001Hello, my name's Elijah, but I go by Eli. And I'm going to be doing a reverse roaming with Roa, where instead of Dr. Roa asking questions, it's the students asking him questions. >> Enjoy this segment. >> We are going to have our first person to come up and ask a question to Dr. Roa. What's your question for Dr. Roa? >> Hi Dr. Roa. >> Hi. How are you? >> I'm good. How are you? >> I'm doing great. >> So my question is, what is the biggest complaint you've had and what was it about? The biggest complaint that I've had, I'd say probably one of the biggest complaints I've had would be I think I I get them throughout the year is when we have some issues where uh uh parents and a a principal um
002do not see eye to eye when it comes to maybe a discipline that happened with a student in the school. And so they'll they'll call me or they'll call Mr. Farley and we'll all try to work that out together. But I I would say that that's the theme. Uh the other the other theme would be uh whether I uh call a delay or a closing or I don't call a delay or a closing on one of those snow days type days. That would be the other uh complaint that I get. So good question. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Uh state your name and ask your question for Dr. R. >> Hi, I'm Jackson. >> Hi Jackson. And I wanted to know, have you ever made a decision about the school that seemed really small
003at the time and then just backfired? >> Have I ever made a decision about the uh as superintendent or when I was as superintendent about the school and then it backfired? Uh, I would say the um um a lot a lot of decisions that I make, we try to kind of talk through with those with multiple people before going live with those. But um I think when we were uh trying to go forward with looking at a balanced calendar for the whole school district and um it it it ne it didn't necessarily backfire, but we tried to go through with it uh pretty quickly and we had to kind of back off of it. And um while it would have been nice to go forward, it was a kind of decision that was made uh
004in not the normal timeline to kind of vet all of the different uh groups that need to go through for those. So yeah, that would be the one that I think has backfired on me since I've been here is trying to get a a balanced calendar put in place for the school district and it just didn't work out too well. Good question. >> What's your question for Dr. Roa? >> Hi. Uh I'm Ethan Gart. Hi Ethan. And uh I just want to know how that decision gets made for uh a 2-hour delay or a weather closing. >> Yes. Well, that's a that's a good question. There's not an exact science to it. Uh Ethan, uh there are different types of delays closings to consider. The one that worries me the most is that when it's
005not wintry season, the fog creeps in and gets in pretty quickly. So, if we've got less than a half a mile uh of visibility, then a delay is typically called on that. We have snow coming in tonight. So, the very first snow of the season came in and it and I usually make those calls. I work with a county superintendent. So, all three of our county superintendents plus Carol and Deli were all on a text message early in the morning. usually starts about 5:00 a.m. and we're all talking about how uh what everybody is going to do. We're able to get on and see INDOT, the trucks, take pictures of the roads to see what road conditions are like. So, with snow and ice, we're able to kind of get um hear from uh INDOT
006and see how the roads are that that we all talk about how our roads are. We're in town, so it's a different situation in town than it is in the county. the very first snow that came in at 5:00 a.m. there wasn't a lot of snow on the ground. So we none of the schools in the county delayed or closed that day, but by the time 8:00 rolled in there there was quite a bit of snow. So that was um that was a call that had to be made early. Had it been snowing like that at 5:00 a.m., we would have had an easy delay that day. We're we've got snow coming in tonight and it could be anywhere from 1 to 5 in that starts snowing later. I we we all like to make
007a call in the evening. So we give you guys an opportunity to know give parents an opportunity to know so that they can make arrangements for the next day. So it just depends on when the snow comes down. We try not to make a decision until it actually hits because sometimes it can be predicted and not hit. We don't want to close school. I do not like two-hour delays because we don't kids can't get breakfast on two-hour delays. So I don't like making those, but I know that there are times that we have to do that. Uh, so that's the the Now the cold, it usually needs to be doubledigit um windchill in order to so I'm talking 15 to 20 below before we make a call on a delay or a closing. A lot
008of times with windchill it might be 15 below at 8:00 and it still is at 10. So it really doesn't do help with making a delay on that day. So usually on windchill for the most part it's either you go or you don't. and and that windchill. I use the National Weather Service to be able to I have a chart to show uh the actual temperature and the windchill and how long kids can be out before frostbite. And so we we've got about a timeline of about 30 minutes. So there's a lot of factors that go into it and it's not an exact science and kind of the last there there's sometimes you get burned on it but it's always trying to make a decision for kids safety. So, thank you for your question. >>
009Hi, my name is Ariel Cruz and >> Hi Ariel. >> Um, as somebody in the education department, you are promised to give us when we graduate an interview. What made you set up that organization into play? Well, at I Center Grove was doing something at the end of the year where they had all of their their graduates, they would give them some guarantees and kind of make a big deal about it because we get excited when kids want to want to go into education, especially public education. So, we kind of thought about what what what could we do here? Usually in education, you'll hear any teacher say that what we do is usually we beg for it, we borrow it, or we steal it. So, but we always give credit for it. So, I got
010that idea from Center Grove. They gave me the uh idea for it. A and so we thought, what could be our guarantees here? And our guarantees here is that we we want to bring hot dogs back into Frankfurt and uh people who want to be here and work here and love the town and love the kids here. And so, you know, we wanted to at least guarantee an interview. I can't guarantee a job because maybe nothing's open, but I can at least guarantee an interview. And so that's where that guarantee came from. Okay, good question. >> I'm Mr. Taylor. >> Hi, Mr. Taylor. >> Nice to meet you, Dr. >> Roa. Yes. >> Uh, this is a surprise question. Uh, but there's actually there's a lot of construction. The school is constantly growing. We're constantly
011building and new building new things. So, uh, just as a chance, is there anything that is coming that people might not know about that you'd like to brag about that we're going to do? And maybe and I don't know is there any breaking news here on roaming with Roa that you'd like to be like people don't know this but I am willing to share this today and I don't I don't know if there is but just throw it out there. >> Right. Thank you very much. Well I don't know that I have any breaking news today. I think what we're excited about is that we've got um we've been working with our uh financial advisor. They're the ones who come and tell us how much bond capacity we have to be able to spend on
012big projects. As you know, we've got the $25 million middle school project going on right now. Uh they just held another concert there the other night and just heard some beautiful singing and and music going on there. We're going to get a new weight room here for the high school that'll actually start in March. The board meeting next week, the board will I'll ask the board to approve the design for it. So, we'll have a a new wait room and a new room where uh they'll be able to go watch film. So, that's pretty exciting. I think we're looking at improving our all of our athletic facilities outside. So, that's something that I I can't get in too much detail about it because I still need to work with the board and get approval for
013that because even though we have the money available, the board makes the ultimate decision whether or not we can move on it. Uh so, we we want to improve all of our athletic facilities. We want to make sure that all of our buildings are looking great. We've we re-roofed uh Blue Ridge Green Meadows last summer. We'll finish it up this summer. Uh we've got a brand new middle school. Of course, the high school was renovated back in 201819. A and uh Sunrest will get some some uh faceelift over time. So, we've got a lot of projects that will be taking place between now and 2031 that uh are really going to make all of our facilities look wonderful. >> All right. Thank you. >> Hello, Dr. Roto. I'm Mr. Ragsdale. >> Mr. Ragsdale, welcome. >>
014I enjoyed making these roaming with Roto videos with you and I just wondered what prompted you to want to do them because there's been a lot of superintendents in the past and never got engaged like this. What prompted you to want to do this with the >> uh Well, I originally wanted to do this because I wanted our whole community to see what a uh sometimes Frankfurt gets a bad rap. Like people think that stuff happens here uh that uh doesn't happen. And I wanted to be able to interview high school kids in the hallway uh unprompted so that people can see what a great group of kids we have here and and what a calm and peaceful place and orderly uh high school that we have. And so I thought what a better way
015to do that than to come to Frankfurt High School is where that's where we started this and and to ask kids questions and just be fun. Uh, and also I was an educator for about 20 years before getting the superintendent role, which I'm still an educator, but I'm not around kids every day. And so that gives me another opportunity to be around be around kids and talk to kids. So, thank you for your question. >> Hi, I'm Maggie. >> Hi, Maggie. >> And I would like to know, what's the experience like getting to interview high schoolers? >> The experience to interview high schoolers? Well, it's kind of interesting. I was just saying now that people know that I come and do this uh once a month. Uh two girls were talking before I came down
016here and one took off and I think she thought that I was going to ask her a question, but then I went by another group of guys on the corner and they're like, "Hey, can we get an interview today? Can we talk?" So, I it's exciting. It's nice to be able to do that. I I'm was an elementary principal for 18 years. I knew every kid's name in the school. They all knew me. Now, when I walk into buildings, that doesn't happen. So I don't have that daily relationship with kids and so it's neat to come to the different schools now because of doing this and have an opportunity to be a familiar face and not just a stranger danger in the building. >> I am uh Xander Ford. >> Hi Xander. >> Uh nice
017to meet you. >> Yes. Nice to meet you. >> My question is uh you know it's it's a world a nationwide thing of teachers in their budgets. A big controversial thing. um them [snorts] being, you know, paid. Most people agree not what they're working for, >> right? >> They're not making >> how much they think they should and how much I I agree >> they're not making as much as they should. How do you feel about that? And do you have any plans to remedy this >> right >> anyway? Well, uh thank you for that question. I appreciate it. uh our our state legislature a and governor well first of all our state budget uh K12 education is uh 50% of the budget and there were a lot of pro programs across the state that
018got cut this year we were K12 schools were given 2% increase so that 2% increase there are a couple things that happened we want to give our teachers as much as we can we but we we only can get what we get in and that 2% % is multiplied times the number of kids in the district. We lost 120 kids this year. So, and that's not people graduating actually 120 people who were here in May and didn't come back in August. So, if you multiply 120 kids times $7,600, which is about what you get per kid, that's a lot lot of money that we lost, that could be going towards teacher pay. Yeah. >> So, how do we remedy that? Well, Mr. Taylor asked a question about facilities. We've got to we've got to be
019the the best at everything so that we we keep kids and we attract kids here. We've got to have great facilities. So places that you just enjoy going to be be there from from our our academics to our athletics to our arts. We've got to I mean we've got to have top-notch facilities. We also have to show on state tests that we're outperforming other people. uh people that uh when we're a district with high poverty and in high poverty districts, people often make the excuse that uh we can't we can't meet the the requirements, but we can we can exceed it. So, we've we've got to be able to have our athletics, our arts, and our academics far exceeding everybody else in great facilities because we lost 120 kids. >> Yeah. >> And that 2%
020increase that we got only went to paying for textbooks for for all of you. you get free textbooks, so that's a great thing. But that 2% couldn't even be used for salary increases. So we're on one respect, we can control who comes to school here and attract and retain. We can't we we don't have any control over what percentage increase that we get from our our governor and our state legislature. That's where that's why we're we're in a democracy and it's important for kids to understand as well as adults. It's important to talk to your state legislature and our our senate, right? Mark Ginda is our local representative and our state senator is Brian Buchanan. And it's important even as as kids to say, "Hey, we we we feel like it's important that teachers get
021very good good pay raises." So, it's important to be a voice for that. That's why we we live in a a beautiful nation where we we can we can say that right for the people by the people. Good question. Do you do you have a question? >> I do have a question. Uh what improvements would you like to see here at FHS? At >> uh at FHS, it kind of piggybacks on Mr. Taylor's question. I I would like to see all of our facilities, our athletic facilities renovated. Uh that's from our football, track, baseball, softball. Uh so I'd like to see all of that renovated. Even our gym and Case Arena. We need to replace our bleachers. So I would like to see all of that renovated. And um I think that's the big piece
022that didn't get touched during the big renovation that took place in 2019. So thou in 2019 the the whole academic part of the building got renovated. So I want to make sure I say that because oh gosh, you're just for sports. No, in 2019, this whole inside of the building got renovated and uh the academic part, the arts part. So, I'd like to see the athletic part get uh so it matches the rest of the building here and uh looks top-notch for all of you guys. >> Sounds like good plans for this school. >> All right. Thank you, Eli. >> Well, that was Doc uh Roman with Roa. Thanks for Dr. brother to having me do this with him and we'll see you next time. >> And we had a great time, Eli. So, thank
023you for the idea. It was your idea when you came up to me. So, thank you for the idea to come in and uh have students ask me questions instead of me asking all the questions. So, thank you. >> You're welcome. Okay. >> Hope you enjoyed it.