001oh thank you thank you don hi good evening uh welcome to the uh december 13 2021 regular business meeting of the board of schools overseas held in public with the start time at six o'clock this evening if we all may rise we'll ask mr hoffman to lead us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you mr officer may be seated item two on this evening's agendas the board of schools sees resolution of commendation awards uh we had the 2021 corporate christmas card design we had vivian bronessie she's an eighth grader at robert a tap middle school she's the winning design for the front of the
002card and victoria perez eighth grader at taft middle school was the runner-up then we'd design was used for the back of the card do we have a motion to approve the accommodations as presented moved by mr babjack and second by mr angel all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and now i do think that um diana you said vivian is not here yet but he's got to come how about victoria hi victoria you want to come forward i'm going to [Applause] if anyone in our audience has not seen our card yet mr rangel has one so dory you were the runner up and you're in the back of the card so congratulations this is a is this the third year we've had another one this is our second year
003of the holiday card tradition and then uh division correct yeah vivian was on the front of the card this year um so congratulations have a conversation to read to you thank you for joining us this evening here we go resolution accommodations the school board crown point board of school trustees is honored to commend vivian is that how do you predict vernessi i'm sorry yes victoria perez i've got that one honored to commend victoria perez for notorious achievement be it here i've dissolved that the board of school trustees for the crown point community school corporation wishes to express sincere congratulations to victoria perez eighth grade student at robert e taft middle school creating the runner-up design for the back of the corporation's 2020 christmas card the board of school trustees publicly recognizes this achievement and renders
004it permanently to its minutes to be preserved for public posterity dated this 13th of december 2021. congratulations accommodation miss allen will take a picture take a picture of you up here okay how about we do this you can hold your i like to hold you hold the card with it and she'll take it and mom dad feel free to stand up and get your picture as well this is this is complete with a four-year scholarship spoiler choice sponsored by mrs congratulations good job [Applause] was an honor jet our agenda this evening but uh kind of exciting to see dr carroll i shouldn't take it out of classic for you mr hoffman but uh mr hoffman was presented with award from the isba and we wanted to recognize that this evening that is uh this award
005was presented to thomas hoffman for outstanding service to the indiana public school board members and school children during the coven years so mr hoffman i we all know how much you do and have done for the crown point community school corporation um and for the isba as well but um congratulations to you maybe you could you know give us a little share a little bit of uh what your involvement is with the well they basically i think the the outgoing board president presented these plaques to all of the directors there are there are 10 regions in the state of indiana that comprise the indiana school boards association plus your slate of officer so i we've got at least three officers so we've got 13 people on on the board of directors and you serve three-year
006terms and can be reappointed by the one of the school boards association committees make recommendation and then you're accepted back on the board by the board of directors but you know the last two years have been pretty difficult in public education i think it's been beneficial having been on that board to find out what goes on throughout the state see who's dealing with what kinds of problems see where we are positioned with some of the leading schools in the state and and things of that nature but you know we're very fortunate to school corporation because we are increasing and and [Music] student numbers versus decreasing so we've got funds available to do a lot of things that other school corporations unfortunately do not have if you're a declining school corporation many of those are in
007financial difficulty throughout the state so um but it's it's been fun to be part of this organization it's fun and our board members have attended the fall conference which is held every every year in either september or october down in indianapolis but it's it's an opportunity to get together with school board members from across the state and share ideas so thank you for acknowledging this and mr hoffman thank you for representing crown point as well [Applause] item three patrons comments patrons registered to comment on educational issues we've we have found it beneficial just go ahead and to read through the guidelines each meeting so that everyone understands what what is going on and what they will be asked to do to prove to present comment the board will hear patrons legal residents in center township
008at winfield top ship wishing to come comment on educational issues that the regular business meeting of the board of school trustees held in public patrons must sign the sheep provided in the back of the boardroom prior to start a meeting when their names are called to address the board they will move to the podium the front room please state their name spelling if necessary for record keeping addresses and the topic they will be addressing if patrons have prepared witness statements on a topic they may present at this time a limit a time limit of three minutes is allowed for each speaker we've asked mr angel to be our time keeper and you know generally he'll give you a either a hand raise or a warning of a minute 30 seconds and then the buzzer will
009go off at the expired time the portion of the meeting during which the participation the public is invited shall be limited to 20 minutes unless extended by a vote above the board speakers are to refrain from speaking on personnel issues and student issues i i want to stress this one because it has come up in past meetings that these are commons to be on educational issues uh not personnel um if something is said i believe the way we had it last time worked out okay we'll give you a warning at that second time we like we will cut you off uh immediately though if we're if we're not sticking to educational issues thank you so to begin this evening we have melissa pinita please come forward my first name is melissa last name is pineda
010p-i-n-e-d-a um address is 2601 west 135th um lane in crown point um can everybody hear me first and foremost okay my husband and i signed our middle child up for the new bulldog buddy preschool program as a general education student we chose the program due to having a wonderful experience with the exceptional learners program from 2019 to 2021 at the learning center with our oldest son who is on the spectrum the program at that point in time was something to be spoken for about and simply said truly amazing the program and its educators engage the children through interactive activities always involving academics at its core via structure and routine this concept made academics achievable for children with special needs and in general with this being said of course i chose this new program for our
011middle son i love the idea of inclusion and we're excited for him to begin his preschool journey expecting a very similar program early on i noted a difference in the program's curriculum when asked my son would simply say just play to describe his day just play how does a general education child let alone a child with special needs learn everything needed for kindergarten when a majority of their preschool and pre-k experiences simply just play and why were the parents never informed of this drastic difference in the program's curriculum or lack of i was told by the principal of the learning center that a child can choose to play and it's up to the instructors to engage with the child with questioning during this play i ask you though how does a child with special needs
012who has a language or speech impediment answered directions directed to them when a majority of the time they don't even have the capacity to do so how does a special needs student learn the routine that is expected of them in future kindergarten when their preschool provides them with such lack of however all children are supposed to be kindergarten ready and when they aren't allowed to formally or structurally address topics such as holding scissors letters shapes etc it's very difficult i believe any parent would expect structured learning of academic basics in preschool and pre-k at minimum we are setting our children up for increased behaviors and increased behavioral program programs at the kindergarten level especially those with special needs it's my deep hope that you please look over the preschool program involve those professionals such as
013special education instructors and those familiar with an iep and strongly address the current curriculum thank you so much thank you melissa lauren carney uh my name is lauren carney uh one two zero eight two dry crown point um i currently have a four-year-old son who attends the bulldog parties pre-school at eisenhower elementary my son entered the ecd program at the age of three being nonverbal and with a significant developmental delay during the past few years my something had to flourish inside and outside of the classroom walls we have every educator paraprofessional therapist and speech path to thank for his successes this year the program has drastically changed not for the better i had my reservations last spring when i heard about the transition of the bulldog buddies as an educator myself i know that this
014is no easy task to simply just launch a new program new programs take time with purposeful transitions small steps and training how was that done in fidelity in over one summer i began asking the questions why why in the world would this corporation rip apart a thriving program that was allowing their most vulnerable students including my son to achieve academic and social success why must why was structure and routine removed from the classrooms and replaced with 60 minutes at minimum of open play time why was the kindergarten readiness curriculum removed from the classroom my son required schedule and routine to function successfully throughout any day why are you allowing him to choose what he wants versus what his needs are why were special education teachers ripped away from their students on their caseload that they
015have been servicing why hasn't anyone in charge in the corporation asked is this what's best for our students i can guarantee if that question was asked the response would be no it seems as though whoever made the changes doesn't appear to know what best practice looks like let alone what um best prac what best practice and special needs students what they need and for all learners all around the message is being sent loud and clear to parents in the community that crown point community schools does not care or value their students with special needs if they did this program would not have been turned inside out and overhauled completely the program is forcing us to seek alternative community-based preschools for a preschool for our son in january imagine the setbacks that my son will now
016have to overcome with yet another transition to another program because this one is failing him this program was supposed to be an extension of the successful ecd program that he was a part of for the past two years my child has regressed significantly in his behaviors due to the lack of stability structure routine and academics in closing i just want to restate that every teacher paraprofessional speech pathologist and therapist has always had my son's best heart i simply can't say the same for the individuals that are responsible for this program i strongly hope that you look into it and i encourage you to observe a classroom read the scope and sequence of the adopted curriculum read a child's iep and then ask yourself would you send your own child through this program because i would
017assume you would not thank you for your time thank you lauren jessica abel uh jessica able 249 east greenwood avenue crown point same thing bulldog brothers preschool my son uh goes there five days a week this year this is his third year there he was in first steps through the state of indiana from nine months old to three years he was diagnosed with a speech delay he had not a single word he could not say mom dad nothing until he started at the learning center at three years old that 2019-2020 school year was incredible for my family to hear mama for the first time coming out of my child's mouth that's an experience you can never get back okay and he was learning abc's numbers colors writing a name and communicating in a structured play-based
018setting and even though he was thriving in this environment during all of this my husband and i knew that when he finished the school year last year he was not ready for kindergarten so we chose to hold him back this was before we heard about the bulldog buddies program we signed him up at a new preschool paid a tuition fee and everything we then bulldog buddies was a possibility for him and it was supposed to be an extension of what he got the last two years so we entered him into the bulldog buddies program and from my understanding again it was supposed to be extension and unfortunately it was not there is absolutely no structure no academic learning whatsoever just play time and this is why or why is this the only preschool of my
019knowledge in crown point that doesn't follow a readiness program that aligns with the kindergarten curriculum at crown point how are these kids going to be ready they're not for the entire two and a half hours these children are at school they are not told no once if they don't want to participate in an activity they aren't even allowed to be encouraged to go and follow their teacher or other students they are allowed to go and do as they please this program is failing our children will continue to fail each child that enters its door until something changes and unfortunately for kids like my child this was his last year to be ready for kindergarten i have made plans to move him to a new preschool for second semester and i hate to do that but
020he needs to be ready for kindergarten otherwise he is going to be farther behind than he already is thank you thank you jessica uh megan or megan uh jordan megan turner megan jordan 245 east 124th place crown point indiana i come here as a mother as well as a healthcare professional i'm a clinical pharmacist that rounds in the critical care unit i spent the last 21 months watching misunderstanding and misinformation take the lives or severely disable people in our community because of covet 19. i really don't have much energy to give to covet outside of work because of this but here i am to ask you to follow the governor's covid and quarantine guidelines i believe this board would acknowledge that the departments of health as the state as well as lake county has better
021training and knowledge of the covid 19 disease process spread and community impact so i was surprised and disappointed that you chose your own definition of unmasked close contact as well as not quarantining close contacts especially in light of high covid related hospitalizations in our local hospitals and with not giving children enough time to be fully vaccinated with the most recent eua for five to eleven-year-olds so while i trust you to follow standards for education set forth by the state i now ask you to reevaluate your coveted policies to respect the knowledge that has been put into the governor's policy that is supported by the cdc american academy of pediatrics the indiana state department of health as well as the lake county department of health thank you thank you megan brent holding hi uh brent holding
0222576 west 127th avenue in crown point uh i want to echo a lot of the sentiments of the previous speaker i share a lot of the same concerns just about the timing and the execution of removing of the mask mandate in the schools uh with the holiday season coming up you know people are going to be going around loved ones ones they might not have seen all year that they're going to see for the first time in two years in many cases and it just seems like a very inopportune time to remove those mandates and potentially expose those people um you know this was something i was passionate about going into this school year uh you know we made a very hard decision to send my son and my daughter this year uh to lake
023street and uh you know my daughter ended up getting covered um luckily she she was okay um you know i got a very mild case despite being vaccinated and unfortunately my wife got a more severe case and is still dealing with some long coveted symptoms now and so you know that was with the mask policy in place so i just worry with the even looser rules that are happening now uh just more people are going to catch this and suffer unnecessarily when masking is so easy um i also just wanted to read quickly from you know the governor's executive order just to just make sure i understand and get my thoughts out about what the the rules should be if this rule is in place according to the lake county indiana health department what they
024sent out just just uh late last week directly from the governor's executive order unmasked students and staff who have become close contacts must complete the required quarantine students and staff that were exposed to a positive case within three feet in the classroom setting or six feet outside of the classroom setting she'll quarantine for 14 days with no test needed or 10 days after the date of the last exposure a little bit more about what the testing rules are there but um my understanding is that's not in place and that concerns me so i just wanted to mention that and bring that to the board's attention thank you thank you brent that concludes our patrons comments for this evening as some of you have been here before know that uh you know what what we we've
025had had the discussion in the past meetings that it's an opportunity to comment and the board hears the comments that are made however there's not an opportunity there for any back and forth discussion so thank you item four consent agenda dr terrell for your consideration this evening we have 4.1 multiple minutes from meetings that have taken place 4.2 course editions at the high school 4.3 year in business office procedures 4.4 personnel agenda and then 4.5 the voucher checks as listed thank you dr terrell i've heard a recommendation to prove the consent agenda has presented we have a motion to approve so moved second is that moved by mr smith and second by mr hoffman any questions or comments for dr chair on the consent agenda i'd just like to say it's pretty pretty nice that
026we can offer a class in marine biology in high school that's pretty cool all i got anyone else not all those in favor saying that by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and uh thank you dr terrell uh item five to action 5.1 is approval to accept the funds from the blackbaud giving fund mr gene fermi thank you mr president uh colonel wheeler middle school received 80 from the blackbaud giving fund on behalf of ad buy employee engagement fund it is the administration's recommendation that the board accept the city dollar fund thank you mr g infirmity for the recommendation to prove to accept 80 from blackbaud giving fund on behalf of the abbvie employee engagement fund for colonel john wheeler middle school we have a motion to approve so moved second moved by mr
027hoffman in a second by mr angel any questions or comments from mr g for me on the 80 dollars not all those in favor signified by saying i oppose most carries five zero thank you and uh 5.2 superintendent contract approval mr keywood thank you mr president and board members in your packet is a proposed superintendent contract with the term of july 1st 2021 to july 30th 2024 with options for renewal as required by indiana code notice of the terms of the proposed contract published in the northwest indiana times and post-tribune and posted on the school corporation's website on december 6 2021 the board held the required public meeting to receive community input on the terms of the contract as such the board has completed the legal requisite are the requisite legal steps to consider action
028on the contract this evening thank you mr akiwa you have a motion to approve the superintendent contract as presented in our packet moved by mr hoffman and seconded by mr smith anybody have any questions or comments before vote no all those in favor signify by saying aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and 5.3 to 403 b plan restatement mr reese thank you mr president members of the board from time to time it becomes necessary to restate our 403 b plan many times it's due to irs changes they normally give you a year or two to implement those new requirements within the 403 b plans this one's also generated by the addition of the 403 contributions for the unused sick days that you approved a few months ago in the teacher agreement uh so with that we've
029uh utilized icemiller to help us restate our 403b plan you've seen the changes uh that are included in your packet and at this point i'd like to recommend approval of the crown point community school corporation 403 b plan effective january 1 2022. thank you mr reese for the recommendation to prove that cronkite news school corporation 403 b plan effective january 1 2022 we have a motion to approve so moved second moved by mr angel in second by mr babjack do you have any questions or comments from mr reese you answered one of my questions before i asked it and that's with whom we consulted regarding this and so i appreciate that information thank you any other questions or comments mr reese not all those in favor signify by saying aye opposed motion carries 5-0 thank
030you mr reese and uh some information information items this evening we have a superintendent of discussion groups uh maybe mr smith or mr hoffman anything from uh stuff in the community to nothing too pertinent cedar lake has allocated 80 000 for facade grants next year um i don't even know if they're meeting this month for for christmas but um that's uh that's virtually it nothing that would pertain to our to our corporation directly crown point redevelopment commission has been primarily focused on facade grants these last few months but the mayor did announce at the last meeting that this week 109th avenue will be reopened so that's good news for everybody before they probably go the next phase and close something else down but at least it's scheduled for reopening this week um also the there
031there are discussions being had about making further improvements to bulldog park with the involvement of this between the school corporation the city and those details will be forthcoming hopefully in the near future but it's an exciting opportunity to to benefit the the users of that facility as as well as the public thanks rafa let's move to director of elementary education ms ramirez thank you mr president and board members i would just like to take this opportunity to wish really happy holidays to everybody involved in crown point community school corporation and just to share my thanks to everyone who participates on a daily basis in making our corporation the success that it is supporting our students and meeting their needs from our custodial staff to transportation to food services our paris interventionists teachers administrators it really
032does take a village and i just am so inspired every day by everybody's dedication and genuine desire to do what's right and do what's best for our kids so i just wish everybody a happy holiday thank you same to you director of secondary education mr gene fermi can i say what she said i just the same thing nothing to add tonight but but just wishing everybody happy holidays and and hopefully very happy new year's to all you and and our whole school community thank you mr jim fermi happy house of you also uh director of exceptional education mrs pasquez good evening mr warner members of the board i do have a little update we recently received our results driven accountability determination and that is almost like a grade that comes it's a federal requirement that
033the state gives the special education department each year and it examines a multitude of factors how our students with ieps do on state assessment how many are spending most of their day in gen ed and then also just some compliance pieces like our state reaping for submitting that on time so we met requirements we got the highest you could get rating on that last year we had gotten needs assistance and it's always from the results from the year previous so we moved up that's good thank you miss passage chief human resource officer mr akiva thank you mr warney um just a couple of items here uh from my area first also continuing with the thankfulness and bucket filling over there you know we'd like to show our appreciation for our custodial staff food service staff
034tech staff and especially the transportation our bus drivers we've had a challenge you know with a very thin staff over there and they just done an incredible job with all hands on deck attitude to make sure our students get to and from school safely every day looking forward to next year already i can tell you that we're already setting meetings right now to take a look at enrollment and roll up in the next year to start analyzing our staffing needs i know that seems crazy but it's time to start doing that so as we come back from our break we'll be taking a hard look at our student accounts as we roll them up into the next grade level to see where our pressure points are and what our staffing needs might be as we
035enter into uh the spring hiring season and finally also when we return we've been circling back on school safety here in the last two months uh in the crown point community school corporation when you're away from college you forget some of the protocols and practices and we're back in the building we need to get get those fresh back in our minds on our in-service learning day we had an entire support staff meeting at the crown point high school auditorium to review our safety protocols with cafeteria staff bus drivers secretaries and then we're going to further drill down on that here for our roles here at central office so when we return uh on our teacher workday we'll be having a working uh meeting and lunch here uh to again review our protocols for safety and
036response protocols for our school corporation so not always the best topics but certainly necessary for us to dig into and make sure that we're staying on top of this and keeping those protocols in the front of our minds is we come to work every day so thank you very much just out of curiosity we're we're local law enforcement involved in those programs or just our staff members they're they're involved in everything we do now they may not be present in all of our meetings but for example dave coulson director of safety and security back there he is a major liaison between the city and so a lot of the information that he gathers and we gather in our meetings with our local responders we bring in and share during our meetings with our staff so
037we we invite them in as much as possible to to be a part of our meetings with all of our faculty and staff thanks well tom mr q before we before we move to the bismar i want to say it's not it's not a congratulations but with uh reading about mrs akiva and the newspaper and uh her being able to hand over her um scoring record being broken uh this past week or broken a couple weeks ago but uh the only thing that i could think of when i read that article and i'm a handful of years younger than yourself but the role models that the kiwis have been in the community and that article just it's that's all that article oohs to me was the idea of you're all in education and that opportunity
038role models at the same time is pretty amazing and it's i think that the two of you is like that article is a perfect uh wrap-up of what you've done for all of us thank you i appreciate it dave and honestly i mean uh my wife's been an inspiration to a lot of folks in the community not just for sports but you know through her role as a teacher but you know for uh you know she inspires me i mean because she's just a great great individual so i appreciate the comments i don't want to get into when she graduated high school but i would point out that there was no three-point line that's right yeah that's right master the mid-range jumper [Laughter] i know she would never say that no mr reese anything from
039the business department this evening i'm gonna keep the trend going and uh i have nothing this evening thank you and uh director of communications ms allen hi good evening i want to say thank you to lindsay eastling at winfield elementary as we've started to prepare information for kindergarten pre-registration in february i was thinking it might be kind of fun to see kindergarten through a kindergartener's eyes and so mrs eastlin graciously welcomed our digital media specialist and i enter her classroom over the course of two days where her students have been wearing a gopro camera so that we can put it together in a video and see what kindergarten looks like um the footage has been really fun to watch the first day i left and sat down in the car and said kindergarten is exhausting
040and it was but it's been a lot of fun and i really appreciate her inviting us to her classroom welcome to the big people's table yeah and uh sound i i don't remember if i mentioned this last last board meeting but when we had the ground breaking out it uh for the new taft middle school did you guys catch the um the thank you that we received with the did you see the the barcode on the back or the scanner on the back thank you but i don't remember okay so yeah i was thinking it could get slipped past pretty easily but um so she went to thank you there's a picture thank you for joining the ceremony and what they did was you can you can go to the what is it qr code
041and um see several other pictures maybe not so cool for us i mean me but i'm assuming that some of the students that were involved received the same same thing that they could share with their their families so i know these little touches that um you know i feel like each meeting we've kind of uh complimented you for something i think it's well deserved but these little touches that you know keep being added to um what goes out is pretty neat so thank you um so you missed the you missed it i don't like that at restaurants i don't see them i was handed over to superintendent of schools dr terrell thank you this evening while we're meeting our plans for the high school are actually going to the planning committee tonight with the city
042so we're excited about that and we'll start seeing progress there if you've been around the high school recently you'll notice that skillman's trailer has been set up so it's about to get real real very quickly here so looking forward to the beginning of what is going to extend over the next several years as we expand the high school as well also looking at our middle school plans taft is is going uh well and on schedule the elementary plans for both macarthur and timothy ball are in the final stages and then we're beginning our work on wheeler with some meetings tomorrow looking at several possibilities there also with the addition of an auditorium at wheeler middle school as well which will be a really nice asset for our students and teachers there as was mentioned before
043just thankful for the mayor and his leadership as we continue our partnership and growing that with the city i look forward to some opportunities that we'll be sharing with you in the coming months once we get into the new year there and again following suit with as was mentioned already want to thank our teachers and staff also really feel need to point out our nurses again it seems like every time we talk about people who are going above and beyond they're the ones that come up and they continue to do that so we want to thank them as well and uh just wish everybody a merry christmas and a happy new year and hopefully everybody get a couple of weeks to just kind of get away from everything take a deep breath reconnect with family
044and come back january ready to go thank you talk about uh not wanting to mention when i graduated and so forth but it's it's suggests maybe i've been around too long when we're remodeling all these schools that we're brand new schools since i've been on this board and it kind of reminds me of having been a graduate of lowell high school i still refer to that as the new high school down low and it's it's over 50 years old thank you drill uh other business of the border school trustees uh we have the schedule reorganization meeting in january uh dr terrell would you like us to throw some dates out this evening to kind of get to to consider that now yeah if you wouldn't mind yeah i think the rule is it has to
045be within we usually do it somewhere around the sixth seventh or eighth uh let's see we have has to be before the 15th so and while we're all together one we could get a tentative date out there and then confirm it um see january 5th or 6th would be a wednesday or thursday to start the year do a morning meeting 7 30 meetings so we could ask works for me asked miss green to just get a con from out there for some time between now and then january 6 7 30 in the morning diane okay as we've discussed before um we could develop a rotation of our positions or have further conversation about whatever may take place there but it's always open for discussion uh how about other business anything else that we'd like to
046cover this evening i think we could have a share a couple thoughts yeah i just i just want to make a comment for todd and just thank you for i know we handled your contract tonight but i want to thank you for trusting us in this process too you know almost three years ago and you're on the low end of the scale for league schools and you know we ask that you come aboard and prove yourself to some degree and you've done that and i i feel you know it's been well earned and deserved and appreciate your efforts for everything you've done for the school corporation so well done thank you if anybody else is you know thinking at the moment i i do have a thought i just want to kind of take a
047step back the meetings went quick this time between november and december but i would like to keep pushing for a retreat um in [Music] february march mr hoffman i think we'd we'd like to kind of work around whether if you may be on heading out of town for a little bit um and then you know also just throw the thought out there brian you i'd uh i think you watched a meeting last month you weren't able to be here but you know just that my idea is still that it's an opportunity to have a conversation not so much asking for administrators to present these plans and spend time on you know preparing for us but just to sit down and have some conversation about things that are taking place so you know i'd be happy
048to filter those to dr terrell if anybody has you know ideas in the next couple weeks to send them to me and we've all discussed you know that i think we all agree that um short-term long-term budget discussion is it something that you know needs to be discussed just be responsible for all the spending that's taking place i think we're in good position we've been totally good position but we want to have that that extra um you know conversation about it it's mr reese i know that that'll be you know something that we ask for your help with i think that one of the other topics that is on the kind of for me is this the follow through on the special audit that took place and i think some not necessarily because the comments
049that came up tonight but definitely they push forward that we while doing that review you know let's get a little bit of a review of our our bulldog buddy program at the same time um some assuming ms pascus would be involved that even with that and just all the random yeah i think this is i'd like to see um you know we kind of approve the we've got the bonds everything for the school improvement project that's going to be going on it's going to be touching every school i'd kind of like a refresh of like what that schedule looks like in each one of just a 30 000 foot view of kind of a reminder of what schools are getting what um because everybody's every building is i think we'll probably probably want to have
050some just open discussion discussion about the sizes of the buildings and when this is all done where you know where things are going to shake out with the hopeful enrollment and yeah how that might be accomplished like in some cases we're adding levels to buildings right in some cases playgrounds all that stuff i just kind of like to see a quick snapshot of that again yeah so if uh if we can get those bullets more formal and push them through to dr terrell's to you know hey what's just a discussion with somebody verse actually asking for information to be presented with that's i think something we've learned from our past is uh not to ask the administrators to it's kind of not the right choice words but to waste energy presenting something when all we're
051looking for is a little bit of a conversation so um dr terrell can you take a you've explained it well to the board but can you give us one more explanation of the um if we hit a trigger on our current um plan we hit the two percent trigger with the seven with the 14 days and the seven day rolling average yeah uh can you refresh us on how that would take place if uh yes i i can and i'll actually ask artie and brooke to jump in here as they're dealing with this daily making sure that we keep track of it in essence what we're doing is in each building as we as positive cases are reported to the buildings we then do our contact tracing with that we're keeping track of the number
052of positive cases within the building and if that were to hit that two percent mark of the population of the building then that would trigger mass being worn for that period of time until we see and that the the clock does not start until it drops below that two percent mark so if it takes three days to drop below then it would start on that fourth day artie brook would you guys jump in there with any additional information that you can provide no i think the biggest transition in understanding the data i think is i've worked with employees and individuals that have called is helping them understand that it's not the day the information is reported to our office then i can transfer it over to brooke to get put up on the chart it
053has to do with the last day of exposure so there were times when we would get in the past like 10 or 12 sheets in one day you know and that would go up in the chart and the way we used to do it and you would think that all that happened on that day with those exposures kind of reach back to two days prior when that all started if you will so we're we're trying to attach it to the last day of exposure to understand that um actual impact on the building and when it when it happened and again just kind of sliding back to what dr terrell was saying about the nurses i mean it's just a it's really just the nurses in the front office um i was at macarthur today doing
054a reading in a classroom and um you know they really do work so hard to run the schools up there in front and then work with with this uh data tracking mechanism to get to us at central office and then up to brooke to get up on the web so it's it's just a it's been a really big big process but i think our office staffs have just been doing a tremendous job turning it around as fast as they can i think i want i just honestly wanted to bring it up this evening because we have received some emails to the board um there's some people that are obviously not present this evening and if anybody is watching to some clarity about the you know when the when the trigger takes place um and i
055think with the break coming up um you know it's it's the break's gonna solve you know theoretically solve the 14-day problem for us in the near future but when we get back in january um as you said dr terrell you you know we we hit the 2 trigger and we're not going to start our 14-day count until we fall below that if we go for five more days and it happens to spike above it again well it's going to keep rolling rolling rolling until that amount of time that would be accomplished to be mass optional once again i could add one thing so we've had two buildings who have had to go back to mass being required i want to thank our parents and our students it's been a smooth process as we've gone through
056that the messaging has gone out and students have responded rather quickly and appropriately with that reports coming in from the rest of our buildings we have students we have staff members who are still choosing to wear a mask and that's going well i know there's some concern about if students are getting bullied over mask or what that would look like kids are kids and there are times that i'm sure things have been said but we're not seeing that as a as a large issue right now i think one of the things that covett has taught us with our kids is they're usually the quickest to adjust to different things and uh they continue to be so even in this area so having been at choir concerts orchestra concerts band concerts athletic events drama productions in
057the last few weeks some of our kids choose to wear mask even while they're performing and doing different things there and that's okay and accepted as it is so again proud of the way that our our students our teachers staff members are responding to yet another challenge as we continue to move through this before we go to board statements appreciation any other other business there just opportunity to have a conversation you know just to follow up on that i think the um plan with with the masking is the first time we've seen it where it's an objective standard there there's a standard in place that uh there's no argument there's no worrying about do we have cases do we not have cases it's very simple if there's cases and it's rising we mask up you
058know throughout the history of our schools since we've been doing this with masking there have been times when some schools have one positive case and every every child in the school is massed up i'm not sure uh if that makes the most sense under those under those guidelines and i feel you know for me the more and more i think about this it seems to make sense as positive cases go up you you take measures what we call control measures and we've seen that the governors use that order to adjust accordingly and there are other times when we have quarantined many many kids that is extremely disruptive and had many emails and complaints from parents by quarantining healthy children and that's not that's not good for education or the students so the more i've considered
059this and watch this unfold with the two schools i'm more comfortable with it not less and i believe it is the proper the proper plan and i felt the need to respond i know we have many people who come and comment here uh both ways over the last few months and i just want everyone to know we do listen to you we do see your emails we you know we can't always respond directly at you but if anybody's ever felt offended or as if we're not paying attention or not listening i know we received one email in particular where where that was raised that you know we were being rude and not listening and i want to comment on that and say that you know i'm sorry if if that was me or any other
060board member i don't think that's the intentions of the board we do want to listen and i want to thank those who spoke tonight because i thought it was very civil very professional and i'm proud of crown point because i feel like overall crown point throughout the last two years has has handled themselves very well and and that makes me proud to live in this community uh and to live amongst you guys and serve you guys so i just felt the need to say to make that statement um you know circumstances could change and the board could review the plan again and you know that could happen and so i think the one thing with this board in particular and is that we've we've always been willing to reconsider and willing to change um you
061know it's it's not this is not an easy process and so um i just felt a need to add that to make those make those comments thanks well we're on the point of prior comments uh i don't know if it was last meeting but we were asked why we require people to state their address and i tried to explain because our policy requires the person who wishes to speak to be a member of this community we get emails from the indiana school boards association on a daily basis with magazine articles or newspaper articles from school corporations throughout the state and in reading through those today there were at least three school corporations who had reported that there were outside groups having no affiliation with their school corporation showing up at their school board meetings wanting
062to talk on various topics and so that's that's part of the justification for limiting it to our people we want to know what concerns you not what somebody's agenda might be coming in from the outside so we appreciate your your willingness to abide by that restriction okay thank you let's move forward to board statements of appreciation and recognition let's start with mr smith thank you david just want to wish everyone a merry christmas wish all our administrators our teachers our students parents just merry christmas to everybody i hope everybody has a blessed christmas good time away refresh and just again am pleased to be a part of seeing what's occurring in crown point and i know sometimes we get distracted and have had many distractions over the last 18 months but it's phenomenal what's been
063accomplished and where the direction of the corporation's going uh the the hard work that's been done i think our teachers are as good as any uh for a long way for miles and miles and miles so uh we are blessed to have the the the school corporation we have and the people and the individuals we have to work in the corporation and i think they deserve to be honored especially before the christmas holiday so that's it thank you merry christmas and happy new year that's all i got hope everybody gets uh enjoys their time with their families healthy uh healthy and happy thank you while this time of year is traditionally observed as a christian holiday i want to reach out to people of other faiths and encourage them to feel free to to celebrate
064their own religious events or holidays uh having just recently concluded hanukkah my significant other is is of the jewish faith and so you have to come to appreciate other other people's religious beliefs and their celebrations of wealth we want to welcome those things within our school corporation as far as the commendation award uh what had the opportunity on on wednesday of last week to hear the crown point high school choir under the direction of mr woods come to our local rotary club meeting which they do every year at christmas time and put on just a wonderful program um each year it seems to get better and i don't know how it can because it's it's so good to start with so i wanted to give them a shout out um recently we received i don't
065know if it's official yet but uh coach migrate our girls soccer coach for the last 14 years somewhere around there i might have the years wrong but i know diana look it up before she sends it out we want to congratulate him on his retirement um from girls he's done wonderful things with those ladies my daughter being one of those a few years back so congratulations coach migrant i know he's got kids entering those ages where um you hustle and move and shake every day of the week and so i think he's part of that had to do with that decision so just uh congratulations coach michael for the university put in teaching our girls in the crown port community and if anything i know uh there's sentiments exactly but if we haven't learned anything
066in the last two years of this covet it's not to take anything for granted so i would just pass that along and never know when something might occur such as tornadoes in kentucky and things like that so just make sure you uh acknowledge those that are close to you and you say what you need to say to those individuals on a daily basis so you don't feel regrets later on so that's all i have thank you uh for myself just uh keeping up with the news and our our wrestling program continues to do awesome things uh um the cathedral uh getting over the hurdle of cathedral recently i know it was a big deal and uh i love hearing the kids with their comments of them knowing that that was a hurdle and knowing what
067they needed to accomplish and the the pride of uh getting it done the way they did it's uh a great program and wish them the best rest the the rest of the year as well as all of our sports programs doing you know good things this this winter as well um and uh for myself also merry christmas to everybody have a happy new year i want to i will admit that at the beginning of the school year i was one of the board members not so happy with the calendar i thought that maybe we should push somewhere a little further and take all the all the opportunity we could of the summer but um the feedback i think recently might have ran into mr g fermi somewhere the other the other day to just to
068wrap up the semester before the break is pretty pretty neat i think everybody's very appreciative of that and i think uh as we see here now it's a really happy to be on that calendar um and uh just for myself i i i say it often and it's it's not just to say it but um just proud to be a part of the team and happy to be a part of the the the educational team here in crown point it really means a lot to me and uh with that so merry christmas to everybody anything else this evening motion to adjourn we'll move on move by mr angel second by mr hoffman i was the favorite thing if i was saying aye aye opposed both carries by zero you