001To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. So, we'll go ahead and recognize we have a full quorum this evening. All five members present. Um, and we have nothing to add to the agenda. So, if I can get a motion for approving the agenda as is. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as is. >> Scott, I to you. All right. Any questions, discussion on the items? All right. Okay. All those in favor for approving the um this evening's agenda, please say I. >> I. Opposed. Same sign. All right. Now is the time for um audience to be able to speak on agenda items and non-aggenda items will be opened back
002up. Did we have anybody sign? Okay. All right. So we will go ahead and move on to our routine matters which is the um minutes of the ratification public hearing of October 13, 2025 and minutes of our regular meeting on October 13 of 2025. >> I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. >> Any questions, discussions on those minutes? All right. All those in favor [clears throat] for approving [laughter] the ratification public hearing minutes and the regular meeting minutes on October 13th, please say I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Okay. [clears throat] Then we have our vouchers and financial reports. If I could get a motion for approving or yes, I guess we're considering approval for those. >> I'll make a motion to approve the payment of vouchers and financials. >> Thank you. I'll second. Okay,
003Tracy, did you have anything to add? I did not. Someone had any questions? Normal. >> Okay. So, um, do any other discussions, questions? So, for approving our vouchers and financial reports, our total is going to be 3,456,629.84. So, all those in favor for approving um financial reports. Please say I >> I oppose same sign. We have our donations. Um just regular communication things for the month. Um so some donations at Benton Central. We have um FFA had a $200 donation and the athletics track and field had a $20 donation and another one of 50. Athletics of 25, another FFA of 250. Um again FFA of $50. Helping Hands had a donation of 200. And the automotive shop had a Honda and a Civic. um hybrid. Oh, wait. No, it's just one. 2005 Honda Civic hybrid
004donated and a Ford. Oh, 2004 Ford Ranger. And um it looked like also a brake. >> Okay. Brake. So, wow. That's um some big donations there. So, 14,382 for the auto shop at BC. And then another FFA of um $20,000 and cap of 333. So that's >> Yeah, it was from an estate somewhere. >> Okay. All right. >> That's a larger one than normal that we see. So that is awesome. >> I guess this came to the sale every year for >> lots and lots of years. And when he passed away, he had in his will to leave $20,000. >> Wow. That's amazing. >> Yeah. >> And good donation for the auto shop as well. >> Uh was that by one person or was it >> one person? >> One. Yeah. Okay. um donations at
005Prairie Crossing. We had a cafeteria donation and again it's of those applying to the um negative lunch balances of $500 cafeteria and um that was at pray crossing again the negative balances at $415 and none this month for all. Okay. So thank you again for all those donors because it does help all of our programs um at every school. So much appreciated. Fundraiser update. We have a lot this um really not necessarily going on this month, but that are um that we're approving this month, but the ones there are some hat things >> [clears throat] >> um going on at the schools. Um some other ones that I kind of made note of that are going to be active is wherever. Um yeah. I guess they're all up there. The helping hands had they're doing
006some donation letters. They're sending out the band booster is doing their laundry soap and trash bag fundraiser. And the class of 27 is doing a homestead bakery fundraiser band that has the cheese and sausage fundraiser. And then just some other like within the schools that they're doing. So you might be hearing from some of those members or purchasing some items up Mr. >> All right. Well, I brought along a couple more fantastic teachers and student teacher as well. Um we just [clears throat] want to highlight um some of the things that they're doing in the classroom um with our new um English language arts curriculum. Um, it's called CKLA and just to give you the official definition, it's a comprehensive reading and language arts program designed to help students build strong reading, writing, speaking, and
007listening skills. Uh, it includes two main parts. The skills teaching phonics, decoding, spelling, basic skills, and the knowledge build students background knowledge through readalouds on science, history, literature, and the arts. The goal is to give students the foundational skills they need to read and the background knowledge that helps them understand what they read. So, giving them context in what they're reading. Um, there's always challenges in starting new programs, but I've been really really proud of of all my teachers um and staff for um implementing this new program um taking on the challenge and they've been doing a great job. I've been into some of the classrooms um and part of the reason I wanted them to come is because they're doing some fantastic things in the classroom with this new program and um just the
008kids are really soaking it up and they're really getting it and they're talking about higher level thinking and Greek gods. I got second grade kids raising their hands, you know, naming Greek gods and like I didn't know those until I was, you know, eighth grade, you know, I mean, so >> I didn't know them until a couple [laughter] weeks ago. >> So, um, so there I mean, it's just really really a really good program and again, it's taken some time, but I'm I'm really proud of them. And so, um, we got Cassidy first. First, >> go ahead. All right. >> Um, hi Cassie and her know all of you. This is Elena Miller. She's my Purdue student teacher. So, she's been helping a lot with our CK planning and teaching. Um, I was going to
009talk to you about our most recent um domain that we did for our knowledge strand. Our knowledge strand does a lot of um listening comprehension for our second graders because not all of them are reading independently. It's not fair to give them a text that's too hard for them to read and then they're focusing the whole time on trying to figure out what it is. So, the knowledge domain, we do a lot of listening comprehension. Um, our daily routine looks like this every single day. We introduce the story we're talking about. We build background knowledge. We talk about things we've done um maybe the lesson previous. Then we do a readaloud text. It's very engaging. Um the students are um ask questions. We talk about vocabulary. Um we have a very large comprehension discussion at
010the end of every read aloud which they do wonderful with. Um and there's always some sort of vocabulary word work that we do. So, um the vocabulary words that we're working on are pretty um they're pretty like hard for second graders, but our goal is to, you know, introduce them. We're not wanting them to use them in conversations right away, but I've noticed over the past few months that we've been doing this, they do start using some of those words. I'm like, happy. Okay, great. Yeah. Um and then each day there's some sort of application. So, um today I am teaching or teaching about the War of 1812 right now. And so they had to convince me, President James Madison, whether that we should go to war or whether we shouldn't go to war. And
011they just do a great job. They really get into it. Um, so some of these quotes I pulled from I just asked them. I was like, "So what did you like about this?" And one of my favorite little girls, she um was like, "I just love learning about the gods and goddesses and they all love the goddess Deer because she helps grow food and she's the goddess of harvest." And they could talk to you all day about it. Um, another [clears throat] one goes, "I really liked that that one guy. He ran all all over the place and his name's Fidipities. I don't know how you like remember how to say that, but um he's like who a marathon run is named after um things that he did. Um and then I'll let Alina talk
012about what we did for our activity day. We do them at the end of each of our units. >> Yeah. So, for this specific one, we knew we wanted to bring in um like food from like Greek food. So, we did a Greek dinner party, which was definitely a big hit. We had, you know, taziki and pita bread and hummus and some olives, some grapes. Um, and we set up the classroom to have one big dinner together, which was super fun. Um, and then in addition to that, we did some Olympic games kind of to mirror what they did in Greece, but which we read about in many of our different readalouds. Um, and so we had the kids in teams and they got to kind of compete against each other doing different relay uh
013races in the classroom, which was super fun. Um, and so yeah, this activity day, I think specifically will definitely be remembered by them just because it's super fun and super engaging. Um, >> and it involves food. >> Yes. [laughter] >> Hi, I'm Angie Norman. I'm a sixth grade teacher. Um, I am really enjoying the new curriculum that we have and like Mr. cases we kind of have some hiccups and it's start it's tough to get going but I think a lot of us are rolling with it and enjoying it more. Um we are I ask my students as well what they like about the curriculum and now we're not in sixth grade it's called Amplify and I think that's Amplify 6th through 12th grade now. So CKLA is a little different than what Amplify is.
014Our platform looks a little different. Um, our students are let's say that the online portion of it is easy to follow. >> Um, the stories can be read to you. And what's really neat about the stories being read to them is that you have inflection on the voices. Sometimes it's the author reading it to them. It's it's fun to listen to. Um, and it also has a really neat built-in dictionary where when you come to a word that they're reading on the computer and they're not sure what it is, it's underlined. you click it right above the word pops the definition. So if even if it's being read aloud to you, you're not getting behind by looking back and forth on what words mean. Um what I've enjoyed about Amplify is the amount of writing
015my students are doing. They're writing all the time. Um it has always been like pulling teeth to get sixth graders to write. Everything is writing related right now. I have enjoyed the stories that they're reading. They seem to enjoy them, too. And if you know sixth graders, they're not always happy to do that. Um, the ease of the online grading, I have to tell you, is really cool. This morning, we were doing a writing prompt. They were on their Chromebooks, and as I'm walking around, I can see I'm watching when they submit. So, I can go right back to my desk, get on the teacher platform, read it right away, give them feedback, send it back to them just like that. So even before a writing um class is done, I'm already giving them feedback
016and saying, "Hey, you need to retry this. This looked great. I enjoyed this about your writing." Um differentiation on it. My lower readers, I can change the kind of story. They still get the same story and the same prompts as everyone else, but it can scaffold a little better so that they can complete the work without someone sitting right there helping them all the time. I found that to be really neat. Um, we've learned that the online portion really mimics the iLearn questions with drop- down menus, with that dictionary, how they're scrolling through things. It looks a lot the I learn um we have a couple of upcoming things that I started to develop for my class at the end of the unit we're on right now. We're going to do some candy tasting to
017do descriptive writing. Um we have a yellow fever unit coming up. The parallels we're going to be able to make to co I think is going to really hit hard with these kids because they remember it. >> Um we have a chocolate collection unit coming up which I'm really excited [laughter] about. I'm planning [cough and clears throat] I've researched that we can do a virtual field trip even to Hershey's Story Museum in Pennsylvania. So, we you know, this is just the first year. It's going to be cool as the years come up to be able to see some different things that we can do and collaborate with the others to do it. And the other side over there, I have that's the bottom left with kind of the candies. That's one of my students and
018that's her beautiful writing from the other day. That's in paragraph format. they're citing sources, they're, you know, using evidence correctly. All great standards in sixth grade. So, >> thank you. >> Um I also want to mention Amanda Why, my dean of students. She couldn't be here um this evening, but um she's been a real integral part in [clears throat] implementing helping implement this program. Done a great job of helping to coach the teachers um provide them with resources um and sharing her instructional knowledge. So, she's been a real um real help. very helpful in this process. So, >> she's wonderful. >> No, thank >> any questions. >> Sounds great. >> No, I agree. Thanks for sharing and um embracing the challenge and >> um taking that on for the the benefit of all the students.
019So appreciate that >> and thank you for embracing the challenge, but also when you embrace the challenges, some of those other teachers who might need a little bit of um encouragement, >> that's appreciative as well. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Now, we're going to segue to Edie about curriculum and that will kind of finalize the curriculum and then I'll give you guys a chance to step out. [clears throat] [laughter] >> Thank you. Okay. And so just briefly, I don't know if you have Oh, there we go. Um, [clears throat] so Monday the 10th, we had our final uh Benton teacher collaboration day for this semester and teachers worked at each of their schools. We did have cross district collaboration for about a half an hour. Our teaching teams in the elementary schools met via
020Zoom or Google Meet. so that um they were uh sharing ideas and reflecting. Uh we did look at beginning of the year data. We're hoping um we'll have midyear data when we meet again in January. Um I'm so excited because I had people saying, "Well, Mrs. Fisher, this data that you shared with us, it would have been better if we had this data." And I'm like, "Yes, we're all becoming data hounds. Um we're really working to um dig into our own classroom data uh and look at our students performances and their growth and then make adjustments as needed. So we're looking ahead to those professional development days January, February, and April with more analysis. and the high school teachers are working more on curriculum mapping but also doing many similar things with data um PSAT
021data and iLearn data. And I did want to share with you um the fourth grade teachers at Otterban also this last week um engaged in some um culminating activities at the end of a unit for CKLA. They invited the medieval society from Purdue to come and they had an opportunity to uh hear a little bit about medieval times from these local experts and to dress up to they had lots of costumes. So, and finally today we had our first inschool visit with our discipline our conscious discipline behavior coach Katie Ahern. She was at prayer crossing and meeting with teachers and um aids. You can see she's meeting there with the aids. Um she came into some of the classrooms. She did some modeling for our sixth graders. And um we're just really working on regulation,
022how to help students regulate. Her conversation with the AIDS was very interesting about getting the kids to come in from recess and um to how to deal with disputes at recess and lining up and moving through the school. So, lots of best practice ideas and lots of sharing about that. So, she will also, there's one more slide. She will be on um Advent Central on Wednesday night at six o'clock for a parent night just talking about healthy relationships and how we can help our students grow and learn. >> So good stuff today. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I appreciate all the teamwork with the academics and curriculum. So >> yeah. Okay. Let's see how >> Yeah, we will let them. >> We won't We never make you stay. You welcome. >> Let me get back
023to this. Just take it a minute to load our projects and facilities update so it's visual to the online. >> It's going. >> It's loading. >> Oh, is it? Yeah. Okay. Let's see if we need uh Oh, there's I don't think so. Just there you go. The mouse is triggered here. Okay, let's >> I think we're good. Even >> it's just taking a little bit. >> All you had to do is come in the room. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Okay, we're ready for C5 with the projects and facilities upgrade. >> So, um the athletic storage annex uh demolation uh has occurred. The excavating is near completion and so the footings forming the pouring of the peers all that is is going on. Uh Otterban Elementary the footings uh the excavating and the block foundations are
024are are taking place right now. In the next two weeks they'll be pouring the peers bore in the conduits and then install the sanitary. So all of that pre-work before we start um closing it in. Um we have had uh meetings every two weeks with our um project manager and so we've had board representation there. So thank you and we'll continue to do that. >> Has there been any movement on the swimming pool? No. >> Is that start later in the year though? >> Yes, I believe so. And I thought it was because of the timing of when the students would be using that, >> I would think. Yeah, >> because that's going to really mess them up, >> right? So we haven't even begun that. >> Okay. But that may be a good question
025for us to ask at our next project meeting to know >> how far out are we talking. >> Yeah, I think that has to do with the equipment as well because there's a long lead time on the equipment. >> Okay, that would make sense. >> I could be thinking of something else. >> Okay, that's what I have for the C6 is the neola policy. just our first read on some of the um changes that are coming out. So it looks like >> bylaw changes and some policy verbiage. So all the all the policies always reflect the new legislative uh laws. And so like some of the highlights there uh in the bylaws uh they have now changed the minimum age to be a schoolboard member from 21 to 18. Um there's a partisan election requirements.
026You have to you are asked what your party affiliation is. And so there's uh that is new. Uh a compensation for board members. Um common practice now is to not exceed 10% of the lowest starting salary of a teacher employed by the school corporation. So they changed uh how much we can compensate. And I'm I'm just going to say Mitten Community School Corporation uh is is pretty minimal. So it may be something that I I may recommend. Um there's a lot of time and effort put into being on the school board. So they recognize that and they have allowed a certain amount. Um executive session language. You you can hold executive sessions for certain reasons and they just cleared those up so that um they were concise and included more areas. Um, as far as
027policies, the staff evaluations, they removed the four categories. Um, it used to be highly effective, effective, uh, needs improvement and below below. Um, what they've done is there's two. However, the schools have the discretion to um, define how we do that, develop a rubric. And so, I know that that we want to do that for uh, next year's develop a new one. and that will be on our discussion but they did change that from four categories to two. The uh teacher appreciation grant language was revised and uh now only 20% of the teachers are eligible in each district to receive that. This has been uh pretty close to a nightmare to try to navigate and it's for all schools. Um we understand that they want to reward uh good teachers but this is uh not
028easy to navigate and we'll talk a little bit about that in our work session tonight, but we have had good discussion with the BEA and I think we're going to tackle it as best we can. >> Do you want to explain what the tag is? >> Yes. So the TAG grant is that um for your high-erforming teachers, they want to reward the state wants to reward those high performing teachers and uh all of the teachers used to get it if they were highly effective or effective and it was a smaller amount of money. Now they are offering uh 3500, 5,000 or 7,000 which is a nice stipen. However, they limit it to 20% of your teachers and only 20% of your teachers can do that. And they indicate that it needs to be based on
029the performance and growth of your students. And they indicate that based on assessments, but you can decide as a school what those assessments are. And some teachers teach a content that's not tested. So, what assessment do they use? And it's it's just very very difficult. And then uh as all the schools had to um put a job form in that said if you want to participate in that talked about not participating in it because it pits teachers against teachers and it's very difficult but we don't want the state to interpret that as we don't want >> your funds. Yeah. And so we said yes to it. And so all all the schools had to do that. Well more schools wanted money than there is money. So now uh bitten community has a $58,000 pot and
030that won't cover 20% of our teachers at the lowest threshold. >> So now our 20% which was 24 teachers is down to like 16 or 17. So then but we're still supposed to figure out who gets it. So challenging >> and to say the least, but I I'm just thankful that we can have some good conversation and try to tackle this. Um and then the policies, the technical and legal content changes that we have. And so those are in there. And um now the tag policy um does not have to incorporate what we do. That's it tells us we have to develop a tag policy and then we develop our own kind of like the evaluations. >> Yeah. >> We'll finish out the year with our current >> Yes. Yes. We decided to do that
031because in July it was too late in the game to change. >> Yes. >> Is there a firm date on when the tag grant needs to be distributed? >> Yes. Uh January 30th. We have to have our people. >> Really? >> Yes. Wow. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Do you have the money distributed in April? >> April. Yes. The money distributed in April. But we have to indicate >> Yes. By January 30. So, we had a [clears throat] discussion meeting uh last week and then we have another one scheduled November 24th. Um we have sources from other schools and see how they're doing it and we're trying to streamline this, but we feel like the teachers need to apply themselves if they believe they fit into these categories. So, we'll have a Google form for that.
032We I'll share more information as it goes on. Uh C7 is just some legislative impact summary. I get asked a lot since the uh spring legislation was up on how how is that Senate Bill one affecting your school and you you hear a lot it's it's not good for schools. And so typically for all Indiana schools, I have bulleted here. It's going to uh increase our reliance on the debt and and uh and the transfer from education fund to cover operations because those property taxes that that is the operation fund. So, we're going to have to do some transferring. All schools will have to declining revenues. If we have any cash reserves, it's going to decrease. Our our revenues will decline. Um they will defer some maintenance. So, so some schools may not do projects
033on their aging facilities. Um and educational challenges. We could have larger class sizes and reduction in force. So that would be uh a general statement for all schools. Now forbidden community I will say that is true except it will be delayed to some extent and why is that the case? That's because uh thanks to our 2020 referendum and so we have that revenue coming in and so those delays will be you know we will experience the delays and also I want to point out that we got the referendum in 2020 but we also got the COVID relief money then and so we were able to be good financial stewards and our cash reserves are healthy and we heard Brock talk about that at our work session uh earlier in the year and so we are
034lucky that we have those strong reserves. Um I also think that we have taken a good approach to our facilities when we had that um assessment done and we prioritize some of the things we're working on now. Um and so hopefully we're staying ahead of the game when it comes to that. So overall, if you hear other schools saying they're going to lay off, you know, that's real. So why doesn't Bitten? Well, we we we are fortunate to have that referendum dollars and the good um cash reserves, but I'm sharing this because I have talked to the teachers about, you know, when when we make decisions, we need to keep in mind that this is delayed. So, um just thought that might be helpful because I know a lot of schools are are in in
035trouble right now. >> And we did foresee some of these things coming to [clears throat] >> Yes. I mean, they've been talking about some of these things in this in this bill for a while. So, that's >> kind of how we >> took that in mind when we made the decisions we've made. >> Yes. [snorts] And we also knew that the care relief money, CO relief wasn't going to be here. We knew that. So, we are fortunate right now, but we're not immune to it. So, just just be prepared. Our [cough and clears throat] last communication item is the C8 inclement weather e-learning verse the synchronous learning. So this is this is a timely issue. You know we had that winter weather a week ago and we were already on a two-hour delay and it
036did not mean a cancellation but many schools did and farmers almanac says that this year is going to be it could be very very um challenging. So, uh, we began to worry about how much longer in the school year do we go? Does it affect graduation, our summer school, and then the the the summertime in general? So, many schools use synchronous learning. And so, what's the difference between the two? We have three e-learning days that we can use. All schools can do that. Those are assignments sent home. They can also be done online, but those are sent home. Synchronous learning is it is direct instruction. So you might log on with the class at 9:00 with everybody and so that's direct instruction. Those days have no limit according to the state of Indiana. I do
037have an opinion. I think it can be overused and I don't think it's the best method. And so I think that's why for so long B in community we haven't considered that. But which way do we go? How long do we push graduation and summer school? So, all I wanted to do was know how comfortable are are our teachers if we choose to go this route if we have too many snow days. And so, we put a um survey out there. And we had about 66 67% of our staff saying I'm comfortable, very comfortable or comfortable doing this. So, that was just on Thursday and Friday. So on Friday, I let the staff know that we have interest. And so what I want in the next several weeks is I want the schools to talk
038about what it might look like because each school is different. >> The requirement is only two and a half hours of direct instruction for elementary and three hours for the junior senior high. So it's not an all day direct instruction. Um, so we don't have to reinvent the wheel. So I believe right now the schools are talking to their teachers, asking other schools what they do, and then they're supposed to get back. And I'm going to use that November 24th meeting that we have for TAG to also gain some insight on how we feel. And if this is something that we want to have in our back pocket, then I would ask for that approval in December. So just one more thing to be clear about. It's not using it on any inclement weather day.
039It would be after all e-learning days have been exhausted. If there are any flex days, we would exhaust those. Now this year we don't have flex days, but next year in our calendar we have two or three in there. We would exhaust all of those and then we would go three days after Memorial Day. So no synchronous learning should be used until those things have happened. So it's not like a a quick and the three days I think we derived at trying to figure out the finals at the high school on on when that happens. Plus then we wouldn't go into summer school. I know there are lots of challenges that we haven't addressed. It would be like um special programming when we don't have students who don't have connectivity. So we know all those
040are there and that's what the schools are working on right now. How would we work around those things? So from here, what are we doing? We're exploring and then they might practice with the kids, you know. >> So that that's what we're doing now. Um but if we're going to say let's have it in our back pocket for this school year, I feel like we need to approve it mid year so that parents are ready for it. So I'm I'm open for any discussion now. Um but I wanted to to share that To my knowledge, I think because of co we have hot spots in various areas of the community that we still pay for. I'm pretty sure >> we never we weren't paying for we were using the like was >> okay >> was
041paying for and we used co but that is getting ready to expire. >> Mr. Parker has been talking to me about that. >> The hot spots that we sit you're talking about the hotspots we sent home with students. Yeah. So we need to make yeah we would have to make a decision whether we would continue but we would >> for those because of the code >> right and rate >> through e- rate and you that's above me you have to talk to technology >> that's a new term >> technology fund >> and I know that through the government there's these companies I think get some kind of tax relief by allowing schools but I don't know >> I think it's a great idea Yeah, honestly. I mean, if I mean, the fact that you reached
042out to the teachers and the majority's on board. I mean, I do it every day. I jump on teams and I meetings all throughout the day. And the fact that it's only two and a half to three hours. You can cover what you need to as long as is a program where all the kids jump on at the same time. >> They hit the >> or they can assign groups. They could say, "I will meet with 10 or 15 for this period of time and and go over here." Now, the high school is a different beast because you have the periods. Yeah, that that's that's not an easy task. But the good news is is >> other schools are doing it. So, what what do we want to >> maybe do that like >> odd
043number period days or periods the first day and even number periods the second day or something. I don't know. Yeah, if if we have support from the staff and um then I'm in favor of what they feel is best. I mean, they're the they're the experts of how that they know this the student base and and the challenges. I'm sure some of the same challenges e-learning would exist with the synchronous learning. So, if they're willing to embrace it, then >> is there a committee or something or are you just supposed to see the principles >> at Benton Central? Uh, I know they're going to have a meeting tomorrow. Anyone who's interested can go to the meeting to talk about it and like talk about questions or look at what other schools are doing. So, I
044know Corey's having a meeting at BC tomorrow. Okay. >> But I'm not sure about the elementary. the elementary principles have reached out and I know I spoke with a first grade teacher and she was concerned you know our kindergarten and first grade students don't have Chromebooks at home but >> knowing that they could have a packet in their take-home folder that's kind of a backup um once they know there's a possibility we would have weather that was a way that they could work that out and then they would be available for the parents. >> I think it's easier to a lot at all the other days. I want to make sure they have their packet for first and kindergarten available. But >> yeah, I mean in person learning, but there's we're a rural community and
045>> gota plan accordingly. >> But I but I I will admit at this point the teachers and the principles are the experts on how it will look because they know. So I look forward to uh discussion in November and hearing from the principal. So okay. Okay. So we'll go ahead and move into our new business. E1 is our um monthly consideration for the staff report and other personnel items. If I can get a motion for that approval. >> I'll make a motion to consider normal staff report items. Any questions, discussions on that? All right. Then all those in favor for approving the staff report and other personnel items, please say I. >> I. Opposed. Same sign. >> And then we have E2 is the consideration for approval of the high school student international travel opportunity
046to Spain and that will be June of 2027. Are you is anybody here want to discuss [laughter] >> and I know we heard I think last year kind of the desire so we haven't heard since but we knew that was something you guys wanted to pursue. >> Yes actually last year so if you remember Alicia Kukard the idea of going to Costa Rica and she did present it I believe she had anformational meeting and had some students sign up but not never reached the levels where she was able to get enough to be able to make the trip happen. So, this is something that we've come up. Um, actually there are three of us. Lindsay Siasco is a math teacher at BC and she was unable to be here tonight, but the three of us
047are working together to make this happen. Um, it's Spanish club. Yeah, it's kind of a cross curriculum. I'm world history, so I'm promoting it there. >> And then the Spanish club will be moving into >> So, it'll be it would be in Spain. Um, and looking at historical and cultural aspects, religion, um, obviously the language and the culture of Spain as well as for any Spanish students. Um, math will throw in somehow. [laughter] Um, so just really excited about the opportunity to be able to take students overseas to help them to get a taste of what's beyond Benton County. >> Um, and so we would be working with a true company called World Strides, which has actually I went on a trip. Um, did you also go on a trip with World Strides? >> I
048don't know who it was with, but we did. Was it >> when I was in you have to ask [laughter] >> when we were in high school here at V Central. So, we both have taken trips with them. They're a really great company. They're highly highly recommended. They do really um practical hands-on um learning experiences for the students. So, the tour guide is present the entire trip, like from the moment you step off the airplane to the moment you get on the airplane. And they're um not just a tour guide, but also like a teacher. um as far as providing those experiences and their cultural understanding and their historical background and all of those things. So, um we have paperwork. I know we've shared information with you all um but are there any questions specifically
049that we can address? >> How many how many kids do you anticipate or will you take? >> We really want 18, but our goal right now is 12, right? Our goal is 12. So, >> but there's not really a minimum. Okay. If we get a what was the amount we get a whole bus if we get 30 we get our own bus. We're not looking at that though really but >> maybe in 10 years but at this point we're just looking for spark yes spark some interest give them an experience they can talk about for the rest of their lives >> that's 9th through 12th >> it would be current eighth graders 11th grade >> current 11th graders since it's not for another year and a half. So then they would be high school. Yeah.
050High school. Okay. Or just having graduated. Yeah. >> They [clears throat] used to always do that. What? Why did they get away from it? >> Prior to co >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. >> I started having children. >> Oh. Hey, I know the feeling. [laughter] >> No, but it was it was always a great program. I didn't did Did you end up with No. Yeah, >> it was. So because we both went through BC when we were there and I felt off about the trip with my students. So >> that's exciting. >> So when I told them I got an email from some random tour company, I was like I'll start looking into it and then we kind of just Yeah. >> Awesome. >> I think it's great. Yeah. Thanks. >> Yeah. No, I think that
051would be awesome. Okay. >> I'll make a motion to consider approval of the high school student international travel opportunity to Spain in June of 2027. >> I'll second. Any other discussion? >> All right. All those in favor of the high school student international travel opportunity to Spain in 2027, please say I. >> I oppose the same sign and we'll give you the same opportunity. You are welcome this day, but you are also welcome to scoot out. >> Okay. Thank you and congratulations. We look forward to hearing the progress. >> Thank you very much. So E3 is our um consideration to approve the updated administrators handbook and um that was regarding the DM students um part being removed since this is not really applicable to how we're using that. >> I'll make a motion to consider
052approval of the updated administrator Any other discussions, questions? All right. All those in favor of approving the updated admin handbook, please say I. >> I. Opposed. Same side. >> Okay. E4 is the consideration for the approval of the updated bus driver description. We currently have in there that they work 180 days, but they work 183. There's some training and they come in. So, we to be what [clears throat] we're doing. >> Yeah. I didn't catch that last year when we did all of those at once. >> Yeah. So, that was an oversight on ours. >> Consider approval of the updated best driver description. question. >> Does this have anything like this not related to the extracurricular? [cough] So, we [clears throat] >> It's always been I mean, it took been 183 days of the entire
053time I was here. It's just when we redid, you know, we didn't have any job descriptions before. Remember last year we did it for everybody, right? >> And that was just a typo that we did not catch until I was looking at them recently. I'm like, wait, that's not correct. Okay, just check. All those in favor for um approving the updated bus driver job description, please say I. >> I opposed. Same sign. All right, motion carries. We will move on to E5. The consideration for the approval of the updated school dance policy at Bent Central High student handbook. So it's kind of amending that policy. >> This this was derived because the athletic handbook has con uh discipline consequences and those students could earn the right to earn back some time and not miss as
054much. Well, the if if you're just a student at the school and it's a behavior or or a consequence, they didn't have that same right to earn things back. And so we want to make sure it matches both in the areas of athletic and in just a typical student without athletics. >> Well, I guess we can go ahead and do our motion when we discuss. I just had a question on that. Um, somebody want to make a motion. >> I'll make a motion for approval of the updated school dance policy in the Benton Central Junior Senior High School handbook. >> I'll second. [clears throat] Um my one question was on um like who all so I know you said that administrative um but did anybody in um like discipline or counseling like have any say
055in it or was this just >> yes the counselors are even involved in earning those privileges back because they have to go and and see yes >> so to me it was the uh administrators especially the assistants who handled the discipline I just wasn't sure how decisions made. So, okay. >> Um All right. So, all those in favor of approving the school dance policy at BC for um just kind of addendum to the handbook. Please say I. >> I opposed. Same sign. >> Okay. Six is approval considering the approval of the updated facility use administrative guidelines and updated facility use request form. >> I can make a motion to for that consideration. >> I'll second and um discussion questions >> is this regarding like using the facilities like outside of the stand the stand for
056anybody who uses it. All we did is update the form. It was a couple pages. They wanted it one and then we also just double checked with insurance to make sure what type of certificate they could use and we uh reduced it to there are two tiers. There are a tier that it's totally a school organization >> and there's a certain requirement for uh very little insurance necessary for that because they're part of us, right? If it's somebody from outside of the school, um they they are required a different certificate. So, it's a way to delineate between what they need insurance wise and [snorts] not need. Also, um fees, our fees were never changed for evidently 20 years. So, all they did is update those fees. But they also know then if they're for our
057students, then there's most likely not a fee attached. If the organization doesn't have our students here and it's a forprofit, then we would assess a fee. Yeah. >> So, it just kind of the form is a little bit new. >> Uh that's up for approval. And the requirements in the fees that's for our administration to to make an easy >> Yeah. >> to look through. So, just updated, but it needed to be done. >> I filled it out before. >> Yeah. It looks easier. Yeah, it does look easier. chance to but um thank you for Okay, so um any other questions? Okay, so all those in favor for approving the facility use administrative guidelines and updated facility use request form, please say I. I oppose. same sign. And our E7 is our um consideration for
058approval to determine um some obsolete items. We have four John Deere 1032 snowblowers that basically are not working or haven't been used in years. [laughter] >> Can I get a motion for approving those obsolete? I'll make a motion to consider approval to determine four John Deere 1032 snowblowers as obsolete equivalent. >> I'll second. >> All righty. And any other discussions, questions on those items? >> Will those go to the auction site? Then >> we can try. I mean, even if they don't work, sometimes they want them for parts, so we can put them on there. It's not hard to do. We We did well with our buses and our automotive equipment. We sold >> them. Do we have a working snow? >> Oh, yeah. Okay. >> I'm just No, I'm just one I'm just hoping
059[laughter] like there's four that don't work. I'm hoping we have one that does. Okay. >> I think they're clearing because >> I think these are the old walk behind. >> I think they're cleaning up because of all the storage that we're going to >> have to Yeah. >> All righty. All those in favor for approving the four John Deere snowblowers as obsolete items, please say I. I oppose the same sign. I like we're cleaning house getting used. Get rid of. All right. EA is your consideration of the approval of the 2026 schoolboard meeting calendar which I love to have in advance. So did you have >> So these just kind of tell you. >> Oh yeah, we made some alter >> because the holidays. Yeah. So, um I can go ahead and make a motion
060for considering the approval of a 2026 school board meeting calendar. >> I'll second. >> And yep, it looks like our January and February months are a little off because of presidents and Martin Luther King and fall break kind of falls weird and so October is going to be off a little bit and so is December because of Christmas. I double checked just to be sure the ISBA conference didn't >> conf. >> Yeah. So that'll that'll be good. >> That's good >> because we've had to adjust >> the last few years to make sure that we didn't >> have a meeting that day. >> Um no other discussions, questions. All right. All those in favor for approving the 2026 school board meeting calendar, please say I. >> I. Opposed. Same sign. [clears throat] And I believe
061that um is everything for our new business. So we will move into public comments or non-aggenda item or yeah non-aggenda items is now. So good. All right. Anything from board members or hopefully everybody has a good fall break out there and enjoys good turkey. All right, we'll adjourn.