001serving. >> Hey, it's 6:00. >> Good evening. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Decal Central. Shut up and don't move. Just be alone. >> Excuse me. Decal County Central United School District Board of Education regular meeting. Today is Tuesday, August 19th, 2025. I'd like everyone to stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Angie, could you do a roll call, please? >> Armstrong, >> present. >> Tony O'Neal, >> career, >> present. >> Thank you, Angie. Um, that brings us to item D for presentations and recognitions tonight. >> All right. And normally our retiree recognitions take place in June, but we had a a late retiree over the summer.
002So we wanted to allow Mr. Wagner, uh, the principal from Dalp High School to speak about two individuals that have contributed a lot to Decal High School over the years. So Mr. Wagner, >> thank you. Gary and Cindy, I don't know if you guys want to come forward. I'll leave that up to you at some point. come up here. Uh but obviously thank you for the opportunity to recognize two staff members tonight. Both of them obviously Gary was our ISS par professional since 2013 and coach softball. Gary also took care of our digital sign and basically after year one didn't have to worry about Gary knew what to put on there, when to put on anything new. You always come with something new to put out there. So that's always been a nice thing to
003have that Gary just did as the ISS and he was also calm, collective, some of our most uh challenging students at times and some of the most but he always has a calming sense to calm them down within that room. So obviously Gary, I know that it's not a official retirement, but obviously it is a retirement since it's a package deal with Cindy. >> Actually coming back. [Laughter] >> Oops. Moving to Cindy. said you started working at high school uh in August of 1989. I believe Mr. Feice was the principal hired you at the time. >> Um and she's only she's only taught DHS. Um she taught all English. She's never moved to any of the other buildings within the district or the school corporation since 89. Cindy would always ask me for five minutes
004and that would turn into 25 minutes later um that we would have a conversation. Um Cindy, I don't know if you remember this or not, we sponsored the freshman class in 1989 and then the last two years she was also our senior class advisor, our senior graduation sponsor. So she helped us plan graduation for the past two years. city was always willing um to try new things. I don't know how many conversations it was about maybe switching to the new tech PBL side of things uh or those ongoing conversations, Cindy, about what can we do to teach vocabulary that isn't the same thing that we're already doing. A number of workbooks that we went through to finally get to something new. Um Cindy's always willing to take a risk. She's always willing to have conversations,
005but she's always willing to find fresh ways and new ideas to connect with students. What I appreciate about Cindy is that no matter you forget the number of years because of how much energy she'll always bring to the classroom um that you kind of forget sometimes she has almost she had 39 years of experience with her energy and passion that she brought. Um so Cindy and Gary thank you uh for your time your commitment and the energy that you have for Cal High School and Cal Central Schools and I hope you both have a very enjoyable retirement together. [Applause] Good stuff. >> Middle school could always use subs. >> Bus drivers. On behalf of the board, thank you for your time serving to Cal Central. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Um that brings us
006to item E, adopt and amend the agenda. >> Oh, we do have one more presentation. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Sorry. >> We do have a presentation um presenting some assessment data from last school year. So, we're excited about the opportunity to have Lori Vaughn, our assistant superintendent, and Michelle Wagner here, our um elementary curriculum director, to talk about a lot of numbers and kind of what they mean for us here at the CalB Central. So, thank you and welcome both of them. >> Sorry, I didn't mean to skip you, Lori. I just I just want to add, Gary, um don't be coming in here pretending like you're busy at home because I know for a fact you don't have to shovel snow and they just moved into my neighborhood. >> So, thank you for
007the opportunity to give you a little bit of information this evening. I know that I included some in my board update, but we're gonna we're gonna go into that just a little bit deeper. And I want to thank Michelle for putting together information elementary and K actually 7678 I learn information for you tonight. Um we call this just results of reflection. You know data is only useful if we know what to do with it. And so the next part or component of this project is to start planning on what we're going to do with this data. How this data is going to impact how we move forward when we move forward and what we move forward with. And so tonight's kind of run for us, but let Michelle get started. First of all, talking to
008you a little bit about I learn and I read. Okay. So, um I'm just going to jump right in. The first slide that I have to share with you tonight, this is I learn results. And um I learn is a statewide assessment that's given to students in grades three through eight every year. It measures proficiency in English language arts, math, science, and social studies. And this first slide shows the percent of students who were proficient each year for the past three years in each grade and subject here at Cal Central. Based on the information in the chart, here are just a few things that we are putting into place um to hopefully see future improvement. At the elementary level, we adopted, as you know, um our new ELA curriculum this year, and that integrates science
009and social studies topics with reading and writing instruction. So, we're hopeful that we will see student growth now that we have a cohesive curriculum in place. Um, also this year, this coming up year will be the first year that everyone in the state will be participating in I learn through the year. So, instead of just having a summitive assessment at the the end of the year, we're going to get to do I learn all year long. And we will have I learn checkpoints. We'll have three of them throughout the year. And each time there's a checkpoint, the students will be assessed on just a shorter number of standards. But our hope is that then teachers will get those results immediately and then they'll be able to adjust instruction and interventions and provide remediation for students
010who did not master the standards. Um, Another thing at the elementary level that we're going to do is we're going to try to use a lot of our weekly PLC time this year for teachers to plan and prepare for these checkpoints. Um, so they know which standards will be assessed and then they can also hone in on academic vocabulary that the students will see on each assessment. So that's kind of three, four, and five for the middle school for grades six, seven, and eight. Um they're they are planning to address challenges in math and ELA with targeted strategies um utilizing things like building thinking classrooms, illustrative math and daily bell ringer activities with um an Orton Gillingham approach to Greek and Latin roots. They plan to use these strategies along with focused teacher um training
011and aligned curriculum pacing in hopes to see um and accelerate growth in their students. This next slide, this kind of shows how our district compares to other neighboring districts in the four northeast counties for I learn for 2025. So this is the percent of students who were proficient in each of those subject areas. Um every time you see an aster means that central's pass percent was higher than that district's pass percent in that subject area. I can't wait to show you the next one. >> I'm super excited about this. Um, we're going to move on to I read. So, I read three is a foundational reading skills assessment for grade three students in Indiana. This is like the high stakes test that we have at the elementary level. And beginning this past year, there were
012many changes to Ivy 3. One of them was that any third grade student who does not pass Ivy 3 must be retained in third grade. So that right there, those are some pretty high stakes. Um, unless that student qualifies for a good cause exemption. This chart shows each of our elementary schools and their percent of students passing over the years. We've done a lot of work to overhaul our reading instruction, including changes to our universal district assessments um and interventions. We've educated parents and families on ways to support their child with um reading skills. And then this past year, we provided summer school for second and third graders who needed extra instruction. And I'm super proud to announce that this year Central had a 93.2% pass rate for our third grade students. It's the highest
013pass rate we've ever had as a district. I also just want to share a few other little um tidbits of info. 99.5% of our general education third graders passed IV3 this past year. 70.7% of our third graders with IEPs passed I3. And 100% of our third graders with ILPS, those are students who are learning English, pass three as third graders. So, um, this next slide. Yep. >> What does it take to pass? >> Oh, there's a cut score. This is just basic foundational reading skills. So, they're tested on can they actually read words and then can they comprehend, too. So, there's a cut score that the state provides for that. So, is it the old 70% or less rule? >> Not it's not a percentile. It is a straight cut score. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
014>> Um this slide will show you how we're comparing with i3 with our four northeastern counties. Um if you count central right up there with 93.2% and then you can see how other neighboring school districts performed in 2025 on i3 as well. So, you can see we have a lot to celebrate with that. >> Congratulations. >> Okay, I'm gonna pass the torch on to Lori here to talk about high school things that I know nothing about and I'm learning. So, but um I just want to say first of all just thanks to Michelle. Her her knowledge base of these these exams has just grown in leaps and bounds. because it's had to. But our administrators and our coaches are very very fortunate and our teachers at the elementary because she weeds through all of the
015messages and the memos and the instructions and the thou shalts and thou shalt not. She brings it to the forefront, meets with coaches, principles of Brian so that we know exactly what we need to do when we do it. And that doesn't sound that difficult, but it is extremely difficult. the number of messages that we get per week um regarding testing and requirements is um it's just it's overwhelming and she was a coach so she gets it and she is just doing a fantastic job leading the elementary instruction really proud thankful that I have you >> okay thank you but that I knew a little part of this the hard work is done at the school >> it is but but under Michelle's leadership I think that it's really given us great direction, anticipating even
016better things to come. And I think it's also a great relief to our teachers to know that there's somebody that's going to be there to guide you. So, >> okay. Did you want to sing the song now? You're up. >> All right. So, we're going to take a look at a couple things from the high school. I'm gonna talk about probably my least favorite first. Okay. The SAT results for the 2425 school year. Just a couple of facts about the SAT. I know that maybe when I was in high school, you took the SAT only if you planned on going to college. Not that way anymore. So, purposes of for the purposes of federal accountability, which is something that's coming back. The SAT serves as Indiana's required high school assessment, required meeting that all students
017in grade 11 have to participate in the SAT. You think about that. You think about We just heard Michelle say about I read three and all the success of all students in 11th grade. Students who score at or above the college ready benchmark have a 75% chance according to the college board of earning at least a C in first semester credit bearing college courses in that subject area. I'm not sure how I'm not I don't want to say important, but how relevant that is to a lot of our students because of all the different pathways that we're creating and affording them opportunities with. But but that's that's the purpose of the test. The at college benchmarks are set by the college board. They're governed by that. The approaching and below college ready benchmarks are set
018by the state of Indiana. So as you can see on this chart, if you look at Cal High School, the last column in evidence-based reading and writing Cal High School, 5450% of our high school students were above that same expectation. And I think that's a good target. That's a good target. Think about it. 11th graders. And then you go down to math. You take a look at that. We know what we've been reading, what we've been given, what they're providing us with data from the state and the national norms is that math is slow everywhere. Everywhere it seems to be the trend right now and we see that the state came in 24% and high school students were 23.60. So if you're looking at at state average. Okay. Okay. But what do we do now?
019A couple of things. Um a couple of things, you know, we have in mind that we we want to we want to work on. Okay. >> Um if you look at this slide Oh, I don't want to do that. So again, while we were close, we've got some thoughts and we've got some ideas and we've got some things that we want to try to do a little bit more of. Um, I know in talking with both Marcus and Carrie, we want to continue aligning our expectations to what the state is saying is going to be important, but we also want to start working in house a little bit on aligning especially our math curriculum. Both the middle school and the high school have fairly new adopted series in math and it's kind of a different
020way of looking at math. It's not 100 problems every night. It's problem solving. It's collaborative work. It's figuring out different ways to do different things. And it's been challenging, especially if you're a teacher that that was used to teaching, especially math, the way that we've always been taught. So, we really feel like we could do a better job and we're going to be very intentional this year about putting our math teachers together from the middle and the high school and having those collaborative conversations and start an alignment or continuum. middle school math to the high school to see if we can't help each other a little bit. Um maybe not maybe not perform the redundancy, maybe move it even further than it is now. So we're looking forward to that work happening this year. Um
021we also for the high school especially and we do this with I you learn the vocabulary, you start using the vocabulary as you teach, as you as youstru your assessments. You're talking the talk. It helps students immensely to be familiar with that vocabulary and those tests. Marcus and I talked the other day. I think we can do the same type of thing with SAT. We can start embedding SAT like questions, problem solving um into our daily assignments to see maybe if we can't get the students a little more comfortable with what that's going to look like. An interesting note, you know, I'm always going to have one of these. So, the SAT is administered during the school day, school day SAT. It's administered in the spring every year. Many of our students, many of our
02211th graders haven't yet completed algebra 2, which is a big part of the SAT. I'm not giving excuses. I'm just giving facts. Um, obviously that that has to have an impact on the students performance if they've not finished algebra 2. Also, algebra 2 is not required for a student to receive a general diploma. So, if a student is on a general diploma track, guess what? Okay. Is it is it a little bit flawed? Maybe a little bit. I think we hopefully will start seeing some changes and some different thinking about that at the state level. I hope the state starts listening to what what we're hearing and seeing out here to not not to make it easier, but to make it more relevant and meaningful and to our students because once upon a time that
023SAT was live or die. It really was, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah, I remember those days. Um, so that's a little bit about the SAT. I think if if this is all we knew, we could sit here. I think I think we're not in too bad a shape compared to the state average. But I think again, the purpose behind data is to use it to guide us to how we can maybe bump that up even a little bit more. Okay, now we're going to talk about my two favorite things at the high school, AP advanced placement classes and dual credit. This slide talks to you a little bit about um the total numbers and this is Marcus has laid it out for us starts in 21. So it's a fiveyear look at the total number of
024AP students each year. Number of exams administered AP exams, these are courses that students chose to take. AP students with scores of three plus. You have to have a score of three to even make it on the radar. You've got to get there. So if you look at um this year for example, 153 kids scored a three plus three or above. The percentage of total AP students with scores of three plus that equates out to 70.51%. That's high. That's high. Um and I think Michelle said it gets the teachers out of those classrooms doing the job. And I think, you know, you have to be really committed about AP instruction if you're going to do it because it's a big chore, big challenge to to teach AP. One of the great things that has happened
025at the high school over the last several years, anyway, my tenure is that it has been a priority. It has been a priority. And you don't a college graduate that can teach AP. They have to be certified. They have to go through training. Um Marcus, we got into the did you tell me the 10th cohort? Notre Dame offers, they call it the Notre Dame AP tip in. And it's a week long in the summer training that teachers go to. And when we first offered that, I think all your teachers went, didn't they? The first year they all went, of course, then we have the renewals and the research, but we have teachers that are that really believe in what they're doing. So when you look at these numbers, the opportunities that we're able to provide
026our students are so diversified in so many we kids just can't go wrong if AP is something they're interested in. And I've got that show you here in a minute. So these are just kind of the scholar summary. They they chart it as a scholar summary. So an AP scholar in order to be at that category 33 students scored a three or higher on three AP exams. So in order to be considered in the scholar level have to take at least three AP exams and score a three or higher. An AP scholar with honor 13 students had an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on four or more of those exams. So, they look at an average and then they look at a number.
027And of course, with distinction, 15 students had an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams and scores of three or higher on five or more. Interesting. I don't know who thought this up. I don't know how they thought it up. It's a little hard was a little hard for me to get my head around it at first, but you'll notice One thing that we do that I'm also very proud of is that um we have if you're driving around in town you will see signs in yards of students who are at these scholar categories and that's I'm so proud of that I always honk who drives the green cars in the neighborhood that would be me. >> What's the max score? >> Five. So, I I'm really happy that number one, we
028put an emphasis on it. Number two, Marcus and his leadership team have have built a pretty good program with with opportunities for our students. And our high school teachers have embraced those opportunities and in my opinion taken to the next level. And if you think parents aren't shopping around for advanced placement courses and do credit, dual credit, getting yourself because it's happening everywhere. This is the next thing. And finally, dual credit. We're awfully proud of this. We've talked about this a little bit before. These are courses that are offered that allow students to earn credits for their high school diploma while also earning college credit. We've talked about some of the savings. We'll just show you a general equation up here, but 319 students took a dual credit course in 2425 school year. 39 dual
029credits were earned and according to the education data initiative and this is just a group that takes a look at these numbers and they analyze it and put it together. Somebody said can you tell us how much money we save? Well, it kind of depends on the university you're going to and it depends on a lot of things that we don't always have the answer to. So, we go to this is one of our data sources and we look at that and they're saying that Indiana. The average cost per credit hour is $48. So you do the math with 2320 dual credits and it comes out a total savings of $946,56. That's a lot of money in a year's time. And we hear this often. We hear this and I even said we were talking
030about this morning. I said, I'm pretty sure I've got some people sitting on the board that have experienced that themselves. And our parents really money talks they really appreciate the fact that this can happen and the kids come back and it's exciting for them. It's exciting to know that and there are there are best advertisements. So we're very proud of the program very proud of our students and our teachers for perpetuating this. This is an important thing and this is just a list. You have it in your board pack and it's a little tough to see but you can see we offer 26 26 AP courses. Is it more than 26? Oh, I'm looking at prerequisites. I'm sorry. 14 AP courses offered at the Cal High School. You can see the subject areas from math,
031science, English, there's even art and history. And then the next slide shows our list of dual credit course offerings. The column to the left are the offered by IvyTech that our students can receive dual credit in. And then we also have those courses offered at the high school. They also receive that dual credit. And then we go on to try university DHS. We only have two right now, but DHS has two equivalents that were able to offer. You think about, you know, this this picture, you think about what it takes to guide students towards these I was thinking about this a little bit earlier. You know, the more we offer, the more we have to help kids figure it out. And not only our admin team, but our guidance staff, the high school is is
032tops. They get to know their kids. They move. They help their kids make some pretty important decisions. And we're very appreciative of the time and energy they put forth to the kids as well. So, just some interesting things as we reflect. Um, always looking and we'll continue to do that, right? >> Thank you. I did have a question for Michelle with the I learn. Is that um having the periodic testing times? Is that something from the state or is that just something that we're doing as a district? >> Last year the state offered schools could option to pilot it. We piloted it in grades four through eight last year just to kind of get an idea of what the data would look like that would come in this year. the first time that everybody in
033the state grades three through eight have to do that, >> right? >> Which was really a smart thing to pilot it because now >> we know what it's going to look like. We know how to build the schedules. Those those kind of things are always the trickiest part. >> And we also did the same thing when they said, "Hey, we'd like for some of you to try giving the Irene to second graders." Well, people kind of stayed away from that. They were thinking of, but we jumped on it and so we were ready when the If they ask you to try something, you know it's coming. >> It is known. >> It's happening. >> Will be interesting to track the data because I always thought, you know, if a student has a bad day, you
034know, and you know, they do. >> The checkpoints um there's no account accountability with those. Those are just information for teachers. So, the accountability piece still comes into play with that last summit of test. Um but we'll see. They are telling as though that the summit will be a little bit shorter after we've been testing all year long. >> Interesting. >> And we also, speaking of testing, we've adjusted some of our additional assessments that we offer at the elementary and middle. We no longer are doing NWA across the board. It's not necessary, especially with the the checkpoints now gather enough data for that. So, we're adjusting so that we're not testing. Otherwise, we would just roll from one assessment. That's hard. For sure. >> How'd it go in fourth through eighth the trial run? >>
035Testing. >> Yeah, it was >> because were you still doing the other two? Okay. >> Yes, you still have you still have to do the other two. So, um it was nice because kids got a feel for what it was like. Though I will say teachers were a little nervous that by the final test they would be tired of testing and not give it their all. But we didn't see that happen. So, >> yeah. >> Anxious to see if we can use the data. Last year, we just kept our scope and sequence just the same as it was. We said, "Let's just see what the data looks like." And now that we have an idea of that, at the end of the year, we were able to take a look at our curriculum maps and
036tried to realign some things so that they better match up with the standards that'll be assessed. >> Do we do we do the same thing with ACT data or do they still do that test? I mean, >> they still do it. Okay. >> Am still do it but it's not required for everyone to take the state. So I mean we would have that data just it's a smaller number. >> Okay. So it would only be the kids that are probably going to go to college that would take it again. >> But a lot of colleges some colleges have switched quite a bit too where you had to have the SAT or ACT for entrance to get in. A lot of schools have gone away from that. Some are waiver of the SAT or ACT. Some
037still require it. So it just depends upon each university is a little bit different. >> And since now the SAT is mandated for uh 11th graders, do they offer any SAT prep or is there any anything that we can help our students with or provide for them? I mean, I'm sure it's not coming from the state, but just to help prepare or or prep for it or, you know, test taking strategies improve that. We've embedded over the last couple years since it's been around into the English and math. Uh trying to get more intentional what we do year one all the way through the junior year. What we need to shift that will work to build that curricul remedial students but also have time to SSD. >> Goes back to that being intentional this year
038doing that. >> Yeah. Well, I liked how you mentioned like even embedding the questions and the curriculum that you know the more kids see it the more it rings a bell. That's so we've also shipped the PSAT is now given to all 10 graders which is state department but the 11th graders also taken now we used to just make it optional but now we make it because again that's only going to help prepare them for that more the data is out there shows the more they see the test >> it's not required though for graduation right >> it's not required they don't have to meet the there's other ways they can earn the diploma They just have to take it their junior year. They the state will pay for the the 11th year. If you
039want them to take it on the school day, you can add there's free testing, but they don't cover the I think it's $90. They don't cover that. That would fall the school district responsibility. I think we have other means diploma. That's just not necessary because you also have your collegebound students are also probably taking SAT mult. Well, I we all know that there are many kids that know they're not going to college, right? So, what's going to motivate them to take a test that they get no purpose out of, right? >> I can see somebody doing, >> you know, the zigzag pattern across the sheet and all that. So, but again, that's that's in our numbers. >> We just don't know how to strip it out. >> So, >> right. >> And I'm sure everybody
040in the state has the same problem. >> Yep. Yeah, >> good information. Thank you guys. >> Yeah, thank you. May I uh just couple things I note. Thanks for the data. It's a really good point. One thing I really noticed is the I read scores today. I mean, you guys are crushing it from pre-co precoid numbers even. So everything's come back full circle. So that's positive and and seeing that quantifying the numbers on the dual credits is amazing. And then as far as the math goes, I will say technology might be part of that as well. >> You think so? I think it has because calculators and computers these days. So, >> but thank you. Great data, great information. Appreciate it. >> Welcome. >> Okay, this now brings us to um item E, which is
041adopt and amend the agenda. I'll ask the board for a motion. >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. I >> oppose. Motion passes. Item F is the consent agenda. This includes items F1 through F5, which are the board minutes, financial report, claims, personnel, and field trips. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to the board. >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Yeah. On the on the financial report, um, again, I think Mark, I think you answered my question, but I wanted to make sure I was clear. What you showed for credit card usage is what we currently have used. The chart below with the
042reoccurring cost aren't necessarily being paid by a credit card. >> Correct. But are they all possibly able to be paid with not some of them? I mean, we have obviously a limit on our credit card, so we would have to watch what we exceed there. But, >> um, what we can pay by credit card, I I have looked into I think I explained in the board memo, I I am not a huge fan of the credit card world. Um, >> just because it's harder to track for us. I mean, it makes more work for AP every every transaction that comes through. Um, I I I'm weighing cost and benefit and I just don't think the benefit outweighs the possible cost that we could have in terms of fraud, whatever else, but I am looking anything
043we can do with a credit card. I would absolutely do. I thought Greg made a good point on that. I try to take advantage anytime I can with credit cards. >> No, that was going to be my my question is that if we we put all these on credit card payment, right? Does that then generate double the number of entries into the general ledger? >> It every transaction that goes through the credit card I have to track back through the receipt and then journalize if that's what you're asking. >> Yes. >> So if I had a if I had a credit card >> So you're doing double entry basically is what you're saying. You still have to code each transa. >> Yes. >> We have we have to account for every transaction on the credit
044card. >> Yeah. Yeah. And that makes sense from a from a workload standpoint. So I I can see the >> the cost benefit. >> Yeah. >> There. So that makes sense. Doesn't hurt to investigate it. And then you know stay no rush on that answer. I know you got to do some research but we did have a high spike in 2022. Just kind of want to and then it went up like 60% from 21 to 22 and then down another almost 50% the next year. So just kind of just want to see that you know. So just it just jumped out. So, it's one of those things that you we we uh just I'm sure it's easily explained, but >> I saw that email, so I can if you if I jump in on that.
045It was we had a lot of Gallup, our strength training. >> We had a lot of that going on that year. >> Um I did go back after I saw your email had Leanne just take a quick peek at 2022 because as you stated, I wasn't in the seat. But we had like one $10,000 where we were training the trainer for Gallup. We had another I think 8,000. I remember I do all those. We had several. And the other point I would make is in 2022, we had a maintenance staff that we had some trained HVAC guys when we had David Spade. He was still here in 2022. So we took a lot we took care of a lot of our HVAC issues in house. So we used a credit card to buy the parts
046and things like that. So that made a big difference because we don't use a credit card to pay the vendors like a now, >> right? I like I said, I'm sure it was explainable. I mean, but it's just, you know, that big of a jump, you know? It's just one of those things. Y I'm sure there was I do remember the Gallop now and going through that and Y >> you know sometimes it's three years ago I've slept a lot since then. So >> thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other just >> and then on the medical um did we have a breakdown for the admin fees as well or are the admin fees included in the total medical paid claims? Let me pull you >> talking about my board update. >> Yeah, you got
047and pharmacy to where from last year to this year we've got a 50% increase, >> right? >> Total expenses and some of it is your your explanation that >> does that make sense? >> Yeah. 73% one year but then 17% of expected claims this year, right? I understand that. >> But that's about 25% of it. The other 50% again it could be your um lasered individuals. >> Right. And and I'm going to assume by how you got your terminology. Our stop loss is atund or at 80,000 and then our max out of pockets at 160. >> Yeah. I don't have in front. I think that's right. >> I'm going by what your two limits are.60. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, is the admin in the medical paid or is there a separate line item that
048we should be looking at for >> I believe that's everything rolled in. That's everything admin and everything together. >> Can we can we separate the admin and the actual medical expenses and do a comparison? >> Uh I can find out what we pay allied. >> I mean, >> I insurance is a pain. I understand. >> Absolutely. >> But again, I think we ought to be we ought to be $700,000. We ought to be digging in seeing, okay, is this going to be a reoccurring thing that we got to plan for again next year or is it because of the whole thing that was going on between Lutheran and Parkview, right? Were people just not going to the doctor? I mean to me and I and I haven't dug in and you have to be careful
049when you start talking HIPPA to look at individual claims but when when you go when we're at 73% in the one year and then we're at 107% this year that could rapidly add up to that $700,000 difference in claims. >> So >> it could that's a big swing in percentage of usage for claims. >> That's why I think we ought to separate out the admin fees. >> Yeah. and the actual medical cost because again if it's a if it's a 33% increase >> then you know exactly what it is. >> Sure. >> Right. So just so we got a feel for what happened from one year to the next and then should we be forecasting that for next year's budget to reoccur. >> Mhm. >> I mean I don't see medical expenses going down. >>
050So that's back >> again. What are we how are we going to forecast? I mean, we can utilize Blue Cross Blue Shield to help forecast what they think our total usage is going to be, but again, we need to be able to make sure we gut check them. >> Yeah. And our underwriters and and they they give us that every year when we're up for renewal. We we go over all of that. >> Okay. >> So, we have an idea what to do with premiums and things like that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Okay. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I >> oppose. Motion passes. Okay. Next item is item G, donation. >> Don't have any. >> We were do not believe they're
051okay. Item H, report of the superintendent. Item one is the collective bargaining public hearing. So I will begin. Tonight has been advertised to as the collective bargaining public hearing. At this time the meeting is open for public testimony to discuss matters relating to the teacher compensation and collective bargaining at Decal Central Schools. At the conclusion of this public testimony, the hearing will be closed. Does anyone need to speak? >> Okay. hearing is closed. Thank you. >> Oh, I don't know if we can Can I say something about collectively baring at this point or No, >> you can. >> I wasn't sure. I I just wanted to reiterate. I think we talked about it earlier, but I just want to kind of give some dates. So, we've had our public hearing now. Collective bargaining can begin
052September 15th. Okay. So, that's when and and Chris Mcgru, DA president, is in attendance tonight, so he can help me if I get anything wrong here. Our next scheduled board meeting is September 16th. Is that correct, Steve? That's what I have in my notes. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, I can't we can't start bargaining with the union until the 15th. It'd be wonderful to say that Chris and I can sit down and >> with Steve and and be done the 15th to bring what we h we have to bring to the board for another public hearing, a tenative agreement. Okay. All the TA >> that has to be for the board. So, we are going to have to and then we ratify which has to be 72 hours after. We don't we don't have our
053our board meetings are not lining up to meet the November 15th deadline for collective bargaining to be ratified. >> Okay. So, we're going to have to add a board meeting at some point to fit those in. It can either be a new ratification meeting like right after the October meeting or in an earlier one in November to to get it ratified. So, just something to maybe have on your radar so the board can look at their dates collectively and decide where you want to drop >> an extra meeting >> for that for one of those meetings for either for either the tenative agreement or the ratification. We're going to need an extra board meeting. >> We'll get information out to the board as we've done in the past. So, >> let us know what we'll
054do what's best. >> Okay. Item H2, supplemental fees. And this is just a discussion. Yeah, this is just for discussion purposes. I I didn't feel comfortable bringing a recommendation as the board's not really had an opportunity to discuss this openly. Um, but due to uh recent legislation passed by the state legislature, it now allows school corporations and charter schools to assess and collect a reasonable fee for supplies and materials that are not curricular materials, but supplemental instruction in a course of study. I put the relevant code at the bottom. Um, and it really talks about um, examples of supplies and materials. Could be workbooks that are not part of a curricular material contract. Science supplies, art supplies, paper, um, digital access to curriculum, um, even things like our parent square could be something that we
055could uh, charge a reasonable nominal fee. um for information purposes. I know one of our neighboring districts had had just passed a $50 student fee um in their district and I had conversation with that superintendent. We were talking through some some different strategies and different things that we were considering and I landed kind of on that $50 fee for discussion purposes here. uh we have roughly you know 3,200 students 3,300 students K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K12. So obviously our free reduced lunch students would not be held accountable for paying those fees, but it is something that we can recoup
056some fees back. The last two years, as you'll recall with recent legislation, we have not charged parents for almost anything related to any type of textbook rental fees, uh course materials, uh anything and everything, even field trips. Now, we know that we do have guidance now that supports that we can actually charge parents to help with the cost of field trips. Although I would challenge our uh leaders in the buildings to continue to look for opportunities to find sponsors and donations to help offset those costs. So I just wanted to open it up for the board to have a conversation, provide directive. I'd be happy to bring uh my intent would be to bring a recommendation in September to look at a nominal fee of $50 per student. And again, this would apply for students
057who are not on the free reduced uh lunch list. um but to consider bringing that in September for your consideration. So just open it up for cons your thoughts and discussion purposes of tonight. >> So basically we have about half of the students. >> Yeah. A little more than a little less than half. >> So 1,600 students, right? >> About 80 grand is what that would total. and our our textbook rental fee or our um account >> was pretty good up until the law changed and we've been able to offset a lot but now that's basically depleted part of the education fund now and the state does provide funding but they've just included it in your in the educational fund. So you just have to account for that even before we start collective bargaining talk.
058That's money that Mark has to set aside knowing that we have those >> those things to pay for. >> And the state does provide funding, but it was not >> equivalent to what we were charging. >> They're about 60 to 75% after they made the change to what they have funded to where we have to make up. >> So there was a deficit. >> Oh, absolutely. >> Yeah. when this started there just wasn't a lot of guidance from the state >> and it was kind of thrown at everyone just to kind of figure it out and >> it you know it definitely was a learning curve and I I do think we did very well >> with what we had and um but you know I do remember I mean having four kids myself in
059the district I remember going and paying almost close to $1,000 in fees when my kids started school and um so it did save you know many families a lot of money And um so I guess you know looking at it if you think $50 per student I mean it's much more manageable and doable then >> and we're going to make sure >> that from kindergarten through 12th grade >> those supplemental materials exist to meet that minimum. In some grade levels it would be much more. >> But we we think to start back with a a consistent fee across the board would be best and then we can look after next this this year if it passes to see what we want to do moving forward to adjust it to go by grade level because before
060with textbook rental fees it was all dialed in specifically based on >> to to the scent, >> right? >> And in middle school and high school it was based on the the actual course they were taking. So, >> um, I like the idea of staying consistent with some of our neighbors, um, as I've had that conversation, um, with the neighboring district, and I think they they hit upon a a fee that I think is nominal. It's not It's $50. That's that's not a small amount of money, but I think it's minimal compared to the amount of money that we're currently paying out for these supplemental materials currently. >> Do we know if there's like a state average out there? I don't we have nothing to go on um at this point other than just my
061interaction with other superintendents and he talks to business officials >> and and mainly because it's just this year that they've made the adjustment for us and break >> one of the reasons is um you know they've also changed for collective bargaining you know they've made minimum teacher salary $45,000 and of the education fund from state tuition I have to hit 65% of my education fund has to go towards teacher salaries and benefits. Okay, that's a huge chunk only leaving 35% left for everything else that comes out of the education fund. And now curricular materials is within that number. So they they hit it hard in a negative way for schools and and that's why you've seen neighboring school districts started everyone is going to go back to some level of course fee. Um, one of
062the things that I think Steve and past administration can before me can hang the hat on is, you know, we we took the absolute highest level of not charging our parents. >> I mean, numerous school districts continue to charge for field trips, things like that. They found ways to skirt around um charging parents something. We as a district for the last three years now, I believe, have not charged our parents anything in any of those capacities. U we don't like to have to do that, but as a means of survival, it it's probably going to become necessary. >> Being that the school year is already started, would this be something that we'd implement next year? >> No, we would we would implement it as soon as the board passed it would be my guess. I
063don't want to speak for Steve, but that's >> that would be the intent. Yeah. I'm guessing parents would have like plenty of time like >> Yeah. >> Well, and that was the case with book rental and textbook fees prior. I mean, you had >> payment plan. >> Yes. >> Payment plan. >> And knowing that our the students that are struggling the most and families that are struggling the most won't have to worry about it >> anyway. I mean that's that gives you a good feeling too. >> So >> what about the program we implemented a few years back on text you know to get people to pay their textbooks and pay them over time and then send them to collections. >> What was that called? Trex >> Oh is that going to be discontinued within
064and what what about those people that still own >> it was discont basically it went away the last two years when the the law changed two or three years ago. I don't know if that could be brought back for a supplemental fee or not. I guess >> yeah I wasn't talking about that. I was just curious is is is there anybody still making payments out there for this thing? >> Not for us, not for our district. Um but TX does still exist. >> Yeah. >> The districts still use it. There are still fees out there that >> we're still a member. We still I can still use I just haven't. >> Yeah. >> Because we don't have anything to really >> charge people right now. >> That's a good question though because Greg and I
065during that time. But um yeah, are people still paying on that? I didn't know if that was something still relevant or not. Yeah. Well, good things to think about and maybe, you know, just continue to research a little bit and >> I'll give you an update in the the board update and try to have it more um itemized. Sure. What we're thinking about to make sure we're covered maybe if board and folks just get feedback from parents and see how they feel about starting it this year. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> We don't want to put them in a financial bind with everything going on. >> But it would be per student, not per family. >> Correct. >> Per student. kindergarten through 12th grade. >> So if you got three kids, it's 150. >> Yeah. Okay.
066>> It's not like the Catholic school where they prorrate. >> The more you have, the less you pay kind of. >> Well, because they expect you more to play. >> Well, it's true. >> Thank you for that feedback. >> Okay. Item H3, the 2025 2026 Northeastern Centerou. This is kind of an annual obligation that that I bring forward um for your consideration every every school year. Tonight, we're looking for your consideration and approval to enter once again into anou with the Northeastern Center uh beginning effective immediately if approved this evening through May 26th of 2026 for the purpose of continuing to provide a mental health navigation service at Decau Middle School two days per week and telephonic support all other days that students are in session. Northeastern Center has expressed a commitment to collaborate with
067our district and provide assistance where needed um going beyond students but to families too with their navigation program that's being um administered at the middle school. It's one more person that's on site and you know we'll take take as much of that as we can get. Theou that you received outlines the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of both parties to ensure successful implementation and sustained impact. And it actually supports our our mission, our district's mission to promote student well-being. Key terms in theou are clearly stated in the agreement and provided with the recommendation. Thisou, it's important to note, does not involve any exchange of funds. So there is no financial obligation. So, I'm asking for again your consideration to approve entering into thisou. >> I'll move to approve. >> Second. >> Okay. There's a motion and
068a second. Any discussion? >> Anything for kids? >> Yeah, I love this. I would just was curious. Do you find a lot of or do you find students and families using it and getting help? Good. >> Absolutely. So, our guidance counselors are able to refer students um to our mental health navigator. She's able to work with them on study skills, school skills, then connect them to resources that they need. >> Good. Love it. >> Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion passes. Okay. Item H4, the 2025 2026 Breitpoint Head Start Moou. again an annual consideration and approval process for um Decal Central Schools to enter in with Breitpoint Head Start which we have our Head Start center in Waterlue. We have basically had the same agreement for
069several years and um we've had to we've had to work through some some issues to build consensus on both parties behalf. But this year when we got the agreement was a little bit longer, bigger and full of a lot of special education stipulations. And that being said, I looked at it and said, "Yeah, this got to go to the co-op." And the co-op looked at it and said, "Yeah, this got to go to our attorneys. So theou that you were provided has been reviewed with a fine tooth comb to make sure number one the items that Breitpoint chose to put into theou aligned with article 7 and were actually legal. And there were some things that you know I know that they would like to do differently but you know my message to the co-op
070was stick to the script stick to article 7 because if anything goes south that's that's where the that's where the lawyers will go. So, the agreement, like I said, has been thoroughly reviewed not only by myself um but by uh by um the co-op's administrative personnel and their attorneys and found it to be aligned to article 7 and we felt comfortable moving forward with it and the suggestions that were made um Breitpoint Head Start agreed and and made the changes in theou. >> Great. Thanks, Lori. At this time, I'll bring a motion to the board. I'll make the motion. >> I'll second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Oppose. >> Motion passes. >> And I think we have a good relationship with
071Breitpoint. Um, and it's a it's a very valuable program and and I know they've been hit with some hard things, too. And so, it just gives more of our children an opportunity that they wouldn't otherwise have. >> Thanks, Lori. >> Okay. Item H5. the 2025 2026 case legal agree or lease agreement. >> Uh if you remember I brought the change lease agreement to you. It's the same building where we house our alternative education program choice. Now we need to sign a lease agreement with case which has a new name corrective academic support environment. >> Yes. >> Used to be something else court appointed >> education. So nice. Um that is between the three decal county public schools. Decal Eastern Garrett and us all make up case. I just did the same thing I did with
072change. Took the square footage that they're using and broke it down. So they have agreed to pay $640 per month. It's just a one-year lease again. See how things go. I'm sure I'll be coming back to you next year. The year has gotten off to a pretty good start for everybody in that building. I touched base with Justin Le who's our choice director. Everything seems to still be standing there. Um so it's worked out well. So I would >> square footage >> the total square footage of the building. Got that Justin off the top of your head? >> 5,000. >> So roughly we use about 2,000 of it. >> Well CA case and change take up I don't I know I don't have it in front of me, but I think I think change probably
073has the most square footage in the building right now. >> They do. >> Yeah. So, they they have to have certain areas. They have to have a kitchen. They have to have a dedicated restroom. Things like that for them. So, they took the entire back portion of the building and we keep that sealed off from chain, excuse me, from choice and and case. So, >> well, again, we've talked about moving those right >> into other areas. Just was wondering how much area do we need if we want to move? >> Yeah, that depends. We have pretty big numbers in our choice program this year. About 60 kids if I'm thinking correctly between morning and afternoon sessions. That's that's a big number for out there in the three rooms that we're occupying choice with right now.
074So, it'll just depend on, you know, seeing what the virtual academy does, if we're going to lose any choice. You know, that was our initial concern was that choice kids would all jump ship to virtual, and that has not been the case. We have seen an explosion in both um virtual academy and choice numbers. So, that's good that we're giving our kids alternatives to to, you know, traditional classrooms. I think it's something that's needed. >> Um Steve had the number this morning. I want to put you on the spot. I can't remember. With our >> 20 We have 27 currently enrolled in Yeah. >> the virtual academy. Wow. And so >> 27 which accounts for about almost 23 in ADM >> of our ADM. >> Wow. That's a good number I think where we're at
075right now. >> Those are numbers that we most likely would have lost to home school >> and online school. >> Yeah, it's great. >> Have we ever talked to any of the other virtualmies to see, you know, I'm sure everybody starts out slow, right? And then >> grows. >> It's still it's still fairly new in a lot of places. We did we did a lot of visiting Justin and I when I was still at the alternative school we visited some well those were still alternative schools but we did reach out to some virtualmies >> there it's >> still in its infancy state with with most places but we will definitely be watching the numbers but I am very happy to see 20 27 kids enrolled that's that's a good number >> a good number >>
076and it's not some again we'll we'll have to evaluate promoting it more to try to attract more students but I think the way that we've started it's really and maybe like a soft launch where we're really targeting the kids that we're currently working with or the kids that we lost last year. We've gotten some of those kids back and then we're also we're capturing some kids that we would have lost right at the beginning of the school year. They were with us at the end of the year last year maybe at the high school or middle school and their parents were ready to sign them out >> to go to whatever and we've saved them and now they're in our virtual learning. Is most of this just based on reaching out because we really didn't
077advertise a lot. >> Just reaching out and having that connection with those students and families. >> And I've challenged Carrie and and Marcus to be the gatekeepers. You know, we know kids being in person for learning is is the best. >> I think we all believe that especially going through co um but we also know that providing alternatives is something that we have to to make available for our parents and for our students. And uh it's been wellreceived. So just we just want to get it right for the start of it and then we can explore how do we want to expand it? How do we want to market it? I know Fort Wayne community launched one last year for grades 4 through 12. This year they've launched it statewide. They've moved it to sixth
078grade. So they're not they're not accepting fourth and fifth grade. So we'll be watching other virtualmies. I know Justin, I'm sure, will be reaching out and probably already has been reaching out to other virtualmies to see what what's work what's working well and maybe uh avoiding some mistakes that that we don't have to make that others have already made. >> And we're just 9th through 12. >> We are sixth through 12. >> Six through 12. >> Yep. And currently I think we only have I think four middle school students right now. I think two sixth grade, two eighth grade, and the rest are uh high school. And the majority are girls are female students at this point, >> which is another massive shift from when Justin and I started the alternative program. It was like
079no girls, maybe one or two >> a year, and now he's told me it's >> So that's that's strange to me. I don't know what >> if you read the book that um Miss Weissart shared this last year. It makes perfect sense if you read that. >> Yeah, >> I would check that out. All right. Well, thank you. That was good discussion. Um, this time I'll entertain a motion to the board. >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> You have a motion in a sec and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Hey, motion passes. Thank you. Um, item I is miscellaneous. So, I'll open it up to our board members. Anybody have anything this evening? >> I've got four things. >> Uh,
080first of all, girls golf. I asked Katie if she wanted to mention it. She said yes, but no. Uh, we were ranked early in the season. It just started two, three weeks ago. We were 14th. We got invited to the state preview. >> It's not something that you sign up for. They invite only the best teams to come down and we finished 10th out of 16. >> Those are all of the top state teams. So that was pretty exciting. Last weekend we got second in the Concordia Invitational out of 21 teams and we lost by >> three strokes. So proud mom. >> Um football scrimmage was last Friday for those of you that came. I stood on the east side of the complex and just stared at that shiny thing on the far side that
081it's growing. >> Impressive. >> It's it's impressive is one word. So, I can't thank Mark enough for his time and his energy and his I feel his frustrations because he talks to me sometimes, but um it's coming. It's it's it's coming. So, >> want to give an update on the progress at all? >> Yeah, we're we're coming along. We're uh I didn't like the rain this morning. You know, every day of rain scares me. So, luckily it stopped and I saw them back out there working. They were a day ahead in getting the steel complete. I mean, they were done Thursday. They had that done Monday to Thursday putting that entire structure up of steel. That was that was impressive to me. >> So now the slow and I and I think Steve and I
082both warned everyone, don't get too excited. We're not making the Angola game, right? >> The tedious part comes now putting all the aluminum on, bolting it all down. Um and and a huge shout out to FCI who is working, you know, all around Dan Clayton who is our bleacher installer. I mean, there's a ton of concrete to be laid. They have to lay all the footing. I mean, it's it's quite a project going on over there. So, we will be receiving the press box is supposed to arrive tomorrow sometime. And then the crane comes Thursday morning and they will set the press box. I've been told that getting the crane in position and getting it here takes longer than setting the press box. They say they will have it as soon as the crane is
083set, the press box will be set, good to go in less than a half hour. >> I don't know if I like that or not. It's kind of like reminds me of the fair, like how fast they set up rides. But I'm sure they know what they're doing. Um, so that will make things look completely different there. But we're still pushing for September 12th with the next home game. >> I I wish I could guarantee, but I think everyone in here understands how construction works. Um, they they are on pace right now. I've been told they're still on pace. >> That's just kind of where we're at. Matt, any other updates or anything to chime in on? No, >> I think you covered it. Okay. How about the rest of the projects? >> You mean
084like the >> like the ticket entrance and the concession? >> You mean like the 23 bond and the 24 bond? We got how many? >> Waterlue is Where's Amanda? Waterl is D. Are they finally out? Are they still finishing up? I know we had some delays with the HVAC with Hel. Um so they're still finishing that up. But we're we can see the light, right? Can we see the light at the end of the tunnel? >> Okay. Um, doors and windows I know are we're we're that's that's been a struggle for whatever reason. Um, getting all of that taken care of with the high school and the middle school and Country Meadow. Um, what else am I forgetting? I'm trying to think off the top of my head. >> The black metal looks good. >>
085Yes. Yep. The middle school roofing. Um, Matt's been a busy man today. There was some >> with with the middle school. They they >> Yeah, furniture is done, I believe, at the middle school. probably need to replace. >> So, we're >> we're coming along. >> Y >> can we get like a for the next board meeting, can we get like a percent complete the two bonds? >> I think we have your sheet shows that if if you look at that master progress report, he updates that how often >> in his board update. You put a link, right? >> Yeah. Yeah, there's a link in his board. >> So, you have that master sheet. I just didn't pull it up. >> Click on that >> links a PDF a snapshot of it on a particular date
086and time that >> does the website >> doesn't really tell us where we're at as a percent complete though, does it? >> I was going to say does the website have percent complete on it? >> Does the website have I haven't looked at it recently. Just do >> is there a way to add percentage on the website? >> I'm sure there is. >> I mean, even if you just do it dollar value project was supposed to cost 4 million, we spent 2 million. We're 50% of the way. >> Yeah. >> Gee, I started a buzz there, didn't I? You did. >> Good. Uh, boys tennis invitational this Saturday. My wife's working, so if you go up to her, don't talk to her, please. She's focused on making sure the things right. Uh, Friday night's the
087football game. So, if you're coming to the football game, you're still sitting on the east side. Be patient. Be nice to the to the Hornets. Please, please. There's a lot of activities going on. We got boys and girls soccer, uh, boys and girls cross country. We got volleyball. Band competition is rocking and rolling. Uh, I came in to school Wednesday morning, which is the day they students have an hour off, and I drove around just out of curiosity to see what the band practice area looked like. And I won't mention this wolf kid's first name, but it was 7:45 in the morning and school starts at 9:00. It's 7:45. He's got his phone out and he's working on his steps all by himself. >> I love it. >> Wednesday at the end of the day
088at 5:30, I came out. He brought another person out and they're working on their steps together. So, I'm going to quote the field of dreams. if you build it, they'll come out and practice. So, I think without that new facility out there, I'm not sure that would have happened. But with the success of the band last year and several years prior, I think um you got to come and catch the buzz. I'm telling you, there's a great buzz out here. There's just We're not the bees. I mean, >> don't say the buzz. The hornets are coming because they're here. Um, >> just to piggyback on that real quick if I could with the band. They did have their preview show Saturday that I came out. >> Yeah, >> I'll admit I came out to see
089the band, but they also had their pulled pork, which they I don't know who makes that and their baked beans, but they're phenomenal. It was a great meal. Um, there was a huge crowd. I don't know if anybody else made it out there, but I couldn't believe how many people were there. Um, and just the comments I heard, I it just made me feel good. They're appreciative of it. The kids love it. They were out there. I mean to to your point um it just it was a great day and Chris has been fabulous and very appreciative and you know I' I've actually fielded not a few phone calls but as I've talked to a few of my fellow CFOs they're they're like well thanks a lot like what do you mean thanks a lot?
090They're like well my band directors been in my office and asking why we don't have this. Um I love I love to hear things like that. So it was a good day and I appreciate you recognizing all of our groups. Are we still going to put uh protective barriers around that practice area like we talked when we first discussed that project a long time ago? >> The Well, the only thing I remember is the gate. >> We're putting time to protect them for in case of a car, you know. >> Yeah, the gate The gate I think is up, right? >> Yes. >> I didn't I believe the gates are up and good to go. And did they pour the asphalt today around the tower? >> No. >> Okay. >> Yeah, they're in. >> Yeah.
091Get the sprinkler. Thanks, Paul. Fuel. >> Yes. >> Yep. The sprinkler was fixed. >> Gates are secured. >> Sprinkler fixed. >> Yeah. >> All right. Phase three, back to school night, was uh gosh, that seemed like a month ago. Uh I went out to Country Meadow because that's my neck of the woods and they were parking in the grass. So, I I don't know if it killed the grass, but there were a lot of cars. There were Steve was out there. He unfortunately had to babysit his grandkids, which was awful. I know. Um, but the turnout was amazing. Rosie, you you you you brought them in. I don't even without food. I'm impressed. >> You you you did amazing. And then I came to the middle school craze and I think there were two or
09230 hundred people standing out in and I got here late and there were two or 30 hundred people waiting to get in the building. I thought, are they giving away something that I didn't really know about? So, I snuck in the side door and thought, "Oh, they're just waiting in line." So, those they seem like great successes. I've heard good things from the other three elementaryaries that things went great, that kids are coming in, parents are stop crying now because they're preschool and kindergarten kids are are back in the routine and the parents have something to do. And I think Marcus, yours is tomorrow night, 6:00 to 7. So hopefully we can have a big crowd out there, see what's going on, not just to see what the building is like, but check out the
093outside part. You know, get out of your house, get off your phone, just just get outside. It's going to be nice, >> right? >> All right, my last thing. Um, I'm a part of the Indiana School Board Association and we get newsletters, two a day. Two a day. And when you click on one, there's three, four, five, six, seven things that you can click and read. And I got onto one and was kind of reading through it and it was probably 25 paragraphs about schools. And it mentioned that in the last eight years, 308 new laws have been implemented that relate to K through 12 schools. And I thought, who who keeps track of that? Well, I know who keeps track of that. It's these three people over here. It's these three people over here.
094Their combined experience in education is over a hundred years. I don't think you could find >> Thanks to you. >> Lori Lori puts us over the bar. >> I didn't say that. But I don't think you can find maybe that much experience. But they're all from this neck of the woods. So they all know Dalb. So you can go to other schools and they may have experienced people but they came from other parts of the state or other states. But on July 15th um we had our superintendent evaluation at our executive meeting. Uh Tony and I and Katie and Val uh at the executive meeting uh were talking about Steve and his performance and I thought I don't know why we're talking. I I think he's done a great job ever since I've known him
095as an educator. He and I were teen teachers for six months and then you left me. Y >> um for a good reason. Um but I I I think we have the best. I mean, when you go out and hire new people, you look for the best. And I I I don't know where else we would go. So, if you're wondering why Steve is still here, because we want him here. We think he's doing a great job. And I think Lori has done a great job for everything she does behind the scenes. You never you just you don't get enough praise and education. You just don't. And um we had that executive meeting and don't know why you left. Uh we had another meeting in August to appoint all approve all of the new hirees.
096uh at 7:00 in the morning. We had a board meeting, an executive meeting, and you weren't in either one of those, and I'm not sure why, but you know, I love this job. And I I didn't run for school board to be a part of the school board. I didn't run for school board to make the Cal the way it used to be. I ran to make dec if we make it the way it was, we're going to be way behind everybody else. So, we need to shoot way above and that's my focus. If you see me out somewhere and you want to ask me a question, ask me. I'll listen. I may not have your answer, but I can find your answer. Get back to you eventually. I love this job. I told Katie,
097"This is probably the best, worst paying job I've ever had, but I would do it for less." So, I can't thank the people here in the superintendent enough. office enough you behind the scenes. I know Steve's up early, especially on those foggy mornings. You never know. You get a text at six o'clock or 5:30. Hey, what's it like at your house? Well, at my house it's foggy. So, but that's not a good sign. So, I just can't say enough about the positive things we do here. I People dwell on the bad. There's a lot of bad vibes out there. I I don't see it. I don't see it when I come here. My nephew's a priest at Waterlue. And he says, ' Man, there's a lot of people that know you. I go, well, yeah.
098He says, "They see you everywhere." I said, "Good. That's where I want to be. I want to be everywhere because that's that's my opinion what I should do." So, that's all I've got. >> Thanks, Tom. >> Thank you. >> All right. And I'll open up to administration. >> Um, I want to share some good news. Uh appreciate comments, uh Tony. Um three of us work really hard and our team, we have a great team here at central office and across all of our buildings and we just love what we do. I do want to share we just received notification this morning. Um the US News and World Report, they have these rankings that come out and the high school once again met that criteria and so I just put together some information for the board
099because you might wonder, well, what's what's the methodology behind that? How did they determine that? Um, and so it's pretty cool. Basic basically Indiana or the high school is determined to be the top 40% of Indiana high schools, number 82 in the state out of 395 high schools. That's more like top 20%. And the back of this uh document I'm sharing with you uh really breaks it down. It has a lot to do with a lot of the numbers that uh Lori was presenting on AP college readiness, just the the the breadth of curriculum that we offer in our high school. Um it really doesn't uh take into account much of our dual credit. So, um kudos to the high school staff and we've had other schools in the corporation receive this recognition. This isn't
100this isn't anything that we we go after or seek. uh we get notification and uh so we I like that it's just uh fairly authentic. It's based on the results that we have and the student population that we serve. So just wanted to share that. You'll probably see something um because we like to promote good things that are happening and that's certainly one. So kudos to Mr. Wagner and you know your staff for meeting that now I think since uh 2020 every year since 2020. So congratulations. >> I think that's a great honor. >> Um 3941. That's the national ranking. >> That would be the national. I think there are over 17,000 high schools. >> Yeah, something in that neighborhood, Tony. I don't know the exact number. I could find it, but it's like over
10117,000 >> high schools. There would be a lot more than that. >> That's what I mean. >> Yeah. >> 50 states, right? >> Yep. 395 in in >> in Indiana. Let's call 400, right? Well, I guess that would be 20,000, would it? So, it's good recognition. It's something to take a look at. And the methodology has changed over time. So, it's been a couple years since I really uh dug into the methodology behind it, but it gives you a good breakdown of of how they determine and and we were we again, I always take a look at the comparative. How do how do we do against our neighbors in the four four county areas and even into Allen County and beyond. and we we do really well comparatively to uh our other schools. There were
102a handful of schools that ranked a little bit higher, but very proud of of the work that's getting done there. So, >> congratulations. Congratulations. >> I have something that's very near and dear to my heart and and uh want to to recognize Amanda this evening, Amanda Rice. Over the summer, the disabled American veterans reached out to Amanda at Waterlue Elementary and it had a lot to do with I think the fact that what is it three years ago you pursued the Purple Heart uh designation and so that's our one of our elementaryaries designation. Um and so they reached out to her and invited um Waterlue Elementary to participate in their Field of Flags event. And this is a fundraising event for the the disabled American veterans. And for every $250 that participants raise, they will
103be sent 24 flags, American flags to be planted in and around their school or their I guess if it's a business, but for us it's our elementary school in honor and support of veterans. The disabled American veterans then use the funds to support um ill and injured heroes. So, it's a it's a great cause. It's a great lesson for our young people. Waterlue has a couple of really great um established partnerships Amanda has built in that community and um I want to just mention the two big donors tonight. Richard Squire Pallets gave a nice donation and so did Star Technology and so we're really glad that she's got those partnerships going up there in Wateroo and very thankful for that. Um she continues to seek out in fact tonight she text me during the meeting
104to tell me that she just got $200 more dollars. So, so we're up to 750 and actually I guess they keep track of it, right, Amanda? So, right now she's second in the nation for funds. Now, it just kind of started so we'll see how it progresses. But this will ensure 48 flags right now. 48. Well, it'll be now more because of the 250 for the students to plant around the school this fall. And in addition to planting the flags, students will be honoring local veterans by attaching a name card to each flag. And so the fundraising continues through the end of October and I just thank you for putting in that time and energy for that. It's a great thing for that any town but especially for Waterlue when you drive through and you
105see all the banners and and then we know that that our children are learning about that. >> Love that. >> Great job. Well, since to invoked the hundred years of experience, I was I didn't want to take away from Cindy and Gary Boyd's recognition with a little levity, but Steve and I don't like to see people like Cindy leave because now we're down to five people in the district that have more experience than he and I. So, I've always I've always liked it if I could use two hands to describe how many people are above me and experience. And as they keep dropping off, I realize how old I am. It's But um Cindy's Cindy's fantastic. >> Cindy and Gary did a fantastic job. I just wanted to piggyback on what Marcus said. Very well
106said. And uh I remember when I came to Decal, Cindy was teaching English at the high school. It's when you're in education, I always tell people your clientele never ages. So, you always feel young, you know, and who we service is always the same age. So, maybe that's why I've never grown up and feel like I'm 16 still. But, uh, it's always tough to see an educator like that that committed themselves to Decal Central leave. Uh, but very welld deserved retirement. >> I think we can get Gary back, too. >> Kind of like it. >> I think we might be reaching back together. >> I think she drug him out. >> All right. Well, thank every thank you everyone. Um, no one signed up to speak, but is there anyone in the audience that has
107anything to share? >> Okay. Well, at this time, I would like to add into the minutes there will be an executive session following this meeting. Um, our work session will be a combined meeting with our facilities and operations advisory group. Um, and that will be held on September 4th here at central office at 6 o'clock pm. Um, our next regular board meeting is September 16th here at central office at 6 o'clock p.m. So, at this time, I will ask the board to entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. >> Motion a second. Any other discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Oh, yeah. >> Meeting adjourned. Thank you all.