001all right good evening we're going to call the regular board meeting for Thursday October 10th 2024 to order and I'll have Mrs Gant come up and introduce who's going to talk about or do our Pledge of Allegiance 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 okay up next next we have the adoption of the agenda do I have a motion Madame President I move we adopt the agenda as presented thank you Mr Daniels do I have a second I second thank you James all right all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed okay motion passes for zero and we have Mrs Gant again right well thank you for having
002Walnut Grove as your Spotlight school this evening um we'll start off with our student is that work for you okay all right so Finley Binks if you want to come back up here and stand like I said Finley is a fifth grader so this is his last year at Walnut Grove and um we sent out a Google form to all staff and said you know please nominate a wild cat that you feel represents all that we stand for at Walnut Grove and all the character traits and Finley's name came up more than one time um and so I think it was only fitting that Finley our fifth grader get this recognition tonight um what was said about him despite things being hard sometimes Finley has a can do attitude I've never seen him give up
003on anything just because it's hard he perseveres through it he is a leader with an amazing mindset that shows with a little grit and determination anything is possible so those are the words said about Finley so so congratulations Finley we're very proud of you he is our little Sportsman and I just found out that he's been uh he received the sportsmanship award multiple times so I think it goes to his [Applause] character group photo at the end thank you okay don't go anywhere finle we'll get a picture here and a minute our support staff member this evening that we'd like to recognize is Caitlyn Atwell come on up and stand in the center so Kate this is Caitlyn's first year with us at Walnut Grove um and we are so fortunate to have her as
004a kindergarten instructional assistant we are piloting kind of a co- te model at Walnut Grove um smaller class sizes fewer um students but a lot more maybe needs um to help them kind of close those preschool kindergarten gaps and she is one of the most amazing assistants with those kiddos um her staff member said she is great with our struggl Behavior students she asked questions she has completed additional training on her own will she supports students and their plans she has also been involved with building level initiatives such as reading club and social committee she always jumps in to help wherever needed in the classroom she is always two steps ahead and has supplies ready to go for us so thank you Caitlyn we appreciate all you do for us and then Lisa Fisk was
005nominated as our teacher she has a senior in college that is a killer tennis player and in a tournament this weekend so she could not be with us but I'm going to read a little bit about what our um colleague Said So Lisa is an integral part of our team she is the glue that keeps the special ed Department together she was able to help absorb Mrs the laap schedule at the beginning of the year to make schedules for second and fifth grade all while dealing with her own students and their needs she will is always willing to take time and answer questions and help wherever needed and that is so true she has been our teacher of the year and definitely a very big part in why we are finding such success in our
006co- teing model in kindergarten first grade So Lisa congratulations hopefully she's watching now the now picture [Applause] come great up next we have the Johnson County presentation of read Across America hello yes hi everybody I'm I'm Susan chrisa Foy I run Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Johnson County and we are here to give a big thank you to Cent Grove schools for participating in our read Across America event back in March for that event we asked all six School corporations in Johnson County to just help us raise a little bit of funds um our program is free for children for families we provide free books that are mailed to families from the time a child is born until they turn five um although the program is free for families we do have a little bit
007of a cost that we incur and so we do fundraising to help with that and we asked during fre Across America week if there could be um one day during that week that schools particularly our elementary schools might have something fun to do uh to wear school colors or silly socks or dress as your favorite book character and bring in a small donation a dollar maybe for the Imagination Library um and we are so thrilled to announce that we had uh we had a um a bit of a competition for which school rais the most money per um per child according to their school population and then which school corporation raised the most money this year we were fortunate that this fundraiser um helped us raise $8,500 and almost half of that came from Center
008Grove schools Center Grove schools contributed $4,090 and um there were there were other elementary schools that were hot on the the heels of Walnut Grove but Walnut Grove pulled it out they averaged a15 per student in their donations and we are just utterly thrilled for that please join me in thanking them before I give this trophy to Mrs Gant um I just want to give you a an understanding of impact it costs us right now um over almost $6,000 per month to be able to send the books to Johnson County Children because we are pushing 5,000 kids enrolled in our program which is wonderful our mission is to get as many books into the hands of as many children as possible and we particularly want to put an effort towards families whose kids towards kids
009whose families can't afford to purchase books um the money that we received because of Center Grove's contributions means means that we will be able to send um a whole lot of books in fact I I double checked my calculation 300 Because of You 320 children in Johnson County uh will receive books this year and at 12 books per child that calculates out to 3,840 books into our community these are high quality books that are chosen by a panel of Early Childhood literacy experts and they are tailored to the child's developmental age so a one-year-old gets a different book from a four-year-old everything is set up so that that child is ready to succeed when they get to kindergarten so thank you so much for that wonderful gift of of participation and of success for our
010program we are so grateful we have a trophy to give Walnut Grove and C Center Grove actually won last year as a school corporation and so um you still have the trophy we we just brought you a new little plate to add to it so that you can confirm that Center Grove is two years in the two years in a [Applause] row uh just a little note of history back in the day when there was just the Center Grove Elementary that's no longer there the only way we had books come to us was through a bookmobile that's and it came out of Franklin I won't say how long ago that was but Jack did you hear Dr Long want to know if those were horses or if that was an actual motorized vehicle it was
011a big wooden wheel that they just pushed along [Laughter] was okay all right up next we have the um can oh public comments I'm sorry I almost skipped over you charity I'm sorry um charity Flores Okay charity Flores 2927 Coventry Lane thanks for letting me share a few additional points this evening Beyond some of my initial feedback um I know there's a couple of things that are being navigated both this evening and in future meetings as well and for the budget specifically I would like the board to consider how the budget will provide support for educators in some of the upcoming conversations um knowing that there's another meeting scheduled for tomorrow with some of the current discipline and morale CH challenges that have been noted for the workforce I want to be sure that Educators
012Find value you in the budgeting process and I know that this has been considered ultimately in the final budget approved tonight I worry that if this isn't represented or considered that there could be additional F frustration on their part thank you okay up next we have the consent items does anybody have any questions discussion do I have a motion Madam president I move we accept the consent item as presented thank you Mr Russell do I have a second a second thank you J all right all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 4 Z and next up we have Dr Taylor to talk about the budget thank you Miss counts um the budget was presented the budget was presented to the board at their regularly scheduled meeting on September 19th
0132024 um at this time we've made no changes to the budg budget in which was presented that evening um we are recommending approval of the budget as presented and we have the corresponding resolutions that include a budget approval tax rate information approval which we do always estimate high and we will settle that up to the Target tax rates that we part of the budget presentation um and then it also includes approval of the capital projects fund and the bus replacement plan um all those are the statutory resolutions that we're asking the board to approve this evening thank you any questions or discussion now I think Dr Taylor covered in his presentation last board meeting and I appreciate you showing some of the changes some of the challenges that we go through every year um I
014am you know I I always referred to 6,000 a student now I have to refer to seven uh you know times change not quite seven getting there get wishful thinking um but I but I thank you and your team because I know this is not an overnight thing you know I really do need to give credit Miss stats are our Corporation Treasurer plays an integral part of this and helping us prepare the budget each year so whoos to her work I would just like to add I want to assure the public it may look like like we may not discuss much of it tonight there has been a lot of one-on-one discussion a lot of questions to Dr Taylor uh to Dr long u because every year it does present more of a challenge yeah
015uh so every year we have to ask different questions I attack on to that real quick um yes uh I guess it was just yesterday morning time flies um we held a coffee chat with the community it was virtual but it was recorded Miss Conrad has that available um we shared a larger presentation on the budget for the whole Community great it's not new information we've been doing that with PTO and and different Community groups over the past really 18 months um but it's refreshed it's focused on the 25 budget it's it's fun if you got a cup of coffee and you want to read it or watch it I would say fun it's not as good as Dolly's books but Scott did you have anything you want to add or no no okay all
016right do I have a motion uh Madame President I move that we approve the 2025 budgets for all funds as presented along with the following resolutions resolution to adopt the 2025 capital projects fund plan resolution to adopt the 2025 bus replacement plan resolution for Appropriations and tax rates resolution for blanket appropriation modification and resolution to transfer amounts from education fund to the operations fund thank you Mr Russell do I have a second I'll second thank you Mr Daniels all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5 z um action item 7.2 issuance of the 2024 uh General obligation bonds Dr Taylor thank you um this one's just slightly different this year because we actually advertised these bonds back in December and January of last year um that's when the 1028
017hearings were held um it's at the same time that we did the uh guaranteed Energy savings what we're doing is bringing that back now so we can actually issue those bonds these do um these do continue the practice of issuing bonds to help us with our maintenance and Technology projects it's a practice that we've been um um really utilizing since 2009 um this provides us some relief in our operations fund um and allows us to continue maintaining our buildings and our technology um to the level that we need it to to support education um this Bond will be paid off in in a two-year period to minimize that interest hit as much as possible um and we this action tonight will be followed by an appropriation action next um but tonight we're just asking that
018you approve the issuance of these bonds and the related matters for them thank you anybody have any questions discussion do I have a motion Madame President I move that we approve the bonds as presented thank you Mr Daniels do I have a second second thank you Jane all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed motion passes 5 z um action item 7.3 is additional Appropriations for the educ education fund operations fund and 2024 General obligation Bond proceeds Dr Taylor um Madam president this is a hearing have the script yeah y give me a second y apologize everyone no no problem here we go okay I now open this public hearing and now I would like to call on Dr Taylor to provide more information on the additional appropriation don't want to
019miss that formality also uh key to note this uh this Appropriations hearing has been appropriately advertised um this is um for Appropriations that we just discussed with the 2025 budget so it appropriates all that money Appropriations is the process where the board formally gives the administration the approval to spend the money where they have talked about spending the money in the budget and so that's what you will see um it also includes then some additional Appropriations for the current school year um and in this current school year for receiving some more revenue and also having more expenses um we're asking for the additional appropriation approval in the operations fund of $400,000 and that's going to go to um Personnel cost in that fund along with the transition from the SR cares and ARP funds um
020into the operations funds for those support staff positions that we talked a little bit about in the budget presentation um the other part is in the education fund um $200,000 to be appropriated for the teacher appreciation Grant stien once we know that um final amount in November we'll bring that back for Action to the board but good to just get that appropriation out of the way now um and then $2 million to be appropriated in additional Personnel cost for the last six months of 2024 and this includes new staff that were hired in this current calendar year and would continue on into the next year's budget um it also it includes three teaching 13 teaching positions and some positions these are mainly support staff IAS um that were transitioned from the SR cares and ARP
021funds um for a grant total of 2.2 million part two of tonight's hearing is to appropriate the matters that we just took action on which is issuing the General Obligations bonds for the technology maintenance projects and so there's a second resolution attached to this had decided to have it all in one hearing this year um and it worked out pretty well timing wise so we're asking for approval of that I will turn it back over to Mrs count to conduct the rest of the hear great uh this is the appropriate time for members of the public to comment on additional Appropriations or information presented this evening are there members of the public present who would like to comment Mr P I um Keith poror uh just a Community member uh I have a couple qu
022or one question mainly uh I see we're borrowing more money now for uh the operations fund and and uh we just uh I'd like to know where the $81,000 that we got for security grant money why it's not in the revenue part of our budget but where is this money going to you know what why why won't that money help this out here thank you um the the school safety Grant this year was used for digital mapping it does contain a a matching component and that's what you would see in our budget is that we've approved the matching cost of that and it's our typical safety expenses um but they will actually they're going to digitally map all of our schools and help us with our safety plans um and response time and and it
023gives access to um the First Responders to have maps of of all of our buildings the fire department will be able to see that in their trucks as they're in route and the same with the uh the police department uh just one thing about our match is we're fortunately the way the Department of Homeland Security writes the grant is we can use our traditional expenses towards as part of our match and so we use the salaries of our sro's as as our match and we way more than match what we're required to match so that's where that is okay anybody else okay I now close the the public hearing are there any board members who have any questions or comments well this is going to seem like a silly question to Mr TL DR Taylor
024if we didn't do approve their Appropriations tonight what has to happen uh I'd have to come back in a future meeting because they would need to be approved at some point or we cannot spend that money so we would have to stop spending and and all of these being for personnel or every time you had leak out not leak out money but spin money you would have to pull us together which means board meting are you advocating a Centro government shutdown Mr Mr Russell I'm just saying Y no that's true y we have to do that and then there's always the end of the year deadline where it's got to be done by you know early in December so it's always a fun game to play so appreciate the question and I apologize for the
025humor are we anticipating the teacher appreciation Grant number to be the exact same it did not change in the banian budget okay because I know sometimes we don't get all that would change is our uh student population has gone up but the actual amount will not change okay um schools that aren't growing would get slightly less and I assume that's because there was not enough ADM to go no ours will grow just a little just because of our enough to really right grow that well they they established that last year really right so right I sometimes we don't good question always here until like de we have to pay it by yep we have to pay it in two weeks so two weeks so you mean the government's delay on information there any other questions
026comments no I have a motion mad president I move that we approve the additional Appropriations for the Ed fund the operations fund and the 2024 General Obligations Bond proceeds and interest earnings and related manners matters 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 passes 5 Z action item 7.4 is to accept donations for the Robotics and tech department Dr Taylor is a Sho as well yep okay yeah we actually it's two donations um but going towards the same um item so we've had an anonymous donor approach our high school and um the two different donations ones in the amount of $1,000 and the other ones in the amount of 16,500 and it will be used to purchase a
027unit tree G1 robot and at first I thought well that's one of the uh it looks like a dog almost like robot but it's actually the humanoid version and so um it's going to give our students at the high school and in our robotics program program a chance to learn from that robot program control um work with it um it's it's I think like one of the first or second units in the in the states um it was really pretty pretty big deal and and um we're so excited to have this Anonymous donation and happy to make it happen for our students so great great to have a Community member that can make that happen for our for our kids I love this my my daughter is currently sitting over at robotics at Central currently
028and she's in sixth grade and I think it's great that we offer this to all of our kids so this is exciting I think it's a I would say not great Next Step but it is kind of a next step for the kids to see over the one they built that does something exactly this one will have technology that they can really learn from yeah once we get it here get it up and running we'll make sure the board gets an invite to check it out I think it should be attendance one it's a great IDE well thank you obviously to the anonymous donor whoever they are if they're watching if they're hearing this thank you on behalf of of all of us sure awesome sign of strong Community yes okay just Pro more than
029sport do I have a motion Madam president I move that we accept the donations for the robotics tech department in the amount of $17,500 thank you Mr Alexander do I have a second a second J all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes 5 Z okay um our next executive session regular board meeting and good for the Grove uh is November 21st um and then Thanksgiving break no school the 25th through the 29th um do we have any um board comments Jack do you want to start yes this past week a a longtime friend of mine and of the board um went to meter maker and it was people probably thought it was an odd relationship because uh I came into contact with Carol in Del Tumi uh in 1968
030Carol came to crove in 1963 the fall of 1963 she actually got the job as Carol Summers got married over the summer and she had to correct Mr when he she he introduced her so but I want you to think about that that basically for 60 years Carol was involved with C gr because this is the only place that she taught uh coached and U was very instrumental in starting girls Sports in cro but also the state which earned her a Basketball Hall of Fame honor then it also earned her for us naming the track after her what was really mov was when I had to put out the information that she had passed I mean in overnight I had four or 500 responses with stories of how she helped both her and Dell but
031Carol mainly uh girls Carol and Dell were not able to have their own children so as I always kind of joke with them you had thousands of children because there were many girls they helped and these stories really brought that to light u in different ways back in the day you could take kids to the movies you could take them they took them skiing on their boat and did other things uh to help these girls U sometimes from challenging homes she was not only on the board here she was also on the the board at uh Franklin College which was her Al Mo there so um just um a good example for the rest of us she loves in Gro very much and she will be sorely missed and please keep Dale he's he's really
032having a hard time with it which would be expected thank you Jame now I don't want to top what Jack said I think it was beautiful but you know I I was pleasure to see her when I was here as a student and then sered with her for four years and the tumis are wonderful people they're all Center Grove I mean we've lost two icons this year between Gary Robinson and darl and and Carol Tumi so keep them in and your thoughts um apologies for being late tonight I was pulling double duty over at central 9 we actually Carol was on the central n board as well so we we spent a few minutes talking about Carol at the CN meeting tonight everybody over at Central love kind of yeah just um because this was
033a late edition but it's been advertised we have a preformal bargaining hearing tomorrow at 4:15 here in the boardroom just want to make sure everybody knew that so that's that okay right are we are ex directly after meeting aded