-axis robotic arm like you'd see in any of their cells there. Uh the picture is that's Nathan Beal at Adecco presenting the check to the engineering classes while we're on a
012plant tour. Um we got a real check as well that went into the bank that bought the robot, but they had that one uh for the photo op and that's gone up on Adecco on Adecco stuff. Um they're in Goodland, and they're also in four other facilities now, so they've really, really grown um out of their little spot in Goodland, Indiana. But yeah, it's got that. It's got a conveyor system, it's got a vision system, it's got a vacuum uh suction cup system to move things around like a magnetic gripper. All kinds of end effectors to be able to pick stuff up and move stuff. It is is the nicest educational robot that you can pick up and have a desktop model of out there on the market right now. They just bought it for
013us. So, when you see donations to drafting, drafting is my So, I was hired way back when as a drafting teacher, board manual drafting. So, that's what I initially taught and then we've kind of come a long way since then through all of these things. And so, when you see donations to that, that's where it goes. This one was big enough that came up here, right? And it said PCA. We bought it, it's in-house, it's there. Ned's a pretty cool little guy. I have to figure out how to code him and teach with him. That's a fun thing to be able to figure out this summer. So, I kept up with that. They also helped with super mileage this year. They donated, as you've seen along with a lot of the other donations this year,
014the the community stepped up in a huge way. Lots of small companies, mid-size companies, individuals, people like who never had this amount of money rolling. We didn't really do anything differently. Like we sent out our little like, "Here's the picture of the team and thanks for supporting us in the past. You know, if you're able to this year, that'd be great. If not, no worries, it's all good." Um but it just seemed like one of those years that just everybody stepped up and and donated funds and things and it paid off. We brought home some hardware. This was Yeah, it The really crazy thing and Lon was there to witness it. We more than doubled our fuel economy on the prototypes this year to an absolutely absurdly ridiculous number. We were over 6,000 miles per
015the gallon. B. Which is bananas. Like that's a number that doesn't even make sense as a fuel economy for a car. And it's a number that I never thought would ever even be achievable. And we lost. And that's because Anacortes Valley, they brought a new shell car. So, they they built a a brand new car for the Shell Eco-marathon this year and they beat us out just by like the And the poor kids, like the driver was all heartbroken. She was crying. She was like, "If I had gone pee beforehand." Like if I just And then they're like, "This small amount of Any amount of anything could have put us right up to it." But, yeah, they they were 6,200 and we were 6,000 and change. But like, yeah, you could drive from here to
016LA and then back to here and then turn around back to LA on the energy of 1 gallon of gasoline in that car. >> That's crazy. >> Just Yeah, crazy's right. But, the award we did get was because of all that funding that rolled in, and we bought welders, and we bought welding tables, and welding screens, and welding equipment. And the welders we bought, we purchased intentionally that you could weld outside of it. So, they aren't MIG or TIG where you need shield gas, they're flux core welders. So, they're made to weld in dirty, nasty environments, you know, like pits of Supermileage Challenge. And we were able to buy a generator this year because of the amount of money that rolled in. And we were the only people at the competition that had a generator
017powerful enough to run a welder. We were running a welder in our in our pit stand and like, every other team who broke stuff were just lining up in our pit saying, "Hey, could we weld our car back together?" So, after all of that happened, the other teams all voted our team as the people's choice for being so gracious and helpful and allowing all the other teams to compete. Cuz we could have just said no, right? We could have been like, "Nah." And then won because all the rest of the teams broke down. But that wasn't the way our kids did it. That's not the That's not the way Ben Central runs things at Supermileage Challenge. We graciously let them do it. Me and Mr. Western made sure they knew what they were doing and
018they weren't just running a welder to make Yeah, yeah, not having any idea what was going on. Um But all those cars got back on the track and all those cars were able to compete. So, it was really, really cool to see that happen and and a fun award to bring home because it's voted on by your competitors. They gave that to you. Yeah, and then one other quick bit of of good news, speaking of testing, Um, we run industrial testing in my classroom, the board funds that. It's very much appreciated. Now, we kind of work the system, we get 2 years of testing out of paying for it once. So, we pay for it at the end of May, so we can test like early May this year then kind of do the same
019thing next They don't love that, but he said it's okay, the cert board guy. Um, we we definitely are setting a record this year for number of kids passing those tests. Uh, we're well above 80%. Yeah, that's it's a big deal. Um, these are all these are all credentials of value on the new state list of credentials of value to get their honors plus seals and all those kind of things. Um, so they intro class is testing in Inventor, which is a parametric modeling system that Autodesk very much likes to see our students have certification in. Um, and then the architecture kids are testing in Revit. Um, we only had a couple kids in each class not pass. And that's that's atypical. Um, so we've kind of figured out how I've figured out through my
020instruction how to give them some pointers throughout the year. I figured out how the test asks for information, so I ask them for the same type of information as we're modeling throughout the year. And that's really translated into some good scores. So, thank you for funding that. Uh, we've got lots of kids coming out with certifications. One of our best certified kids is sitting in the room right now, Vaughn. He's the only one that's passed them all. Um, 3ds Max, Revit, and 3ds Max is still a monster. Uh, we teach that in our 3D animation class. We had one pass this year, but it's just a mean and terrible test. Um, that's all the great news I have to share. Uh, I think next on the agenda is these guys telling me a little bit
021about what they're doing. Um, this was their capstone project. So, this is a representative group from the EEDD class, the engineering design and development capstone course. Um, a couple students couldn't be here tonight because of work commitments and uh, baseball commitments. But, they're going to give you a just the names still. It's me. They're going to tell you about what they built this year. For those of you who've have around long enough, this is what we used to run the annual line project through the big national innovation contest. That it it I don't know. I think it's pretty well defunct at this point. So, um they have gone another route. So, they're going to show you what they built and what they came up with in the process to get there. >> Good evening, everybody.
022So, we are the dropout group, if you can call it. And so, yeah, like Wyatt said, we're the engineering design and development capstone class for all of his courses. And this is our 2025-2026 project. >> I'm I'm Wyatt Deno. I was one of the designers, or not designers, but builder and tester of it all. >> Uh I'm Von Scheppler. I was in charge of 3D modeling and a few of the surveys and some of the other data collection. >> And I'm Brady Smith. I was more part of the testing, building, and documentation part of the group. And then, you can see we have two other members, Cameron Rider and Nathaniel Whitaker. They couldn't be here. They have other obligations. >> Okay, so this is our survey data. And if any of you have been to
023a pep session, you've seen the T-shirt cannon. If we were running it uh last year. I know we're running it this year. We did. Mr. Thompson had to do it. Um but so, on the left there, that's a new survey that we sent out this year seeing how much school spirit the students and faculty thought that we had. And in the middle, we thought or we asked them if they thought the T-shirt cannon boosted it. And as you can see, those are both really good numbers. But I mean, so the one on the left indicates that we don't have enough school spirit, but if you compare our numbers to when the T-shirt before the T-shirt cannon, it's a lot better than it was. So, I think Brady can show the next slide. >> So, this
024is going to be like what we focused on. So, uh research data collected from 2015 to 2025 that Central School spirit has increased by 30%. Stakeholders indicate that this new point of engagement, like a t-shirt cannon, can and will improve school engagement by 87%. 87% of students and staff also desire another point of involvement at pep sessions and sporting events. So, that's why we kind of decide um we wanted to develop a solution that increase this audience involvement and excitement at Benton Central sporting events and pep sessions. >> Okay, so this is our timeline and our Gantt chart. And so, we started this back in October. And if you look at the top, that kind of just follows our research and our development of our logo, which, if I say so myself, is very nice.
025And then we have our actual setting up the timeline. And then at the bottom, you can see there's the timeline on this presentation and our notebook. And this is practically just how we measure everything and make sure everyone everything is running along schedule, which it was for the most part. Yeah. >> All right, so some research. We had to figure out if this would even be possible to make a blimp. So, we started researching envelopes and then we're like, maybe we can use a drone. So, we researched some drones, some helicopters. And then another thing we had to research was some way to dispense coupons. And so, that led us to a a money gun. We ended up finding out that probably wouldn't work, wouldn't be the safest or the best looking option, I'd say.
026And so, that kind of led us into this next thing. We found an alternative solution, which is already a made blimp from Serbia, but it's very pricey. It's $1,500 and then they have high tariffs and international shipping was very very expensive. But, what we liked about this was it's a single sealed envelope. It had a dropping mechanism and a flying mechanism already built into it. But, things we were going to run into is difficult to transport. We wouldn't be able to get it through a standard doorway, and it cost even more just to fill it up for one time, and maintaining it would be even even more difficult to do. So. >> So, at the start of every year, we are given $1,000 to work with, but we realized very quickly that $1,000 is going
027to burn really quick, and so we applied for the Indiana grant. And so, it's been granted to 545 applicants across all 92 counties in Indiana. And these uh these checks are going to range from $1,000 to $2,000, and we ended up being awarded the $2,000. And the way we were awarded this was our member, Cameron Rider, he wrote more of a formal letter to them requesting us, and we were accepted in probably late December is when we got this. >> Yeah. >> So, this is going to lead us to our ideas and sketches. So, these are some of our earlier ideas and sketches. And so, you can see like in that top left corner, we have a balloon attached to a drone with strings. And on that far right corner, you can see that um
028we kind of built off that with a sheet of like plexiglass just attached with strings to the drone again. That didn't really work either. >> Okay, so some early mock-ups we started with. As you can see, this is that sketch we had. It's a foam foam with four fans on it, two for going forward that can also go left and right, and then the the there's other two that can lift it up and go down. And so, we started with this. We found it on a YouTube video, and we thought it was going to work good, but it didn't really work quite wanted to. It's very heavy, hard to fly, kind of hard to get it to do whatever we wanted to. So, then we bought a shark from online that was supposed to work.
029It had a flapper on the back like so it moved like an actual shark through like it's going through water basically. But we found out that it really wasn't what we wanted so we threw a fan on the back. It flew good but it's way too fast and so we started kind of designing from there which led us into our next thing. The the balsa wood airframe. So we took a balsa wood and created kind of an airship airframe kind of like what you guys have probably seen on when you've seen blimps before. And so we just took balsa and 2P-10 which is super glue and activator and connected them all at points in kind of a shape we really wanted to. And it worked it is what we ended up going with and it
030worked really good. Other options that we decided or tried to use was carbon fiber rods or foam but carbon fiber is very expensive and what we what we could afford was a little too flimsy so it's like flat under its own own weight and stuff and same thing with the foam is lightweight, cheap, what we wanted but it just wasn't strong enough. >> All right, so then here are our 3D models and this is where I primarily work. So it started with us buying a gondola that came with one of the blimps and from there we reverse engineered it and translated it into Inventor which Mr. Vibert was talking about earlier. And from there we just modified it and kind of stripped it down to what we needed, what we didn't need and you can
031see our journey from the top left all the way to four on the right and the top two are the gondola that's currently on it along with the motor mounts that are on the side and the mount for the motor that actually drops the coupons on the left on the right. >> All right, so for our final design we as I said we went with the balsa and then we wrapped it in Mylar, the gold Mylar sheets which is actually pretty sick when you get it out and fly under these lights cuz under these lights under these lights yeah it's like a disco ball basically is the best way to explain it but yeah it's it's very cool. And Vaughn you want to just talk a little bit more about your >> Oh yeah. Okay
032so if you look at the top right you can see the gondola and in the back is the motor and then on the bottom there's the battery mounts and the boards that we use to power the motors and the LEDs. And then in the bottom right we have what we've called throughout the year project ceiling fan. It's practically a motor that we have a tiny little piece of balsa wood on the bottom and then we have coupons on each of the sides and then we have weights mixed with coupons. >> Okay so these coupons we would Well so our original idea was to shoot t-shirts off of this to give away but we're like that's very impractical or it it's just impossible basically. Yeah it's it is a felony as Vaughn would say. >> It's
033not allowed to shoot items off. >> Yeah but so we decided to go with coupons cuz coupons Coupons are redeemable for anything so you can Our idea is to have them redeemed at the concession stands for a candy bar maybe a t-shirt memorabilia whatever it is so that's kind of where where we went with the coupons instead of a t-shirt so >> Yeah. On that bottom left picture too you're going to see those balloons in there. We have about seven different types of balloons stuck in there right now. They all vary in volume but the volume matters so much by how much you fill them up cuz even just the slightest of loss or gain of helium that determines if it goes up or if it goes crashing down. >> Yeah. So this takes us
034into our entrepreneurship. As you've seen or we've all seen or heard of the Goodyear blimp or the Capital One blimp they're mainly only used for advertisement you don't really see them like used for anything else not like what we're wanting to use them for so Riley would you We talk a little bit about what we thought we could do with them. So, our ability is more of like a it's more practical. So, we it's more of a proof of concept is what we were going for. We wanted to say we can take something that's big, make it smaller, make it practical, make it doable. >> And cheap. >> Make it cheap. Cuz these things they're ranging from expensive to even more expensive. I don't know the number off the top of my head, but >>
035Yeah, so like that survey event, we wanted something like when it comes to entrepreneurship, this would be local like not local but in the state. So, we'd be able to sell it hopefully to other people if we were able to mass produce this to high schools, complex centers, and we kind of were thinking that it's cheap for one and it's what people need in their high school, we feel like. Cuz this can bring so much attention just to any sporting event or anything that you can do. >> Yeah, we ended up flying it at senior day about last Friday. Last Friday and it got a lot of attention and they loved it. I mean, they were all >> All right. So, we hope to see you guys at the ribbon cutting for the new athletic
036complex. We hope to be able to fly it there and so >> So, you guys are willing to come back and do that. >> We'd love to. >> And Gail, we want you to be there. >> When is it? >> We don't know yet, but we want to make sure that the building is done. But when I visited, Mr. Whitlock invited me to another class and I was late for that and I stumbled up upon this class and learned about this and they they usually do it in the arena gym and I said, "Oh, I wish our building was done." And you both told them, but I think that hey, they come back um so we could launch it for a ribbon cutting in our new building out there. So, now I do have a
037question. If if they use this next year or is the plan to have BC use this next year? >> Yep, yep, yep. >> Who's capable of doing it? a >> it's I'm a junior. >> Okay, good deal. Okay. >> Next year I will be training people. >> Okay. >> So, we uh Cameron also made a user's manual that's pretty nice and Riley's been able to successfully instruct Alex Schwartz. >> I've instructed two people so far and so we got a good start going. >> This is incredible. >> That's a great point though cuz a lot of these things have kind of fallen along white lines, right? Well, we built it we're good now you got to like figure out how to make this thing continue on. So, I was very clear at the onset of
038this project that there needed to be a a very well-written training manual, an owner's manual, maintenance schedules, all those kind of things and they they put all of that together and it's in place. >> Yep. >> So, well if they're at ball games, how do you envision that? Like at timeouts or something that you >> Timeouts, halftime, there's any >> Anytime of day. >> Fly around and then you control how it releases the >> Yep, this is strictly indoors though. >> Okay. So, does the temperature matter because of the helium? >> Yes, when we flew it in the in the arena gym, the temperature impacts the laws every single time the vents would kick on or kick off. Up and down. >> Okay. >> The higher you go to the more power this HVAC is
039going to have to push it around and it's kind of controlled way more. So, it all kind of comes down to like the little things that matter. >> And it's lightweight and everything just in case it does die and fall. >> Yes, it >> Someone will catch it. >> Yeah, hopefully. >> And the name showed me also because I was thinking okay, you get the balloons in there and what happens if something if you need to put a new one in there and you have a door that's kind of easy to >> Yep. >> take off. Pretty slick. Pretty slick. >> So, I'd say at the onset of this I I was like well, this is going to be a quick project. Like these guys will be done with this like that. And they're going
040to be wanting to know what they're going to do the rest of the year. Uh this turned out to be a whole lot harder than initially anticipated. Lighter than airships make sense when they're massive. When they start getting small, their helium has essentially no lift. Like it has some lift, but it's very minuscule. And like I talked about temperature, it could have just been it'd be floating in the room and then some cloud cover rolls over and the thing hits the ground. Like it is affected by barometric pressure and temperature so much. It's crazy. And trying to get it flying for senior day, really got a little overambitious with the helium. And they If If you're just a little too much, though, it takes off to the ceiling and it's gone. Like it's just gone
041until it runs out of helium and comes crashing down to the ground cuz it don't have a rudder or anything. So yeah, it was it was really fun and it's something I think they did a decent job of there was showing you kind of the journey to watch you go through the process of how to actually engineer something like this. It was really really cool to see it. Uh and then making the big turns from big large envelope style zeppelins to something rigid airframe that they could control specific amount of volume of helium inside of them. Really really cool to watch happen. And I'll hope to see the thing still flying next year. It's also pretty fragile, so their next big business is going to be how do you store this thing and it not
042be destroyed when it comes back. >> And I agree, I like the logo and the name. >> I I saw it on your shirts. You had nice shirts there. >> That's the only drop out we wanted but it didn't happen. >> I I we're all friends here. >> But you guys DID EXCELLENT TODAY. AND AGAIN, IF YOU WANT TO TAKE off at this point, you do not need to stay for this meeting. Pun intended. >> You can drop out. >> it out. >> Okay, education item C4, project update. >> But, I have Let's see. I'm going to start from the beginning. I just have a few photos. Um, again, the completion date is August 1st, but you can see there that is Audubon Elementary um in the old art room. They did put some windows
043uh there so we can see um out. The sidewalks are complete. That is the new um music room because we're taking the music room and the storage room to make the dining space. So, they're uh completing the ceiling and the um duct work and the carpet. And I I believe Mrs. Spitznogle and her crew have moved some things into the new closet. This is at the new uh facility at uh Betton Central. So, they were putting sidewalks in. I don't even know if we have pictures of that yet, but that is in. >> Is it top the pool though? >> Oh, yes. Okay, yes, thank you. The two top ones are the pool area so that you can see they have the pool covered so they can do all the work. And uh so, all
044above is where the new units will go. Um again, some more pictures here. You can see they they were forming for the concrete, but that's already done. Inside Here, they got the stripes and uh the cement down. So, it's it's coming along. And it's on on on schedule. And when it's done, we will plan our ribbon cutting. Any questions on the project? >> I was at a baseball game and would recommend maybe raising the the fence to protect the balls from >> We have nets incoming. We in contingency funds, That's a good we do have um really um elastic netting that will be put right there on the um right next anchored next to the new building. >> Yeah. >> And it will go very high to prevent that. >> Perfect. >> Yes, because I
045>> I saw a couple of them they didn't hit it but I was >> Well, they have to do it. I think so. Yeah. So, we have a plan. So, thank you. >> All right, sounds good. Communication C5 first reading of the 2026-2027 student handbooks. >> So, when we say first reading what we mean is is that I like to give two readings for the board to have a month to um to review it. So, I will be bringing this back for an action item in June. So, tonight all I have is just a quick brief summary of some of the changes that the principals have. The elementary, they have the same handbooks. And then the junior senior high have has their handbook, too. So, just a few Mrs. Bitschnaugle, Mrs. Kucart will have a
046few comments. >> Um before we get started on the handbook, I did have a couple um autumn year review highlights to share with the board. Um 10 of them here. First one's the readjusting the boundaries. Overall, that was a you know, as I mentioned earlier, it was a very smooth transition and we've gotten positive feedback from those affected families, students, and parents. Um so, appreciate the board and um everything Mrs. Wright did to the logistics logistics of that. Um next is delayed start time. Again, as I mentioned, our staff have been very appreciative of this extra prep time. This additional time has been utilized for teachers to collaborate, especially those special programming like our special education and our title one um ML lanes. Um at Autumn we have celebrated quarterly honor roll achievements with students
047and families by having an honor roll breakfast. Um those families have really enjoyed coming and celebrating with their child being in the school. This year we have implemented PBIS celebrations every quarter. Um this year we did Minute to Win It games one 9 weeks. Um in December we had Silly Safari reindeer come, which then got bumped back to January because we had the nice uh sickness come around. Um so we had Christmas in January. Um we had Boomer from Pacers. And then this week here um we're going to have Kona Ice for our fourth one. Um we also got to experience that NCAA um experience there in Indianapolis so we kind of stumbled Kids loved it. They had such neat comments, especially as the tournament played like we were there and just providing them that
048opportunity that outside of school they probably would not have had. Um we partnered with our PTO here recently to bring back a successful walkathon for our students. Um we have no state-mandated retentions due to ILEARN. Um those who have not We have a couple that who have not passed ILEARN and they have good cause exemptions um in place because of um some IEPs. Um as Dr. Ziffrin kind of mentioned, the construction of the music room and book room is wrapping up. Last week we officially moved out of the old book room and into the new book room. Um did some purging and reorganizing organizing. Painting of the gym has begun. Um they asked if they could come in since we have the old floor down and we said absolutely we'll work with you. Um so
049we're excited to see that. And then obviously the new dining area, gym floor, and bleacher projects will begin on May 28th. Um all kindergarten through sixth grade teachers are automatically in grade crossing. I fully implemented the new CKLA curriculum with fidelity. Um Mrs. Fisher can attest to we have seen great growth in our scores with our dibbles by using that uh fidelity. And so I think a lot of teachers are seeing that hard work pay off. Um and last, we just continue to provide students with a fun, loving, yet structured year of learning while exposing them to experiences and enrichment opportunities they may not have otherwise outside of school. So overall it's been a very successful year. >> Yeah, we're ending on full throttle. We had a lot of things planned. We had the donuts
050for grownups, donuts for grownups, two sessions. We had so many and then like the comments. We had two sessions of that. We had our successful lunch on the lawn. We had to use the rain date for that. But we had a beautiful day for that and that that worked out really really well. We have a couple projects, big projects going on this um this summer. We've got a new intercom system being put in. You know, the old one's been there 20 years and it's ready ready to be replaced. And then we have we're putting carpet throughout the entire building. We're going to do that in two phases, but we're going to do the full building this summer. So it's we have a lot going on. And then we got summer school, three weeks of summer
051school going on as well. So Yeah. >> A lot of great things Dr. Archer said. >> Yeah. Mr. Pufahl, Ms. Whaley and I have tag-teamed this handbook. Most of the changes that we highlighted, we kept everything in just so you can see what we would like to take out and what we'd like to change. Minor changes are highlighted. A lot of those are start times or you know, we didn't have Ms. Whaley's name on it. Change in terminology from RTI to MTSS, which is kind of the new lingo, same thing. So if you have any questions on that, we're happy to answer those. One thing we did want to talk about, a bigger change is our homework policy. As you can see, that's on page four and five. And not to take up time, I
052just will read it real quick. At Prairie Crossing Autumn Elementary, we believe students work hard throughout the school day and deserve time in the evenings to rest, connect with their families and participate in activities that support healthy development. Because our teachers provide high-quality instruction, guided practice and intervention during the school day, we do not assign traditional nightly homework. Instead, we encourage families to support learning at home through simple, meaningful activities that reinforce important skills and build lifelong habits. Then we kind of give some recommended evening learning activities, family time and well-being. Our thought with this is we work our kids hard from 8:30 to 3:00 with this high rigorous um curriculum that you guys have graciously got us at the elementary level. Um so we expect that work to be done at school. Um if
053they're absent or they don't get class their work done in class, they would have that um homework then as well. Um we will ask students to do 20 minutes of reading just to make sure that they're reading and progressing on that. Um we think with our new CKLA curriculum that this will help continue to listen progressively not have to stop and go back and re-teach because some kiddos didn't get their homework done. >> we'll both be focusing on with their staff this year is and our kiddos is reading. And getting books in the kids' hands rather than looking at a device. We want to to have books in their hands and do more reading. Thank you. >> So I our overall goal is for students to give their best effort during the school day while
054maintaining a healthy balance at sports, academics success, success, well-being, and strong family connections. Um we kind of collaborated with some local schools um and different corporations that implement this kind of no homework policy. Um so that's probably our biggest change that we proposed in our handbook. Questions on that? Cuz I know that was kind of a big one. >> No, that's I I think that's great cuz um there's my cousin in Texas they do the same thing at their school. No homework and they But they get also sunlight year round. >> Yeah. >> So it's a little harder around here but no, just to keep the kids active but the promoting the reading is great. We need to do that. Awesome. >> Couple other updates. Um you know, I wrote them down here for you.
055Um updated attendance policy to mirror Benton Central's policy. That's where we give those courtesy letters on day three and day five of abs- of unexcused absences and then we will have a meeting on day 10. Um we also defined a half day absence in elementary terms versus it was in grade period terms which is more relevant to the junior high and high school. Um PBIS we no longer do a whole school wide plan. Instead each classroom has their own. So that was a kind of a wording change in there. Phone policy, we did add in the after school program now that that's going to be back in the schools. We included that there should be no cell phones during after school program. Tutoring, we just changed the word wording study tables to tutoring sessions cuz
056that's how we communicate to parents. The tobacco, e-cigarette, and vape policy, we changed it from a 3-day ACS and a special programming to 3-day after school suspension. Um kind of with collaboration of our school resource officers on that one. Um on page 15, we added the use of AI to complete work that mirrors what Ben Central has in their handbook. Um we updated the suspension policy. Um it was kind of in there it talked about a formal meeting and that was more of the expulsion protocols. So, um you know, before we would So, we would no longer We don't have to have that formal meeting before suspension. We notify parents most of the time by phone and they also get it through the Harmony notifications. Um and then we did add in that those students
057are given the opportunity to complete the missed work while they are gone on a suspension period. Um after school program, which will be page 17, we will update that after the board approval hopefully tonight of the ASP handbook policies and procedures. Um and then lastly page 18, we just changed the wording RTI to MTSS. Same thing, just a multi-tiered support system. It's the new new and improved wording. So, um other than that, they're very minor details. Um and we will have to go back once all is said and done and kind of update the page numbers and take things out. We'll tweak it, but we are happy to answer any questions. Anyone else? >> Yeah, I was just curious what what um stems with the homework policy change. I think you covered that. Talked about
058it though, so I appreciate the additional information. Um didn't know if you had like benchmarked on any other schools. We know other schools that were were doing this. You see a imbalance of a lot of kids turning it in and then a big group of kids not turning in and then you're like you sit your re-teaching that in the daytime and >> Yeah. >> some of that. >> It's good just to focus on it. And I I think we'll get more kids focused on it where they don't have to I don't necessarily be focusing on on a one class, you know, for the sake >> Work hard during the day and let them be kids. >> Right. >> Yeah. So, we will vote on this next month. So, if there are any small changes or
059whatever, then we'll communicate that or if you have questions, you can always ask. >> Would you like us to clean it up in the fact of what I Oops. Um take out what we've marked out, unhighlight things, and change the page numbers or is that something you want us to do it after you approve it next month? I don't know. >> I would wait until I go over it and approve it. That way they can decide for >> in the old and new. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Thank >> Yep. >> So, then as the junior senior high, it's basically just fine-tuning things, but the cell phone policy is the biggest. >> Yeah. Large um majority of our changes were just reflecting the 94% percent attendance. It's an accountability now. Um other things, trying to
060We didn't have the backpack policy and no backpacks in in the dress code. More stuff. The cell phone And that's the thing that everyone cares about. >> Yes. >> So, ideally we were wanting to get this information out to students before they went on for the summer, but um we are this is not going to happen, but I'm going to with your permission, I'd like to send out our proposed policy hopefully depending on what your feedback is tonight. We talked with students, we've talked with teachers in discussion, we've sent it out to all teachers, and received um good feedback. We went to discussion uh last I think it was last week. And we had settled on basically that kids can put them in their lockers cuz the state has determined if you have lockers and
061all of our kids have a locker, but that is a place where it can be locked up, shut off. Um, and the urging of some of many of the members' discussion, um, we kind of left that that day and decided that we were going to uh, I We haven't settled on the lockbox yet, but the students are going to take their phones. They'll be responsible to take their phones when they get off the bus. So, for that period of class, they'll put it in this locked box. And they will be off. Um, the students are responsible to do that. The teachers don't have to check up on them each morning, cuz that's not realistic. That's not going to happen. >> Mhm. >> Um, the students are responsible. We're providing them a place to put it.
062That's their responsibility to put it there. We also, as you can see in the policy, are are going harsh. You have one warning, parent pick-up. Yes, that inconvenience is our parents, but it's also And then the second second offense, we go harsh. Um, after receiving feedback of what some area schools are doing, everyone is doing everything. Um, but I'm of the opinion this is a serious matter. The state has created a law. Think of the last time the state created a law on a school policy matter. They've created all kinds of laws and all kinds of mandates, but they're saying, "We don't want cell phones in the schools." Um, and it is a huge distraction. I don't think you'd get a lot of Anybody to disagree with you. It's a distraction for all of us.
063Um, but in our kids, studies are proving it is really affecting their lives. So, we're taking it seriously. We're going to take it seriously, and with the help of our staff, we're going to implement this policy, and hopefully we will take care of a significant issue. And yes, it it you look at the policy itself and I'm using my own cell phone. Um you know, that second offense is going to be a one full day of ACS and then parents pick up the phone again. Hopefully at at some point the parents are going to say, "What are you doing? Why are you continuing to get in trouble with this thing?" And then the third is going to be an out of school suspension. Fourth, hopefully we don't get to that point. Hopefully at that point
064we've said, "Okay, this we're taking this seriously. We'll give you that one mistake. We'll give you that one place, time where we're working on What do we do with our entering kids? What do we do with the kids who come in late? What do we do with the kids who come in early? Do we have all of that figured out yet? No. But we have a pretty good ideas of what we're going to do. We're going to have phones We're going to have a place to store them in the office. Kids go to their seventh hour. If you're there at normal day, you dropped your phone off in your seventh hour, at the last minute of seventh hour your teacher says, "All right, grab your phone." You grab your phone. One of the significant concerns
065of our teachers they don't want to they don't want to have to fight with a kid to take a phone. If they're going to take a phone if Monica asks Abby to give her her phone and Abby says, "No." We put that in the policy. Monica would go back to her desk, call us, email us, say, "Hey, Abby refused me to give me her phone." We bring Abby down. We skip all the way to out of school suspension. It's not We're serious. We're taking this seriously. Monica doesn't need to miss any more time out of her class to deal with Abby's attitude. So, sorry, Abby. Um >> I don't think it's a problem not to have it ready yet for the parents. Everybody knows now that it's a law. We're just fine-tuning how that will
066look. So, they've all been been told that. So, I would rather you be very very uh comfortable with what what we present in in June. >> Yeah. So. We'll just introduce to students that there will be a significant change to cell phones. We've already done this in the months. We've sent out surveys. We We've done this, but I think everybody's aware it's coming. >> I appreciate all the input you sought. >> Yeah, I know. It's a It's a big challenge. And not our choice Yeah, not necessarily our choice, but you know, like we didn't come up with this ourselves. It's the state of Indiana. Yeah, well, oops. So. >> So, at this point, I am going to allow the principals. I know that you are busy people. If you want to take off, you can
067now and no judgement. >> Okay, so we move on to old business, which there is none. Moving on to E new business. Bypassed E1, so we'll move to E2. Consider approval of the following field trip requests. Benton Central FFA chapter to the Indiana FFA state convention in Noblesville, June 16th, 2026 through June 18th, 2026. Benton Central eighth grade students to Washington D.C., April 1st, 2027 through April 6th, 2027. I'll make a motion on that, please. >> I'll make a motion to consider the approval of the following field trip request. The Benton Central FFA uh to the state convention in Noblesville, June 16th through the 18th, and the Benton Central eighth grade students to Washington D.C., April 1st, 2027 through April 6th, 2027. >> And I'll second that. >> Okay, motion and a second. Is there
068any questions or concerns? >> No. >> Both great trips. >> All in favor of those signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion carries. >> E3, consider approval of shared dietitian consortium services contract for August 1st, 2026 through June 1st, 2027. Can I get a motion for that, please? >> I'll make the motion to consider the approval of the shared dietitian consortium services contract from August 1st, 2026 through June 1st, 2027. >> I'll second. >> Okay, motion and a second. Are there any other questions? >> I'll just let you know that's a um service that the uh service center provides a lot of schools. Very, very helpful in planning menus and also make sure that uh allergies and things like that are are at least um handled. So, lots of schools uh do
069this. >> Is this something we've done before or is this new to us? >> New to us, but very common. Uh I our school uh my previous school has done it. Yeah, yes. >> Okay. >> Nice. >> Uh all in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion carries. >> E4, consider approval to declare the 2014 Ram 1500 SSV VIN number 1C6RR7XT6EAS418460 as obsolete equipment. Can I get a motion for that, please? >> You don't have to >> I was going to say >> Okay, consider approval to declare the 2014 Ram 1500 SSV the VIN number as Scott stated as obsolete equipment. >> And I'll second. >> Okay, motion and a second. Any questions? >> And just uh if you then the automotive department, the auto mechanics class, will give that to
070them. Yes, so we won't have plates for it. >> Good use for it. All in favor, signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carries. E5, consider approval of the after school program policies, handbook, and wage scale. Can I get a motion for that, please? >> I will make a motion to consider the approval of the after school program policies, handbook, and wage scale. >> I'll second. >> Okay, motion and a second. Is there any questions? >> I do want to point out that um I gave you the latest. All I needed to do was change I think we stated the number of minutes for late policy and we just left out the minutes there. >> Okay. >> Uh we just felt that would be cleaner. So, the version that you have in front
071of you is the one that you will be approving. And um just so everybody else knows, we are uh taking back the after school program that we've done for 1 year. We've contracted it out and we're going to take it back. And so, we just wanted to update policies in the handbook and the wages that you see in there. >> I'm glad to see that option. >> This will all take place then starting the >> Yes, beginning of the school year. We'd like to get this out to the families uh this week or next so they can start applying for it. >> So, you can know your numbers and how to >> staff and set. >> Okay. Uh motion and a second. So, all in favor of this, signify by saying aye. >> Aye. Uh
072opposed? Motion carries. E6, consider approval of the memorandum of understanding between Benton Community School Corporation and Indiana Wesleyan University. Can I get a motion for that, please? >> I'll make a motion to the approval of a memorandum of understanding between BCSE and Indiana Wesleyan University. >> I'll second. Okay, motion and a second. Is there any comments or >> Yeah, I just want to to uh re-emphasize what that is. So, any of our uh teachers or paraprofessionals who are interested in getting certified as a teacher, uh we have an agreement with Indiana Wesleyan uh to help them in doing that. And it does have a discount attached to it, so. >> So, it's for any any other higher education that the teacher may want to do? >> They have it for like it's all to lead
073towards teacher certification. So, if we have a bachelor's if we have a current teacher who needs certification in other area, if we have a paraprofessional who has no schooling but wants to be a teacher, >> Yeah. >> or we have somebody kind of in the middle there. >> Okay. Will this be utilized for like literary endorsements? >> No. >> I do not believe so. >> So, that's that's So, are you talking full career or just >> Strictly teacher transition, teacher certification. >> Got you. >> I'm on specialty. >> Okay, motion and a second in place. All in favor, say aye, please. >> Aye. >> All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. We are down to the comment section. Do we have anybody signed up or anything? >> I think you wanted to introduce your >> Yeah.
074>> Uh for the 2026-2027 school year, Brandy Walbanger and I are going to be co-presidents for PTA, so. >> Okay, very good. >> Welcome, Brandy, to the school. >> Yes. >> And I look forward to learning from Monica and working with Dr. Zukerman and the board and and doing the best I can for our teachers and our students. >> Okay. >> We appreciate the work you're going to put in. >> It's a lot of time and effort, though. >> Yeah, I think we all have a really good relationship. >> forward to that. >> You think you're having a busy year or something? >> I know. I'm like Yeah. >> It's just going to be nice to share some more >> So, we're going to work together this year and have a good time. >> And
075I said that I would take over the July meetings. >> Yeah, she doesn't have to worry about >> Yeah, there you go. >> Yeah, I was like that's Yeah, you got You kind of have some things you're going to put me busy with. >> Yes. >> At least you won't have to worry about bargaining contract next year. >> Exactly. >> Good job. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. Anything else from anyone? Any comments, concerns? >> No. >> Good of the cause? >> Mhm. >> Good things happening. >> Thank you again to the students. Nice job. >> Yeah. >> I think we should Yeah, I want to get out of the way. It's work, guys. >> It is, yeah. >> Oh, wait.