CPCSC School Board Meeting - February 23, 2026

001Anyway, what I wanted to bring up is that there is a need and a lack of the tier system. So the state says we have to have a tier system for kids that are struggling learners. I will probably come up here all the time talk about struggling learners because this is like my life um home and at professionally. So I have fought Crown Point a couple times, not thought but like had discussions about my children being in the tier systems and many of my kids have had been in the tier systems. the current tier system um I believe especially at Lake Street I don't know all the schools um is ineffective and I am curious to know in my opinion Crown Point school board the org chart the admin or straighters at the school corporation

002are topheavy there's a lot of administrators there's a lot of directors there's a lot of specialists great awesome not all schools have that I can attest that I don't come from that we wear many hats asset with the schools that I work at. So, I want to know who's monitoring these systems. I want to know who is making sure that these systems are effective because I spent an hour and a half with a mom who cried to me that her child has been in a tier system has not grown, has stayed consistent or gone down below because of the mind play program. So, I did a little bit of research and I guess mind play is like Lake Street does mind play. Not all the other schools do it, but like who's in charge of

003that? Who is monitoring that? Who is showing the effectiveness and stuff? Because if you do a tier system correctly, then you will catch those gaps, those learning gaps and bring those children up and then they can go on to the classroom and be with everybody else. But that is not happening, I suspect, systemically. So I called eight people that I knew that in Crown Point that have their children in a tier system and they were like, "Oh, I never get reports. I have no idea what's going on." And if Crown Point is topheavy with admin and all these directors and all these people, why don't parents know? Like, okay, yes, we get the I reports. Yes, we get the NWA reports because that's what you have to give for K2. Okay. So, my comp concern

004with the big corporation that you guys are, who is monitoring this and making sure it's effective and successful for struggling learners? That's it. >> Thank you, Miss Anderson. We uh although we're not allowed to make comment and respond and have dialogue, we will we made note of the questions you asked and we'll make sure that somebody does respond. Okay. Sorry. Moving on to item four, consent agenda. Dr. Terrell, thank you for your consideration this evening. We have 4.01, the regular business meeting and board reorganization meeting and board of finance meeting minutes uh from January 26th. We also have 4.02, the appointment of our Crown Point Library Board of Trustees, reappoint of Marshall Anderson to his fourth term, and Marshall is here. We appreciate him being here with us tonight, as well as his service to

005uh the library board on our behalf. Uh 4.03, Disposition of Stale Dated Checks. 4.04, Uniform Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statements, 4.05, the personnel agenda, and 4.06, the voucher registered checks as listed. >> Thank you, Dr. Terrell. Board members, you heard the recommendation of the administration to approve the consent agenda, including 4.01, uh, the regular business meeting board reorganization meeting board of finance meeting minutes of January 26, 2026. 4.02, the appointment to Crown Point Library Board of Trustees to reappoint Marshall Anderson to a 4-year term from January 1st, 2026 to December 31st, 2029. 4.0 4.0 3 disposition of stale dated checks. Um 4.04 the uniform conflict of interest disclosure statements. 4.05 the personnel agenda. And 4.06 uh the approval of voucher register check numbers 179416 to179696 and vouchers numbers 310 465 to 311026. May I have

006a motion? So moved by Miss Basin, second by Mr. Angel, are there any questions uh or comments? >> How many years doing that? >> 19 question on disposition of check. So if I'm understanding that correctly, those were checks just not cashed by the individual. Some of those folks pretty sizable checks that kind of any other questions or there being no further questions or comments, move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I >> naz nay >> and the vote carries 41 uh I'm sorry four I's uh and then nays one Mr. Basser uh again already been reiterated again Mr. Anderson, thank you for saying yes and volunteering our community and helping us. I know you get paid a handsome lump sum for this appointment. I can only imagine. So, thank you for

007giving up your time and really caring about our school corporation and our community as a whole. Move on to action item 5.01, course editions, Crown Point High School 2026 and 2027. Mrs. RmIrez. >> Thank you, Mr. President and board members. I'm here tonight regarding course additions for the 2627 school year for Crown Point High School. The courses that are listed here, which are scientific research, independent study, digital design capstone, and education professions capstone, are requested to be offered for our students participating next school year in 2627. These three course additions are based on student enrollment and there are no additional staffing requirements or resources that are needed to support these three courses being offered to our students and they do all support um both the current diploma as well as then the new Indiana diploma

008requirements. So I am here tonight asking that the administration um approve the course additions at Crown Point High School for the 26 27th school year. >> Thank you Mrs. Ramirez. Board members, you've heard a recommendation in administration to approve the course additions to Crown Point High School for the 2026 and 2027 school year. May I have a motion? So, moved by Miss Basin. Second by Mr. Warney. Are there any questions or comments? >> Yes, Mr. Mir's question on the uh science department science research independent study. >> Um, in a nutshell, how does that work? independent. >> It's actually going to be a concurrently taught course if you guys approve this course for us. So, it would be concurrently taught with the honors um principles of biomedical science. So, what the students do is they are

009in that course and then they are concurrently in this course so that they can benefit from both um areas of study. >> Okay. Yes, that makes more sense now. >> It does give the students a lot of um kind of application of classroom learning through some authentic projects that they can do. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? There being no further question or comment, we'll move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Nays. The vote carries. 5-0. Thank you, Mrs. Ramirez. Moving on to item 5.02, textbook and resource adoption. I guess we're going back to you. >> Yes. Thanks, Mr. President and board members. I am here to request that you uh consider the adoption for use beginning in 2627 of the dual credit pre-calculus curriculum listed here published

010by Sullivan. This is the 12th and this would support our dual credit pre-calculus course offered already at the high school. However, we are transitioning from Indiana University Bloomington as our dual credit partner to Purdue Northwest and this is on the Purdue Northwest's um approved curricular resource list. So that is why we are coming to you this evening to request that you um approve this curricular resource for adoption for use beginning in 2627 school year. >> Thank you board members. You heard the recommendation administration for the school board to approve this curricular resource for adoption for use beginning in 2026 and 2027. Motion moved by Miss Basin. >> Second by Mr. Angel. Are there any questions or comments? >> Since we're no longer uh partnering with IU Bloomington, now we're [snorts] >> Purdue Northwest. >> Yeah.

011>> Uh and excuse me. >> Um is there a reason why Bloomington is just a mutual parting of the ways? >> Yeah. As we look at our dual credit partnerships, we look to see which will best support our Indiana College Core partnership and PNW is our primary um partnership that we have. So we move as many courses as we can to ICC which is the Indiana College Bo which is through Purdue Northwest. >> Thank you. >> I just had one quick question. We have a DC calculus as well >> or just DC pre-cal. >> There is DC pre-calc then we have AP calculus. Okay. I was just wondering if this aligned kind of moving on to the next year. But that makes sense since it's only just one. >> Yep. >> Are you saying that

012because it's tricky there as well? Sorry. Do they have trig as a separate course then? >> Um it is combined into the pre-calculus course is where trigonometry will fall. So there is a dual credit pre-calculus and then you guys have already approved AP pre-calculus for next year. So that there are two options at that pre-calculus level both dual credit and advanced placement. Then the fourth year in that course of study would be the AP calculus. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? >> All right. There being no further question or comment, we'll move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Vote carries. 5-0. Uh 5.03 disposition of obsolete curricular materials. Thank you, Mr. President and board members. I am here today to request the disposition of curricular materials

013listed below, which are Glen Coelt and Glen Copel Health Student Activity Book. These both have a copyright of the year 2005 and were formerly used at the high school, but are um no longer used as we have replaced these this curricular material and so we have um the textbooks and the workbooks still on hand and we would like to dispose of those. Per administrative guidelines 7310, we need the authorization to begin the disposal process for the listed curricular materials that are no longer being utilized. And this disposition could include giving the materials to current students and staff, donating the materials, selling the materials, and disposing of the remaining materials. So, it is the administration's recommendation that the school board authorize the administration to dispose of the curricular materials listed in the most economical manner that

014best meets the requirements of administrative guidelines 7310, which may include sale, donation, or deeming it worthless and disposing of it as normal. >> That's a lot of words. Thank you, Mr. Board members, you heard a recommendation of the administration that the board of school trustees authorize the administration to dispose of the curricular materials listed in the most economical manner that best meets the requirements of administrative guidelines 7310 which may include sale donation or deeming it worthless and disposing of it as normal refues. May I have a motion? >> Motion moved by Mr. Vasser. >> Second by Miss Basin. Are there any questions or comments? Being no question or comments, we'll move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Nays. The vote carries 50. Thank you again, Mr. Ramirez. Moving on

015to item 5.04, policy updates, retirement of policy number 3540, teacher appreciation grant. Mr. Kiwa. >> Thank you, Mr. President and board members. Um, the issue in this area tonight is uh the language requiring school boards to adopt a policy on how it would distribute the grant funds has been repealed. This is due to the new tag grant uh that we hope to receive those funds coming up in April. Um so what we are being asked to do now is retire our old uh tag grant policy but we must keep it archived okay for future reference which we will do. Specifically, HA10001, public law 213-2025 is the teacher appreciation grant and section 19 of this act uh is where it uh repeals the former language related to teacher appreciation grants. Uh section 198 provides that the

016teacher appreciation grant to be a grant program administered by the Indiana Department of Education. The new law provides parameters to be used by the department when awarding the grants to school corporations who apply and are based upon teacher performance with respect to student outcomes and other leadership qualities. According to the law, the grant will be a stipen to the teachers and will not be an increase in the teacher salary. This new law is codified as Indiana code 20-43-16. Tonight we are asking that we wave the readings of the old policy PO3540 teacher appreciation grant and we retire it based on this new legislation. >> Thank you Mr. Akiwa. Board members you heard the recommendation of the administration to wave the reading of the policy and retire uh PO3540 teacher appreciation grant. Um may I have

017a motion? >> Motion with the waving of the reading. >> Uh so moved by Mr. Angel and seconded by Miss Basin. Are there any questions or comments? thinking based upon teacher performance, how does it work? I mean, not bolts here. Two-step process. First was we needed to apply to be a participant in the grant process, which we did last year. Got us into the pool. Once we were approved to be into the pool, you had to get that in by a certain date. then we just have to follow the parameters uh provided to us by the state on uh the criteria to make these selections. So the the instructions were given to us. We did not make up the instructions. >> Are are you limited in the number of people? >> Absolutely. We are limited

018to the to the number of people largely due to the fact that we are given to award which is basically less than we we could give out. So that was underfunded grants in short. >> New ball game. >> Yes. Any other questions or comments? All right. So, uh, there being no question or comments, we'll move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Nays. >> The vote carries. 5-0. Moving on to action item 5.05, approval of preschool fees and charges. Mr. Ree. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Members of the board, tonight we bring before you preschool fees and charges uh for the 2627 school year. A few changes to note uh for the upcoming school year in this program. Uh currently, the morning students uh attend three days a week. We'll

019be moving that to four days a week. Uh likewise, the charge for that uh will go up to $240 for the monthly fee instead of the $180 as we're adding that additional day. uh for the afternoon which already goes five days a week. There's no change there. That fee is $300. One other change uh we are making is that uh students uh unless they have an IEP uh they'll all be charged uh the fee for the monthly fee, the $240 or the $300 fee. Um that's a change from previous years. And the the last change is that we want to increase the supply fee from $65, a onetime cost for that fee up to $100. As we've been in the program now and working through our expenses, uh our costs are significant higher than $65

020at onetime cost that we're we're charging families for that that program. So with that, we're make recommending approval of the new preschool fees and charges for the 2627 academic year. >> Thank you, Mr. Ree. Board members, you heard a recommendation of the administration for approval of the preschool fees and charges in the amounts listed. Uh may I have a motion move by Miss Basin? >> Second by Mr. Angel. Are there any questions or comments? So with the addition with additional fees there for the supplies, it just it's just a zero sum game for us, right? >> For the >> uh uh No, it's not. This bill is not charging what we're spending in supplies for that program. Okay, that's the reason I asked because it's we're not making money on this. Get that. >> That

021is correct. We are definitely not making money this. >> So, Mr. Warney and I attended a meeting this morning here in our building for ISBA their coffee regional coffee talk and I believe the number that was brought up that the state has reduced their on my way preschool funding and limited it to I believe it's 2500 seats in the state. And so when we started our preschool program, it was with the under what we believe was that they would continue to grow the support. And in fact, even with billions of dollars surplus we have as a state, they're reducing that. So, um, this does not bring us back to even breaking even. But, well, while we're on topic, can you give us and anyone that might be interested a refresher on who we're required to

022offer preschool to? >> So, we have to we're required to offer it to any student who has an IEP and is required to provide services for them. What we've committed ourselves to you, the board has committed yourselves to over the last six years is to providing that typical peer um opportunity so that students aren't only the students who have five or have IEPs, but that we can have typical peers in there with them. And that's that's what we're trying to accomplish with this. So, and I think we're all gathering the same information that you don't want to price anybody out of this system because of what you're trying to accomplish by having a group of peers to learn together, but at the same time, we're only required to offer it to the students with this.

023>> Correct. I mean that's you know you hear hear about the raises and you know um and you ask the question directly are we a zero some games no we're not even at that point yet it is important to understand >> as we continue to look at the fiscal impact of things that are coming out of the state house we're going to have to continue to align ourselves as a district with the overall plan where they put their value as which means there could be additional changes coming. One last followup because I'm not sure I heard it or if I missed it. What was the determining factor on going from three days to four days? So we have this extra time. Thank you. >> Other questions or comments? >> Would that Mr. Jean Fman would

024that increase the staff cost there? >> No, they're already there. These are halftime days for kids. We're using it as a time for preparation and preparing but this way we'll be using this think I understand other questions or comments. All right there being no further questions or comments we move to a vote all in favor signify by saying I. >> I nay. Vote carries 5. Moving on to action item 5.06 donations. Mr. Reese. >> Thank you, Mr. President. We are grateful tonight to have the opportunity to bring you two donations to the athletic department at the high school. Uh, one from the Bulldog Wrestling Club and the other from the Crown Point boys basketball club. Uh, the donations for the Bulldog Wrestling Club are for a new wrestling mat. The donation is $5,000. The donation

025from the Crown Point boys basketball club is for $25,000. Uh the nice part about these donations is once we uh you accept these donations are put into the extracurricular accounts at the high school and then have to be spent according to your board policies and procedures as well as audited by state board of accounts. Gives us a little more control over what's going on and those spending money for those programs. So, with that, we're recommending accepting the donation of $5,000 from the Bulldog Wrestling Club to the CP Athletics Wrestling Program and $25,000 from the Crown Point Boys Basketball Club for athletics to the Crown Point High School athletics boys basketball program. Thank you, Mr. Ree. Uh board members, you heard a recommendation of the administration to accept donations uh $5,000 from the Bulldog Wrestling Club

026to the Crown Point High School Athletics Wrestling Program and $25,000 from the Crown Point Boys Basketball Club for athletics to the Crown Point High School Athletics Boys Basketball Program. May I have a motion? So moved by Mr. Vasser, second by Miss Basin. Are there any questions or comments? >> Just like to thank both of those groups. I know the parents go through rigorous fundraising efforts to build those funds up and to thank those parents that are involved in that on those that go to those events that help raise those money to make sure we have what we need for our kids. >> My quick question is just to clarify, so these were like fundraising efforts from the wrestling families that then are transferred to the athletic department similar for basketball program. >> Correct. their booster

027club or parent parents that that are supporting those two uh programs. >> One more follow-up question. So, is it standard then for like to cover I know it says equipment like uniforms, practice packs, shoes, socks, etc. gear. So, is it common then for each one of our programs to take their fundraising money and transfer it here to be spent out this way or is this a unique situation? >> No, I would say each program is a little bit different what they provide the fundraising for that they use that for each up to the uh the booster club and how to donate that money and the purposes. Once it's accepted by the school corporation, we can use it for whatever purpose we see we deem best fit for that program out of the athletics department. In

028this case, out of athletics. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Any other questions? >> Be no further questions or comments move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. vote carries. 5-0. Uh we'll move to uh discussion report items. Uh 2027, 2028, and 2028, 2029 school calendar. Dr. Terrell, >> thank you. Uh before you tonight, we have a couple of different calendars that put together uh through several hours of conversations and working through issues with the calendars. Just want to remind uh all of you as we get started into this conversation points of consideration. Um several years ago we moved to where we made sure that we were ending first semester by the beginning of Christmas break. And uh a big part of that has to do with things that are

029happening at the high school. Uh the number of dual credit courses our students take, the increased number of AP courses our students take, uh the number of students who are graduating early and leaving to go to college. that really drives the importance of making sure that we're on a similar schedule with our universities u as we go through this. Um another part of this is looking to make sure that we can try and keep the number of days very as as close to being equal uh first semester and second semester. There is more testing that takes place second semester. So we try to balance that out. there's a few more days intentionally or because of the calendar as we look at this. Also keeping in mind uh the uh week of fall break, the uh

030Wednesday off before Thanksgiving um two weeks at the Christmas break time and with spring break as well being in there um and some different ones throughout the year. So we sent you guys the information for the 27 and 28 calendar. had a couple of comments, questions uh from board members. So, I wanted to to put out and you guys have seen the one that that we are recommending tonight that that our plan is to go forward with, but wanted to bring up some other things just to talk through with you guys. Um have made comments and kind of pointed out on here. I thought it'd be easier for all of you to see kind of the the the complexities or the issues that go along with moving things around. Um and for a later start

031even of just a week. So in [clears throat] the first one for the 2728 school year again 2627 school year has already been on our website for more than for a year and we're just trying to continue to stay ahead of the game with these uh calendars. As you can see, our recommendation is for uh teachers to report August 9th with students reporting August 11th. Again, this is 2027. um to look at having fall break in a week of fall break in October uh November having that Wednesday, Thursday, Friday for Thanksgiving break with Christmas break then being uh December 20th through the 31st uh and ending the first semester with 84 days. Then coming back on the third is teacher work day [clears throat and cough] with the fourth being the first day for students.

032Again, keeping Martin Luther King as a no school day as well as President's Day in February. Um making sure that we have those uh both included in our calendar. Um the the calendar recommendation for that's before you has the last week of March being spring break. Um, and then you'll notice that uh, Good Friday, Easter in 28 is really late and is the second week in April. So, Good Friday would still be a no school day on the 14th. This calendar then gives our students uh, their final day of school on the 26th of May, which is the Friday before Memorial Day weekend with teachers coming back on Tuesday the 30th. Uh, ending the second semester with 96 days. So 96 first semester 84 uh is is a close proximity there. Looking at the other

033um opportunity here for a later start would be August 16th um for teachers, August 18th for kids. Uh again with the full week of fall break in October, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Um one of the things that we would do as well keep Christmas break the same. Um and therefore it would give us an end of first semester um would be 79 days where in the other one we had actually had 84 days. Um part of the issue with this is you can see rolling Christmas break is really challenging um with where Christmas falls on the 25th on a Saturday of that year. Um Martin Luther King Day, President Day again. Um no school on those days. Looking again at the week of fall break at the end of March. Um then going into April,

034still Good Friday is there. Now with Memorial Day being there, the problem that that presents is then it moves. If you just move it back a week, now we go to where students have to have one more day. [snorts] So we would be asking them to come back on June 5th for one day which is not ideal uh for students for finals for all the other things that go on on that last uh at the end of the school year. Uh teachers then would end on the 6th which is a Tuesday. Um again you can look at the difference in the second semester. The number of days with this op this option is 101 days as opposed to 96 for the second semester. Um which again is that five more days. But again one of

035the biggest downsides other than the the number of days being much being more for both semesters is again looking at that one day where they come back. Um, we looked at it round and round and said, "One day, surely we can find one day as we go through this calendar to make that up so students don't have to come back." We can't come up with a way to do that without taking away Martin Luther King Day or President's Day or Good Friday. How do we do where would we make that fit? Um, we've had so many positive comments and already can tell you that our attendance with staff has increased so much with having that Wednesday off and before Thanksgiving that that's not a great opportunity there to give that up. Um, the challenge of

036having students come back for one day um on a Monday along with the number of days in each semester makes that really challenging. I'm going to stop there and just open it up the floor for conversations. >> Before we begin, just just to give a little context to this first, we're not voting tonight. Understand that the administration is bringing this to the board for a discussion, which I think is good and healthy. So, thank you for doing that. It's it's easier just to say this is what we're doing and you guys have brought it forward to us for this discussion, which we really appreciate. Historically, one of the main topics I just want to make sure for the newer board members is that we've always had a, you know, a two or three day fall

037break and a few years ago, we pushed for a full week fall break, which I'm a big advocate for. That would be my number one. I had to pick and choose. I liked a full fall break. So, with that being said, I just wanted to give a little context to our discussions, but please feel free to make statements and uh, you know, I think it's good for us to have a discussion on this issue, but There's always going to be give and take. Miss Bas, I know you're >> Yeah. Um, my only thought was looking at December of 2027 on the second proposed calendar, the second page. Um, and I'm sure that there's a reason, but I I prefer to throw it out there. I think I'm usually an advocate of starting that like week

038of the 16th, that middle week, as opposed to the week sooner if possible. Um, so as far as that that first week of of our holiday break there, the 20th, 21st, 22nd, is there any way to have those 3B school days? Does that impact our um our high school like final schedule? Is that the reason for giving a full week as the last week as opposed to doing a three-day week and then getting off? >> So, one of the things that we have looked at, we had this conversation even again this morning with cabinet was looking back a time when we actually split up the week and what were the challenges with attendance and that was some of the issues that we had was with the attendance of having part of it before and part

039of it afterwards would help with the number of days being off um which would add three more to first semester which would would help in that um it's always an op we could try it and see and therefore we would change when people came back in January just by bumping them back further Well, I guess my recommendation and and there may be a reason that I may be like stoned for suggesting maybe a shorter holiday break, but does that is there a way to buy us back so that we're not coming back on that Monday, Tuesday in June? >> So, that was one of the things I brought up was what if we looked at Christmas break actually being shorter for our staff? Um, >> and I didn't want to get stumped either. >> I

040and I know it's a much needed rest bit. I didn't know if having a a short week you know, made it a little bit easier to kind of get through date wise. Obviously with Christmas falling on a Saturday makes and Christmas Eve on a Friday makes that week to get through that week. So just just looking for any other options. So, you know, given that explanation and not wanting to shorten that break or have to bump back days later, you know, I think that first calendar starting sooner, you know, I think when at all possible, I'd love to see how we can start just a little bit later in August. But, you know, given what you guys had to work with, I feel like there's a good The other thing we looked at was what

041if teachers didn't have that work day when they came back in January just started right at the kids. I'm looking in the back of the room and you can see the >> eyebrow I mean I I can feel it. It's coming right at me right now. >> Things that I heard when we came back this year I heard a lot of rumbles from from parents saying, "Oh my gosh, I thought I was going to ship my kid back and I got him for a whole another day." And all I heard from teacher friends was I was so incredibly grateful for that day to get everything together, wrap up first grading period, and be able to prepare for the students. So I I feel like that's a a nogo. >> If you remember, we really made

042a point of emphasis for everybody to be done when they walked out of the door before Christmas break started. So that way they didn't have to think, well, when I go back on Monday, I've got after break I've got to do this or I've got to it could just be prepped for going forward with you. And I agree the comments of the leader were positive. I'm in the opposite Mr. Smith on fall break. I'm not sure why it to be an entire week. That's I think that's one thing to look at. Another thing, the biggest complaints I hear from parents is learning days. There's two of them in the first semester on this calendar. Could you stress the importance of e-learning days? Maybe that's the biggest complaint I get. >> Yeah. So, e-learning days, we've

043reduced them from just a couple years ago where we had five. We're down to three. Two of those are actually used for professional development with our staff, which is absolutely crucial um as we go through this. The third one for the elementary school students is for that parent teacher conference uh to give them an opportunity to have that o and and we feel like um the attendance rate for that was close to 99% this past year just over 97 um percent this year. Therefore I I believe to me that signals that our parents feel like that's really absolutely crucial time as well uh in communicating with their teachers. Um So, Mr. V, that's those are the reasons why we've tried to cut those back as as much as we could. Um, and still we we

044need that day both first and second semester with our staffs to cover some of the um essential items that need to be in place. >> Um, one question about it. uh not not of my concern so much, but is Easter the Monday following Easter ever come up in other school calendars that that you guys are that you're aware of? Okay. That's something that I've just, you know, families getting together on Easter is. Oh, sure. Would be nice to be off tomorrow type of thing. Follow. So, it turns into a 4 day weekend basically with a Good Friday. Um, I'm bringing that up with also I I don't know where sometimes I I feel like we could sit here for 12 meetings, but this is one conversation that if you're going to get attention from the

045parents and anyone in the community, it's one that they care the most about. So, I do think it's good to have this and appreciate you the opportunity to to go back and forth. I like my thoughts were the same as Miss Ba. I actually mentioned to Todd on a separate conversation that this calendar here in 27 to go to those three days and that that leading up to Christmas 2021 you can almost argue that helps the push of not having to waste it one day because now you're going to go three days to the set that that last session in June there but you know 567 or 678. um everything I'm saying I have complete trust that as you said there was a lot of time spent on this. So I'm just I'm just throwing

046my thoughts out there so that I I uh um think that we all have that opportunity to hear the why. And uh um I I think I don't think it's a secret that the last two days before Christmas, the last two days before you get out of school, they're they're not productive and they're never going to be whether they're coming back for one day or if it ends on a Thursday, Friday or if it ends on a Monday, Tuesday, and you can almost argue part of the the the Christmas one. If you go to if you come back in on the 20th, 21st, 22nd, well, those days would be wasted on 16th 17 also. You know, it depends on the level of education we're talking about. kindergarten, first grade, they're doing their class parties and

047things like that. In other words, your your uh high school students are getting their things wrapped up and, you know, help help to do it. So, um I guess with everything I just said, thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk about it and uh I guess kind of agreed what Daniel had to say. >> The only place I would say that possibly it really means a lot is at high school where they're doing finals on those days. That's a big one for them. So, elementary school understand where you're coming from. >> So, some of them tried to pick a little bit earlier, but >> No, but your >> So, your your argument there would be that you're going to have a a greater focus on a full week finishing week with a Thursday,

048Friday, than a high school kid who's coming in to take a final and focus. >> Yeah. And and having I will say our our high school teachers did an amazing job of spreading it out. So, my kids did not have a full day of finals the last day of school or two days. They had everything was spread out. So certain blocks they'd have, you know, a couple finals each day. So they had reviews at the beginning of the week and then a couple at the end. So that having the full week on the high school end was I mean it was helpful. >> So students like myself, >> I would just like to thank all involved in getting this set up because you have so many groups you're trying to appease yet meet standards for

049the 180 school days yet make sure our teachers and the contracts are met on their end. So there's so many four or five if not six or seven groups to make sure we touch base and meet the demands of what we need to get done. So kudos to all those involved in trying to get something that will work yet maybe not perfect for everybody. But I also do know a lot of time is not is put into this not just thrown together to say oh they just did it because they wanted to do it. Yes. So thank you. >> No, no matter what what's decided here someone's going to complain. >> There's okay. Although I will tell you we've since we went to the week at fall break, that extra day at Thanksgiving, the two

050and then one week at spring break, it has been unbelievably popular when I come out to see parents. Um I know Brian has mentioned before having been a baseball player in high school, he never really got a spring break. Now because of fall break being there, that provides that opportunity there. Um, we've had really good feedback in it. I would tell you that there's many districts that are starting to move more towards what we're doing than there are moving away from. So, >> and that Thank you, Todd, for saying that. That that was what I was going to say is I know there's rumbles about other schools that are moving towards the full fall week. How how does Crown Point do it? Why? We were one of the first in our area, if not the

051first. And I think there's a move towards it. It's it's a great break for family and what Dr. Terrell said is true is is I never got a spring break in high school and this has always been a thorn on my side is why why do half the kids who play sports or you know extracurricular activities participate and they get a spring break but if you're in the wrong season you're hosed and I've always felt that way. So, I will validate that that school corporation north up here and you know they begin with an M and end with an R um has contacted me being that I'm friends with a board member and one of their cabinet members. How can you get to that one week off or fall forward? So, they are in the

052works of trying to get that that moved to their calendars as well. >> Now, I I would probably tend to agree with Miss Basin as well on both of these calendars. I I personally think that we have three great months of weather here and that is like August, September, October. So any days that the family can be together in August, I'm a fan of it. I think the worst months are December, January, February, I think it's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. If you let kids off on the 20th, they're going to sit in their home while their parents work. That's just my opinion. I I think their parents are going to go to work. Nobody gets two weeks off and they're gonna they're going to sit in their house and wait for their parents to come

053home and wasted family time, wasted opportunities for children. So I would I would personally support go to school the 20 21st. I think that does bring credence to December 16th and 17th to be functional, fully functional school days because otherwise I do think students will get antsy and they'll start bailing out on the 16th or 17th of December. So for me, I also think that pushes more dates to the beginning of the calendar where we have that issue. We have a shorter session the first semester. So to me, moving a couple more dates up in that first semester makes sense academically. So I I would probably push for the 20 21st, go to school, and then come back. You don't have to go on that June 6th date or whatever that June date was. And

054then also one day later coming out J coming back give teachers and parents more time to adjust and prepare. And that would be applicable to both essentially the same. >> Is there what is the time frame to finally come to approval so to speak? >> Our our plan is this evening unless there's further conversation. Keep going round and round. Literally we spent another hour with all of Kevin this morning. So um we we've hit it any time. a break and came back to it even to try and come up with different different opportunities. So >> That's a good point you just made though. If so, if if you guys spent an hour on this, it wasn't easy, right? Otherwise, it would have been a five-minute conversation. You've been done. >> So when you took your

055room, it was probably a 60 40 70 30 split. And if it was, you know, if it was even that tight, what we're potentially saying isn't off base by any means. It's like it's like, okay, flip the coin at this point. we going to go with and and I still think that we're not making light of of it, but this is so important for everyone. We're just talking about a calendar, but again, this is everything that you guys do that with the us at board members have had the opportunity, the privilege of learning that it's not out there in the community. They don't understand conversations that take place day in and day out in all these topics. I said what I need to say about it, but you know, I really think that's true that

056sure at times there's a stone unturned, but it's it's not often. And we're hoping that possibly then when we come to that 2930 29 um as the calendar rolls though that maybe that'll give us that opportunity then to to move that back situation. Um, as you look back over the last one, two, three, four, eight years, um, our starts have been 818, 810, 8:16, 814, 813, 812, 811, 89. So, um, we're all right in that that window. And hopefully we can sneak in another 818 and begin that uh, cycle rolling back in 2029. This is the first time I'm discussing this with anybody ready to say, yeah, let's do this or do that. Um, but going back to the August 27, we have teachers starting on the 16th, kids starting at 18. >> I'm looking

057at the second page. Is it possible to to consider rolling that back previous week but not the entire week? >> In other words, let's just as an example, use the the 10th for the the teachers and the 12th for the kids as an example. >> So then we would just be adding an additional day instead of >> just trying to buy days here >> since you said The start dates range between I think you said the 8th and the 18th. >> Always on a Monday, but yeah, I mean a Wednesday. >> And what we found is we had that conversation uh multiple times as well. Kids going back to school for a first week right away, but not just kids, adults going back. That first week is is brutal. There's no tired like first week

058teacher tired. That's with three days with kids. Um, what you're suggesting is though to move that back and do like a Tuesday for teachers and a Thursday for kids, then requiring our kids at the end of the school year at that June time to not just come back for June 5th, but they would come back June 5th and 6th and teachers should be done on the 7th if I'm understanding that correct. >> Well, that's just one part of this huge allege equation we're trying to create here depending what we do with breaks, too. just putting it out there. I don't have I don't have the answer. Just >> want to be part of the discussion. >> Yes, appreciate that. >> I think that's the thing that what we've heard and and gathered is the breaks

059we feel like are need to be set the way they are with the number of days that are there. Um so anything we take on the front end, we got to add on the back end. Well, again, thank you for bringing this to our attention and and thank you for putting it out so early. I think that's probably more important than than anything for parents and teaching. Do you want to uh Yeah, we can look at the 2829. Is there any different thought on the 2829 calendar that anybody wants to add? >> It's really the same kind of situation. Um just looking at it again. Same thing with moving the days back. The one thing that we can do is if you look at December, we're able to roll Christmas break back, which balances the

060days much better between the two semesters um at 84 and 96, which is doable. The challenge again comes back to our kids coming back um for one day uh June 4th on a Monday and then teachers coming back Tuesday. That's the biggest part of it. Uh, Good Friday is a lot earlier in 29, which you can see there, Good Friday is on 30th. Nice thing about this, it gives us the opportunity to to lead into spring break with uh Good Friday off going into it, which is really appealing. Um, but again, just can't figure out a way about bringing our kids back for one day on a Monday. And as as Mr. Warney pointed out, if you think the last couple of days are a lot of games and things, just imagine if you're bringing

061kids back on Monday or if you're at the high school, how do you get if you're that teacher and you get assigned that your kids are taking their finals on that Monday when that's the only day? That's going to be really tough. >> Dr. Terrell, could I um ask a clarifying question on that one on the second option that has the students starting on August 16th. >> Correct. >> Um if we were to have a traditional spring break at the end of March as opposed to the first week in April, um thus absorbing the Good Friday holiday just like it is this calendar year that we're about to have. Um that would get our students out. Removing that one day would get them out on Friday, June 1st. And unfortunately would still have teachers coming

062back on June 4th, but would have the students out on the 1st if we just rolled spring break back to that traditional last week in March. >> I didn't know if that was a an issue with trying to make the nine weeks line up. Like again, I know you guys have put >> so much effort into this. So I was assuming there was a a rhyme or reason, but if that was a way to make that calendar more feasible. >> Definitely. I mean, if you look at the the first one, that's where we have If we were to keep spring, so if we were to go with the start on the second page there that we're looking at on the 14th and the 16th, if we move spring break, just not trying to just so

063everybody's on the same page from that first week in April to that last week in March. That would include Good Friday in spring break, thus taking away the one day we're trying to make up. So then the last day for students would be on June 1st and for teachers would be on June 4th that would get us that later start in August. Page two of the sense. Let's do that. So we look at the 2029 the alternate schedule um starting on the 14th for teachers students starting on the 16th moving that spring break week down to March including Good Friday in that week. I have to let you know. So while we have those conversations, Diana sits in there and listens and then she goes and tries to put it together and then she and

064Landa get together and hash it out again. And even today they had to step away, come back, give it an hour for lunch and come back and look at it again and try and it's I think Mr. mentioned it's algebra. It may be more like trig coming up with the equations. >> I I think there's so many tricks that we do, right? Like I do love the Monday, Wednesday for teachers, students that that full week. I love the full week of um fall break. I love the three days for Thanksgiving. So, I think there's so much that we do right that then it kind of gridlocks you into the calendar on what else you could do. So, thank you guys for all of your effort. I'm sure this is something you guys will be very

065happy to move fast for the year. >> We will. We will >> because a second semester requiring all those state test etc. How many days are you looking at differential between first semester and second? >> Um so here you can see it's first semester is 84 and 96. So it's 12 days different but by the time you take out that state testing we call it five days maybe. What am I looking at? I'm looking back there. more grimacing. >> So, how many days do you think? >> March. >> Okay. So, so on the 2728 No, I know we've gone back and forth on this, but looks like first semester 79 and second semester 101. >> It's on the alternate. >> That's on the alternate. We're not going with that one. >> 84 and 96. So,

066it's 12 days. Do we need 12 days? pretty close to Mr. I want to make the point as well that first semester is so important to us because we are assessing the kids and as was brought up earlier in the board meeting you know we want to intervene for kids that need additional help that's how we identify checks and all the other things that place so we want we also have mapped out our curriculums and we don't want to have to rush that on our teachers jam in standards so the year is plotted out and every time the calendar moves because it's a perfect calendar all over the place then we're trying to adjust that but know that we we really look at this first and foremost academic then start but it is really important

067to get in teaching instruction in those days don't >> Oh no I was saying just the opposite >> yeah I know we're trying to get more I know >> get more into the first semester >> yes I wasn't Quite the opposite of what we said. >> And and just to note again, they're moving the spring break week up one that same. >> Good. Thank you. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. >> Okay, we're moving on to item seven, 7.01, superintendent discussion groups. Uh, this morning, >> I did not uh didn't did not attend Cedar Lake. I need to do a followup for us to make sure nothing's going on. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Mr. Passer. Crown Point. >> Crown Point. Uh, redevelopment is next a week from tonight. Uh, this last week because I was

068surgeries. Welcome back and glad to see you here. >> Thank you. Uh item 7.02, Director of Elementary Education, Dr. Kacina. >> Thank you, Mr. President and board members. Tomorrow is an exciting day. Online kindergarten enrollment begins tomorrow. It opens up for the class of 2039. We are very excited to welcome and get to know our newest students and our newest families. Uh after a couple weeks of that enrollment window opening up, schools will begin contacting families um and setting up and scheduling visits for late April and early May uh so our incoming kindergarteners can come on in and see their future school. Uh art show. Last Tuesday evening, um the Crown Point Public Library hosted the first of two art shows this year. We split it up this year to get more uh student art

069involved, create a little bit more space to highlight more of that work. Uh but last Tuesday, uh three of our schools, artwork from Eisenhower, Soulen, and Jerry Ross was on display. It's on display for a couple more days. Um, but the exhibit will transition later this week to feature work from Lake Street, MacArthur, Winfield, and Timothy Ball with their reception happening on March 10th. Uh, huge thank you to our seven art teachers at the elementary level. They put in a lot of time and care uh to honor the work and showcase the talent of our young artists. Um, we're very grateful for this continued partnership with the public library. Uh finally tonight, it is that time of year. I read uh assessments are approaching. Uh the window for the spring I read is the first

070two weeks of March. So um for the second year, our second graders will be taking this uh this assessment along with some students in grades three through six. Um for many students, this is their first experience with the high stakes test. Uh just a big thank you to our teachers and and our school staff for helping students balance all of that pressure and approach that uh assessment with some confidence and calm and encouragement. So uh lots of big things happening. Thank you very much. >> Thank you Dr. Kina. >> Nick the uh I read as just tagging along with the previous discussion. >> Yes. >> How many days is that? I know it's a it's two week window but how many days actual testing? >> Two days. Um but that that's maybe about 45 minutes

071one day and maybe about an hour a little over an hour on another day. So yeah, there's three test segments. Um >> so it's not a school day by any >> correct. Yeah, just a small portion of a couple days. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Moving on to uh item 7.03, director of secondary education, Mrs. Ramirez. >> Thank you, Mr. President and board members. There are so many great things happening across the school corporation. I'm constantly taking like screenshots of things that I see that are posted on our social media. So, I'm so appreciative to Brooke and to our social media kind of representatives at each building who are highlighting the great things that our students are doing and under the kind of um I'd say leadership of very talented and caring teachers and staff

072members. I would like to highlight with ISMA, the Indiana State School Music Association throughout the district, and I hope that these numbers are correct. Um our students really have demonstrated such talent. Um we earned 363 golds, 33 silvers, 23 perfect scores, 79 state qualifiers in ISMA competitions at the end of January and beginning of February throughout the district. So it's really very encouraging to see the talent of our students um you know throughout the corporation. I'm very thankful at the secondary level to our choir, orchestra, and band teachers who are very dedicated to developing skills, giving feedback, and providing opportunities for our students to hone their craft. And it's such a passion for many of our families. So, I'm thankful to them as well. We also had for the first time ever at Crown Point

073High School, um we had a speech tournament that is called Huray for Hollywood, and they placed the high school team placed first overall, and this is the first time that they've ever accomplished that. So, it's a really great um team of students and teachers again there who are very dedicated to giving students um numerous opportunities to compete and this was a great accomplishment for them. Want to also um advise that on March 20th, Crown Point High School will be hosting their career fair. There is information out both through our um district newsletter as well as Lynn Alky, the associate principal at uh high school can be contacted. We are consistently looking for um different people in different industries to come and man a booth and tell tell students about their careers and possible career um

074opportunities. This is also a good opportunity for networking for our students. So I'd like to use this platform for anybody that is watching. If you guys are interested to reach out to Lynn Alky again um we do have spaces available for booths about careers um on March 20th that takes place during the school day at Crown Point High. And last but not least, um upcoming we have the the spring play over at Crown Point High School, which is called Jason and the Argo Nuts. And it should be a very uh funny comedy um and lots of laughs definitely uh to be had. So I will give you the dates for those. And then of course, as always, make sure that you guys get your tickets ahead of time as we know that those tickets are

075in high demand. >> Thank you, Mrs. Ramirez, Jason, and the Argo Nuts. Okay, that's gonna be new, but I'm sure it'll be well worth seeing. Excited for that. All right, we're going to move on to item 7.04. Director of Acceptation, Mrs. Pascus. >> Good evening, President Smith, members of the board. I wanted to provide an update on some of our parent engagement activities we've had going. Um, back on February 11th, our special ed parent advisory council um in cooperation with our department held a workshop here for parents at night called um beyond the behavior. And um we got feedback from the parents that lead that group on what kind of topics parents wanted to learn more about. Behavior was definitely top of the list. And uh just we explained how behavior is a form of

076communication. What are some of the strategies so we can achieve consistency across home to school using some common language when we talk to our students? Instead of uh you're in trouble, we say you need to take a break. Um I know Mr. Angel probably used that exact term back in his day. Uhhuh. Um we also encourage uh making sure students are regulated and demonstrating to adults how to co-regulate with their child. Um so we had a really great uh training turnout. I think we'll keep building upon that. Mrs. stepped in for me. I was down in India at our state conference and I know Mr. Gian Fermy stopped by. So, thank you very much for that. Um, then last week we had our February CPAC meeting. Um, so the group is developing an April workshop

077in tandem with our social workers. That's the same night as our transition fair at the high school. So, um, the CPAC is going to hold a breakout session there, um, on what are some of the resources parents might access because it's getting to be that kind of or time of the year when parents need to know what's available for their children in the summer, how to get the waiver, um, just how to get resources beyond the school to help them. So, the CPAC and our social workers are going to work on that. um one night in April. We had our first Bulldog Ballers game on February 12th and we have two more coming March 5th and March 12th at 6 PM at the high school. So, please join us if you can. >> Thank you,

078Mrs. Basquez. How many parents uh are on that committee? >> Uh there's a there's a mailing list we send out. Like the core group has got 15 or 16 parents. Um, we usually don't have more than four or five come to a monthly meeting. >> Well, it's wonderful to do. >> We've had virtual, we've had in person, so we'll keep we'll keep working on it. >> Well, thank you. >> Item 7.05, Assistant Superintendent, Mr. J. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, February 15th was National School Resource Officer Appreciation Day. So, I do want to recognize the current officers that are working in our buildings. Um, Officer Brandon Norris at middle school, officer Wayne Helm at Colonel Wheeler Middle School, and Officer Leslie Malich at Crown Point High School. They are all Crown Point police officers.

079We also have retired police officer Milan Jonovic who is SRO trained um working at our ED center. And um we have been down one SRO because of some u just some personnel issues [clears throat] over at Crown Point uh police department, but they are now have a new trained person that's been with them a while for site started today. point high school. So we're up to speed with all those and of course thanking Dave Coulson who leads that team and our partnerships with Crown Point Police Department, Cedar Lake as well. So thank all those guys for helping keep our schools safe. I do want to mention, you know, as Mr. Romero said, there's so many good things going. I'm sure some people will dive into some of the athletic and other uh contests that have

080been going on um and the success that we've been seeing our kids achieve. But I just want to point out one thing that I saw that I thought was really neat over at Taff Middle School. They did a project called Hearts for Heroes. As you know, all of our schools are purple star school designated. Uh which means that we uh you know sponsor veterans in in our community, but they went above and beyond because this is not a criteria to be a Purple Star. Um so they collect Valentine's for our veterans and u then the art teacher had the classes create these pretty nice looking hearts and then they put some thoughtful things in those and sent them out to our community and the veterans in our community which I thought was just kind of

081a neat thing that this wasn't something they had to check the box on, but because they're part of that program, they were thinking that way to kind of promote that with our our folks that are in our community. So, kudos to the the h the past staff and kids for doing that. Those kind of thing. And then I know Mr. Ramirez mentioned his mom and I just found this to be kind of neat as well. A student at Colonel Wheeler, Sullivan Jameson, he is the fourth student in Colonel Wheeler history. You think about all the students gone through this pieces of it. fourth one in their history to uh make the isma state vocal solo ensemble which is usually kind of reserved high school students. Congratulations Jameson for that. >> Well done. Thank you Mr.

082Gir. Glad our our veterans are being thought of. It's amazing what a little card or a little note can do for somebody pops up in your mailbox or whatever. So that's fantastic. Uh 706, Chief Human Resource Officer, Mr. Q. >> Thank you, Mr. President and board members. I'd first like to thank some of our leaders here in the Crown Point Community School Corporation, specifically Dana Toraniano, uh all of our building principles, nurses, and some of our staff here at central office that organized our annual vision screenings for first graders throughout the entire school corporation. Uh not just all first graders here, but also the parochial schools. We screened almost 700 students uh here in two separate days. Uh they were getting busted here. We're using rooms just like this one just down the hall uh

083to kind of keep their focus in one room and then bring them in the other room and get their screenings done. So, thank you to everybody that was involved uh in that effort. And then finally, I I'd be remissed if I did not just take a moment to uh uh thank two special individuals uh dear to me uh regarding recent uh retirements. I just want to thank uh first of all uh Bill Derilla uh had a chance to uh be a part of his onboarding years ago at the old high school as athletic director and uh the amount of hours and time and and energy he has he's given our school corporation. Um I just want to publicly thank Bill uh for what he's given us here at the Crown Point Community School Corporation. And

084uh above that more importantly uh is my wife Annie uh who is put in her retirement. So, um, Annie was hired in 97, uh, here, and I just wanted to tell my wife publicly how proud I am of her for being such a great leader and and, uh, role model and guardian for so many of our students, uh, here in the school corporation. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Kiwin. I'm glad you broke the ice on that because I never know when we can publicly say something or not. So, now, [laughter] >> uh, 7.07, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Reeves. >> Thank you, Mr. president uh over the summer uh partnering with GFS, our food service department, went through a process referred to as balanced ordering. So, as you can imagine, we're off for two months.

085Not many orders get placed. Uh the same happens for across uh our area and state regarding school food service. Then GFS gets bombarded with orders there at the beginning of August. They put in place a program where you could do balanced ordering through June and July leading up into August. And with that tied some rebate money attached to that. Last month we received almost $20,000 from JFS uh through the additional work that our staff did preparing for that preparing venues for the start of school and making sure that the orders are in place. The food was still absolutely good to last into August. So I want to thank Christine Clarahan, Kimman, Michelle Simski for taking time to do that over the summer and generate some more dollars for our food service program. >> Thank you.

086Miss uh 7.08 director of communications, Mrs. Allen. >> Thank you and good evening. I want to wish you a happy public schools week. It runs this week. It's a national celebration of all of the great things that public schools do. This is a week that's supported by the list is long. National School Board Association, National School PR Association, School Superintendent Association, National Association of Elementary Principles, School Counselor Ass. the National PTA, the National Education Association, and the Consortium for School Networking, which is our association of technology leaders. Um, in Indiana, public schools support more than 1 million students, which is roughly 90% of our school age population, and that's across,900 public schools. So, I always like to think of how much we're doing here. Then imagine multiplying that by 300 and something districts. It really

087is quite a feat. Happy Public Schools Week. Same to you, Mrs. Allen. Uh 7.09 Superintendent Schools, Dr. Terrell. >> Thank you. Uh this evening as a reminder, but also to recognize we are going through the strategic planning process and we have a group of individuals who meet with us. We have a meeting Wednesday night um approximately 40, just a little bit more than 40 individuals every time we get together. appreciate their dedication, their work, a lot of really positive things that have come from that as well as we look to set the uh the plan um as we move forward for the next several years. Want to also uh I mentioned earlier Mr. Warney and I were in a meeting this morning and one of the things that came up uh was all of the

088challenges that public schools are facing right now. Um Miss Allen mentioned 90% of our students in the state of Indiana are educated through public schools. We're real proud of that. But just looking at how do they get positive messages out? We're able to share some of the things that that we are able to do here in Crown Point and help them. But that positive messaging that goes, yes, Brooke does a lot of that from her department, but her influence into the buildings as we continue to see one of the superintendents this morning said, we try to tell our principles they have to tweet out or put some on social media twice a week or we have to do this. We have so much that um we've come so far that at times we kind of

089lose sight of how much we actually put out there. And I want to thank all of our uh building leaders, teachers, uh Brooke and her department for all the work that they do. Um last thing, earlier in this month, I was able to spend the better part of a week just going into buildings and spend an hour and a half to two hours with every principal. No agenda, just show me around. whatever you want to show me, we can do. Um, we're able to be in multiple classrooms that week. I left feeling um, humbled and honored to lead this district, but so impressed by our teachers and our administrators and our staff and our buildings and how hard they work. Um, we were in one elementary building and they were coming right up to ending

090the day. And we like to say in education, we teach bell-to bell. I promise you they were teaching bell-to-bell. But it wasn't just that the teacher was unbelievably on target uh with where she wanted to be in that classroom at that end of the day. The kids were so dialed in that it was almost like no, you have to go now and get your stuff ready so you can leave on time. Um but just reminded of the great kids we have, the great efforts that are put forth on a daily basis. Um kind of helps, especially in the middle of this legislative session, just kind of bring you back why we do what we do and appreciate everybody here, the board as well and your support as we're able to do that each and every

091day. Thank you, Dr. Terrell. All right, we'll move on to 8.01, other business of the board. We'll start with Mr. Vasser with the legislative report. Mr. Vasser, I know you have it and I know it's it's fluid. It's always changing. So, my understanding is some of these bills have are no longer being pushed, things like that. So, as you're talking, you may just indicate if it's not there anymore. If it's changed, we'll try to let you know. So, >> thanks, Mr. Smith. I typed this up uh last Thursday, so things could have changed, but contrary to popular belief, there's more going on in Indianapolis than just seeing if we get the Bears to come to fan of that myself, but I don't really care. Not a Bears fan. So there said it um plus I

092don't want to pay those taxes. Um leg I started that with with reiterating the steps of the legislative process. The reason I put that in there is because, you know, the people are our state senate members and our state house members, they get a lot of bad raps, a lot, but they had to consider 653 bills, a short session. That's that's a lot to put in your head to make an honest evaluation. But that process it goes through is a good indication of checks and balances which is so important for government. So did you have any questions on any of that part try to again I was unable to attend the state state house day which I really enjoy but educational bills just highlighted I think I highlighted 10 of them. I'm not going to

093go through 10 of those because some of those bills are inactive. Kind of gave up on that even moving from one chamber to another or getting any kind of approval. But on the on the second page there, u state bill, excuse me, Senate Bill 78, this is this is a little different. advances a bell-to-bell band requiring phones and smartwatches to be locked away for the entire day. That is getting movement. It's been referred to from the Senate to the House Ed. And they only have a very short time here to get this completed. So, I think you're going to see a lot of movement on these bills or no movement on these bills this week or perhaps these bills be tacked on to another bill. tucked away somewhere. But that that's a big change we

094have here in Crown Point where u as an example kids would bring their phones in and those are locked up for the entire school day. Not build the bell from the class period, bell the bell from the start of school to the end of school. That's a change. Not sure if that's going to happen. It's getting some movement in there. >> Mr. Vassor, can I jump in and provide a little bit of an update? we heard even this morning uh from Terry Stradlin. So it looks like the language in that is going to continue to have that bell-to-bell ban. What's not going to be in there is before they were talking about kids having to check those in and having administrators take them. The pouches were like 25 to 30 bucks a piece and the

095cost for that. So, what we really believe is going to end up happening with that is there's going to continue to be that same thought process of not during passing periods or lunch even, but it has to be in a locker locked up. Um, we think that there may even end up being flexibility that students have to have them in their backpacks and turned off. One of the challenges are now smart glasses are a thing um where it can connect right to cellular data but also to the internet which in my mind brings up all kinds of testing situations and concerns for state testing um AP testing all of the other testing to go on. They're actually writing prescriptions for some of those now as well. So um there's a lot of challenges out there

096that go with this. It's not just as easy as saying kids should never have a vote. There's all kinds of other things that go with it. But so it'll be real interesting. It goes back to Senator Ross now who wrote the bill to see if he's willing to accept the changes that have come about in the Senate and now the House. Um he could pull it all together, but most likely we're going to get some version of it that'll be a lot less restrictive as far as what locked up or secured means as as often happens. Absolutely right. Thank you for that. Number five, Senate Bill 182. This would be a touchy subject of course statewide. This bill defines male and female. State law stricts the use of restrooms in schools requiring their alignment assigned

097sex at birth. That has moved from the Senate. It's been referred to the House. >> Mr. ambassador. They another update that that's been dropped. >> Oh, thank you. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> As we said, it's moving quick down there, so >> they're running out of time. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Smith. Uh, this might have been dropped, too. I don't know. But, uh, House Bill 1086 includes the Ten Commandments and a list of protective writings, documents, records. teacher or principal may not read the ten commandments aloud when students are present. It's only got to a first reading. So that's moving real slow as is House Bill 1232 requiring schools to teach the Bible as literature. That's moving slow if it's moving at all. >> 1232 is inactive, I'm being told. Uh >> it's been

098as of today. >> Uh today or this week? Yeah. 1232 inactive. The other one was the ten commandments 1086 is still there I think. >> Okay. Thank you for that. >> The ten commandments if you'll recall part of it started off with posting it in every classroom. >> Yes. >> As well as predominantly in a school as you entered the building >> and that has gone from a shall to a may. Um we'll see if there's still the appetite to continue to push forward with it as they come up at the end of the week here. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. And the last one number 10. This is guess sort of disappointing. House Bill 1259 bill attempting to provide the local income tax that we all pay if you do that or not to pay

099a local income tax as well the county uh that just stalled in committee. It' be nice for the county to give that to the schools. That's not going to happen. That is just >> good news on that. We had the library here earlier tonight that they could if this ends up coming back to Lake County, they could benefit from it. We're one of I think two or three counties in the state, they cannot receive any of the local income taxes. So, it's a real challenge down there, but one that >> we continue to push not only just for everybody to go from a may to a shall get part of that, but for us that all uh counties in the state be included, not exclude. >> Cut one word makes a big difference. >> Big

100difference. >> As Mrs. Allen pointed out that uh public schools weeks, I don't think the legislature got that message to public. Save that speech. Thank you, >> Mr. Vasser. Thank you. And thank you for every year tackling this. You do such a great job and we really appreciate your efforts that you bring it to us. It makes it real easy for us. So, thank you. Um, Senate Bill 78, just real quick, that just came across this week that legitimate studies out there that are showing the impact of phones on kids performance academically and test scores directly significant impact. So, I'm going to try to get my hands on it. If you're a board member, I'm going to try to get my hands on the studies to to show you. So, I can see where they're

101trying to tweak it because there seems to be a direct tie. So, um I think just doing their best, you know, kids perform the best. So, >> and it will be a change for our current practice, especially at the high school with kids, middle schools are supposed to be in their lockers and turned off. High school, they're still permitted to have them during passing periods and lunch. This would go to where allowable. >> Thank you. Uh let's move any other board of the business of the board from anybody else. Oh, first I just had a few notes to try to get through them quickly. Just back to the um we all are aware of the impact of the enrollment act one and and this morning just sitting with maybe six to eight other school districts.

102It was eye opening. Um, we know this and again I'm even though it's going to be a a complete stress on our school corporation, there's districts out there across this is going to be devast it's devastating. It's going to be devastating to us and it's and we might be a half the devastation of somebody else. Um, and it was I really just I guess eye opening to me that I was so worried about Crown Point that I didn't think about what's going on in some smaller places. We were talking about cutting bus services, eliminating the extra cricket, not not not slowing them down, eliminating them. It was it was really eye openening to me. So, with that being said, I want to thank you again for having a plan and talking about it because I

103do think that some districts are wish and hope right now like we we can't survive. We we are just wishing and hoping that they're going to change something in the next couple years that will get us past it, right? that and uh so thank you guys and I think our stability um from administration is so important um and the plans Mr. Reese the plans that you know are always presented to us so helpful um and then uh also just the the messaging and doubling up what I doubling up on what Dr. Carol mentioned it's the messaging and the educating to the community to know what's going on because when things happen down the road, it's not going to hurt that they were given notice ahead of time and in our, you know, newsweek and monthly

104both in quarterly quarterly messages that gets out. So want to thank Miss Allen for again being a ahead and everything we do ambassador program. It all came up this morning again just to educate our community and it can only help in along the way. Um my last part about about this budget restrictions and things. So, we do hear a lot about administrators and the amount of administrators and certified help that have been added to our corporation in the last handful of years. And I don't know what the I don't know the current um study and research where we land across the state with admin, you know, certified versus non-certified. But I do know that a handful of years ago, we were completely imbalanced. And that was we we had the data. We did the research

105as a board. We went to our prior superintendent. We felt like this was a very uncomfortable situation that we were extremely light on certified health. Mr. Vasser, you were in the schools, Mr. Kiwa, at the time, Mr. G. Furmy. Um I'm sure you guys look back on what this is now and say, "How in the world did you do it with just yourself wearing all those hats?" Um and you got it done. And that's that, you know, it that that's great, but that doesn't mean that I it doesn't mean that all I'm think was for a purpose. It wasn't haphazard. It wasn't I I I'm I'm sitting here saying right now with my with just for me personally, full support of everything that our superintendent and administration has done to add that certified help. Now,

106can you question? Oh, when you were a principal and a building leader and you did it so long by yourself. >> Okay. Well, one assistant when that help comes in, there's a process of figuring out how to use that help. And I I and and and that's a learning period that's going to take place. It doesn't happen overnight, but I think that happens in any business or any corporation. And um you know I I'm sure that we'll the homework will be done to find out where we lie in the future with the different positions of certified or not certified. But um kind of just want to remind that we were very unbalanced in the past. Um the only other uh thing I wanted to point out tonight was that we talk about um dual credit

107and opportunities to receive credit that are offered at the high school. It gets said a lot about how much emphasis is put into that. We hear sometimes that kids are taking something, you know, you the negative side might be we take several tests and our pass fail rate isn't extremely high or you know just something that you might hear on the street. But then I hear from somebody recently that I'm gonna call him a B student who has graduated semester with 40 credits to a max school and that was my conver well they they go through the effort even to take a student who might be reaching too high say why don't you let's reconsider this because you can walk out of here with all these credits earned and then we start talking about real

108dollars to our family and I don't think we can say it enough how impressive that is in the credits that are earned for the kids that are, you know, go down that path. So, I'll uh I'll stop there. Thank you. Anyone else? >> David, thank you for attending that meeting for us as a board. I'd like to hear more about that. That was very well said. And as a parent of of two children who went through college, I can tell you dual credits is fantastic. So it's a huge help to parents of making college affordable. So if you're a parent out there, take advantage of that. Let me tell you, if you can, if it fits the the family and the plan. So all right, uh we'll move on to 9.01, uh board statements of

109appreciation and recognition. Back to you, David. >> Again, just uh congratulate or you know Mr. Dilla on his uh retirement retirement announcement and uh one thing that I we we all know that he has certainly always had the student athlete at the top of his mind and what's best for them and uh I'm sure now now years and years and years of students have been able to benefit from that. So thank you >> uh first to uh Miss Allen uh for wonderful newsletters Crown Point our we are we are CP and I'm sure with everybody's help up front here including Mr. Reese the article about uh Senate Bill uh Senate act uh because it is a very in-depth article to help explain to the public and parents of what exactly is take place with this

110new funding formula and how schools are going to be uh cut and we that Mr. Warney mentioned about how we prepared and we're still looking at big shortfall and what he was mentioning about these school corporations that weren't preparing themselves for it and now the predicament a lot of these schools are going to be in. So kudos to that. Uh I love getting that in the mail just like every other patron in the community and I found that to be one wonderful article explaining it in layman's terms. So I have a little background in property tax working that industry for 16 years and I think everybody can actually put a plus b plus c to make you understand what's going to take place. So with that uh congratulations to Mr. Derilla and to Annie Akiwa.

111Uh Annie took my son Timmy who's now in his fourth year of teaching at the middle school and kind of has guided him to becoming uh from what I hear from others not from dad. dad, he'll never get dad's, but uh uh becoming a very good teacher. So, kudos to Annie and her retirement for her help uh with my son heading in the right direction at that middle school level, which I still don't know how anybody does that. We have two principles here from the ele middle school level. Uh I've walked in that building a few times and my patience last about 45 seconds. So, um that six, seven, eighth grade level. Holy cow. I think I raised four kids to that level thanks to my wife. Whole other story. So, uh, and I know

112David, you got one pretty close to that, not it, right? Oh, there we go. So, uh, but yes, thank you. And, uh, to everybody's information, input the calendar. It's great to have that conversation, hear people come up with suggestions to make. >> Thank you, Mr. Angel. Mr. >> I just want to echo what uh, Mr. Angel said about that article, Mrs. Allen. That that was a well written uh, simplistic as it as it should be. U thank you for doing that. Did have you received any feedback from the public on that at all. Sorry to hear that. It was well done. Thank you. >> I'm sorry. I was uh Thank you, Mr. Ambassador. Miss B. All right, sorry for my um typical very long list. I did have um the article also on my list

113that was wonderfully written as well as the rest of the the newsletter magazine, if you will. I I very much enjoy receiving that um and looking through everything that you've done and I know there's a lot of effort that goes into that. So, thank you for that. Um Bulldog Ballers and our Bulldog Blazers, I had the opportunity to attend the game. If you have not um had the ability or time to come out and see them, there are two more events. Mrs. Pasquez mentioned um absolutely wonderful. Our Bulldog Ballers did a wonderful job playing against LOL. Our Bulldog Blazers did a wonderful che wonder wonderful job cheering them on. And we do have one of our Blazers who also is a baller and she did a fantastic job um making her baskets when she had

114her opportunity to play. So, um, a wonderful event, but I think that the, um, the biggest point of pride in attending that was hearing, um, family members in the stands have conversations, u, Mrs. Pascus, about you, about, um, your team, and about our program and how we service our students. And, um, there's nothing that makes me more proud as a board member than getting to hear those wonderful things. We see them, we know them, but hearing how impactful that is to our families and how um truly, you know, they feel completely blessed to be a part of this, I have to thank you and I had to pass that along because it wasn't just a one-off, it was multiple people sharing that. So, thank you. Um that was wonderful. Uh I also need to touch

115on our boys basketball team outright DAC champs. Uh that is the first time that they have been outright DAC champs. our girls. >> Oh, I I think we posted that it was not Oh, since '92. Okay. All right. Since ' 92. That's a long time. All right. Yeah. To be an outright Yeah. Outright champs. Um >> Oh, since we have been. >> Yes. Uh girls basketball, their season ended, but they um lost to semi-state, but they were regional champs, which is a wonderful accomplishment. And um the only other one I'm personally familiar with is our dance team that went to nationals and they got third in palm and fourth at uh in kick at nationals which is an awesome accomplishment. So congratulations to all of them. And my very last one, I'd be remiss if

116I didn't mention our retirees. Um thank you to all of our retirees for their service. And I I'm in the same boat as Mr. Smith. I never know if we can publicly say anything. Obviously, you know, how they choose to disclose that um to their students or to families is kind of on their terms, but I did see Mr. Derilla's publicly posted. So, um thank you to him for his um long commitment to Crown Point schools and years of service and to Mrs. Akiwa. She's uh definitely left a legacy beyond just her basketball years of playing um and then being an amazing teacher at Taft. She's was at Taft the entire time, correct? >> Oh, she was Oh, she was at Eisenhower. She was fifth grade. >> Okay. Okay. Well, thank you very much for

117her years of service. >> Thank you, Miss Basin. And uh try to make it quick. I I think we should also mention the wrestlers and the wrestling team and the success they had down at the state this weekend. They did a fantastic job. So, kudos to them. I think all this uh when it comes to the athletic department with Mr. gorilla. The one thing that that blows me away is the consistency and the success and that's come out of that sports program for so many years. I mean, I I went to a high school that was pretty athletic high school, you know, but if you want a state championship once every 10 years and something that's that was pretty fantastic, you know, and here it just seems like we get spoiled. You you're getting a

118state championship every season, somebody's winning something and in in a big class. And so kudos to him um you know for just uh doing such a fantastic job of building an expectation in a program and um all the time that he put in uh you know I think that success reflects on him and his staff and his team. So well welld deserved, well earned. Uh Mrs. akiwa. Um, you know, we we we love teachers and teachers that pour their life into kids is what it's all about. And I don't think we could have a better example than than Annie Akiwa. I I know two of my children reap the benefits of that. Um, and you know, they just love Mrs. Akiwa. And so she could do no wrong. She's the greatest. And they would come

119home and say how great she was. And you know, when she sees them, she says hello. She remembers their names. and I know my children are fortunate enough to be a few of so many that she's touched their lives. So, uh, please extend congratulations to her and a job well done. And she's an example and and she's one of so many in our school corporation, right? And I think Danielle touched upon that to all the retirees who have just made such an impact on our students lives and um, it's just fantastic. So, and I, you know, coming from Muny, I didn't know anybody and I would come up here, my for talking about the Akas, you know, she had already in class. I'm like, who is this Kiwa family? But come to find out, you

120know, you lived up to all the hype, you know, and so has Annie. So, well done. Um, yeah. So, just hey, great board meeting tonight. I want to thank everyone. I know it was long. Thank everyone for hanging in there, but it was lively and a lot of good thoughts, a lot of good comments tonight. So, I I thought it was well done by everyone participating. So, thank you. That being said, I I think I've said everything. And does anybody else have anything else? All right, we'll be looking for a motion to adjurnn the meeting. >> Moved by Mr. Angel, second by Miss Basin. Are there any questions or comments? All right, move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Nays. Vote carries 5-0.