001rise we'll ask mr hoffman to lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the fight of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god and indivisible with liberty and justice for all may be seated thank you mr hoffman item two this evening we have patron comments this is for our patrons and registered to comment on educational issues uh we do have at this point we have six registers named registered names so let me read through the the guidelines um someone understands what we're what's going to take place so i'll read word for word here that the board will hear patrons legal residents in center township or winfield township wishing to come comment on educational issues at the regular business meeting of the border school trustees held
002in public patrons must sign the sheep provided in the back of the room we have that taken care of when their names are called to address the board please move to the podium in front of the room state your name that's spell for the record keeping purposes i think we do have that here address and the topic that will be addressed if patrons have prepared written statements on the topic they may be presented at this time a time limit of three minutes is allowed for each speaker so when when you begin speaking we'll ask mr angel if he'll be our um time keeper tonight he'll probably just give you a hand raised when there's about you know 30 seconds left and or maybe even just shout out to let you know when we have to
003wrap it up at three minutes uh this portion of the meeting during the which participation for public is invited shall be limited to 20 minutes unless extended by a vote by the board speakers are to refrain from speaking on personal issues and student issues okay thank you so we could let's begin with i'm sorry sometimes is that christine rogel good evening christine um so christine rogas from crown point uh your your oh my actual address yes augusta drive crown point indiana thank you okay so i just watched all of you take a pledge to that flag behind you and you guys are sitting here trying to dictate laws and mandates over our children that are unconstitutional i am here to ask the board to reverse the decision on the mass mandate in schools two weeks
004ago we won at the town level when we spoke up against a mass mandate to the city council i have given in my past speeches examples of the size of the virus and what masks filter and what they don't a gentleman used his vape pen to demonstrate that even with an n95 the mask went right through them through it the masks that are being used are a medical device and therefore have stipulations to use them i'm sending the superintendent a foia or an indiana access to public records act request osha has requirements when implementing masks and i want to know and receive the documents that show if you notified parents of the health risks or serious injury or death involving pro-land prolonged mask wearing i believe you haven't because i haven't received any but i'll
005wait for that information have the staff and teachers been trained to recognize and treat symptoms of hypoxia which is abnormally low concentration of oxygen in the blood the symptoms for hypoxia are a result of wearing prolonged face coverings did the school district consult an industrial hygienist or other osha approved expert to evaluate the oxygen levels of the building did the school district fill out the questionnaire required by osha showing that the children are medically able to wear masks for prolonged periods of time did you receive funding and if so was it spent as you're not doing any kind of distance learning this year so where is the money going if you are receiving it i want documents stating that federal state and or private funding or grants that have been or will be received in
006response to mandating covet related protocols universal masking covet immunizations for staff and our students documents granting the crown point school district the trustees and the teachers immunity if enforcing executive orders we are gathering and joining forces as parents to fight against this in our state and in this country all of you are in elected positions and we the people and the parents of the children want to let you know that we are putting you on notice if you continue these tyrannical mandates you are not the only elected officials that we are putting on notice holcomb is on our list and we are coming for him so again i ask that the mass mandate be squashed and optional masks implemented as this is about freedom of choice and not being ruled by tyrannical law it is
007the united states of america where choice matters [Applause] uh amanda morris my name is amanda morris i do not feel comfortable giving my address so if it's required i happen to live right down the street from the superintendent so for privacy reasons for everybody i prefer not to give it sorry we i'm sorry we're going to need your address do you are all your guys's address public as well okay so then it's fine that that you guys are aware that we we're literally right down the same block it's a process that we have to follow i mean you could take a minute and reconsider if you'd like to i'm going to be on a spot right here under duress i'll go ahead and give it because obviously it violates my privacy this goes public onto
008the internet so i'll still give it so if any repercussions happen i tried to withhold my address east 119th avenue and crown point thank you i have repeatedly tried contacting you all through emails and phone calls regarding the incidents that happened to our children in the school system i have gotten zero responses from this board and from the superintendent i don't know why you guys are not responding to me but i'm finding out you guys are answering other people's emails and phone calls my child was violated at the school and i still have not even heard anything from the school board or the superintendent regarding this the person that keeps contacting us is art and art refuses to give us the policies regarding all this in fact the day before my daughter was violated he
009said he would email us all the information that stated why they felt that they could violate my child's disabilities rights medical orders medical exemptions and he still didn't even do that and she was violated the next day so i have sent you an email these are the things that we are requesting at this point and through the freedom of information act this is another right you guys are violating by not giving us this information i am requesting the following the school board district approved policy on the student mandated facial coverings as well as the date the policy was approved the school district's board approved policy on the approval of facial covering exemptions as well as the date the policy was approved the school district's board approved policy on appeals process when exemption is denied which
010you guys denied my child's medical exemption you violated her disabilities that was assault and battery on my child and i do not take that lightly we need any and all communication that have taken place via email letters phone communication between the superintendent school board members school faculty school staff i need the school council the school school's legal counsel and any communication with the state or local health departments as well i need the liability insurance employed by the school district as it relates to any harm or injury sustained by students resulting from the use of the facial coverings because my daughter did have an injury from it which you guys have failed to acknowledge therefore i had to file a police report and take it to the prosecutor's office justice will be served for what happened
011to my daughter it is not acceptable to be violated by the principal of her school we need all educational materials provided to the school district staff and students on proper donning doffing storing of facial coverings to prevent cross-contamination viral spread which this principle happened to put him on her own face and then put him on my child's face if this is about infection control why did she do that we need all published peer-reviewed studies on long-term safety and prolonged masking in children as it relates to educational setting the oasis of office and please respond to the emails so that we can get this information and not have to file another problem with with not responding and violating our rights thank you hello i believe in in vienna however my daughter going to crown point school
012so i have a right to say so as a mom and my address is 1411 brookside drive number one monster indiana and um can you hear me well yes dear school board and superintendent dr todd my name is yunjin choi on behalf of my daughter who goes to elementary school crown point i'm here again to address important issue unequal treatment unequal access to rds inappropriate education retaliation and bullying indiana code 20 3372 each parent should obtain school information on their own without depending on other parents and that is entitled to both parents to direct access to their children's school record it is also indiana parenting guideline i have i have addressed this issue since march 2020 however is not resolved yet here is the issue i am expected to continue to ask the principal school
013board superintendent to get access my daughter's information because i have been refused to get equal assets i do not have equal assets please stop stating that there is system issue if it is please fix what is timeline to fix this issue if my daughter does not have a cultural difference could my daughter already be considered to have a proper opportunity of her education at crown point school is a crown point school producing children that are unacceptable when they are color and culturally different advanced or gifted furthermore the tolerance to bullying can be acceptable because of the cultural difference is the situation will be will be different if i am different gender the essential point is in order that i am treated as mom equally and my voice could be reflected to advocate for my daughter
014why does it take a caucasian representative to intervene before something can can be done the united states was founded under god the constitution state we hold this truth to be self-evident that all our men are credit equal that they are endowed by their creator the certain on on i'm sorry alienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness we are fearfully wonderfully made by our creator no one take rock no one rob this rights crown point school school state social emotional learning class offers since kindergarten with the deficit of action and role modeling to kids at school it is in vain 30 seconds are you guys caring for the soul and heart also intentional ignorance in neglect is not acceptable it damage the innocent soul that soul cries out for the
015for help to be healed as a mom i will stewardship to raise my daughter a godly way and advocate my daughter children i gift from god i continue to fight for my daughters thank you you uh perry and agnes hi my name is parent agnes 11719 clark court i'm sorry i didn't see it on the sheet here connect can you seven seven one nine court got it i'll try not to repeat tons of things because people have already said a lot of what i want to say but my name is paranagus my son goes to lake street and i just want to say that our family like many others is against the mandatory mass not only are we against it but we think it was a very wrong for you guys to tell us the
016mass will be we'll be um mess will be optional let the kids start living a normal life then one night just decide that they will be mandatory the next day and not even give us an option of e-learning or talk to the parents to ask their opinion in his school they had zero cases so it makes no sense that elementary students like him should have to wear masks because of teenagers in middle school or high school who might or might not have cases who already have had a chance to live a normal childhood they and i'm against them being mandatory either i think it should be optional for a parent to be able to tell their kids what they feel is safe for them not you guys and i feel it should be optional for
017all and just like today i mean i feel like it's kind of ridiculous so we're sitting here in a place where it's optional everybody doesn't have to wear a mask but you're saying the kids do the kids get to go to the ymca they get to go to baseball they do everything they play together without mass they go to culver's for their school there's 100 kids in culver's nobody has mass and then the next day they have to go sit by the same kids and put masks on it just makes no sense at all and i just wanted to make my position clear how i feel on it and i feel that i'm not alone there's a lot of people that feel that way i appreciate your guys time thank you cynthia novotny um good
018evening board and dr terrell my name is cynthia novotny and i reside at 1711 evergreen my daughter is a sixth grader at taft this year and the reason i signed up to speak today is because i wanted to talk about processes in place from our individual schools one thing i wanted to discuss was hopefully to gain your support so that way you guys could if you are in agreement talk to the individual schools to what i believe is in the best interest of our students which is why i believe we're all here my daughter unfortunately was one of the students that was affected early on to quarantine i was contacted the tuesday after school started by the school nurse and informed that she was identified as a close contact on the third day of school
019that friday within 15 minutes i left my place of employment and picked my daughter up and we went home to the breakfast table and i proceeded to make her lunch asked her to pop open her laptop so that way i could see what she has for assignments for the day um no surprise a lot of her assignments were locked because this was unexpected so [Music] unfortunately that same pattern proceeded for the rest of the week and into the following week i did reach out and i spoke to mr akiwa who's super helpful who put me in contact with the assistant superinter i'm sorry the assistant principal um over at taft and i apologize i don't recall the gentleman's name offhand but he was very helpful um he did end up on my third phone call
020end up reaching out to the teachers and informing me that they were setting precedence that at 9 40 every morning that homework would be unlocked that was one issue that i felt was very helpful that i got direct support for the issue that has not been addressed which i would really appreciate some support for is for zooms when my daughter was put into quarantine we were waiting for teacher response on which educators would allow zooms in their classes originally i was told three of my daughter's teachers would be participating in zooms one teacher sent out an email blast and told me that they were reversing their decision because they felt as if their peers their other teachers felt as if it was too much screen time i think that should be mandatory and left up
021to each parent as far as screen time allowance might my daughter actually needs the interaction i don't feel as if it's detrimental to allow her to hear what her peers are hearing i really feel very strongly about that um she needs that support kids aren't going to reach out to their teachers more likely on an individual basis thank you uh kaylee chicky my name is kaylie chickie and i live at 13454 cardinaline cedar lake first off i just wanted to start by saying that i understand where the board is coming from i understand that you want to keep kids in school and you think that mass are the only way to do this because of the order that holcomb just released however he has also said that students who are vaccinated do not need to
022quarantine and everyone who is above the age of 12 has been allowed a vaccine or a chance to get one the chances of someone getting vaccinated at this point who already haven't been are highly improbable children under the age of 12 are rarely getting coveted and if they are they are barely showing any signs of having the virus at all my point being that if every if anyone is that worried about it they or their child can get a vaccine and be excluded from being quarantined at all and as for children under the age of 12 getting covet is the exact same or even less harmful than getting the flu therefore it would be pointless for the board to keep a mass mandate at schools under these circumstances i speak to not only the board
023but everyone in this room when i say that the people facing you are not your enemy we're all on the same side here governor holcomb is the one that is mandating quarantines in unmath schools we are all in a tough spot and i cannot express how important it is to everyone in this room that we all remember who the real enemy is thank you for your consideration thank you that's the end of our list for public comment um before we move on to the public hearing dr terrell did you want to take a minute for any do we have any comments uh or any board members not not in reaction to anything we've heard this evening but is there anything we want to discuss or updates and uh from you know take the opportunity now
024to kind of wrap up any of the any coveted information that may be coming our way or so the governor's uh executive orders is set to expire i believe it is the 30th of september so we're waiting to see what directions he will give us moving forward with that i think the thing just to keep in mind is that this is also covered through the health department side of it as well for the state so the health commissioner dr box is also setting precedent and the requirements for schools so while it is the government the governor through dr box it's not all just from his executive order but also from the health commissioner's order is where we continue to live so that we can keep the number of students in school and when you look
025at the numbers of students who have actually been quarantined since we started going through the steps that are in place right now that has been reduced by more than 90 percent so again when we look at the end result of getting keeping kids in school at this time that's that's what we're focused on i think i've also mentioned that i'm going to refresh some of the things that we've spoke about in the past but miss allen thank you for continuing to update the website there's a there's a frequently asked questions section um a lot of questions that may come up to us as board members on the street are answered there uh some of them are just the why or why are the why nots and their smashing them and one of the things that
026that took place that dr terrell highlighted was that i'm just going to say i i think it's safe to say that as a board we got past the our mass effective or not effective it didn't matter to us anymore it became an issue of what the the game that the cards that we were dealt from the um higher levels and for the ability to keep kids in school we're pushing a thousand kids in approximately 10 days and now as dr terrell we've reduced that by 90 um and we didn't really feel there was much of a more further thought process to take play there was it was a no-brainer or something we had to do um yeah i mean if i could just comment on that dave i think it's one of the things that's
027been most frustrating for me has been the fact that it's made um it's made to look like we actually have control and that we have that we can make these decisions but we're not writing the rule book we don't get to decide what the contact tracing distances are or who gets quarantined or who gets a phone call so it's very easy for the governor to say it's on the school boards but they're writing the rule book and that's you know i just want i want people to know i know the board knows my thoughts that that's exactly where i stand with this uh everybody knew that our intention what our intentions were before school started uh what our plans were for opening and i wish we were wish we could still do exactly that so
028but i i agree with you um there's two choices it's masks and kids stay in school or no masks are mass optional and they don't and we're back to quarantining 500 kids or contact tracing 500 kids a week and and that's more disruptive i feel than my kid wearing a mask or both my kids wearing a mask sounds good okay all right let's move forward we're gonna have a motion to suspend the regular meeting an open public hearing on the capital project plan and bus replacement second moved by mr angel in second by mr smith all those in favor signify by saying hi opposed motion carries five zero now we'll open public hearing we'll go to three point two is the 2022 capital projects plan the 22 bus replacement plan mr reese thank you mr
029morty members of the board tonight starts the pros official process for holding public hearings tonight is for your capital projects plan for 2022 budget and also the bus replacement plan for the 2022 budget both these hearings were advertised both on our website under the business section and also on the department of local government finance gateway platform those ads were placed on september 17 10 days prior to hearing as required just as a future note we plan to have the adoption that you're regularly scheduled october meeting on the 25th on that monday for the capital projects plan just a few details you notice there's not very much on it this year the capital projects plan is only required for those funds you plan to spend out of the operations fund as you can imagine you have
030quite a few capital projects planned but none of those expenses will be pla paid for out of the capital projects plan they'll be coming from the soon to be bond proceeds when you issue your your debt the equipment uh setup is a couple of mowers the projects we have planned are for some document scanning in the next three years we can also adjust these plans as we get into next year for 23 and 24. you're not told to what we advertised tonight for those two years excuse me those two years out for the bus replacement plan you're planning to replace six buses in 2022 we've also advertised for the purchase of four additional buses if required due to growth in the corporation um that'll be yet to be determined as we get into next year
031and see what those enrollments look like next fall with this again this is just a plan it's not the actual action those will be determined next year when we decide what buses we need to replace and when this is simply the plan that we have to advertise for the 22 budgets completing my presentation thank you mr reese as mystery syndicate it's just an information session and we also have the opportunity for patron comments on this public hearing but we do not have anybody registered to speak on the public hearing so then we'll look for a motion to close the public hearing and resume the regular business meeting moved by mr babjack and second by mr hoffman all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and the consent agenda tonight dr
032terrell thank you clear consideration this evening we have four thank you dr terrell i heard recommendation uh to approve the consent agenda as presented do a motion to approve move by mr hoffman and second by mr angel any questions or comments for dr terrell on the consent agenda if not i was in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 thank you dr terrell and we've got the action items 5.1 approval to apply for and receive the i believe it's at p-a-t-i-n-s aiming for achievement grant for accessible educational materials ms pascus good evening um that's patins it's our state one of our resource networks that's funded through indiana department of ed we are applying for the grant in order to receive technical assistance with bringing the district into full compliance with the requirement
033to determine a process to provide qualified students with accessible educational materials this grant includes one year of access to software for word prediction and text to speech and we have weekly meetings with a state consultant to help us with this process i think mrs pasquez for the recommendation approved to apply for and receive the patents aiming for achievement grant for accessible educational materials we have a motion to approve [Music] moved by mr hoffman and second by mr babjack can he for the questions for mrs baskets and the grant what kind of dollars are we talking about we don't actually exchange money but the software is definitely worth thousands um we had actually already paid we were planning to pay for a year of it and in receiving this grant now that's pushed off for another
034year um until we have to pay for it so that helps any questions all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed the motion carries 5-0 and then we have 5.2 indian department of education leadership and innovation grant mr harvin thank you mr warney uh mr hoffman i'm going to try to look up the cost and when i have my comments i'll let you know okay we have a teacher at uh crown point high school who applied for a teacher leaders uh grant uh and uh this is through the uh indiana department of education leadership and innovation and uh she was uh um awarded the grant the grant totals four thousand dollars she's participating in uh professional development and learning and growing as a teacher leader in the school corporation seeking your approval
035of this grant this evening thank you mr harbin your recommendation to prove the approval to be granted to apply for and receive funding from indian department of education leadership and innovation grant on behalf of crown point high school teacher kelly zit chevalier the proper participation in leaders boot camp for four thousand dollars do we have a motion to approve one move moved by mr angel on sec by mr hoffman have any questions or comments from mr harmon on this grant not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed most carries five zero and 5.3 the 2021 2022 revision to the crown point high school and ms middle school textbook rental and supply fees mr hartman yes thank you we had some changes that were brought to our attention regarding the fees for consumables
036and these mostly are books consumable books that the students receive we had those at the high school in some of our courses in language arts uh as well as uh family and consumer science and then also at the middle school uh with our band choir and orchestra areas so this evening we're we've i've identified the changes for them some of them went up and these weren't large increases or large decreases but they were changes and we do want to reference those and they would be updated on the textbooks supply and rental fees for uh for our students we're seeking your approval tonight to make these modifications and revisions thank you mrs hartman her recommendation to prove that 2021 2022 cphs and middle school textbook rental supply fee revision do we have a motion to approve
037no move second now moved by mr hoffman and second by mr angel uh do we have any questions or comments on the textbook rental supply fee for mr hartman all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries five zero and uh uh 5.4 the ess addendum the new sub rates said dr terrell thank you i'm going to step in for mr akiwa who is unable to be here this evening so we're bringing to you the ess addendum we utilize ess for our substitutes to assign our substitutes throughout the school year and rate adjustments are necessary to remain competitive in our local submarket so we are bringing to you tonight an addendum that increases our sub rates to a minimum of a hundred dollars per day and goes up from there based off
038of degrees and different requirements as you go up through there so what we're asking for tonight is for your approval of the ess addendum as attached thank you dr terrell your recommendation to approve the ess addendum as presented we have a motion to approve i'm moved by mr smith and second by mr babjack any questions or comments for dr terrell training that is a great question and i read through that when mr akiwa informed me he was unable to be here this evening and i don't have an answer to that is it any cabinet members do you guys have any idea what the garden mr hardman yeah we will get back to you and let you know dr terrell i noticed that um this is the second or third in simultaneous years pay increases for
039the the substitutes i believe um and so is this um is this driven by demand i mean are we on a shortage for substitutes and is there still need for hire for more it's absolutely on uh response to the need for additional subs a couple weeks ago there was actually an article in the northwest indiana times where they talked about districts around the region and the shortage of subs and pay and this is in line with what we're seeing across the region with many of our fellow school districts and again just like everybody else who's having a hard time filling positions we are as well and so this is in response to that and we feel like they're appropriate and aligned with what we really need to do in order to get quality individuals in
040our classrooms dr terra apologize for not knowing this answer because i think it came up once before but did we continue to do the permanent sub in 2020 as we did last year yeah so we currently have uh permanent subs in all of our elementary buildings is one at the middle schools mr g and fermi is at two and then at the high school four so yes we continue to have those um and again in response to really looking at what if we had to quarantine people in response to covid and the struggles that are happening there to be able to make sure that we have subs in those buildings who can step in what are the requirements to be a sub in our school corporation there may be parents or people out there saying
041i'm considering it what what you know what the requirements are so the minimum is they have to obtain a sub license through the department of education here in our state and then and that's where it kind of comes in as that basis that basic level of that hundred dollars and then from there goes up to where if you have a four-year degree you get paid more per day and then if you actually have a teaching license it goes up another step if you're a retired teacher from crown point schools that takes another additional step up as well okay all those in favor saying bye-bye saying hi hi hi opposed bush carries 5-0 then we have the crown point city school corporation and cpea 2021 23 teacher contract dr terrell so we're really excited to bring
042this to you this evening i know mr akiva really wanted to be here to share this with you with the amount of time he's spent here in our district one because it's historical in the raises that we're able to bring to the table for our certified teaching staff but also uh the way the manner in which we're able to do that this year i want to thank denise jansen who's in the audience here representing the crown point educators association we believe that we were the first district in the state of indiana to have a ratified agreement through the work that we were able to do through pre-bargaining with our union reps ryan collier was also essential and in making this happen we were able to have a tentative agreement reached and then brought to the
043teachers on the very first day that bargaining could take place per state codes so we are pleased and thrilled to bring this to you this evening and that is our contract which will be for this school year and then also for the next school year as well so it is posted on our website has been we've had the appropriate hearings and at this point in time i would ask you to approve the agreement between these board of school trustees of the crown point community school corporation and the crown point education association for july 1 2021 through june 30th 2023 thank you dr trial to reread that recommendation back to approve the agreement between the board of school trustees of the cronkite school community corp school corporation and the crown point education association from july 1
0442021 through june 30 2023 you have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved second moved by mr hoffman and second by mr babjack questions or comments for dr terrell preferable on behalf of the board uh we would also like to thank the education association um i probably told the story more than once up here but i remember the days when we had collective bargaining and and had pickets outside my office building so it's a it's a pleasure to to be able to work these things out civilly and we appreciate some of the sacrifices that the association had made during some of the lean years and we're happy now that we're not in such lean years to to share that deservedly so with our with our educators our non-certified staff all of our maintenance people
045building the grounds and so forth the other thing that's important to acknowledge at this point is the the the benefit that our additional monies through the referendum i have the the role that that has played in being able to hire more teachers and bring about better pay raises so uh we thank the public in that respect mr hoffman add to that with the referendum mentioned there um specifically some of the the nurses that um have done so much work over the last couple years i believe in in all these packages we're aware of what we've seen that hopefully they'll be showing some extra appreciation as well for the time and overtime that they've spent and then i know and deep through some of the documents that we've seen as well as the um some of
046the eca's all these all extracurriculars you know we're not just talking about football and basketball we're talking about you know track and swimming and um i'm sure that would include also the band our band and we know that our programs here are notch and um it's exciting to see that that's where somebody's that like as you mentioned extra monies and and that are giving back to the people and i like how mr hoffman mentioned they work hard through the lean years but then to be able to reward them when enabled so any other comments or for dr toe i i just would like to add that uh to echo your guys's comments i agree and um you know i think on behalf of the board we we really are grateful for our people and that
047means our teachers our staff uh we we understand how blessed we are to have the people we have and so there's an old saying you know you've got to do what's right and treat your people right and and i hope that the individuals that are touched by this which is i think almost many many people feeling took care of others are appreciative and we want you to know that we appreciate your efforts and are grateful and we know it's been a tough two years so this is uh extremely timely and just grateful for all the hard work that went into this and and glad that we were able to get this done so early all right let's go let's take a vote here all in favor say fight by saying aye aye opposed motion carries
048five zero then we'll go back to 5.6 the award of the bus bids mr reese thank you mr warnie members of the board uh tonight we're bringing you recommendation to approve bids for buses these are two buses that are in line with the bus replacement plan back in 2021 so similar stuff we did tonight you did last year and i was actually buying of those two buses as part of the bus replacement plan last year and the bid uh low bid was by curling bus sales for a net cost of 389 and that is our recommendation this evening thank you mr reece for the recommendation approved award the bus bid to the lowest overall bidder that was currently bus sales for a net cost of 389 422 do we have a motion to approve moved
049by mr angel and second by mr hoffman any questions for mr reese all those in favor signify by saying aye hi opposed i'm sorry question do last year we were getting an electric bus do we have that in service it is not in service yet we're still working through that process with them as you can imagine they're not sitting on lots where you can go and pick one up yeah i believe we had an immense vote but let's hit that one more time all those in favor saying father saying aye aye opposed much carries five zero okay information items we've got superintendent discussion groups um kick it off down to mr smith anything from cedar lake or we can move yes thank you dave the um this month i mean nothing that's in you know
050on point for the schools here per se but they're a lot of facade grants the dnr is intending on having a fish kill in the lake out there at cedar lake and they're going to restock um there's light pole signage i know we talked about recently with some of the city officials doing some of that to honor our students here in crown point that we're still in discussions on then there's water lines going in along u.s 41 so i don't think any of that uh touches upon the schools but that's what was on the agenda this month thank you mr smith uh mr hoffman anything from crown point or mr hoffman angel anything new out here in winfield winfield has not had any meetings recently crown point hasn't really had any new facade grants but
051we've closed up a few one thing that was on the agenda this evening actually the last couple meetings is that apparently some of the neighbors had complained about the noise from bulldog park so they have sent out requests for the proposal and are looking at putting up some sound deadening materials to minimize the noise primarily from the air conditioners on the top of the building so they're going to have to put some sound ending materials up there we had a probably a record short meeting this evening before this meeting so i was able to get here timely so okay let's go to a chief academic officer so he'll defer the director of elementary education mr ramirez thank you president warney and school board members i'd just like to take this opportunity to share that at
052the elementary level we are looking forward to having our parent teacher conferences resumed in october those will be occurring on october 14th and will occur on various days either in person through zoom or through phone so since we have not had parent conferences since 2019 i know our teachers and families are excited to connect and to collaborate together i think this will be a great opportunity for our teachers and for our parents to share about the achievement and growth of our students and about the contributions all of our students are making in the classrooms and in our schools at large our teachers at the elementary level have had a very heavy load to say the least in starting off the new year we have three new curricula at the elementary level and we have a
053new formative assessment so to say that our teachers have done anything but dig in support one another learn through professional development both external and internal and really shown their flexibility and grace i just can't commend them enough i think much to mr smith's point is we are very appreciative of the hard work and the dedication that our teachers and staff our principals show every day and so we look forward to parent-teacher conferences and being able to share much of what our students have been doing over the course of the first nine weeks thank you mr ramirez thank you we'll go to director of secondary education mr g fermi thank you mr president board members i too would like to start off by thanking all of our middle school and high school teachers and administrators for
054all the hard work it was a tough start to the school year but they've been really hanging in there and just as mr ramirez said their dedication and and the hard work is just it's unprecedented what i've seen the start of a school year it's always hard but really appreciate their efforts i did want to mention in our consent agenda you approved the secure and safe school grant i did want to mention kind of what that was it's in excess of 99 000 it is a competitive grant and we've been able to be fully funded the indiana department of homeland security is not fully funding schools as easily anymore now a you want to have the match but our commitment to our school resource officers always covers that and b you really have to meet
055the criteria which was communication and access control so this year we we're spending a lot of that money on radios and what you would call repeaters for every school building because your communication is only as good as getting that signal to those radios so every one of our school buildings will be equipped with a repeater so we don't have blank spots um that is an issue and how do we find that out we meet with our first responders our police and fire departments in our buildings monthly we rotate that and they're the ones that discovered some of that for us and it was just something that we needed to address immediately so this grant's going to help us do that we're also going to use some of that money for cameras monitors for our front
056offices so they can monitor the perimeters during the school day they're busy working with everything but they'll have a nice monitor there so they can see the outside of the buildings and then some protective film for our entrances so that all the glass is well fortified so i did just want to thank mr colson and mr gill and mrs duvall and all their work on that because that happens in the summer you have to put all that together and you have to get quotes for every single one of those pieces of items and they're really sticklers on that uh the department of homeland security and they did a great job and we were fully funded on that so i want to thank them for that and on a lighter note um it's homecoming week as
057we speak right now powder puff is kicking it off over there at the stadium hopefully everybody's safe and they're just having a good time and we are full-blown homecoming events throughout the course of the the week leading up to the parade and game on friday night which is always a great community event and that's for everybody and of course we're gonna have a dance once again i think that's that's good i know the kids are excited about that thank you mr g for me may i interject here uh mr g infirmi is talking about repeaters and radios and so forth and prior to tonight's meeting i happened to indirectly participate in conversation with mr colston talking about many of the valuable lessons learned as a result of the recent incident at lake central schools and
058he indicated that one of the problems that they experienced was that because of the the construction materials in school buildings a lot of times radios and those sorts of things don't work so we had all these safety personnel in this high school building in an anticipated active shooter situation who are not able to speak to one another so these purchases are very important for the continued safety of our students and i want to thank mr colston for being actively involved in these groups to to share notes and learn from others experiences and keep our students safe mr hoffman i would also say it's interesting to note that this grant had been written months before what took place at lake central so it was through the conversations and planning with mr g and fermi and mr
059coulson with our first responders to identify those issues even before the incident took place so appreciate them having the foresight to plan ahead for that thank you got it um director of the director of exceptional education espacius thank you president warney board members i wanted to recognize the three secretaries in the exceptional education office tonight shawn don christine johnson and holly hume the learning center is no longer a quiet little office we are booming bulldog buddies preschool kicking off was i think we forgot what that's like for new parents to send preschoolers off and we have some coming in cars and some coming in buses and a lot of parent calls and visits and a lot of behind the scenes logistics with our student information system and loading fees so these ladies stayed late a
060lot of nights to then get their special education work done and were escorting preschoolers in and out of the building for dismissal and arrival they were just incredible and we couldn't have done it without them so i have to thank them and they always did it with a smile so thank you how about uh chief academic officer mr hartman i'm gonna try to you the the grant that mrs pasquez uh uh talked about with the aiming grant um and mr hoffman asked what the cost that that might be associated to it we would have paid 11 800 for the two pieces of software this year with the aiming grant of course we did not have to expend that money uh second thing that i want to just talk a moment about is this coming wednesday
061september 29th we do have a half day of school this is a half day of school for all the students in the district and then in the afternoon our teachers are participating in some professional development it's a state requirement every three years that uh teachers and staff who have contact with 5th grade through 12th grade students need to participate in suicide awareness we call it the qpr training and mark and sabrina have talked about this in the previous meetings but it's it's going to be taking place this coming wednesday uh in the afternoon it must be at least two hours of training and it must be face-to-face it cannot be uh virtual it needs to take place in in that way so we're taking that on for kindergarten through fourth grade they'll be working through
062some of the curricular areas that mrs ramirez talked about as far as planning and better understanding the the instructional components of those so it's going to be it'll be a good afternoon of professional development and i'm sure the students will enjoy having a a half day of school on the 29th uh we are going to begin planning for a learn academy and for those of you that don't remember that's teachers teaching teachers it was something that we've been doing have been doing for probably three or four years very well attended by our by our staff and we want to bring that back since we're we are back in person and uh helping our teachers to grow and also using those that uh uh are able to uh kind of share their expertise in uh in
063certain areas of the curriculum and the instructional tools so we're going to be bringing that back in november the last thing i wanted to comment on was our child care this week i got a big smile on my face because when the numbers came in uh of the students attending child care uh we actually made budget so i was i had i had a big smile on my face so uh that was really good so uh they're they're coming back so that's my comments for this evening thank you mr harvey thank you i think we could move to the business department mr reese i have no comments this evening thank you and uh director of communications was out we i i guess we were remiss too and uh talking about the budget to to thank
064mr reese for his hard work and input in making all that happen so thanks matt miss allen director of communications hi thank you good evening um in your board information is a strategic communications plan the first one we've ever had so that's kind of exciting it's a two-year plan with six overarching goals the timelines at the end are a bit ambitious so those may need some adjustments as we move through the next couple of years but i'm excited to say that it's put together and we now have a roadmap for the next couple of years our goals to achieve one of those goals is consistency among each of our schools and the platforms and the procedures they're using to communicate as of today all of our schools are using the same newsletter platform now which
065is really exciting so preschool through um 12th grade it's great to see the consistency thank you i don't know i'm not sure about you guys but i did not notice that attachment earlier so this i just opened it up and this is excellent and everything the consistency is something that we've all been asking about to hopefully make everybody's job and communication a little bit better throughout the district thank you superintendent of schools dr terrell so several things for you this evening uh mr hoffman app garden thanks to miss allen letting me know that is a virtual training app that our substitutes can participate in to receive additional training and therefore increase their daily pay thank you bro um i want to go back and revisit just a few things with our salary increases that were
066able to do tonight so one of our goals as we went into this one of our thing our main overarching theme for this both with our certified and non-certified staff was similar to what mr smith mentioned was to really show the value for our greatest resource and that is our human resource and and to invest there as we need to um so this year very excited that we were able to again with the support from both the referendum and from the legislative actions that took place down in indianapolis in january able to give our teachers a six thousand dollar raise both this year and then again next year will be an additional six thousand dollar raise which really will help us stay in front of many of the districts around to be able to continue
067to retain and attract the best teachers that we can for our district so we're really excited about that opportunity and continuing to invest in our teachers but then also for our non-certified staff our support staff members they'll be receiving a six percent increase to their uh salaries for this year and then next year they will also receive another six percent increase as well so really pleased about that ability to be able to do that that is again because of the things that i mentioned earlier but also thank each one of you for your support as we've gone through this process and looking at that as mr hoffman mentioned matt reese was critical as we looked at what we can afford to do and what we should do for a district our size to get caught
068up to where we need to be and appreciate everyone's efforts there so i'm just again really excited about those opportunities this evening i want to give you a project update we have numerous projects that are going on right now [Music] taft is proceeding at a at a quickened pace as quick as the weather will allow and the site out there is is coming along very well there believe it or not by the end of october beginning of november they we will start looking at actually pouring of the pad the base of the building and steel going up before the first of the year possibly so really excited about that we'll have an opportunity at the end of october where we'll do uh kind of a groundbreaking ceremony with the board members there and uh we'll
069invite some people as well to be there from around our community so we'll keep you posted on that the high school is nearing completion as far as our design work gathering the input that we need to from the staff there thank mr g and fermi for his uh work on that as well um and look to begin that early late winter early spring and then also the work that has gone into both macarthur and timothy ball mr ramirez has done a nice job working with both gibraltar and skillman and the staffs in those buildings to come up with exactly what it is that we need to look at and those design phases are just about done and that information was shared with you this evening as well so some really exciting times here for our
070corporation and continuing to look at the future and the growth that continues to happen throughout our district and just really pleased that we're able to continue to meet the needs of our communities uh in this way thank you dr terrell item sevens the other business of the board of school trustees there is there anything that anyone would like to discuss a review from the past coming up in the future if nobody has anything i'd just like to state some some business here of the board behind the scenes when we receive emails and we all receive the board emails i just want to make it clear that we read each and every one of them and i'm going to exclude the personal emails when involves an individual student like there are some cases in the audience
071today remember go in regards to the mask we review those and we understand there's opinions on both sides strongly hearted i had four kids that went through these school corporations three of these individuals have kids here now what the main reason was behind trying to get these kids was we all understood that getting these kids back in their seats and learning in the classroom was the a number one priority we tried to do it one way based on the quarantines and the executive orders of the state that kind of didn't work we went to this new with the mass mandate in three feet to keep these kids in the classroom these decisions are made by the administrative team and then approved by the school board so that's how the process works that's different protocols when
072there's an individual item coming up with an individual student but that's how we put this plan in action and i really respect those individuals that have come and spoke their piece in front of this group based on that the individuals that i have an issue with is those behind the scenes that are calling out the board for dereliction of duty and things like that when we have your kids priority is a number one there's two sides of stories there's articles on both sides i just want to make it clear that we do review those and we do take that into account when we're listening to the reasoning behind it but we just don't make you know some people the flip of the coin decision that's not how this works it's with dr terrell and his
073administrative team experts from that we hear from the state that's how these decisions are made and then approved by how we want to proceed this is my own individual opinion by the way i don't want to put these individuals but they don't deserve the same thing i've looked at in some of these emails for calling us out calling us the worst leaders ever in the school corporation it just isn't fair nobody expected this to occur i just want to make sure that you do realize that we are out there for the best interest sometimes that may not be the best interest for your own kid i understand that having four of my own but it's the best decision what we can do to keep these kids in school because that's where we've all realized where
074they learn the best thank you mr angel any other business yes i think it's important in a second yeah i think that was very well said and i i just take it one step further to add to that that you know we have commended people time and time again who come before the board there have been very well-written articulated emails that we've all received which we appreciate and that's every individual's right to voice their opinion and have their opinion heard but the personal attacks you know in my opinion is a lack of civility it's an issue we've been blessed in our community not to have that big of problems but some of them are just out of hand and so i just want to remind our people that these are public records that our emails
075are public records and you need to think twice about what you write because they can be accessed by the public and so i just want to remind people that give some thought to it before you put your statements down on paper you know because it may come up someday and some individuals may see that and you have to stand behind that and so if you're firing off because you're frustrated or angry just sleep on it it's my counsel i've just to the general public sleep on it and make sure you're stating what you want to state and your points are well taken so um i think we're all mature enough to handle it we've done that but i just want to remind people that um sometimes things are better left to be slept on or
076to be thought about before before sending them and i you know personally i would appreciate that i agree with what mr angel said that we all have children we all have students i have three one that went through the school corporation they go to school just like your children we all have individual opinions but we make decisions based on what we think is the best interest of our students with the mindset that our focus is on education first first that's got to be our priority that's what we're here to do so i just think it was well said i just wanted to add to that and just not part of that i wrote it down and didn't speak earlier because i want to make sure i didn't come across as thinking and flying off my
077head after hearing all the statements that were made so i want to make sure that people realize sometimes just making sure you have things in order before you speak and once again everybody has an opinion i'm not ever taking that away from anybody and we do listen to that and we're just hoping we're doing what what is best for these kids at this time any other business now let's go to uh forced davis appreciation and recognition uh mr smith we want to kick us off this evening with anything well i think it's sectional week for sports i think their sectionals are starting to rule out i know ms pascus and i have children that are playing so they're they're they have a tennis sectional so i just want to uh those sports that are going
078and moving forward for sectionals just want to wish the players and the coaches the best and um you know let's let's hope we do well it's a good fall season i think everything went off well this season so i commend all the coaches all the players who have given their efforts this year and um it's it's been a lot of fun so let's see what happens it'll be exciting if i may girls golf made it to state as a team for the fourth year in a row too so kind of echoing off of what's going on somewhere at sectionals and others are getting okay so i missed the boat so they're they're they're they're should have known the sports guy would get it mr babjack anything to see me nothing tonight mr hoffman i have
079nothing mr angel just ripped up his company that's fine um i you know what uh we need to thank our moms club again um for the football uh they went and decorated the square again and this is moms for football dance cheerleading i think that's it but if i'm forgetting something i apologize but they went decorated the square for the homecoming festivities and it's just a nice little added touch to the square when you're out there this week and they're going back and take it down on sunday morning next week but um it's just a little hey thank you the the participants in cheerleading dance and football for kind of you get your name on the windows and things like that so kids do appreciate that so in these kind of times like they are
080now that's just a great thing for the football moms club that does that and uh we appreciate their efforts there and i would like to give a shout out i've been to three of the football games so far and we all know our high school kids can be rowdy and obnoxious and you know sometimes unruly at times but i will say we have a very well behaved of and obviously they're chaperones to a certain extent but the crowds have just been amazing and the kids have been really well behaved at the event so and turned out in full forces too so commending our our students there at the high school and those middle schoolers because they kind of hang on the other side of the bleachers on their behavior so far at the football game
081so let's keep it up thank you mr angel to mention or give appreciation to the growing relationship with our crown point city leaders mayor yuran and his staff and his team and i i just feel like my eighth year on the board that it's just continued to grow and i think over the last two years um dr terrell's i don't know if making an effort is the proper thing to say but i just feel like there's a nice give and take of what can we do to help you and uh you know just seen it firsthand and so thank you to them for allowing this relationship to grow with them and again benefiting the education of the kids in crown point um i'd also like to just mention rewind a bit that you know pri
082being being proud and having pride and um sitting in this room summer of i'm losing track of time 2019 um interviewing applicants for the superintendent position you know we don't as board members mr angel's played part of a role but we do have a say in who the superintendent would be and uh to get to take care of all the situations with the education association and getting the you know just ratifying the contracts and getting things done in a way that is letting the other side be heard and coming to a table and agreeing on things to you know again let everybody feel appreciated um you accomplished that and i know you're proud we all know you're proud of doing that and i just want to you know say here that you you should be
083i think it was a a nice um you know a lot of comments this evening and conversation about you know receiving grants and that but what took place in the process of getting to where we're at with the contracts was pretty amazing so congratulations to you and the team and everybody involved don't forget to throw in the 220 million dollar building project without tax increase that's correct since he's been here that's correct that's just that one just got like a smile and a all right is any um does anybody have anything else before we look for a motion to adjourn if not in motion to adjourn moved moved by mr angel sacked by mr hoffman all's in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed most carries five zero you