001good evening everyone and Welcome to our regular business meeting of the Board of Trustees sorry for the little delay obviously we had a little exact session that ran a little late so appreciate your patience with that if I could ask everyone to please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence allegiance to the fight of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you you may be seated laughs item two on tonight's agenda is patrons comments there being none we'll move on to item three the consent agenda Dr Terrell thank you for your consideration this evening in our consent agenda we have the minutes of the meetings as listed we have the Personnel agenda as
0023.02 and then 3.03 which is our voucher of registered checks as listed you've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of the consent agenda may have a motion motion by Miss Basin second by Mr Smith question or discussion of those three items just like to make that same statement I make every time for this the previous board gave Dr Terrell the the ability to do this without the consent of the school board personnel am I correct on that that was only during certain months of the year where we had the approval to hire before bringing it here here's my point I think we're just if if Dr Tara already has permission to do so why why do we need to approve what he's already done again it's go ahead it's basically it's going through
003the formality of the board approving the Personnel uh decisions that are made using the processes that are in place uh here to hire um and place people in their positions and and I understand your concern on that uh Tim it's one of those things where obviously sometimes the timing just doesn't allow for individuals to be hired and be put in classrooms is that what you're referring to well prior to official approval by us it just seems to me that if if Dr Terrell can do this let's let them do it and why why do we have to have why does it need our approval if we've already given them approval to do so seems like almost redundant um well let's keep that for another I'll we'll bring that topic up at another Point either in
004this meeting or in the near future okay okay thank you any more questions or comments all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries 4-0 uh item four on the agendas action items 4.01 approval to apply for and receive the title one part A helping disadvantaged children meet high standards oh okay let me re approval apply for and receive the title one part A helping disadvantaged children meet high standards Mr Hartman excuse me this evening bringing to you the annual uh Title One Grant this grant is federal money that is allocated through the state of Indiana it's based on a poverty level of each School Corporation this year our allocation is 662 615 it's 72 cents uh the breakdown is before you it's a this is a unique year because
005of redistricting so we did have to make some adjustments uh projected adjustments based on the redistricting of our free reduced lunch population and enrollments at our school so as you can see I did put an asterisk there that that is projected as we get to October 1st and we firm up with those numbers are with our ADM count and our pre and reduced lunch there we are anticipating that four schools will be title one this year MacArthur Solon Timothy ball have been for 20 some years as long as I've been here Title One schools we funding through Title One to support the learning needs of their students this year Jerry Ross projected will qualify also so this is a kind of a phase-in year as we're looking at Jerry Ross we the amount of money
006to the three previous schools in order to kind of protect their programming that they've had although Solon Robinson has taken a significant change if you look at the information from 22 to 23 and the ball has taken a substantial leave Jerry Ross is allocated to 77 000 and as we continue to take look at Jerry Ross and see the firmness I think of their free induced free and reduced lunch population then we would be making some additional changes as we move forward years to come so uh so this year we are seeking your approval of the title one Grant uh 615.72 cents thank you Mr Hartman you've heard the recommendation of the administration to for approval to apply for and receive funding from the Indiana Department of Education Title One helping disadvantaged children meet high
007standards non-competitive Grant in the amount of I have 661 615 72 and we're a dollar a thousand dollars off based on the number you read just want to make sure before we move forward with the approval and then I do see on your worksheet does say 662. okay all right uh let me go back to that I will reread the recommendation the administration recommends approval two for and apply and receive funding from the Indiana Department of Education Title One helping disadvantaged children meet high standards non-competitive Grant in the amount of 662 615.72 may have a motion please motion second motion by Mr Vassar seconded by Mr Smith question or discussion all those in favor does the formula change in determining that it's not reduced or is it just uh yeah we look at the free
008reduced lunch population compared to the enrollment and again I am empathier looking at students free and reduced lunch that could change therefore it is projected it is higher than what has been in the past so what a surprising economic circumstances but we'll have more we'll be more firm as we get to ATM understood thank you okay all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye motion carries 4-0 4.02 approval to apply for and receive Title II part a supporting effective instruction Mr Hardman okay Title II is a professional development Grant at Crown Point has applied for over the over the time it too is federal money that is allocated through the state of Indiana this year our allocation uh is a total of 166 977.50 there is an allocation that is goes to the
009to the non-public schools and that is based on a per pupil amount uh that's calculated when you add the our enrollments with with the tools and you can see that our our actual professional development amount is 148 148 997 12 which is up substantial uh for for Title II which we're uh we're happy for then you can see uh in the what it's used for it is used for uh professional development for our teachers for our administrators it's to really uh help us to uh to develop the skills of our teaching staff and our administrative staff of the Crown Point Community School Corporation so this year we're seeking your approval to apply apply to the funding title two in the amount of amount it was thousand nine hundred seventy seven dollars thank you Mr Hartman
010you've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval to be for granting and applying for and receiving funding in the amount of 166 977.50 from the title II part a grant to support effect effective instruction I have a motion please I'll make the motion thank you Mr motion by Mr Vassar second by Ms bazen question or discussion uh Mr Herman is is the non-public allocation is that set by the state no uh it comes out of our allocation so when we look at the enrollments of Crown Point Community School Corporation St Mary's Trinity Lutheran and Northwest Adventist we then divide uh that that number into 166 000 and that comes up with a per pupil and you take that per pupil amount times the enrollment at St Mary's they get they get their allocation Trinity
011gets an allocation and Northwest Atlanta so it's their enrollment times the per pupil then Point gets the in our enrollment which is what I think we probably use about eight eight thousand eight hundred students times that per pupil and therefore we get 146 000 but that's that's driven by the requirements on the ground by the requirements any other questions identify by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries 4-0 4.03 4.03 approval to apply for and receive title III language instruction from limited English proficient and immigrant students Grant Mr Hartman thank you again um our English Learners those are students that come that were English is not their first language is growing annually uh you know we do get an allocation that again comes from the federal government to title three and to us through the
012state our allocation this coming year we're seeking your approval is for thirty two thousand four hundred ninety dollars and a period so this goes to support our interventionists paraprofessional supplies and professional development we also have a component for family and Community engagement where our teachers of record and this is Ramirez do we'll meet with the community and get feedback really is a good use of our money and there also is non-public allocation that is that is available but in this case this year there were no students I believe at the non-public therefore tonight we're seeking your approval to apply for and receive grant funding for the title III and the amount of 32 490. you've you've heard the recommendation from the administration for approval to apply for and receive funding from the Indiana Department of
013Education title III language instruction for limited English proficient and immigrant students non-competitive Grant in the amount of thirty two thousand four hundred ninety dollars may have a motion please motion by Mr Smith second by Miss Basin question of discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye I was opposed motion carries 4-0 4.04 approval to apply for and receive the title IV part A student support and academic enrichment Grant Mr Hartman yes a part of the analysis we're looking at well-rounded education approving School conditions for student learning which includes your social social emotional component is also the technology so those are the three categories that uh support with title with title IV title four again is a is a grant that comes from the federal government to the state distributed to schools based on
014uh population it does have a non non-public allocation much like Title II uh per pupil amount of time to their enrollment this year we are continuing to support our mtss this is part of our support systems for our Learners in Crown Point schools with District leaders this is was put in last year's Grant also to get us a Kickstart into having leadership to develop our mtss supports as well as the the programming that we have we hope that at one point some point in time that this will become a amount that would be absorbed by the district through a stipend with the ecas but at this point in time until that occurs we are supporting it through this this grant you can see also we've identified student interventions as well as staff development and uh
015for our support staff with guidance and social workers to receive training so we're seeking your approval this evening of 42 to apply for and receive 47 576.51 from the title for part a grant thank you Mr Hartman you've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval to apply for and receive funding in the amount of forty seven thousand five hundred and five hundred seventy six dollars fifty one cents from the title for part eight Grant to support a well-rounded education support social and emotional development and improve the use of Technology have a motion please I'll second that motion by Miss Basin second by Mr Vassar question or discussion yes Mr Hartman is the is the the formula for the allocations of that total fund is that dictated by someone else or is that our own
016formula that we use as far as the amounts that we did we get where you look at the budget items so yeah we we dictate that the only one that's not is that we have a formula to allocate is the non-publish share so we're required and that again is enrollment times a per pupil amount that is figured it's identified through total enrollment divided by divided into the amount of money that we have so for the for the stipends for the district leaders that seems to be a little heavy at the top then is that because there's more leaders or there are two leaders and there's a we're looking at we had uh two last year that were a kind of code this year where we had one resign and we're looking now and having an
017elementary and a secondary levels person so these these uh stipends if you would look in in the grant it does note that they are seven thousand dollar stipends for each and then the remaining money is their benefits the that they get for that seven thousand dollars and these people are currently hired as teachers yes one's a psychologist well actually we had two psychologists and then one thanks for explaining that yeah you're welcome any other questions all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries four zero thank you for your work on all those grants Mr Harmon 4.05 textbook and resource adoption Elementary Mr jokina construction family engagement and building a community of readers at the school-wide level using the one school one book style approach the recommendation from the administration
018is for the school board to approve the resources as listed for you speaking in 2023-2024. you've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of the textbook or resource adoption for us for uh for adoption for use beginning 2023-24 have a motion second motion by Mr Smith second by Miss basin question or discussion Mr Kachina I'm going to throw you a lob pitch here being these elementary students is there anything in any of these books that are being up for our approval that would be inappropriate politically or sexually or thematic no there's nothing like thank you all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed motion carries four zero 4.06 German exchange program and out of country field trip to Germany and Austria Mrs Ramirez thank you Mr President and board members
019I am requesting support for us to provide our students that study German at the high school and immersive experience which covers 14 days of them traveling throughout Germany and Austria this upcoming summer with two of our German teachers from the high school this is open to 10th and 10th through 12th grade students as part of the German American partnership program Gap we also then have German exchange students who come here to learn for approximately two weeks in our high school and are hosted by host families on site when our students go they also stay with host families and are able to experience and apply the language that they're studying as well as have many cultural opportunities um it really I think ferment their passion for culture and passion for German language in fact we have
020one student who is actually going to be attending a German University for four years and will be studying environmental science which is resulting from his passion for the German language and for the culture I'd like to thank Miss Candace Carey who is here one of our German teachers for the proposal that she has built and for the trip that she is proposing and hope that with your support we are able to make the recommendation of you approving the German exchange and out of country field trip to Germany and Austria by cphs students June 6th through the 19th 2024 a reality for our students you've heard the recommendation of the administration for the school board to approve the German exchange and out of countries field trip to Germany and Austria by our Crown Point and high
021school students June 16th through 9th through the 19th 2024. they have a motion second motion by Mr Smith second by Mr bassner question or discussion Mr Ramirez this is a teacher driven initiative correct correct so thank you uh I'm sorry I did not catch your name but thank you for taking that initiative to do this and how many more adults are needed they still do that Evelyn wood thing where you can learn a language in like three four days or something because I don't know any Germans thank you wow wow well based on the agenda and the cost it looks pretty affordable based on that time that time over there with everything included so thank you for all your work involved any other questions all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those
022opposed motion carries 4-0 uh 4.07 approved to accept and receive the secure and safe School Grant Mr G and Fermi thank you Mr President board member since 2019 Crown Point School Corporation has applied for and received the secure school safety Grant we did that once again this year and have been awarded 99 000 4.74 cents which one would be used for salary and benefits for school resource officer at 75 829.12 and then two to purchase 13 A.D automated external defibrillators at twenty three thousand one hundred seventy five dollars and sixty two cents the administration's recommendation that we approve and accept the and receive the grant funding through the Indiana Department of Homeland Securities secured and school safety Grant you've heard the recommendation of the administration illustration for approval to accept and receive grant funding from
023the Indiana Department of Homeland Securities sssg FY 23 for the amount of ninety nine thousand four dollars and seventy four cents may have a motion motion motion by Mr Vassar second by Mr Smith question or discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed motion carry 4-0 4.08 a memo of understanding between Crown Point School Corporation and family concerned counseling Mr Gene from in your board packets you have a memorandum understanding between Crown Point School Corporation and family concerns counseling this mou is exactly like we have with crown counseling and pillars of wellness and what it does is it allows us to create a partnership with a counseling agent so that when we run into situations where all of our social work and school counselors have run into a really intense
024situation where there's additional counseling maybe outside of the school and what the family is needed a tier one or tier 3 intervention if you will then we have this mou in place it also allows that counseling agency to then be in the school we have are adding a third counseling partnership because we want to cover our final two schools that did not have this partnership in place and that would be Eisenhower Elementary in Lake Lake Street Elementary and so the right Administration recommends approval for the mou between uh Chrome Crown Point Community Schools and family concern counseling any questions you have you for the recommendation of administration for approval of the memorandum of understanding between Crown Point Community School Corporation and family concern counseling they have a motion motion by Miss Basin second by Mr
025Smith question or discussion Mr Jean Ferman this is for our staff would recommend this exactly um our counselors are The Gatekeepers between when that recommendation will happen so it's generally through our trained school counselors our social workers where that recommendation comes thank you Comma just first uh great job uh where is this facility located they're actually in Valparaiso operation thanks any other questions all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries 4-0 thank you 4.09 policy revision policy zero one six seven point three public comment at board meetings Mr Kiwa board members I bring to you uh today a second time this policy for revision as you know in our initial conversations last month um we've changed out some vocabulary for State Statute to change participation to comment but you
026thankfully had a good discussion at the last board meeting which led to this this final language so I just want to thank you for for help clarifying all that for us and I bring to you uh policy zero one six seven point three um to you today to complete the second reading and gain final approval on this updated policy you've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of today's second reading and approval of the updated policy zero one six seven point three may have a motion motion by Mr Smith second by Miss Basin question or discussion and and just to alleviate some of those concerns I read after last month's meeting on social media the participants name and topic will be announced by the presiding officer whether it be the president vice president secretary
027as indicated on the agenda so I just want to make sure some people were saying we're making this more difficult to speak at meetings nope it's completely the opposite you get your right to speak at the meeting but at the same time so that we can have an idea of what you're speaking about regarding the open topic were were made aware of that prior to allowing you to speak so it's not like we're going to tell say no but it also helps us kind of indicate on where you're coming from with whatever topic that maybe you'd like to discuss any other statements anybody like to enter comments with that all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye those opposed motion carries four zero thank you and for all your work behind the
028scenes on that thank you Artie all right Sue uh item five on the agendas tonight is superintendent discussion groups uh Mr Vassar did you want to start with anything you might have well representing the liaison liaison to the Cedar Lake Redevelopment commission there is some pushback in the proposed subdivisions going down where the uh South Shore Golf Course used to be and the one that is south of um Faith Church going down to 200 and no excuse me 141st there are some resident pushback scheduled for this week so more to come thank you Mr Vassar anything from City Mr Smith okay and nothing obviously from Winfield as well I will just uh reiterate on some of your comments we did get a letter myself Dr Terrell from Cedar Lake about a meeting on the 17th
029of October from the Redevelopment commission right for that meeting that number I yes sent you so we're at least in correspondence to make sure we're being notified of what's taking place is there anything I need to do we're okay as of now if there is something else we'll definitely keep you including that discussion okay thank you Mr Vassar a 5.02 director of Grants and assessments Mr Hartman thank you uh the state of Indiana has released a 50 up to 50 000 grant for a robotic body for robotics uh teams throughout the state uh I think the legislation that uh supports this has found or realizes that the amount of money that is needed for this type of competition is pretty extensive so we are applying I've had a couple of meetings with uh today with
030our robotics coaches very passionate people about looking forward to really create this Grant and be able to support them because as they go out and they need the equipment and they need the parts and they need the the those kinds of supports is very important that we are able to provide we could increase the number of students participating we are limited in the number of students that can participate because we of the amount of money it takes to have the parts and the kits for a team to to be able to use which was really something was enlightening to me and I think as a department we will be working towards how can we increase that plus participating thank you Mr Hartman 5.03 director of Elementary education Mr Shekinah thank you Mr President and board
031members I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank the people in our curriculum and instructional specialist roles who work extremely hard to support our elementary teachers and Learners essentially the people in these roles problem solve and clear obstacles so teachers are really able to focus on their students and the curriculum our Ela and math specialists at the elementary level are Amy McAllister and Joe bisic and they are out and about daily in our buildings to provide instructional coaching modeling and a lot of support to analyze data both to individual teachers and groups of teachers our Blended instructional design Specialists are Susan Valentine and Annie Vasser and they work really hard to support teachers with technology enhanced instruction supporting the construction of courses within our Buzz learning management system and another big area they
032support our teachers is checking in and providing ongoing support for our new teachers as well also our media specialist Jana Carney provides really important leadership coaching and support to our media staff members in all our buildings and she works really hard to coordinate our district-wide library needs uh on another note I want to recognize and congratulate our fifth graders who participated in the district-wide cross-country meet last week this is a really cool event that our middle school cross-country coaches organize and put on each year at Lemon Lake for our fifth graders thank you thank you commissioner Mr gilby on me uh item 5.04 director of secondary education Mrs Ramirez Mr President and board members I would like to highlight the College and Career Fair that was held at cphs on September 6th Lynn alkire the
033associate principal at cphs organized this is our 12th College and Career Fair held at the high school and it was open to cphs students we also and their families we also had students and parents from Lowell Kankakee Valley Hanover Lake Central Calumet and Maryville attend and what they were attending was the opportunity to kind of network with 82 colleges unions and agencies that came on site had informational um pamphlets and were able to sign up to get email communication about things that they may be interested for their post-secondary opportunities our whole administrative team at the high school was there as well as all of our guidance counselors really showing the support we have for our students throughout high school but also then in preparing them for their After High School post-secondary decisions Peter fasteris one
034of the counselors at the high school also brings in invest Ed and they do FAFSA presentations which is helping families understand how to apply for free federal student aid and I'd also like to thank Michelle crawl and our food services because she did an incredible job of hosting the hospitality rooms for her 82 vendors which really welcomed them to Crown Point and made it a very positive experience likewise as Mr jokina very eloquently stated the Specialists that we have in our curriculum in instruction Department are instrumental to the support of our teachers our staff and of our students in turn I'd like to acknowledge Jake Adams and Carol lambersi they work as our secondary Ela and math Specialists Jeremy Walker who works as our Blended instruction design specialist and Anna retzlaff who works as our
035English language learner District specialist without these Specialists the alignment the support that our teachers receive the timeliness of kind of problem-solving strong communication as well as the ability to support our focus on educator growth teaching and learning to then of course positively transfer that to our students would be much more challenging so we are very appreciative of them specifically with our new teachers who have most recently come on board all of these staff that we've just talked about meet with our new teachers to make sure that they are best able to meet the needs of students best use the technology are familiar with the curriculum and resources that are supported by Crown Point Community School Corporation so thank you for your support of the Specialists to support teaching and learning thank you Mrs Ramirez 5.05
036director exceptional education Mrs pasquez good Angel members of the board stuff few updates from our world we have just about completed processing 78 move-in students so 78 students that came to Crown Point schools with IEPs by law those have to be processed within 10 school days of the student moving into the school district so kudos to my coordinators my diagnostic staff teachers of record and the admin teams who sat in those conferences and helped get the students the services they need last Wednesday we hosted The Arc of Indiana for our families and we had 11 families come out to learn about trust able accounts special needs trusts these are just different kinds of financial Arrangements families have to consider if they have a child with special needs as they age out of school we are
037hosting our first parent advisory group meeting in a few weeks Mr gianfermi is going to join our group and we're going to have our Behavior Specialists share some tips for parents on kind of how to help students with homework at home and just supporting behavior supports that we give in the in the classroom supporting those at home as well um I also want to thank Dave Coulson Marty Freeman and Scott Kessler one of our job coach bus drivers who helped recently with what could have been a kind of a scary situation with one of our adult students and they kind of stayed on it and helped resolve a situation so that everyone could have some peace of mind and know that an adult student was safe and sound so I thank them thank you Mrs
038pascus 5.06 assistant superintendent Mr G infermi thank you this one I recognize the work that the fiscal Administration and the the teachers and staff have been doing with the CTE program at the high school we're up to 24 CTE dual credit classes and we have 17 complete CTE Pathways for graduation and that number probably was not even in double figures a few years back so Mrs alkire driving that as an administrator and again all the teachers hard work in that I mean we're offering Pathways in Kentucky construction trades Finance marketing those are a couple that we added next year we'll be adding health care and education so there's a lot of work behind that to align that to the next level of programs of study that is happening right now so just a great job
039by the administration and the staff out there and we appreciate them offering those opportunities to our students thank you Mr Gene for me uh Mrs pasque is just one question I forgot to ask even though I wrote it down the 78 is that K through 12 or is that preschool two that's preschool through 22 years old oh okay thank you uh 5.07 Chief human resource officer Mr Kiwa yesterday what I call external stakeholders or folks to support our processes here in ways that you may not know otherwise but first a Crossroads Chamber of Commerce who we do work very closely with they help greatly with our new teacher luncheon they asked about the teacher appreciation day but right now currently they're working on our outstanding educator awards that they do annually so I think those
040nominations were just sent in and we will learn who our outstanding educators are coming up here in the next next few weeks we'll be able to announce that uh coming up but we just love partnering with them and they just do so much for our schools they need to be mentioned tonight in addition to Miracle rotary who also sponsors something called clothing our children where we get clothing vouchers for our students K to 12. I'm I'll be attending a lunch and you're coming up next month uh to to receive our vouchers and we give those out to our needy families and and that is just tremendously appreciated we've been working with the miracle rotary now for well over a decade on this on this project so thanks for and finally we received I want to
041say an excess of 30 to 40 backpacks with supplies provided by our local Lions Club uh and our folks there are just just super the ladies from the Lions Club but really enjoy helping us out and that handoff is always just just fun they're a very colorful bunch and we love having them here and I've given personally some to some of our folks that that are unfortunately are homeless that that we were helping support so I was able to give give them some backpacks right in my office so just thanks to the Lions Club here locally for supporting our students and school community thank you very much thank you Mr Kiwa uh 5.08 Chief Financial Officer Mr Reese thank you Mr Angel members of the board I'd like to take an opportunity to recognize our
042technology staff I think if you went back through to a person and asked them to look back on 2020 and what they have in store over the next five years I don't know if they'd all stick around or even be part of that but we continue to throw uh major obstacle after major obstacle at them and they continue to step up to the challenge and put in an enormous amount of time to get us ready including a new student information system the construction you think is just the construction's going on they actually come in after the construction is done and get all the technology set up in the room to make sure that everything works it is an enormous task that they've undertaken and we're getting ready to throw some more at them and they
043do still have some construction projects to go but I want to I want to thank them here before you for for what they've done these last four or five years has truly been exceptional they don't they don't get a lot of credit they get a lot of the blame when things go wrong and they do everything in their power to make it better for everybody else in the corporation whether it be students staff parents to try to get us up and running so I just want to thank them publicly thank you Mr Reese 5.09 director of communication Mrs Allen is community tour night at Taft our student ambassadors at the actual lead tours around the building so folks have not had the chance to see that building yet it's a great opportunity to come out
044for a visit thank you Mrs Allen I do owe Mrs Allen somewhat of an apology she welcomed me and had me greet the 17 to 20 new members of our ambassadors club and I was supposed to speak for two to five minutes while most of you that know me that's almost impossible so I extended my time and I'm gracious that you didn't reprimand me or anything thank you Michelle I'm sorry but once again that's great that we have that program now available to our patrons here in the community and I'll look like a wonderful group moving forward so I know they got to listen to Mr Reese for that first day for most of the day so I'm hoping they understand School Finance as much as we do now so with that 5.10 superintendent of
045schools Dr Terrell thank you uh this evening you want to change it up just a little bit have um a statement that I want to go through and it's actually several pages long but want to provide both you as a board and our community a cyber security event timeline dating back and beginning in November of last year so I'm going to go through this point by point and just kind of give everyone an update we feel like we are now at a position um where we're able to share this timeline and the information that is involved with it we are providing an update so our community has accurate information the mailing process was the final step in dealing with this situation and that was completed last month we have the opportunity to provide and recap
046now the things that are finished understanding that there are things that will continue to go on in the months coming November 21st of 2022 we discovered that our Network had been compromised later forensic analysis showed someone first accessed our system on November 17th our technology team found encrypted files on our servers the morning of the 21st and immediately took all of our systems offline at that time we retained a third party cyber security specialist a company called tracepoint they confirmed that this was a ransomware event and the threat actors gained access to some of our servers and workstations the forensic analysis confirmed that the situation happened because a staff member gave up their login credentials including password as part of an email phishing attempt with the help of tracepoint we informed the FBI and the
047Department of Homeland Security and also the Indiana Department of Ed as required all necessary paperwork was filed we also involved our insurance company in this process each team the district Trace point and our insurance company also included their legal teams in all discussions Crown Point reached out to the threat actor through Trace point and the initial Ransom demand was 2.6 million dollars this was significantly and successfully negotiated down to five hundred thousand these payments were made with the assistance of a third party broker and we went through all of the real relevant sanction checks through uh the third party specialist prior to making this payment as a reminder we chose to cancel one day of school because we sent our staff home over Thanksgiving break which was November 23rd through the 24th without their computers
048and we gave them a day to prepare before students returned we did not cancel school because we couldn't teach students without technology we chose to provide our staff with a day to prepare new lessons on November 30th we chose to provide families with a list of steps they could take to protect their information online we did not know yet if the personal information was compromised but as our message indicated we can we were concerned that it was a possibility this was not a required notification but we felt it was important the negotiation process was lengthy and it took weeks to negotiate and send payment which was finalized shortly before Christmas break during the time our technology team began inspecting every Windows device in the district which was nearly 2 000 computers we chose to take
049a slow careful approach to Bringing systems back online so we could monitor them and add additional security in January we began the process of determining whether personal information had been accessed in the breach a few things to remember because we paid the ransom our student and staff information was turned to us rather than sold online however the information was technically accessed so we followed the law and notified all affected individuals that their information was accessed no credit cards or payment methods were stored in our system therefore no credit card numbers were accessed during the event our final our financial systems were not accessed during the in our current student information system was not accessed either most of the documents that were affected were either word or Excel documents and this event did not affect any
050of our student Chromebooks The Ransom payment is a portion of the cost that was incurred during this incident with the technology upgrades payments to Specialists legal teams and the installation of new software is the total cost for this event is approximately one million dollars we expect the majority if not all of these expenses excluding The Ransom payment to be reimbursed through insurance we are fortunate that we had a strong that strong financial management over many years meant that we could incur these costs this did not impact money for instruction student services or salaries why did it take so long to provide these details step one included negotiations and transferring payments and then the files step two was investigating what data was actually accessed so we could correctly notify individuals step number two took months approximately
051January to May the data team examined and finally another company that handles the Sorting of all of the notification process which takes would then took an additional couple of months since this event our district has taken a number of steps to improve cyber security explaining some of these steps would be like giving away the key so I won't be sharing that information with you a few things to note our staff now are required training regarding phishing and cyber security this includes our technology team running internal phishing attempts to test the staff we have installed new software and systems we have new cloud backup Solutions and a hardened more secure firewall staff and students are now required to use stronger passwords that are changed more frequently we know this event had an impact on our school
052community and we are proud of how our staff handled the changes and the challenges in the classroom our Administration and board acted with the best interest of our students and the district in every decision we made throughout this process and we appreciate as Matt mentioned already our technology team for the long hours they worked over several months and let me pause and make a point of that I don't think anybody truly understands the amount of time that they spent this happened over Thanksgiving break and I had to twist Brian's arm to make his people go home for Thanksgiving dinner so that they could continue working and and we just appreciate all the efforts that they made so with that being said that's the update of where we are right now just want to provide that
053information for you and also for our community as as we try to move forward with this event knowing that it's not finished but we're getting close to where we are in that's we'll be in that position also wanted to mention this evening this morning we were able to host the mayor's Monday discussions Monday with the mayor I believe is the official title of it and had I don't know probably 20 or 30 individuals here with the mayor and his team it was a great opportunity for the to show our partnership with the mayor and his uh Team there as we continue to work through it in our community exciting next month's board meeting will be in our new Administration Center and we are all desperately looking forward to that where not only will our boardroom
054not be either Arctic or an inferno but also will permit all of our resources to be Under One Roof and be able to be much more efficient in how we operate thank you Dr Terrell um item six other business of the board other before oh go ahead I've got something um so we had a group uh in the community kind of come about organically to address and discuss issues regarding diversity in our Corporation so I wanted to give you guys a heads up that that's going on and I've been participating in those meetings so I'll keep you updated as more information comes about with that thank you I was just going to bring up before anybody else goes uh we have a couple things moving forward our Indiana School Board Association conference is this coming
055Monday and Tuesday where three of us for sure will be in attendance and there's still one holding out possibly going to be able to make it for part of it so that's always a chance for us to increase our knowledge in certain areas to help us become better board members so with two new board members being on it it's uh it's a great opportunity to learn and also to co-mingle with other school corporations and their board members to kind of learn what maybe they're dealing with that maybe we're not seeing in our area so and also on November 8th even though next month the Convention as well uh that is our the isba's fall conference or I'm sorry uh fall regional meeting to where we learn get legislative updates and I can tell you my
05620 years of service I miss those very infrequently because it's held at Tebow's so it's an opportunity to get a nice meal and learn a little bit more to help me make some decisions or learn information that might be valuable to the crown points Community School Corporation so that that again is on November 8th in case you can make that just let Diana know any other board business new board business other board business no okay with that we'll move on to board statements of appreciation recognition uh 7.01 Mr Bass or anything this evening I'd like to say thanks to uh our kitchen staffs um cafeteria staffs throughout our Corporation um that's a lot of lunches that they serve every day and there's a lot of dishes to clean a lot of trays to clean every
057day when I was a principal I made it a point at least once a month to serve lunches and then run the dish dishwashing machine I learned to appreciate those people a lot so thank you to Pam and their staff who do all that thank you Mr Vassar Miss Basin anything this evening um so I had the opportunity to attend the football game two weekends ago our last home game that was a really great atmosphere for those of you who haven't been able to attend um our team is doing extremely well undefeated at this point correct so um if you haven't had a chance to attend that and um also I I see that Deanna's not here but always a thanks to Skillman for their continued work Timothy ball almost has a completed playground so
058I have some very excited elementary school kids who are really amped up to get on that like almost completed facility so um a continued thanks to Dion for getting all that done thank you uh Mr Smith one of the things I've noticed is the relationship between the students and our resource officers and you know there's always a play area where middle school kids go on crazy but um the resource officers are right down there with their Within These Kids I mean just one after there are 10 kids surrounding resource officers and I mean I'm just seeing a resource officer just smile all of them and they're just chatting but the relationship and bonds that they have created with the students and the time they take whether it be lunch or just walking through the buildings
059and talking to the students it's it's uh it's noticeable and it makes a big difference so I just want to thank them for taking the time to build those relationships because I have no doubt that when it comes to the security and safety of our kids they're going to react and respond and you can't put a price for a value on that equally I had an opportunity to see I had to drop my son off at the high school the freshman and had the opportunity to see the flow of the traffic and the officers out there and how they're directing traffic and I mean these individuals stand in the middle of lanes and with student high school and drivers driving by them it's it's dangerous and it shouldn't be overlooked and they do a great
060job and I just want to commend them for having the heart and a guts to stay there to do that you know so well done to all those groups and thank you Mr Smith um first my recognition is to Mr Gill and Diane are and Diana green these meetings aren't um they just don't make themselves happen obviously Dr Terrell Creech the agenda with his cabinet and uh other administrators and presents that to us and we come up here and make sure we uh approve and not you know not always agree on things but make sure that we're doing what we're doing as elected officials but the behind the scenes credit goes to those two especially not only moved online so those of you that watch at home and listen at home can do so due
061to the fact that Mr Gill puts this available and Diana does pretty much all the legwork behind the scenes make sure we don't miss the meetings or at least let her know that we might be able to attend or not attend so thank you to both of you for that aspect um just to reiterate on Miss basin's comment about the football team because we have a bunch of programs doing wonderful this fall but this Friday could be a site unseen as Crown Point is now ranked fifth in the state and class 6A and Valparaiso is number two in 5A so it's literally a clash of two area programs that are considered obviously recognizing the state as top five programs in both their classes so Friday's event should be one to behold I can tell you
062it'll probably be packed to the knowing that Valparaiso travels well and our support is overwhelming at this point should be a wonderful event for those of you that were unaware that that game is taking place this Friday um that's all I have with that oh Mr Vassar oh okay just want to make sure with that uh I will look for a motion to adjourn motion motion by Mr Vassar second by Miss Basin all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries 4-0 thank you