001all right I would like to call the regular board meeting together for Thursday November 21st 2024 and we G have the jotc post the colors Al to 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 thank you thank you okay um action item 4.1 is the adoption of the agenda do I have a motion Madam president I move we adopt the agenda as present thank you Mr Alexander do I have a second thank you Mr Daniels all those in favor signify by saying I I Mr Russell made the second yeah for the rest oh I'm so sorry that's okay thank you he looks as old as I do I look as young as he does well I'm
002also so okay any any opposed all right motion passes 5 Z and we have Center grow of Elementary Miss Green even even to all here I'd like to proudly introduce our selected studen keny Andrew she has been element student I'd like to read some of what um shared with us during her nominations Kennedy is AER mentor to of the stud my class she is patient and kind with my students Kennedy always checks in with me the teacher and lets me know her plan for their break she is a responsible and kind student Kennedy is a bright and resilient young lady who shines as a student Mentor in our community despite facing challenges this year including a broken arm and illness both personally and in her family Kennedy has persevered with remarkable strength and academically but
003what truly sets her apart is the kindness and compassion she shows to everyone she needs Kennedy embodies the spirit of andity I'd like to call CH momus Mrs momus has been a um instructional assistant at Cent Grove Elementary for about five years and um she was nominated and people who nominated her said this ch r with Grace she is always swinging by to make sure teachers have what they need and asking how she can help us she makes the school day better than the last Chrissy has a true servant's heart she is always trying to find ways to make our lives as teachers easier and more enjoyable she is wonderful with our students making each and every child feel important anden Chrissy is a joy to see it work every day I'm thankful for her
004she is always her love for guiding and supporting children shows chissy is great at finding solutions to better serve children in their teamc and last but cly not least Mrs Andrew is our teer for the tonight Mrs Andrew has at elementary for about 13 years and she teaches second grade Kim has several of Coles her for this recogn and um I'd like to read what they've said about her Kim does so much to help students and staff students love her they always want to go back to say hi to her as evidenced by Kennedy talking with Mrs Andrews prior to the board meeting um Kim is an exceptional staff member she wants to help Staff feel included and represented she advocates for her students and even those she doesn't have Kim Andrew support the teachers
005she goes above and beyond trying to help everybody not only at school but in their personal lives she is an amazing humanim is a wonderful teer who shows studentu she as a [Applause] oh okay neighbor she's my neighbor okay up next we have public comments which we do not have any tonight so we are going to move on to the consent items uh any discussion around consent items no do I have a motion Madam president I move we've approved the consent items as presented thank you Mr Daniel a second thank you Mrs zigan SMI uh uh all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5 Z and on to the action items first one oh I missed one I'm sorry sorry in okay I'm so sry so I would um
006like to introduce Mrs Megan Curtis who is in the crowd with us this evening as the new director of Elementary education to Center Grove Community Schools um Megan comes to us with over 20 years of educational experience she was a middle school English teacher um literacy specialist coordinator um assistant principal her most current role she's been serving as a literacy specialist um in Sou West Allen County Schools where she has been heavily involved in um the implementation of the science of reading um instructional Frameworks curriculum work um she's been heavily involved with the Indiana Department of Education literacy Cadre over the past six months so um I'm pleased to introduce her to Center Grove and I'm confident that her skill sets talents and experiences will be of um great benefit to our staff and students
007so Megan welcome [Applause] s you learn that while my office right fight song So Len does this mean we're not does this mean we're not gonna be on the holiday card list from Southwest Allen County school you're not you're not no you're not yes but you will enjoy the opportunity to work alongside her as well well welcome yes welcome on ours yeah yeah we we will make sure they're on ours so I'm sorry I almost missed your introduction so okay all right sorry there we go okay on to the first action item which is 8.1 and I believe and I'm sorry my yes approved the 2024 2025 Master teacher contract and Dr Taylor is going to present thank you Mrs counts um the board held a public meeting on this contract on Monday morning um
008which is statutorily required um while we were in a two-year contract um it was agreed upon to reopen the contract to look at base salary and Healthcare premiums and um this evening we're recommending as part of the agreement a one-time stip to be paid in the amount of 1% to all teachers currently employed and the stien will be based off their current uh 2425 base salary and we'll pay that by the end of December um we also would recommend then some changes to healthcare um none impacting the teacher share of the healthcare premium that will not go up at all but the corporation will um increase their contribution to healthcare premiums by roughly 4.87% on average um we do also have to increase the single person deductible which if it's embedded in a family plan
009it'll go up to 3,300 and we have to do that to comply with IRS regulations it's not something we're choosing to do um and this additional um amount of money would be 447,000 [Music] 7 out of cash no that will be a reoccurring amount that will contribute each year moving forward so we're increasing our contribution to the care plan moving forward good question thank you I I do appreciate I know we didn't get as much money from the state as as we would like so the we had modest raises this year but I do appreciate finding a way to not increase healthare on on our folks and any of your modest raises so I I commend you and and your group for that do I have a motion Madam president I move that we approve
010the 2024 2025 teacher contract with the United Teachers Association of Center gr thank you Mr Alexander do I have a second second thank you Mr Russell all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5 action item 8.2 approve retention stiens for level a b c and some Level D employees Dr Taylor yes thank you Mrs SCS and I forgot to mention we're actually going to call that a retention stien in the contract that's the language that's being used and so at this time we're recommending the board extend that same stien to the other employee groups um it would be equal in the same amount to 1% based off current um assignments we do include some Level D employees when we do this type of stiping they're ones that typically work
011the full year but they're not committed to work for us each year Beyond um and so they they have a maybe a fluctuating schedule but they do work a majority of the school year and so those people will remain consistent with other stiens we've paid at this time of year um we're recommending that the stien be paid to anyone who's active today during at the time of this meeting and also on the payroll date in which we pay it um as we do have some some some ins and outs in these groups and so want to make sure we were clear on that and this would be consistent with the stien being provided to the teachers this evening and that is all Miss counts thank Youk you okay any questions no do I have a
012motion Madame President I move that we approve um the employee stiens as presented thank you Mr Daniels do I have a second second J thank you thank you Mrs dunan Smith all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5 Z and assuming we intend to pay these exact same we will pay it on the same payroll we're paying the teachers by the end of December okay we're currently looking at one of the early payrolls in December we just don't want to fully commit okay fair feeling real good about it that understand okay that's a lot of work so all right action item 8.3 is to approve the Employee Appreciation stiens again Dr Taylor thank you Mrs counts and this is an item that we would typically bring this time of
013year and it's it's got a little more detail information so each year the the teacher appreciation Grant is provided and it provides $30 per student to districts throughout Indiana um it's been the past practice of the school board to supplement that amount of money and provide a little bit more to the teachers along with the other employee groups the difference on this stien is that this is paid for performance and service last year and to appreciate them for their full service last year while still being employed into the month of November with us and so we're recommending that the board adopt this evening the same parameters that we used last year and some of those parameters are that stiens will be differentiated by 25% between a teacher who is highly effective or effective the same
014would be true for administrative staff for our level C and D though we don't usually we don't use those terms in their evaluation and so we would just provide the same fixed amount or percentage to those groups and the amounts we're recommending this evening are that a teacher or a person with a highly effective rating would earn an additional stien for last year's work based on and it would be in the amount of 1.4% and then so the offset setting 25% reduction would be a 1.12% stipend um we also again continuing with past practice would really like to include a floor on these stiens so at the highest level the 1.4% we'd put in a floor of no less than $750 for a teacher and at 1.12% no less than $600 for an effect for
015a teacher rated effective last year and this is all based off their evaluation rating for the prior school year um so we're actually then going to continue those amounts as we move down to levels a b and c um and in C we have some individuals who work full or part-time and so we want to introduce one additional floor there so while level C and D employees would receive a stien at 1.4% we want to make sure that any person working any employee working less than four hours a day would receive at least $250 and anyone assigned to work four or more would receive a floor of $350 now I'm saying a lot of things like we would like to and pending board approval and things that's because we haven't received the official notice from
016the state yet um hoping to get some more information tomorrow if not the following Friday um if for any reason we would receive a different amount than what we've anticipated we' bring that final calculation back on the January Personnel report for the board's additional approval um typically this has happened when we've seen enrollment growth which we saw a little bit this year and we might find out that we actually need would would be able to pay out a slightly higher amount and when I say higher I mean maybe another tenth of a percent um that would be a typical increase from prior years and so I will bring that back in January if it does change once I have that notice again we are targeting a payroll early in in December to pay P this
017out for all the employees for last year service to be paid out this school year thank you for your attention that's a lot great any question well why are we approving tonight if that's a strong possibility so as we'll indicate later on is that the board um is actually opting to not have the meeting in December and I want to make sure we can get this done we've already appropriated it we included that in October and we anticipate the amount each year based I can I can do the math on what our new students would bring in for the $30 so um it's just if the final calculations go up by a significant amount I want to bring that back for your approval that would be the only reason and that would be consistent with
018when we've had to do this in the past one year we didn't get it till like December 12th or so it was pretty late and I want to clarify too um there was it's been a few years now when we didn't differentiate between highly effective and effective but you know in in your report up here you're telling us that that's a statutory requirement so that's that's not an us Choice that's a choice that we're told with this money we have to differentiate by at least 25% that's exactly correct and we do have a corresponding board policy on that that we brought in August and we continue to bring annually but that was a statutory requirement it wasn't you are correct so in essence we we're following the law you are correct also part of the
019policy as well yeah Madam president I move that we approve employee St statements thank you Mr Russell do I have a second second thank you Mr Daniels all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5- Z action item 8.4 approve the certified staff handbook yep okay Mrs Brown all right I'm asking you to approve two staff handbooks this evening one is for certified staff one is for support staff these are reviewed annually and any changes are then presented to you as the board I will share the certified staff handbook changes first we did review this with our go our district guiding Coalition earlier this week so our certified most of our certified staff have seen that um again going through certified changes first several of them are titles name changes
020date changes and so you'll see that as Kristen is flowing through I am going to bring special attention to a change on page 13 if you wouldn't mind scrolling down there I also want to sh you guys do have a change summary document that lists each of those changes as well as a copy of um each handbook with those suggested changes as well but if you go to page 13 you're going to notice that we have added reproductive loss to our bereavement leave um such an unfortunate situation but really thankful that we can have that addition and we've already had some staff who have been able to benefit from that so um really thankful to have that there also on page 18 we made an update um to our FMLA language and that's really just
021in accordance with FMLA guidance our handbook did reflect five consecutive days which would trigger um an FMLA not necessarily that they qualify for FMLA but that they would get in contact with our human resources department to discuss FMLA options um FMLA guidance actually States 3 days so we just now are reflecting our handbook to again match FMLA guidance so we are changing that from five consecutive days to three consecutive days then I will shift over to support staff several of the same changes again titles dates names um we made that same change for bement loss um for PR re I'm sorry sorry reproductive loss for bereavement leave and then the same FMLA change and then um the two special notes that I wanted to make one was on page 38 if you scroll down there
022and this is just the addition of a requirement that an employee must work their first scheduled day to use any newly allocated vacation time for a current year we didn't have that stipulation in there so we wanted to add that and then on page 45 we added a requirement to receive sick incentive pay one must have one full year of service service before qualifying for that it's very long yep just keep scrolling as we were reviewing it it took two separate meetings to review both of these because we went through it with a fine tooth comb and there's just a lot of language in there after this approval if we get that this evening we'll make sure that we share this out with both um staff groups and then make sure that we have acknowledgement
023that they re received that there any questions thank you I guess maybe we should start with questions on the certified staff handbook first so that we can approve 8.4 only comment is both these are very long due to we have to match up to state law on a lot of it and that's what causes and when that changes we have to change yeah with certain things yes and others are district level decisions that we've made as a team but yes correct sorry I merged both certified and support that was 8.4 I think together that's right so we'll take questions on 8.4 any other comments no do I have a motion you want one motion or be doing both at once you can do both at once if that's okay yeah I need do them separate
024okay okay Madam president I move that we approve the certified staff hand book as has presented item number 8.4 thank you Mr Alexander do I have a second second thank you Mr tenan Smith all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5 Z and then action item 8.5 any discussion do I have a motion M president I move that we approve the support staff handbook item 8.5 as presented thank you Mr Alexander do I have a second I'll second thank you m Smith all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion passes 5 Z thank you and thank you um action item 8.6 is to authorize the 2025 tax anticipation warrant and Dr Taylor yes Miss counil each year this each time year at this time
025we bring this one to please Mr Alexander um and so we are actually asking the board to authorize 2025 tax participation warrants um the good news is this year it is a lower amount than it has been in Prior um we are actually able because of some of the shifting that we've done from operations towards The Debt Service fund did not have to carry as much in operations and that's what this is this is a mechanism for us to um receive a small loan pay and and we get that from What's called the Indiana Bond Bank and we pay interest on that for six Monon period until we actually receive our tax revenue and so that's why Mr Alexander I think loves it so much is that that we get to ask Indiana for some
026money that we're due to get from Indiana in the future um but it is a mechanism that allows us to remain solvent in the operations fund throughout those six months and so recommending this attached resolution to the board for Action this evening thank you thank you she the she read the item any discussion you want to be the one that makes the motion to I usually do with my protest I move that we approve the resolution authorizing the tax anticipation warrant and Au authorize the president secretary to sign the documents needed thank you Mr Alexander do I have a second second thank you Mr Russell all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5 thank you yes um action item 8.7 is a motion to approve the new high school
027course proposals and that's Dr simmers thank you so each year the high school makes course proposals to add courses which we offer or may be available to students in future years um these course requests are vetted through the department CH chairs as well as the high school administrative team uh proposals for this year include additional courses to support and expand what we reference as the next level programs of study in specific Department Department areas this year we're looking at business and engineering and the technology departments and we're also looking to expand dual credit and honors level options in Social Studies English and World Language departments um the chart that I included in the board packet summarizes those proposals by course there are 17 of them and they represent those various content areas I would also
028like to point out that some of these courses proposed courses or recommended courses are being suggested due to proposed changes in the diploma rule that has yet to be approved by the state board of education however we're trying to be as proactive as possible so for instance the um Computing foundations course is being recommended to address the computer science requirement that is part of the new based diploma or the proposal that we have seen up to this point several of those certification courses that you're looking at and those titles and those course descriptions um we are recommending to provide opportunities for students to earn the proposed honors and honors seals um honors plus seals as through enrollment and employment again trying to be as proactive as possible based upon the information that has been shared
029with us regarding the the new diploma rules um so wanted to share that with you and in light of that obviously um because there may be some small or revisions that will eventually be shared with us we're hoping not to have to come back to you for course approvals but should there be something that surfaces once that becomes public U would just ask for your understanding and flexibility in that we again we're trying to be as proactive as possible as we're beginning to we'll begin to start schedule students obviously at the beginning of the calendar year um the other item that I would like to share with you is that the course titles and descriptions that you're looking at are based up on the current course titles and descriptions that we have access to there
030will be new course titles and descriptions that will be made available to school districts for the 20 25 26 school year once those become available we need we may need to make some small adjustments and revisions to ensure that our courses are in alignment so that when we are looking at that new the new diploma rule that we are following it in accordance so again just asking for some patience and understanding should we have to do that um we're hoping not but would recommend um your approval of the 17 courses that we are suggesting for Center Grove High School for next year you and I would also like to extend my appreciation to Dr Carol fry who worked closely with Mrs McMahon and her team to um arrive at these 17 courses as we look
031at opportunities for students I think it's great actually Rob and I had a um meeting with the senator Grove rotary and there were a lot of questions around oh Dr Taylor was there too it was really early it was a very early meeting but um was a lot of good conversation about the proposed um diploma it's a 6:30 meeting and the next morning I had a 7:30 meeting I pretty early no but I I want to commend um you know the whole group because I know we see the final sheet and I know the effort that goes in to not only try to figure out what's coming next but then the surveys of what else we might need in order to get those students ready for when they get out of Cent Grove so you
032know we we hear about the process but we don't see the sausage made and then at the end we we see it so I I do want to commend your team and and Shannon and and I say principal McMahon now um and and others that that participate in this process so it's it's good to see us being proactive thank you excited about the technology classes do we have the instructors on board so we're working through all of those pieces for sure um and obviously we we are looking for you to to approve these uh recommended courses but there are other pieces as you mentioned that flow into this as we look at what we call a course carrying so you know we look at the number of students we look at the availability of the
033instructor making sure that we have the appropriate lure and all of those pieces but in order order to even offer it we have to have your approval to do so or would like your blessing I I would think also by putting this out there the staff we have can look at themselves and say I only need one more thing I could teach that you know correct and as we're vetting these also keeping in mind that you have your we have instructors and teachers who are also trying to be creative and Innovative and proactive and looking at what other courses they can offer within their departments to grow those programs so they're very much involved in that process as well seems like it takes a couple years for the kids to catch on hey I heard
034about this course is it active yet okay any other discussion do I have a motion Madame President I move that we approve the new high school cour descriptions as presented for inclusion in the High School academic guide thank you Mr Alexander do I have a second second thank you Mr Daniels all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5- z um announcements we um have cancelled the December 12th uh 2024 executive session and regular board meeting uh no school for students December 23rd through January 6 for the holiday break and January 9th uh opens up our our new year with the executive session starting at 6 the reorganization meeting starting at 7 and then the board of Finance meeting immediately following so and then after this session we'll or after
035this meeting tonight we'll close it and reopen it for good for the Grove but before we do Mr Russell do you have anything usba a meeting's coming up so we don't have anything to bring you I don't have not at this time thanks Mr Alexander um yeah uh Johnson County Redevelopment commission has uh formed an agreement with Johnson County aspire to have Aspire assist the Johnson County Redevelopment Commission in promoting the I69 Corridor and the good things we have going on in Johnson County to to attract um potential businesses and employers down to this area and region um so pretty significant step there at the county level and then at central 9 UM had board meeting Thursday night Thursday night sorry um approved the teacher contract to Central mine on Thursday night um and the
036board is in planning for work sessions for potential new projects some future grow over at Central M so there will be some turnover on that board next year so once the new board's in place we'll probably finish that planning those planning sessions off anything Dr with you no I'm sorry I forgot y you lost your chance pass you want to sign up for good for the we can sign you up for good for the grow leadership Johnson County junior class is collecting seral boxes and this started is a kind of a one of the small group things and it's just blowing up uh and I'm talking thousands a so uh I can get you where it needs to be donated to and so forth and of course it goes to the needy in the county
037great awesome okay well I am going toj the oh I'm sorry oh