001Good evening everyone. I will back up from the microphone just a bit. Um, welcome to the April board meeting. Uh, roll call. All administrators and board members are present. At this time, I would invite everyone to join me in the pledge of >> allegiance. Pledge allegiance >> 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. >> All right, that's one of the best pledges we've had because of all of you here. So, thank you. Uh, first item on the agenda is the building principal report. Mrs. for the middle school. >> Well, we are very excited to introduce our student leadership team. All of our student leaders are here tonight. They didn't have some of them do
002have athletics, but they may decide tonight to share the exciting things that are happening at CMS. This year we've really been working on student voice and making sure that students have a say in the way things happen at CMS as part of our HRS level one. And I am so so excited for them to share from their perspective the amazing things that are happening at CMS. So I'm going to let them do our building report. So if you are in charge of the building report, come on up. Um, hello. I'm Anna Lindsay. I'm Ella Seward. >> I'm Zach Eats. >> I'm ready cord. >> I'm Zeke Plunkett. >> And I'm Naomi Surmer. And this is the CMS schoolboard presentation. We have been tasked with informing you about current rates of discipline attendance and the impact
003of positive behavior interventions system at CMS. What is discipline? Discipline is the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior with punishment or other undesired consequences for those failing to comply. How does discipline affect our school? Without proper discipline, the safe learning environment that faculty strive to build es along with any importance of grades. If students are not disciplined correctly, they may repeat these offenses. Student view. We have interviewed an accelerated seventh grade boy, a general education eighth grade girl, an A&E sixth grade girl to get their opinions on discipline. Have you seen teachers disciplines in your classes? And how? Eighth grade? Yes. By sending kids to the office? Seventh grade? Yes. By giving them a write up for saying inappropriate words. Sixth grade. Yes. By sending them into the hallway
004and chatting with them and then they make the kid apologize. Do you think anything should be changed about how they discipline? Eighth grade. Sometimes, but it depends on the severity of what the kids did wrong. Seventh grade. No, because the kids need to learn discipline and consequences. Sixth grade. Yes, because subs will frequently say something about one kid, but the teacher will yell at the whole class. How has Athenian Central and the Shield trips affected our school? >> Athena Central is where students can go to spend stickers they've earned. Teachers reward students that display the core values with stickers. These stickers are treated as currency and can be used to buy items such as principal for the day, teacher of the day, stress balls, school supplies, and more. By implementing the Athenian stickers, students have
005a motive to follow the Athenian way. This inspires students to do good deeds due to the potential gratification given by stickers. The student body also influences each other into good acts by allowing dual incentives. How does PBIS help with behavior at CMS? If you have model have model attendance, have A's and B's and only one C, have less than three tardies, and have no missing or late work, you can be rewarded with a shield trip. A shield trip is a day in which you get to leave school and participate in fun fun activities. We have a shield trip every quarter and if you qualify for all of them, you get an ultimate reward. The ultimate shield trip. The ultimate shield trip is exclusive trip for for the kids have who have gone on all of
006the shield trips and pro prove that they can be free without breaking the rules. The shield trip started in spring 2023 and nearly three years later great things have ensued. A monumental decrease in maj major incidents has been seen after the imple implementations of PBIS. A decrease in major incidents means kids have seen the PBIS program as a reason to change their behavior. Since the start of the field trip program, the number of honorable designates has increased by 15%. This means the number of kids that are making the A and B and high honor roles are increasing. They are pro provided with a reasonable cause to be good and improve how they do their school work. Attendance data. If you don't go to school, numerous trade-offs are present, which is why an increase of attendance
007is being pushed by the state of Indiana. The incentive of the shield program has raised attendance by 28%. The shield program is helping to solve previous problems with attendance in the past. As you can see in the state average in 2025 has been 60% while in Crawford'sville it has been around 80%. Our current attendance our current model attendance rate for this current year is 83.1%. which was which is slight slightly above last year's percent as you saw in the last slide. In our presentation, we had firsthand accounts of students as a way to display different viewpoints on discipline in classrooms. We also broke down the incentives offered by things such as the shield trip as well as Athenian central which can be seen as motivation for students to display the core values. Past rates were
008compared and contrasted against this year's average which led to decreasing number of major incidents as well as an increase of attendance. >> Thank you for your time. Do you have any questions? >> Well, thank you for the presentation. Susan, go ahead. Anyone else? All right. Well, you mentioned that stickers are currency, so I've got some stickers here to pass out to you. I I'll let Mrs. cause determine what the value of these are. But >> I think as their principal, the thing that I'm most proud of is that they've had a lot of voice in what the students want to see as rewards. And this sort of started with our leadership team a couple years ago when they said, you know, in the real world, people get paid and get bonuses for going to work
009and doing their job and doing the right things. So, how can we do that in our school? And so, that's just where it started. It just keeps evolving, keeps getting better. I'm very proud of our attendance rate. Kids want to be at CMS. It's a fun place to be. They're learning. Our test scores are showing those growth, you know, that growth as well. But their their voice makes a huge difference. It's not just adults saying the way it should be. So, thank you very much. >> I absolutely think that our PBIS system at the middle school is an exemplar across the state. I mean, you just heard from middle school kids, which most would not consider be the place where you could improve attendance and behavior. So, great job students and staff >> and I
010couldn't agree more with that. So, thanks again for that presentation. It's good to know what uh what you're doing in class and around school at this time. time. I know you guys are all busy with other things and you're all welcome to leave at this time. Um, >> oh, you have two more. All right. Well, then I will defer back. >> Yeah. Good. >> Okay. All right. The first item then to is to approve the previous meeting minutes. Um, is there any additions or corrections? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to approve. >> I move approval. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> There being no old business, new business, we'll move on. Consider the McGomery County Community Foundation grant proposal for Cara and Meredith Bose. >> I let Meredith um go
011because we have such a large group reviewed the grant and I recommend the board approve the grant proposal through the McGomery County Community Foundation for digital pathways for adult student success. So providing another opportunity for our CARA students to gain back their to earn their diploma. Any discussion? Is there a motion? >> I move approval. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Now we're up the 8th grade 2026 Springfield trip. And I'm here to request permission for next year's eighth graders to go to Springfield. Why it's important? The eighth grade spring field trip is very important. It gives students the opportunity to learn more in depth about topics they're already learning in school, but it's hands-on and they can also experience lots of new and fun things. Student impact. All eighth grade
012students are doing a unit on the book chasing Lincoln's Killer. This book is about Lincoln's assassination with the timeline and events that happened after he was killed. The trip relates to the book by giving students an indepth understanding of the events that happened during that time. This trip will occur on October 14th, 2026. The transportation is going to be charter buses. The students will leave around 6 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. They will return around 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Students will eat a stack lunch provided from the school and they will have a series of choices from fast food restaurants for dinner. The activities they would do are stop one Lincoln's tomb, stop two, the old state capital, stop three, Lincoln's home, and lastly, stop for pres the Lincoln Presidential Museum. A little inepth on
013stop one, the Lincoln Tomb. The Lincoln Tomb is an amazing experience for eighth graders. Students wait outside of the small monument and rubbed Lincoln's nose for luck. They then enter the building and see the entry room with artifacts to honor Lincoln. as the tour guide provides a description to President Lincoln's importance. Finally, they see his tomb alongside some of the tombs of his other family members. And there's a few pictures. Oh, sorry. Sec stop two. Old state capital. Students tour the Illinois State Capital building. They go inside the house chamber, look at the many statues, and are informed about the stunning architecture by the tour guide. And here are some facts about the building. And then top three, Lincoln home. The Lincoln home was the first and was the first and still stands today. The
014Lincoln home is an artifact as well as a place of stories and memories that tell the narrative of Abraham Lincoln and his family. The inside of the Lincoln home shows their family from a young couple with a baby to a presidential family bound for the White House as well as Lincoln's growth from a younger lawyer to the president of the United States. In the Lincoln Presidential Museum, it includes two realistic exhibits allowing them to have a look into his life. There are also two interesting shows that students experience. One is a movie that reflects upon Lincoln's life and legacy. The other is called Ghost of the Library that is projected through glass making it realistic. So in conclusion, we are seeking permission for next year's eighth grade students to go to Springfield. >> All right,
015great presentation. Any questions from the board hearing? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All right. The next item is to consider the May ultimate shield trip. >> Okay. And this presentation is about the ultimate field trip. So, where would you like to go? We would like to go to Indiana Beach. >> Why? Students have worked very hard throughout the school year to meet the requirements for this ultimate shield trip. They've got good grades, had little to no tardies, and no excused absences. And there's a couple other things. When? This trip would be on May 15th, 2026. We would leave during advisory and return to school. later than 7:30 p.m. How we would get to our destination by charter buses. To help fund this trip, each
016student will pay $40 unless money is otherwise donated. This money includes a meal voucher for lunch. So, the students who would be going on this trip have worked very hard and we would really appreciate it if they can go to Indiana Beach. Please grant us permission to go on this trip. It is a great opportunity for a priceless memory making and a ton of fun. We thank you so much and hope you will approve this ask. We would love to have your permission. >> All right. >> I do want to say that we have received a very generous donation from SSC to pay for the entire trip. >> The students we just learned that so the students will not have to pay to go which is very kind of them. Okay. And then here's some
017data showing the bad behaviors in the 2020 2022 to the 2023 school year. And then compared to when the shield trip was added and then also compared to when the ultimate shield trip was added and you can see that it went down drastically. And then here is also a graph showing the model attendance. First of all, we should be really proud because Even without the shield trip, we were still above the state average. And then after that, um, with the shield trip, oh, the percent of students with model attendance shot up from 69% to 83%. Here's a few photos of the location we are requesting to go to. And finally, please grant us permission to have a fun-filled day at Indiana Beach for the ultimate field trip. >> Well, I certainly don't want to be
018the one to argue against that. So, any questions from the board? >> So, what is the minimum number of tardies you could have and still qualify for the trip? >> Three. Oh, that's still tough. All right, good job. >> If they were to go today, how many students? >> Uh, we Mr. Serber and I just did a quick projection. It looks like a little over like around 89 >> students have met that for the entire year. So >> yeah, it's pretty good. >> All right, if there are no other questions, is there a motion? >> Move to approve the trip to Indiana Beach. >> Second favor. >> I >> All right, congratulations again. Another good presentation. So I think that wraps up your All right, the next item on the agenda is the um grade
019four and five required human sexuality instruction and curriculum. Yeah. So, um, Health Ed Pros has done our instruction at this grade level for a long time. Um, overall instruction, uh, will remain the same. The main adjustments here, um, are due to SEA 442. So, um, there are some additional materials, um, that are required as part of that instruction um, including a video with fetal uh, development uh, through the week of pregnancy is is the main one there. So otherwise instruction is the same and health ed pros would still be delivering that grade four and five instruction. And Susan, I don't know if there's anything you want to add to that. I would recommend uh approval of these materials. Any discussion? Is there a motion? >> Make a motion to approve. >> Second. >> All in
020favor? >> All right. Moving on. The next item is the CMS student handbook for 2627. Mr. Manette, >> thank you. The um I don't have any issue with any of the recommended changes. I do note the um section on the uh cell phone uh anti-ellphone policy that I fully support. It's a a bell-to-bell uh no device policy subject to uh fewer um exceptions, which I think is a very good thing. Um my my question was was was that something that CMS was looking to do either with or without the uh recent legislation or >> Yeah, CMS has had that policy for a while. So really the policy is catching up to CMS. So >> Okay. >> All right. Well, I recommend approval uh as of the handbook as amended. >> All right. Is there a
021second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I moving on to the elementary handbook 2627. Mr. Thompson. >> Yeah. Reviewed that. There were just a couple of little housekeeping items. I added the 765 as a prefix for the one number that I noticed there that wasn't there and little justifying on the lines. But other than that, everything looked fine. >> Right. You make a motion? >> I would make a motion to approve it. >> All right. There second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All right. The Wilson preschool handbook. Mrs. Brown. >> I have reviewed the changes in the Wilson preschool handbook and other than one typo did not have any issues with anything in there. So I move approval of the Wilson preschool student handbook. >> Is there a second? >>
022Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Thanks to the three of you for reviewing those policies and handbooks so we could get those approved for tonight. Moving on to personnel. All right. Good evening. Here we go. Uh, retirement first. Gary Bacon. So, Gary came to us as a math teacher. Um, then moved into a technology coordinator position. When you guys named me head football coach, Gary Bacon was a somebody who had called about possibly they were trying to move here and he was looking for a teaching coaching job. So, like the first person I hired on my coaching staff was Gary Bacon and he came from Northwite where they had won a couple state championships and if I had done a better job listening to him early on, we would have had
023an even better career. So, no, here you go. Um, appreciate where Gary's at. Gary gave us um some great years and he was really trying to make sure that this was the right decision. Rhonda retired recently. Um Gary's offered to help us out in any way we need, but um so grateful for what Gary Bacon has done and recommend the board approve his retirement. >> All right. >> Is there a motion? >> I move approval. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I All right. >> Yes. Um nothing here that really stands out. I would just recommend the board approve resignations A through G. >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All right. You have a few people you're hiring, too. >> Yeah. And Susan caught this, but we've never
024really uh put interns on. So, we are paying our interns and we've really established a pretty neat program. Um we worked with Wabbash College and um it started with Takashi Grinder. So Wabbash still has an education department but they don't give a certification. So the young men at Wabbash who are interested in being teachers um don't get all the student teaching and those sort of things. So with Takashi Griner, if you remember, we brought him in, his senior schedule worked out, and he had like Tuesdays and Thursdays off, a great second semester senior schedule. And so we brought him in so he could work in the science department and then be get to the point where he could teach some lessons. Um, so we have a few going right now at Wbash. And Jonathan Young,
025who is a Crawford'sville High School grad, um, is helping us in the math department. Um we actually have two in the math department um right now. So that's interesting in a world where a couple years ago we couldn't find a single math teacher and now we have all sorts of potential here. Um so there's that. We've never put a part-time bus driver on here just trying to get into the probably the practice of whether we do them here or in the consent agenda. Anybody we hire goes in front of you. Kirsten West, um, brand new teacher. We met her at the Purdue, um, teacher fair. Um, outstanding multilingual, um, you know, just an outstanding young lady. Really looking forward to her joining Nicholson. Um, we took, um, Trinity Pearson, who's a first year teacher. Second
026year, first year anyways, a newer teacher who came from Purdue. she went with us and we just sat back and let her do all the recruiting. So, um, and they hit it off and it's going to be outstanding for us. And then Abby or Abriana, um, Davidson, new counselor for CHS, we met her down at Indiana State at a an event. So, we putting the staff together and recommend the board approve the hirings A through D. Make a motion to approve A through D. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All right. Thank you. >> And then change of position is just there for your notice so you're aware. >> Business management report. Mr. Nicodemus. >> Uh yes. Tonight I just have one thing. So you get your monthly financial reports uh in your consent
027agenda items. One addition that we made to that this week is the sheet that you have on the desk in front of you. Um, this is what we call our rolling 12-month percentage balance of expenditures. We noticed that as the actual numbers start coming in, the changes were happening in prior months and we didn't want that to show in these reports. So, this will now show you in previous months where we were and then where we expect to be by the end of the year. That is all I have. All right, any questions? All right, thank you. Moving on to assistant superintendent report. Dr. Bokart. >> Yeah, thank you. Uh, so first off, operations, uh, school safety. Couple things there. So, Dong Rigging was on site at CHS over spring break. Um, and they were
028there the the whole week, Monday through Friday from about 8 to to 4 or 5 o'clock. So, um, so far with with that, we have all static lines. uh were rehung with the anti-approved hardware. Um so they they were able to get a good chunk of that work done. Uh remaining work to be done is to install the two winches for two of the line sets that are still there. So um it was good to take advantage of that week and get a a large chunk of that work done. So uh Alice training has been completed. Uh we're going to come back around and hit everybody that that would have missed those at the buildings. Uh the feedback has been really really good. We had a safety team meeting today, district safety team meeting. Um,
029and Amber's done a great job of collecting some teacher feedback along the way. And I think one of the number one things we've heard so far is just the Alice training promotes, um, decision making based off of the scenarios that are presented. So, um, autonomy in how we know each crisis situation is not the same. And so being able to continue the trainings and the tools and the resources to be able to try to be as proactive as we can uh but leaving autonomy to teachers and and staff uh that are with kids to make the best decision given the scenario in front of them. So that is that has been good. Uh curriculum instruction assessment uh teacher evaluation rubric committee met this past Monday and finalized our new rubric for 2627. So that is
030um super exciting. Um super proud of that group. Um it's it has been a true example of a a collaborative team working towards um honestly a very very big task uh when we're looking at something like that. And so it is truly a shared vision, a shared rubric um and next steps will be for communication to cur occur at buildings uh later this month. So uh we are are excited and and couldn't be more proud with with what that group's turned out. So uh tiered systems of support for mathematics. Uh just kind of an update here on this is a required component of MTSS for 2627. The main piece being with math. Um it is K8 but um elementary is used to kind of living more in the the tiered instruction world. So this has
031been a different lens for our middle school to need to look at and um Mrs. Hos and her team has done a great job of putting a plan together for that. And um so they've been on it from the beginning and having the conversations with their their teams and um and they have a solid plan moving forward. Uh AP training, Dr. Riker initiated um a little while back uh us hosting a uh AP training here with uh College Board. And so that occurred um just this past week and um super super great training. Uh teachers were excited about it. Uh we had two different sessions. So we had two different presenters from college board um one on argumentative writing in the morning and then quantitative analysis in the afternoon. So um great resources to take
032from that and also some some strategies and and glean into the AP um exam and uh the questions. So in the afternoon it was it was fun to watch the teachers. they were actually going through a chemistry exam, a biology exam. And I will say I shivered a little bit when I walked by the chemistry exam and saw the the chemical equations on the paper. So uh and last one there, just congratulations to uh Mr. Welchure. Uh he had his IPLI graduation uh this week and uh also he had Ashley Burns and Josie Aguular as teacher leaders with him. um and they presented their project that they completed for hose and um on behavior matrices and um that is something that is implemented in their building and so they presented that and did a great
033job and so that is an exciting finish for him and his team and that is your assistant superintendent report. >> Thank you Dr. Bokart. Superintendent report Dr. Reker. >> All right, thank you. First I just kind of want to highlight I mean really Dr. Bokart and the teacher evaluation committee. I mean really you had administrators and teachers working together changed to a different rubric, a different model. I mean and it was teachers who had gone to um the Marzano system to the events that really wanted to change it. So just I I go back to when we had to adopt the RISE rubric by the state and go through that to now to a point where administrators and teachers are working together on a rubric and an agreement. It's just an outstanding thing. Um he
034mentioned the AP training. Another great moment of my best leadership is just when I get out of the way, I let Emily race kind of just take over um for the AP training. So just connected her with W Bash Valley, connected her to Andrew to take care of pay for things. She worked with Stephanie on setting everything up. So yeah, the phenomenal AP training that I put on by just letting Emily do all the work. So no, it was great. So I'm grateful for the teams that we have here. Uh speaking of teams, uh working with Boys and Girls Club, we've kind of partnered with them on two grant applications. um trying to find a way to you know we are making that adjustment away from the 21st century grant into a new way of
035doing elementary after school. It will really continue our discovery. Um so some of these grants could you know continue to allow us to pay at a rate we were paying and keep our rates a little bit lower possibly than where we need to go if we don't get these grants. So just great to work with community members on an item like that. Congratulations to Jamante. So on reaching the distinguished status. So I really liked how they put that J money together. So I mean it's a new one. Um and through ISBA. So thank you for um making your efforts to get your training in. Congratulations to the board. They gave us a new plaque to go. If you remember, we had all the long awards coming along so that you guys are continuing to keep
036your advanced status and I will look at trying to get an approved trainer to come in so that we can take that next jump. I think that's the only thing we're missing. So, I appreciate all the time that you put in to being a great board and a great great board members and a great board. Thank you. color guard won a state championship um in regional a Hayes Davidson category. Um so set a new school record. This is outstanding. And this is Crawford'sville color guard all by itself. So that's outstanding. Um thanks to the board members who were able to attend the inaugural honor and inspire night where our top CHS seniors um honored a teacher who inspired them. It's an exceptional event and probably going to be one of my favorite nights to look
037forward to for years to come. Um, I was privileged to judge the Anna Wilson oracle contest along with Kent's co-orker Kenan Wilson who destroyed us on this football field when he was at Tri West and Jake Low um local pastor Claire Dennison was this year's winner of five contestants. Just think of high school kids to get up and give a speech. It's a great event and it's still paying homage to Anna Wilson. So, our CMS swim and dive teams both were county and conference champions did send out if you look at the Oracle um did provide so we're seeking parent feedback as we kind of do our strategic thing. So, um, this went out 2:00 today, 3:00 today, and I took a peek and we already have people responding. So, that is outstanding. And I'm
038Rex Reker. I'm proud to be an Athenian. >> Thank you, Dr. Riker. There's no other business that I'm aware of. Board member communications. >> I just want to um really thank the organizers for the honor and inspire night and uh it was wonderful to be attended. It was very it was I didn't know what to expect and didn't know exactly what it was, but it was in it was incredibly moving. It was great for our teachers to be honored that way and great for the honor students. And I'm with Dr. Riker. I think that is something that will build and and and be something to really look forward to every year. >> I think it was special for the parents to hear their children honoring someone special to them, too. It's really nice. Any others?
039Any patron comments? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. All in favor?