001Thank you everyone and welcome to tonight's regular business meeting held here on October 28th, 2024. We'll get started. Uh Mr. Smith will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence. Everyone can please rise. Thank you. You may all be seated. 2.01 uh to suspend this regular meeting and open the public hearing regarding additional appropriation. If I can get a motion to suspend the current meeting. Motion by Ms. Babchak. So I'm sorry. Ms. Bazan, seconded Mr. Vasser. Uh all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. With that, 2.02 additional appropriation 2024 GO bond, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the board. Tonight we are holding an additional appropriation hearing for the 2024 GO bonds. Um as you'll see later in the agenda is
002the resolution for this uh after we have published the notice and taken the following steps to make sure we reach this point. So tonight's the opportunity for the public to speak regarding the appropriation uh for $5 for the 2024 GO bonds. Thank you, Mr. Reese. Um We do not have anybody uh signed up for those public comments. Um no anybody that has a walked in recently. So with that, that does uh end that portion of the hearing because that's part portion this hearing is for that purpose only. So with that, I'll look for a motion to close the public hearing and resume the regular meeting. Motion by Mr. Vasser, seconded by Ms. Bazan. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Wait. Motion carries 4-0. Uh item three is patrons' comments.
003Also, there's none on the agenda tonight. So with that, we'll move to item four, consent agenda, Dr. Terrell. Thank you, Fury. Uh consideration this evening, we have our minutes as listed in item 4.01. The personnel agenda listed at 4.02. The recommendation for employment of candidates 4.03. And then our voucher register checks as listed in 4.04. You've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of the consent agenda. May I have a motion? So moved. Motion by Mr. Smith, seconded by Mr. Vasser. Question or discussion on any of those four items? There being none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Thank you. Item uh I actually item five, 5.01. Approval to apply for and receive the Title II Part A grant supporting effective instruction, Mr. Harmon. Thank
004you, Mr. President, members of the board. Um seeking your approval tonight to apply for and receive funds for Title II Part A Part A. This is a annual uh a grant that we receive from the state uh who receives it from the federal government for uh allocation to each school district. And uh this evening, we're looking at $170,172.49. Uh most of this uh funding uh does go towards professional development for our staff. Uh as you saw in the uh uh the attachment there. And so uh this evening, we are seeking your approval to uh apply for and receive the funds to really support our professional development in Crown Point Community Schools of $170,172.49. Thank you, Mr. Harmon. The administration recommends the approval for grant to be applied for and receive funding in the amount of
005$170,172.49 in the Title II Part A grant to support effective instruction. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by Ms. Bazan, seconded by Mr. Smith. Question or discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Thank you. Item 5.02. Approval to apply for and receive the Title III language instruction for English learner and immigrant students grant, Mr. Harmon. This too is a grant that uh is uh given by the federal government through the states and then uh it's allocated to the school districts based on the number of students that we have that are English learners or I would say multi uh lingual learners in the school corporation. Um this money is uh targeted towards supplemental uh instruction for our uh uh multi lingual learners. And uh
006it's uh an amount of $31,824. Uh really services the uh uh the staff that we have with paraprofessionals and also an interventionist. So this evening, seeking your approval uh of the Title III language instruction grant uh from the state in the amount of $31,824. Thank you, Mr. Harmon. You've heard the recommendation of the administration for us to apply for and receive funding from the Indiana Department of Education Title III language instruction for English learner and immigrant students non-competitive grant in the amount of $31,824. May I have a motion? So moved. I'll second that. Motion by Mr. Smith, seconded by Mr. Vasser. Questions or discussion? Yeah, Mr. Harmon, I question here. Just looking at those those two grants you just presented. Mhm. Um the first one where we part of that money had to go to
007non-public schools within the district, but the second one it looks like it does not. Yeah, the the uh part of the um consultation that we do with our non-public schools uh is to whether or not they're going to receive the funding. Uh if there are is if there is no need for the Title III, the English learner, because there is not uh uh maybe services that are needed, they then decline the uh the money and therefore you would not see it on the grant. Thank you. Mhm. Any other questions? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Continue with 5.03, approval to apply for and receive the Title IV Part A student support and academic enrichment grant. Mr. Harmon. Uh this this grant again comes from the federal
008government through the state to the district uh and it this is a a pretty general grant that you can use funding for. Uh there is in this case a um a mandatory expenditure of 20% in a well-rounded school, 20% for um um uh social emotional learner, and then you have to do some for technology. Uh we were able we did hit that those uh that criteria even though we don't need to because we are uh on a have a waiver which I'm going to talk about a little bit later uh with you. Uh and this uh we we've targeted this STEM and our blended learning that takes place as well as professional development in the school district. To uh Mr. Vasser's question though, you can see here that there is a non-public share and therefore
009they did accept the money for Title IV and therefore there's an allocation that is there. Seeking your approval to uh apply for and receive the Title IV grant that is in the amount of $48,775.91. You've heard the recommendation of the administration for us to apply for and receive funding in the amount of $48,775.91 in the Title IV Part A grant to support a well-rounded education, support social and emotional development, and improve the use of technology. May I have a motion, please? Motion. Thank you. Motion by Mr. Vasser, second by Ms. Basin. Question or discussion? There being none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Thank you very much, Mr. Mr. Harmon. Thank you. Uh 5.04, approval for approval to apply for and receive funds from the Indiana Department
010of Education Robots for Autism grant. Ms. Passas. Thank you. Uh we are seeking your approval to apply for and receive the Indiana Department of Education Robots for Autism grant funds of $47,300 for one additional robot, uh social skills curriculum, and professional learning package. Thank you, Ms. Passas. You've heard the recommendation for us to apply for and receive the Indiana Department of Education Robots for Autism grant funds of $47,300 for one new robot, social skills curriculum, and professional learning package. May I have a motion? Motion by Ms. Basin, second by Mr. Smith. Question or discussion? We previously have one robot that Two. This makes a family of three. A family of three now. Okay. And uh similar to the same one we did have? Yes, but we're hoping for a female. We have two Milo and
011Carver. We're hoping for a female. We don't know yet. Okay. Well, thank you. Um any other questions? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. 5.05, 2025 budget forms and resolutions, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the board. Tonight is the last action that you all need to take regarding the 2025 budget. Uh with it includes uh four uh resolutions. Resolution 849 is form four that establishes the tax rate levy and appropriations for the 2025 budget year. Resolution 850 is a capital projects plan adoption, 851 school bus replacement plan, and resolution 852 is the 2025 transfer from education operations of 15%. Uh all four of those resolutions, there's no change from what was presented at the public hearing uh earlier this month. So, with that, I
012also want to mention that the rate that you're adopting tonight is going to be a $1.22. We fully anticipate when the rate comes back from DLGF that that rate will be somewhere around a $1.21. Uh just to put that in perspective, the current 2024 tax rate for the school corporation is a $1.28. So, you're adopting tonight asking you to adopt a tax rate that's 6 cents lower, and we expect that to finish at 7 cents lower. Uh with that, we recommend approval of 2025 budgets, the 2025 capital projects plan, school bus replacement plan, and the corresponding forms and resolutions, and recommend waving of the reading of the resolutions. Thank you, Mr. Reese. You've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of the 2025 budgets, 2025 capital project plan, 2025 school bus replacement plan, and
013the corresponding forms and resolutions along with the waving of the reading of such said resolutions. May I have a motion? Motion. Motion by Mr. Vasser, second by Ms. Basin. Question or discussion? There being none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Thank you. 5.06, approval of resolution resolution 853, $5 million additional appropriation 2024 GO bonds, Mr. Reese. Thank you. This next agenda item is as you heard from earlier in the meeting, the $5 million appropriation for the 2024 GO bonds. With that, we held a public hearing this evening asking for your approval to approve this resolution number 853 and waive the reading of thereof. Thank you, Mr. Reese. You've heard the recommendation for the approval of resolution 853 along with waving the reading of that resolution. May
014I have a motion? Move to approve resolution. Second. Motion by Mr. Smith, second by Mr. Vasser. Question or discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Approval uh 5.07, approval of resolution 854, final bond resolution 2024 GO bonds, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President. We've completed the process of all the required elements to go through and issue the bond that we've discussed this evening. Uh so, with it, this is the final form of the bond resolution. It all states the terms uh we'll be borrowing from a maximum interest rate as set by you, uh and as well as uh the sixth supplement from master uh continuing disclosure undertaking, which is an SEC requirement that we continue to update everybody on our financial stability. Uh so, with that,
015we recommend approval of resolution 854 and waive the reading thereof. Thank you, Mr. Reese. You've heard the recommendation for approval of resolution 854 along with the waving of the reading of that resolution. May I have a motion, please? Second. Motion by Ms. Basin, second by Mr. Smith. Question or discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. 5.08, approval of resolution 855, $1 million transfer from rainy day to the education fund, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh as about this time last year as we approved the budget and also the uh teachers contract and other pay agenda items, we approved for two stipends to be paid during the calendar year 2024. The first one was uh for uh January, the second one is here in December. As
016with that, as part of the budget, the plan was to move a million dollars from rainy day fund to our education fund to cover the cost for these stipends. Uh so, this is the formal adoption and approval to move the $1 million from the rainy day fund to the education fund. We recommend approval of resolution 855, $1 million transfer from rainy day fund to the education fund, and waive the reading. Thank you, Mr. Reese. You've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of resolution 855, $1 million transfer from the rainy day fund to the education fund, and the waving of the reading. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Smith, second by Mr. Vasser. Question or discussions? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed?
017Motion carries 4-0. Appointments by the board and accompanying bond amounts, Mr. Reese. 5.09, sorry. Thank you. Uh as part of our annual process of establishing bond amounts for all the folks who handle cash and require my check signing capabilities within the school corporation, we ask your approval for the corresponding bond amounts. All this will be paid for from the operations fund, and we recommend approval of appointments and the accompanying bond amounts as presented. You've heard the recommendation of the administration for the approval of the appointments and the accompanying bond amounts as presented. May I have a motion? Motion. Motion by Mr. Vasser, second by Ms. Basin. Question or discussion? Once again, Matt, for those that might be listening at home, those bonds are the protection for us unfortunately if an incident occurred um if something
018occurred with one of those individuals because they have check writing privileges. That's correct. I just want to make sure being that I'm in that line of work, I just want to make sure people out here understood why we get those bonds and the protection that gives the school corporation. And required by law. And required. Uh any other questions? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Wheeler dishwasher bid approval, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh and it's come time to replace the dishwasher at Colonel Wheeler Middle School. Bids were offered out. We received bids for this uh project uh PC equipment, if you will. Received the best bid from C and T Design and Equipment Company for a total of $200,500. We recommend approval of that. You
019heard the recommendation of the administration for the approval of the Wheeler dishwasher bid to C and T Design and Equipment Company for a total amount of $200,500. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Smith, second by Ms. Bazin. Question or discussion? How long do that dishwasher last any time? I think we've been through six of them in my 23 years in my house, so I won't feel bad the next time I got to spend six $800 on anything. Any other questions? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Solen 5.11, Solen Robinson furniture award, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President. Members of the board, tonight we bring you the Solen Robinson furniture award. The project is done in the same manner we've provided all
020the new furniture into the schools. As Solen wraps up its construction, they'll be coordinated to bring the furniture on site and ready to be used shortly after the construction is completed. So, with that we will recommend approval of furniture for Solen Robinson for $651,555.71 from KI Inc. Thank you, Mr. Reese. You heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of the furniture bid for Solen Robinson in the amount of $651,555.71 from K1 Inc. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Smith, second by Mr. Basser. Questions? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Thank you, everyone, for your help on all those items and one of those procedural things that's just needed to make sure we're following protocols. So, thank you. Sick discussion
021report items, policy updates, first reading, Mr. Kiwala. Thank you, Mr. President and board members. We have uh first reading recommendation of this evening as we uh first begin to update our educational records policy that was uh originally in the old policy we're converting to ISBA. Uh sort of sitting with that is policy 0100. In there in definitions, um it talks about ISTEP being a state-mandated test, which it no longer is. So, we're just kind of updating this for uh what is considered to be or could be educational records. Uh I should also state that we'll be working with our administration going either even further uh into some guidelines as to what we will maintain at each level elementary, middle, and high school for what is considered to be educational records. Uh so, that is to
022come as well. Um and then the last one, uh student supervision and welfare. Uh this will be a continuing discussion, but we are going to edit this particular policy and as you see there in its form uh to make it applicable to all staff members, not just certified staff members. You can see that opening line there. Um so, again, this evening all we're recommending is a first reading for information and we'll revisit this uh next month for approval. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kiwala, for that information. And just a little follow-up on that, um when we receive um the updates from uh the old the used to be NEOLA, which I think. And we receive these new updates, all we do is make a comparison to making sure we're meeting that. Yes, so we I'm
023working with what's uh meaningful for us right now. There is quite the process to shift entirely from NEOLA to ISBA. Uh not to get into the weeds too much right now, but um we are working with ISBA to get as much assistance as possible to make these transitions a little more easier, smoother, and more rapid cuz it's it's quite that way. So, we do get recommendations from ISBA and for the mandated ones, I will move us along and get those updated, uh but we're also just making an old just a flat-out change from the ISBA or the NEOLA language to the ISBA language. Okay. Any other questions regarding that discussion report? Nope. Thank you again, Mr. Kiwala. Yep. Moving on item seven, superintendent's discussion groups. Um start with you, Mr. Basser. Anything from Cedar Lake?
024Uh nothing at our last meeting to report that we will not have a meeting next Tuesday because of Thank you. Next meeting will be December. All right, thank you. How about Mr. Smith? Anything to report? Nothing from Crown Point to report that affects the schools. Okay. With that, we'll move on to 7.02, director of grants and assessments. I think Mr. Hartman gave you what they call a tease with something he's going to talk about. I don't know if it's a tease, but I'll give you some information. Uh in 2020 when uh the federal government uh um gave an opportunity for states to apply for a waiver of certain statutes or regulatory uh guidance uh for title grants. Uh and uh we applied back in 2020 for two of the four. Uh this year we're applying
025for three. They are called Ed Flex waivers. Um the first one that I would share is with title one. Uh by the federal government standard, there's an 85% uh expenditure that you have to have and if you don't hit it, uh you have to give money back to the state. Not the 15%, whatever is less than 85 is what you have to return back to the back to the state. So, we are applying for the waiver for a 75%, which allows us a little bit more flexibility in in that expect expenditure. The second one is uh is for title four uh grant, which I referenced. Uh the federal standard is 20% for real well-rounded school, 20% for social emotional, and something for uh technology. Uh the waiver allows us to bypass all of those uh
026limitations so that we can use that uh money to best service our students, which is really the goal flexibility so it doesn't impede uh Crown Point Community Schools in doing what we need to to be able to do. And the the the the third one that we apply for is for paraprofessional requirements. Um the paraprofessional requirements by the federal government uh is uh for them to be deemed highly qualified. Uh they can be completed 2 years of uh study at an institution of higher uh learning or earn an associate's degree or pass a test, the practice test. The the waiver that the state applied for that we can operate uh on is that it just opens up the flexibility. Uh for instance, if we hire a paraprofessional and we have training for that paraprofessional, that
027will then then meet the meet the criteria that we can hire that person and deem them as highly qualified. Uh we have a lot of great people that may not meet some of the uh criteria that the federal government has has uh set. So, it does give us flexibility in hiring paraprofessionals, deeming them as high qual highly qualified. So, we apply for those three waivers. The fourth one that we don't is only for the uh corrections Department of Corrections and of course we don't we don't apply for that. So, any questions? Ed Flex Ed Flex waivers. Okay, yes. Director of 7.03, director of elementary education, Dr. Shakib. Thank you, Mr. President and members of the board. Tonight I'm going to speak uh briefly about uh parent involvement and family involvement in our elementary schools and
028how important uh this home-school partnership is for the success and growth of our kids, our students. First, I want to thank our teachers and administrators uh at our elementary schools as well as the really dedicated parents and families that continue to work together with with us in very meaningful ways. So, some of those ways are uh first off, parent-teacher conferences, which the bulk of those, the overwhelming majority of those happened last uh Thursday. Um but not all of them happened last Thursday. We give teachers a couple weeks uh window to get those conferences in. Right now, uh three of our seven schools have reported uh kind of final numbers on how uh how many conferences they had and our numbers are looking really good. Um it's just uh really impressive how dedicated both our teachers
029and our parents are uh to having these touchpoints. So, when it's all said and done, um we will have held over 4,000 uh individual parent-teacher conferences here in this 2-week window um as long as the current percentage keeps up, but I think I think it will. Um another big one is that grandparents days are back. Um we're really excited as Mr. Jim Fermin, Dr. Terrell, and I uh spoke this summer, uh we felt that this was an important um tradition to bring back to our elementary schools. It was a kind of a few years off there uh during and after COVID, but we felt like it was a great time to bring that back. So, uh all of our schools have already hosted or will soon be hosting uh grandparents and special guest day. Um
030These connections also start with infants uh with our uh parent education piece of our Bulldog Buddies program, Birth to School. Um you can see we have hundreds of families that take advantage of those opportunities, which is really exciting. We start that connection very early on. And talking about uh or thinking about this topic, I need to mention our amazing PTO organization who really do some amazing work to really enrich the the school experience for our students and do a lot to help our teachers also. So, um just wanted to thank our teachers and staff members and uh our amazing parents and families uh for committing to this important partnership. Thanks. Thank you, Dr. Schoon. 7.04, uh Director of Secondary Education, Mrs. Ramirez. Good evening, Mr. President and board members. I would like to just take
031a few minutes to thank our community for really being partners with our school corporation. We have a lot of exciting events that happen during this time period, whether there are choir concerts, band concerts, athletic events, robotics, lots of extracurriculars that our students are very fortunate to be able to participate in because of the dedicated teachers, staff, the talent of our students, and the commitment of our families. So, I thank them all for making our schools really the hub of our community. And some events that are coming up that I hope you will be able to um attend and or that our community will really turn out for our in our performing arts. We have the Peter Pan performance that will be happening at Colonel Wheeler Middle School. That will be on November 22nd and 23rd.
032And I have a sheet for you guys if you want the dates that are just kind of printed out so you don't have to scribble everything down. Matilda will be the musical at Crown Point High School, which will have several performances, including one really special performance that I think shows the dedication of our staff and the kind of kind of the communication and the partnership between um the high school and our exceptional education department. They are going to have a sensory friendly performance. This will be the first time that they are doing this, and they have collaborated with um members of our exceptional education team through the vision of um you know, the theater director and his team to make sure that this is a comfortable and inclusive experience for all. And some of the
033features that you'll note at this special performance will be that there is a smaller capacity for seating, longer intermission, the house lights will be at a lower level, and there will be more consistent sound levels throughout, and there will also be um some additional um supports that will be in place that the students can and or the parents can use during the performance to facilitate their um attendance. So, we're really excited about the fact that not only was there a vision, but then the execution of a plan that really creates an inclusive environment for that event. And then over at Taft in December, they will be performing The Internet Is Distract. Oh, look, a kitten. And so, um I do not know a lot about this, and I am very excited to hear about it.
034So, I hope that you guys will join us with it. Um but it seems very relevant to our uh use of probably technology and distractions. So, um just want to again thank the community for showing up for these events and for partnering with us, and thank all of the talented students, the staff, the families who participate in making them um successful events. So, I will hand these to you. Thank you, Mrs. Ramirez. Welcome. 7.05, Director of Exceptional Education, Mr. Bascus. Good evening, Mr. Angel, members of the board. Um I just wanted to take a minute to recognize um We are We often thank our Crown Point Police Department as members of our school team, and I wanted to point out a couple of specific examples how they work hand in hand um with us and
035to help our students and families. So, Officer Norris is the SRO over at Taft, and we have a student who is um she really admires Officer Norris, and her classroom has a dance party as a reward for a few minutes on Fridays. And every Friday, she begs for Officer Norris to come down and dance with her. And uh we have finally convinced him to do so, and he will join in a chicken dance or something briefly. But I think one of the neatest things is she dressed up as a police officer for Halloween, and there's a really cool picture floating around on social media of them holding hands kind of down the hallway. And she's she's a tiny little thing, but uh he's tall guy, and she's little, and then there's one of them walking
036hand in hand from the back as well. And it's uh very very touching. Um another example is um some of our students, you know, have big behaviors and um lots of concerns even when they go home. And our police officers are often responding to the homes of our students. And we have a situation where Officer Malebranche and Commander Isaacs are trying to work with the school and some of our professionals to help them and give them strategies for when they respond to the home, how to best meet the student's need and prevent any injury. So, I want to thank them for that effort. Thank you, Mr. Bascus. 7.06, Assistant Superintendent Mr. Superintendent Mr. Geofermi. Thank you, Mr. President, board members. I just have one thank you I want to get out. I want to thank
037Tom Isebulich and Hannah Albrooks, our uh BSN Sports representative, and also uh Chris Iebert, our girls basketball coach, and Phil Deralla for helping Crown Point High School be selected as the Surge pilot program for Northwest Indiana. Let me just read what Surge is. Surge, in partnership with BSN Sports, aims to empower girls to stay in sports and lead healthy, successful lives through free online tools developed for our coaches. So, some of those tools would build self-esteem, instill confidence, provide girls with support required to keep them engaged and excited about the sports that they love. So, last Thursday, over 400 of our our female student athletes attended the kickoff program in the Crown Point High School gym. And we had I think three or four speakers from Surge that came out. And it's just a great
038program. Our community has always supported our female programs and athletes. Um and this is just a great great step in keeping that going and giving our coaches the things that that will benefit our athletes. So, thank you that. And of course, you know, Hannah is a Crown Point grad, so it's always nice to see them come back. It's all about the kids. Thank you, Mr. Geofermi. 7.07, Chief Human Resource Officer, Mr. Kewa. Thank you, Mr. President, board members. Um two thank yous go out to some office members in the Human Resource Department. We are preparing uh to transition to some new support software for the school corporation regarding applicants, those that want to apply online to jobs here in our school corporation. As we moved away from our uh partnership with RDS, we are going
039to be launching on December 1st Frontline recruiting and hiring platform. Uh this week, the administrators will be introduced to it. Uh we talked about it briefly in cabinet today. Uh but will allow us to uh have a a more robust system to post jobs, um review applicants, invite them to interviews, and interact with them uh in a more organized fashion, and even uh you know, conduct our interview questions through the same software, and house all that information in one place. So, uh launch will be uh targeted as December 1st, and I just want to thank Jean Lang uh and Renee Rich. They spent um right now, I think, 6 hours of time in classes learning how to build the back end of this software to get it up and running for us here uh on
040December 1st. So, thanks to them for their hard work and efforts. Thank you, Mr. Kewa. 7.08, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd be remiss tonight if I didn't get a chance to say a bunch of thank yous. While I was lucky enough to do most of the presenting tonight, everybody here up at the table, as well as the directors in the back, and those directors not attending this evening, uh the contributions that went into the budget, the geo bonds, everything that's required to make this work is is pretty phenomenal. I want to thank them for all the assistance that they all and time and effort they put in to helping us get to where we want to be. So, I want to thank them. Thank you, Mr. Reese. 7.09, Director of
041Communications, Mrs. Alp. Someone tells me she'll have the longest time at the podium tonight. Thank you. Um I want to thank the families who attended our safety presentation last week at Taft Middle School. Before families attended, we put out a very short survey that said if if you plan to come, please let us know, and let us know how familiar you are with certain topics that we're going to cover. And the survey before showed that many of those folks were not familiar with the terms that we used in some of our procedures. But we gave them the same survey before they left after the presentation, and it was a drastic increase. Um very, very good improvement, and I'm really um happy with that. So, thank you to Dave Colson, Mr. Geofermi, Dr. Terrell, who presented,
042um connected with families. We have another presentation Wednesday this week, 6:00 p.m. at Colonel Wheeler Middle School. Is that the last one planned this fall? It is. 6:00 Colonel Wheeler? 6:00, yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. 7.10, Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Terrell. As a continuation from that safety meeting, we also had representatives from each of our buildings from their administrative team that were there as well to talk with parents. And just a great opportunity to continue to make that personal connection with them. Um Grandparents Day was mentioned, and uh some of our schools had the brilliant idea of connecting that to book fair. And their uh sales went through the roof and I want to thank we had a school who had need of some additional help. And so Brooke put out a call here to
043the ad building for people to go over and help with that. I want to thank Ardy and Diana and Lawanda who are in the back went over to Timothy Ball and helped and had a very active time over there. They said they were busy busy busy the game. I we caught both of the ladies in the back taking naps that afternoon because it was such a busy morning but we appreciate them. You'll notice Lawanda is here tonight. We're doing some cross training in case something comes up and Diana cannot be here so we want to thank her and welcome her to our board meeting as well. Construction updates so tonight was an exciting time as you voted to approve the furniture purchase at Solon Robinson. With that approval that will complete every elementary building having
044all brand new furniture across the entire district. Solon Robinson also their playground was just finished recently and so now every playground across the district has been brought up to date and now is more similar to each other than they have been ever in the past. So we continue to see those increases at Lake Street. The last group of workers have pulled off. Now they're just working on some of the punch list things and getting there and Solon is falling in very quickly. Students are eating in the lunchroom now. Gymnasium will be completed in the next couple of weeks here and they'll be actually in there and new bleachers and new flooring and just an exciting time for them as they round that corner down the home stretch to February where the entire project will be
045completed at Solon as well. So exciting times and uh we are looking forward as blessed as we are to have all this construction going on and to getting to the point where we no longer have construction going on. But again thank you to our teachers, administrators, families, students for their patience as we've gone through this process. Thank you Dr. Terrell. Item eight tonight is 8.01 other business the board. Do any of you have anything to add? Anything under other business the board before we get statements of recognition? The only thing I was wondering is can we get a quick update on the ambassador program, how far into we are and how things are going? Actually we're getting ready for our Is it our third one Brooke? You want to come on up and kind of
046give us um We have we have our third one coming this next week actually. Uh we'll be out at Taft. Yes, we'll be at Taft this week on Wednesday. Again school safety not this week next week. Um school safety it's essentially the same presentation we're giving in the evenings. We had such great feedback in the previous years about that that's what we decided to repurpose for the parent presentation. So we have 22 individuals who are in the ambassador program this year. It's going really well How many This is the third ambassador group? How many people have gone through the ambassador program since it started roughly? Almost 60. That's great. Thank you for doing Nothing else we'll move on to item nine board statements of appreciation recognition. Mr. Basher Do you have any this evening? I'm
047keeping with my kudos to people that go unnoticed. I'd like to I would like to notice our crossing guards. See them crossing guards those crossing guards many times during the day sometimes it goes overlooked what they provide. Very very thankful. I realize they go through the police department but nonetheless it's it's a There's two of them right by my house and I see them every single day. So it's the service they provide is can't measure it. Very thankful. Thank you Mr. Basher. Ms. Basin anything tonight? I just wanted to touch a little bit on Dr. Chiquina spoke on parent teacher conferences so just tons of gratitude towards all of our teachers at the elementary level that have put together meaningful conversations for all of those families and the families that have made it a point
048to attend those 4,000 is certainly a lot of folks participating on both sides of that. Having been in the classroom I can tell you it's a lot to work around all of those schedules and so just lots of appreciation for the teachers putting in the work before that and then accommodating parent schedules to get all of those accomplished. Also thank you so much for bringing back grandparents day. My my third oldest kid she had it in kindergarten and has not had one since and she's in fifth grade now so this was a very big deal for her to get that back. So they were very excited. It went off wonderfully and so for the building levels who hosted both that and parent teacher conferences in the same week so Timothy Ball and especially to put
049that together on on the teacher side and the administrator side and then everyone who keeps our buildings in good shape to do that and even everyone at central office shipping in to do book fair that is very much appreciated. So thank you everyone involved. Thank you Ms. Basin. Mr. Smith anything this evening? Actually what Daniel said was exactly what I was going to say but I just think it's important to just thank the parents that are involved. We know how how important it is how things start in the home. And so we are extremely blessed as a school corporation to have parents that are so engaged and so involved. We heard it tonight that the community is involved in our schools and you've said it time and time again. It's incredible to see the support
050from the community in so many different ways and so more involvement from parents is fantastic right? We're opening buildings we're opening buildings to grandparents family. It's just getting them as partners getting family parents as partners you can't put a value on that. It really is important. So thank you for sharing that Ms. Chiquina. I want to ask you how what the percentage of parents but I won't do that. I think you left that off intentionally. But how how great is that that we hear 4,000 parents came through our buildings. That is incredible when you talk about the size of our school corporation. So well done to the parents well done to our community and to the teachers that Thank you Mr. Smith. And what an idea whoever that was to come up with the book
051book fair because you know how grandparents love to spoil their grandkids. So I mean that's just like that's like write the check for how much right? Let me take care of this. I just want to share something real quick and I'm not going to mention the teacher's name but I received something actually driving here tonight and this is what this is all about and it's It was regarding a teacher on how he has engaged their son to a level that they've never seen before. And it's a sixth grader one of the middle schools and it's you know we probably don't get enough of these but when they do occur and from friends or family that make that connection it's just amazing on how those connections no matter what age whether it be kindergarten all the
052way through high school and those kids remember for the rest of their lives like all of us did had our favorite teacher had our favorite coach whatever it can be and it helped us become a better person. So I just kudos to all of our teacher staff and everybody that has a day-to-day interaction with our kids that make that connection that might be the reason rather than sit home with the sniffles of a cold they come back to school the next day because they don't want to miss anything. That's how it was when I went to school because of you know your friends and those kind of teachers. So I just we don't say that enough I don't think. So kudos to all of you that make that connection with our kids. So uh just
053a couple congratulations. Our football team to the third straight undefeated DAC season which is just remarkable and then to our volleyball team that just won our regionals and are in the semi-state. I didn't see the location. I don't know if it came out for sure yet for this weekend. Where is it? you can look obviously find those times on our website so best of luck to those ladies and sectional football starts for our bulldogs to see if we can have the success that we had last year. So with that I will look for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Motion by Mr. Smith second by Ms. Basin. All those in favor please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed motion carries 4-0.