001I'd like to call to order the October 6, 2025 meeting of the school board. Uh would everyone please rise for the pledge >> algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Amanda did anyone sign up today? No. Okay, we will start with, let me get the mic closer. 2.01 uh student and staff recognitions. Uh starting with our National Merit Semi-finalists. Congratulations to Chester High School seniors who have been named the National Merit Semi-finalists in 2026 National Merit Scholarship Corporation competition. Uh those seniors who were named this year as National Merit Semi-finalists are Emory McKitty and Janie Zang. At this time, I would like to invite Emory and Janie to please come forward and
002big congratulations. [Applause] We'd also like to congratulate tonight the unified botchi ball team, a new CHS unified sport. This team is off to a fantastic start for the district as a state runnerup on September 20th at the unified botchi ball state tournament in Carmel, Indiana. The team placed second out of 24 teams, beating Penn Cathedral and Bishop Chitaard along the way, only missing first place by one point in the final match. Our our team members are Susie Frink, Kylie Flynn, Richard Blue Jagen, uh Kana Johnson, Nate McBride, Cassidy Robinson, Kinsley Robinson, Jeremy Schmidt, Melody Stevenson, Brandy Wade, Sarah Waters, and Gavin Wiler. The team is coached by Jessica Evans. At this time, uh they're all up front, so congratulations [Applause] Somebody. [Applause] I Doesn't matter. [Applause] You're up. >> Good evening. I'm Kelly Hardwick. I
003am the principal at Liberty Intermediate and on behalf of both the Liberty campus and Westchester campus, we are proud tonight to recognize both of our intermediate and middle school level student councils with this month's distinctively Dunan Inspire Award. These dedicated students are leaders and focus on building school spirit, fostering a positive learning environment, and giving a voice to their peers. They also sponsor many events and activities throughout the school year that support both our students and the broader community. Here are just a few examples of some of the initiatives that our student councils lead at our schools. Liberty Intermediate School Student Council sponsors an annual food drive. They also organize our Red Ribbon Week activities as well as they are looking forward to sponsoring our first Socktober sock drive this fall. Westchester Intermediate School Student
004Council helps host family events such as the Title One Bingo Night. They work on their homecoming parade float and organize a tissue drive for their school. Liberty Middle School Student Council sponsors school dances. They also assist with the Veterans Day program and donate goods to local pantry or food pantries. Westchester Middle School Student Council collects and distributes items for the angel tree. They also sponsor school dances and plan spirit week activities. The Inspire Award celebrates Trojans who embody exemplary leadership, demonstrating the mindsets, behaviors, and skills needed to succeed in school and beyond. Our student council members and sponsors are shining examples of a positive role model. And we thank them for their commitment to leading with purpose and inspiring others. So sponsors and members, as we read your name, please come to the front and
005bring your certificate with you. Liberty Intermediate School sponsor is Sherry Simmons. And students are Rosie Kaplan, David Foresight, Cade Serene, and Macy Carmichael. [Applause] from Liberty Middle School. Tonight we have our sponsors Dora Becker and Carly Benjike. Also students Ryan Serrain, David Broas, Charlotte Rossi, and Adrien Clemens. [Applause] Uh here tonight from Westchester Intermediate School, we have our sponsor Delila Reer and student representatives Brooklyn Low, Abigail Giuliano, Nolan Harris, and Jace Dyer. [Applause] and And then also here from Westchester Middle School, our sponsor Laura Odell and student representatives London Smallwood, Jackson Ballas, Payton O'Brien, Audrey Marcaldo, and Luke Mueller. [Applause] Thank you. We'd also like to congratulate our elementary school counselors for demonstrating exemplary leadership by successfully completing Indiana's comprehensive school counseling initiative, Carry the Torch to Student Success at the highest level possible. Gold
006Star. Indiana is now one of six states in the nation to earn reciprocity with ASCAS's ramp program for its new carrying a torch to student success comprehensive school counseling initiative. Schools who successfully complete the gold level programming will also earn a ramp certification. This is the replacement for gold star recognition, a designation that all the Dulan schools had previously completed. ths was recognized for the same achievement in 2024 and our five to eight schools are on track to receive similar recognition when their work is complete. These school counselors will recognize will be recognized for this achievement at the November Indiana school counselors conference. At this time I would ask that our K our five K through four school counselors come forward for recognition. uh Heather Kellogg Bailey uh Coach M Brummit Michelle Bruss Jackson Lizzie
007Steno Liberty Lions and Sue Harmanson for Yost Elementary. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] We'll move on to uh 3.01 Dulan School Corporation Health Safety and Wellness Presentation. Thank you. From time to time, we always like to come in front of the board to talk about our safety, our health, and our wellness initiatives or just to give an overview of our programs. And so, I want to start on the safety side. And uh you can never go wrong with starting our our safety talk without uh mentioning our school resource officers. Um you have there on your screen our six school resource officers led by Lieutenant Christian. Um this uh this past year we were able to unfortunately lost uh Mike Steiggy who became a detective for the Porter County Sheriff's Department, but we're lucky
008enough to be able to bring over Sergeant Al Farro over at the Liberty Intermediate and Middle School. And uh I always like to go on record every time I talk about our SRO's. I've worked in numerous school corporations. By far the best uh school resource officers that I've ever worked with or I've ever seen. Um, these school res these school resource officers are here for the right reason. They really enjoy working with our students, obviously keep our campuses safe, but uh, it's just a joy to watch them interact with our kids each day from our kindergarteners all the way up through our seniors. They do a fantastic job. Uh, looking at school resource officers throughout Northwest Indiana, uh, we do have six full-time school resource officers leading Northwest Indiana for the most, which is always
009which is always good. Uh we have two of our our SRO's u cover our K through four buildings, two in our five through eight campuses and two at our high school. And you could see the Northwest Indiana average there of 2.88 per district uh 75 at K through 4, one 5 through8 and 1.13. So we're doubling uh the school resource officer efforts across Northwest Indiana and very proud of that. Um and watching once again those folks work with our kids and our staff every single day. Our school resource officers are are trained to work with students um through the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy and the Indiana School Resource Officer Association plus additional training that they receive as police officers through Chesterton Police Department. Uh moving on on the safety aspect uh to our cameras
010um throughout our renovation process um we've been able to enhance our camera system uh throughout the school corporation. And you could see a couple of those were live shots when I screenshotted them, but uh you could see some pictures there. Looks at the look at the quality of our camera system and that we have 99% probably about 99.7% of our district covered inside and outside interior and exterior cameras throughout the district. We have over 350 handheld radios that we utilize each and every day for routine measures uh as well as any type of a safety situation. And so our teachers, our staff are in constant communication with one another via this radio system. Uh so at any point in time they can reach out to the office, to a school resource officer or whatever whatever
011their need might be either through the telephones in their classroom and or through their handheld radio. New this year is our rave panic button. Uh we were able to launch this at the start of the school year. Uh this gives every employee that has access to a cellular phone access to medical through the fire department as well as any type of active asalent situation at the at the touch of a button. So another great addition to our safety programming this school year uh and a big enhancement from our previous application school guard. Um just a brief demonstration not demonstration I don't want to click any buttons but a little talk about how this works here. Um at any point in time any of those five buttons can be triggered. We focus on the top three
012active asalent, fire, and medical within our buildings. Uh that makes an immediate phone call to 911 through geo fencing. It is able to identify where that call or where that application is being triggered all the way down to the actual room. Uh at the same time, every law enforcement officer within Porter County is also notified. So we als we have a direct connection with 911 through an app. every law enforcement officer is notified and that that starts that real-time collaboration between 911 and our first responders as they're responding to one of our buildings in the case of an emergency. We continue to revise and train regularly on our emergency response plan which is filled with best practices in the area of school safety. Um someone told me recently I might be getting carried away. It's
013at 207 pages, 207 pages right now. Uh, but there are requirements by the state as well as making sure that all areas of school safety are identified within our plan. Uh, not something that we expect our staff to memorize memorize, but they have access to it so they know in any specific situation. It's there to assist them and they do have access to it via that application as well through the Rafe Panic button digitally. Everything that we do school safety wise is based on a standard response protocol. See that poster there on the right hand side and you'll you'll find in all of our classrooms and throughout the hallways and all of our buildings. And so that is kind of the backbone of our safety plan and what we drill monthly on for all of
014our different uh safety drill requirements. Uh new since the last time we reported is the say something anonymous reporting system. That's through the Sandy Hook Promise. Uh this is the ability for students uh to report via a mobile app, through a phone number or their website any type of safety uh concern that they might uh be dealing with or they might encounter or they might have heard about uh as well as parents and community members. Uh that sends a message to all of our administrators and school resource officers 247, gives us detailed information. It is staffed 247 by a a crisis team down in Miami, Florida. So at no point in time if there's a situation that's that someone reaches out that it doesn't get answered. Whereas in the past we had an an email,
015an anonymous email that you know if I was home sleeping and I, you know, it didn't alert me, I had to wait for the next morning to see it. Now we get that phone call directly from Miami whenever there's a situation that that needs immediate attention. Uh and so our administrators, our school res off school resource officers have done a fantastic job working with the say something app here for the last uh year and a half. We've also finished our changeover of all of our classrooms to what's called a store room lock. Uh previously uh a room to to lock a room, a teacher would have to take their keys, go out in the hallway and manually uh set their door to lock. Um, and now with a store room lock function, as long as
016a door is closed, it is locked from the outside. So, we keep our classroom doors closed. That way, we know from the hallway that they are automatically locked. So, that's just a a best practice uh safety measure that we've put into place in all of our buildings. We've also equipped all of our classrooms with crisis buckets. um they are um equipped with anything that a classroom might need in the case of an extended lockdown. Once again, something we hope we never have to use, but it's nice to be able to know that uh in a case of a lockdown that we have some of the the materials and supplies that our teachers and students would need. We've worked hard over the last two years on our reunification plan. have done a couple of drills now,
017one at Yoast and one at Liberty Elementary, most likely planning for a reunification drill next school year uh to make sure that our plan is solid. It's been uh well drilled and that our team feels comfortable um not just doing tabletop exercises or reading about it in a plan, but actually practicing it. And so you could see a couple of pictures from a from our drills there um with our reunification plan. Moving on to health services. Um we are excited about the addition of our director of health services who is a nurse practitioner Sam Hunter who oversees health services for the corporation and then she oversees 12 registered nurses throughout the school corporation. So we have two RNs at Chesterton High School, two at Liberty Campus, two at Westchester, then one each in our elementary
018buildings and one here at the Trojan Learning Center. So, I would I would put those numbers of registered nurses against anybody within Northwest Indiana for sure. Uh, and to make sure that we have folks in our buildings that are able to take care of our students health needs. They've done a great job. Um, our nurses got together last year uh and made sure that all of our buildings and then our district was project atom certified. Uh, you can see some pictures there from one of our drills and we've talked about this previously at a board meeting. and also that we now have 34 AEDs within the school corporation and they're all the same AEDs. Uh whereas several years ago we had different models. Now we have the same AED. So our training kits and so
019forth match with what one of our employees might deal with in an emergency situation. And we've used them. You know, we've talked about that we've utilized AEDs more than 10 times in the last three years within our school corporation. Moving on to the wellness side. It's an overview of our school counseling and mental health services. Um we have 16 licensed school counselors within our school corporation. You can see six at the high school, two each at our intermediate middle school campuses and then one at each elementary school. And then in addition, we have a licensed mental health counselor that rotates between all of our buildings. And so, you know, they've done a done a great job, a few here obviously today to be rewarded for for their hard work. Um but just to mention that
020uh they did receive that Indiana Goldstar counseling award. We are now complete at the high school and the elementary and 5 through8 will be finishing up here soon. So uh there was an old program gold star. It's been completely revamped and we're working back through that process now. So excited that our counselors have gone above and beyond and that gold star award just means that you are that they are exhibiting best practices and and in the the appropriate counseling models that are recommended throughout the country. So very excited about that and their uh their work with our students. Um and then we have agreements as well. We have agreements with Crown Counseling for social work services and Porter Stark services um for some social work assistance at our elementary schools. Crown Counseling mostly does 5
021through 12. Um and so that's gone very well here in the last couple of years servicing the needs of our students um when they have needs that are outside the scope of our school counselors. And in addition, we have a memorandum of understanding with Velparezo Community Schools and ported schools where if we ever have a situation that overt taxes the counseling needs of our school corporation, we have anou with those school corporations where they would share their counselors with us or we would do the same with them in any type of a situation. Once again, that overtaxes our counseling services. We have that same agreement with Crown Counseling and Porter Stark. So, if the need ever arises, we have the support needed for the mental health needs of our students. That is all I have.
022Thank you. Any questions? >> No, Robert. Thank you. >> All right. Having no one signed up for patron participation, we will move to the consent agenda item five. And I'll entertain a motion. Move to accept the consent agenda as presented. Sorry. Can you guys hear me? made a motion to accept it. Second, >> first and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Thank you. >> 6.01. New business. Chester High School advanced placement fees. >> Thank you. The Doomland School Corporation regularly updates student fees in alignment with the Indiana Department of Education permissible guidelines, including costs for students enrolled in advanced placement courses and their subsequent exams. For the 2526 school year, IDOE will provide subsidies for up to two STEM related end of course AP exams and
023offer reduced fees for students who qualify for free and reduced lunch and tuition support. The College Board, the organization administering the exam, sets the cost at $99 per exam and $40 for canceled, dropped, or returned exams. DSC administration is requesting approval to set a fee of $99 per exam taken beyond those covered by the IDOE subsidy along with a $40 fee for exams that are canceled, dropped, or returned during the 2526 school year. >> Thank you, Dr. Pettit. I'll entertain a motion. I'll second. >> Uh first and a second. Any discussion? >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Thank you. 6.02 Chester High School health class instruction on human sexuality. Thank you. The administration is requesting board approval to use the two YouTube videos included in your board packet as
024part of the as part of the human sexuality unit in Chesterton High School health courses. These videos align with the requirements of Senate Enrolled Act 442 which mandates that schools provide a highdefinition ultrasound video at least 3 minutes in duration showing the development of the brain, heart, sex organs and other vital organs in early fetal development. and a highquality computerenerated rendering or animation showing the process of fertilization in each stage of fetal development into the uterus, noting significant markers in cell growth and organ development for every week of pregnancy from fertilization to birth. Before a school may provide a student with instruction on human sexuality, the school must provide the parent of the student or the student if the student is an adult or an emancipated minor with a written request for consent of instruction.
025A consent form will be provided to the enrolled students/parents prior to the start of the instructional unit. >> Thank you. I'll entertain a motion on 6.02. >> I'll make a motion to accept class instruction. I'll second >> a first and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any oppose? Thank you. 6.03 first reading policy 2221 2410 2414 2416 2461 3220.02 5200 5223 5517 5517.01 5600 5605 5610 5611 and 5711. >> Thank you. The administration respectfully requests your approval to revise the following board policies. 2221 has been revised to reflect the changes made to Indiana law by Senate enroll 442 introduction on human sexuality and and it adds cross references, corrects capitalization and punctuation and to reflect current terminology. 2410 and 2461 has been revised to incorporate changes mandated by the
026addition of Indiana Code 20-26-5-45, which prohibits school corporations from adopting a policy or otherwise preventing a parent from recording an IEP meeting. 2414 has been revised to incorporate the changes made to uh Indiana code by Senate enrolled act 442 based on human sexuality. 2416 has been revised to reflect the changes to Indiana code once again by 442 on the introduction of human sexuality. 2623 has been revised to incorporate the changes made by Indiana code 20-32-8-5.2 by house enrolled act 1499. 3220.02 has been revised to incorporate the amendments to Indiana code uh made by Senate enrolled act 249. Policy 5200 was revised to incorporate the changes made by House and Rule Deck 482, absenteeism and student discipline, including the definition of chronically absent and the definition of a habitual truent student. 5223 has been revised to
027incorporate the changes made to Indiana code 20-33-2-9 made by Senate enrolled act 255. 5517 is being revised to omit the parenthetical that reads including gender status, sexual orientation, and or gender identity due to the current interpretation of title 9 by the US Department of Education. 5517.01 has been revised to incorporate the changes to Indiana code 20-33-8-13.5 made by Senate Enrolled Act 255. 5600 uh which prohibits uh the suspension or expulsion of a student solely because the student is chronically absent or habitual truent. 5605 has been revised to prohibit the suspension or expulsion of a student solely because the student is chronically absent or habitual truent. 5610. This policy has been revised to add options for reporting expulsions and second suspensions to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. 5611 is a technical correction and is to add
028the citation of Indiana code 20-33-8-18 and to make the policy language consistent with Neil's other policies. And 5771 is being revised. Uh and it requires the parents be given the opportunity to collect student property if the student has died, transferred, dropped out, or otherwise withdrawn from enrollment in the school corporation. >> Thank you, Mr. McDerman. I'll intend a motion uh for first reading on those policies. >> I'll make a motion to accept those first reading on those policies. >> Thank you. First and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? 6.04 4 f final reading policy 2131 2340 5462 6116 6151 8121 8451 7300 7310 7455 8405 and 8510 >> Thank you. The administration respectfully requests your approval to revise or replace the following board policies 2131.
029These policies are being combined into a single policy that has incorporated the Indiana Department of Education's goals for students to graduate from high school in the state as expectations for the corporation students. 2340. This policy has been revised significantly to address separately field trips, extracurricular and co-curricular trips, overnight travel, other corporation sponsored trips that are not sponsored by the corporation and transportation on trips. 5462. This policy has been revised to add an option for retaking a class to allow students who earn grades below a B to retake the class and earn credit hours toward a seal on the new Indiana high school diploma. 611. This policy has been revised to require the corporation to bring its accounts into an auditable condition within 90 days if the corporation is declared to be unaudited by the Indiana
030State Board of Accounts because it failed to reconcile accounts, records, files, or reports. 6116. This policy has been revised to require that any anticipated employee compensation amounts, including hourly costs and or stipens, be approved by the board before they are incurred. 6151. This policy has been revised to address outstanding stale dated checks and insufficient fund checks. 7300. This policy has been revised to ensure compliance with amendments to Indiana code sections resulting from Senate Enrolled Act 2070 and Senate enrolled act 391 391. 7310. Technical this technical correction has been made to add the drafting note advising the board to use the same amount in this policy as was used in board policy 7450 7455. This policy has been revised to explain the cost included in a capital asset into cross reference policy 7310 and 7450 when
031setting a threshold for capitalizing assets to ensure consistency in board policy. 8121. This policy has been revised to be consistent with background check requirements of all other board policies. 8405. This policy been revised to incorporate the requirements of Indiana code 1641-21.2 for child care facilities and preschools water testing for lead. 8451's policy has been revised to incorporate terminology changes uh and the use of the term parasitic infestation and to incorporate provisions for managing bed bug infestations and 8510. This policy has been revised to ensure compliance with current federal laws and regulations regarding nutrition and include the non-discrimination provisions required by federal laws and regulations. >> Thank you. I'll entertain a motion uh to approve those policies on second reading. >> To approve those second >> first and a second. Any further discussion? >> All in
032favor please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Thank you. 7.02 O2 public relations highlights. >> I'm going to pinch it for Bridget tonight since her voice is a little horsearo. Um, she'd like you to know that the first grading period will end on Friday, October 10th, and report cards will be available on the Skyward family access parent portal on Tuesday, October 17th at 3 p.m. Parents have the option of printing out their students report card. Parents needing access assistance to their parent portal on Skyward should contact their child's school directly. Also, fall recess. There will be no school for all Dunland students on Thursday and Friday, October's 24th, 23rd, and 24th for fall at recess. Classes will resume on Monday, October 27th. >> Thank you. 7.03 03 superintendent comments. >> Nothing tonight. Thank you. >>
033I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Thank you. We are adjourned and I'd like to call to order a public hearing on our 26 to public hearing for our 2026 budget, 2026 to 2028 capital projects and capital asset plan and the 2026 to 2030 bus replacement plan. Lynn, the floor is yours. >> Thank you. That's the forward. Okay. Well, we all know I struggle with forward and backward on this. So, welcome to the public hearing for our budget, for our bus replacement plan, and our capital assets and capital projects plan. Tonight, we're going to go over information that you have seen in the past. Um, but as a good reminder and an update as to where we are at this point in time, we're going to um review that Okay. Okay. Amanda's
034gonna help me out on that. Okay. Um because the the remote doesn't want to work. Um Brandon asked me if he was getting silos or um buckets. Tonight you get um pots of gold. Um I figured we needed something different. Um, all schools operate with an education and an operations fund. Um, we also most have a debt service fund and some schools like us have an operating referendum fund and some even have a capital referendum fund. Um, so those are our main school accounts. Next, so then you say, well, where does that money come from and how do we get that? Um, briefly we're going to look at our operations fund gets its money from property taxes. Those are the community approved um, funding that is either for seven or eight years and it is
035a rate per $100 of assessed valuation and is sub not subject to the property tax caps the because they are specifically approved by the community. The current Dunland operating referendum was a renewal of the 22 cent tax rate and lasts through budget year 2026. By statute as a renewal, it was a seven-year referendum. Currently, the school corporation is seeking to renew our referendum here in November of 2025, one year early. as a result of the changes to the referendum process. Specifically, that the community vote for the continuation of a referendum can only occur in November. Under these new rules from Senate Enrolled Act One, if we wait until November of 2026 to seek this approval, we would not know our outcome until the time at which u we're making these budget decisions. And it is
036difficult to make personnel decisions and budget decisions in the middle of a school year. Positive or negative changes in the middle of a school year would be disruptive to the educational process. Um I'm going to say more about our referendum moving forward in a few minutes. Next we have our debt service. You can leave that one there. Thank you. Debt service fund. Its source is also property taxes. The funds are based upon the repayment due in the budget year which is the calendar year. We are also allowed to include a minimal operating balance along with the actual payment amounts so that there is a small amount of emergency funding available to make the debt payments should property taxes be delayed. It's been um since the pandemic we have not had any delays. Um our education
037funds primary source is state support. Funding from the state of Indiana is determined by each school's student enrollment count in October and then it is adj adjusted subsequently in February. Lastly on this chart you see our operations fund. The operations fund receives money from both property taxes and a portion of the state funding that is transferred from the education fund to it. Property taxes are set by a state maximum levy. the amount of funding can be transferred to the education from the education fund cannot exceed 15% of that total ed fund revenue. There's not a specific punitive mandate on that percentage. Um but the state does examine and make sure that we stay under that amount. Um if you don't, you get on the what they call the naughty list. um which is just a
038public um list of school corporations who have transferred more than 15%. For 2026, we are proposing an 8.4% transfer from education to operations, which equates to $4,14,000 over the course of calendar 26. Once this dollar amount is set, it cannot be increased. On the flip side, it should be noted that the board may at any time throughout the budget year in a public meeting and by resolution reduce that ED to ops transfer amount. Administration does monitor each month to ensure that Dunland does not exceed the allowable amount and recommends the actions to take should that occur. And we did reduce that one year in our recent past. Next slide. After losing student students during the pandemic, closing the outofd district in-person student enrollment and with smaller kindergarten classes than our graduating classes, we're happy to
039report that our 2526 enrollment appears to be higher overall than last year. Good news. The continuation of the Northwest Indiana online school has not only provided students with an additional opportunity to complete their K to2 career, but has also helped serve as an offset to those loss of out of district student enrollment. The Indiana General Assembly adjusts the state formula and the amount of funding that it will provide to K to2 education during the legislative session of each state bienium. Earlier in 2025, that was a budget-making session and both the formula as well as the total funding dollars were adjusted. Overall, the average increase in state support was approximately 2%. Duman will see that 2% funding increase for the 2526 school year, but that increase is slated to be less than 1% in the 2627
040school year. It should be noted that this legislator legislation added the curricular materials funding to the formula which makes it look like we're receiving new money. But really it is nothing more than adding a categorical amount of funding that was not included in the past in the formula to the that base that we receive each month along with our normal state support. This leaves each school corporation to manually separate the curricular materials funding out from the overall general funding in order to ensure that curricular materials remains available to pay for our materials, student instructional supplies that are needed for student instruction. Since the primary focus of the 2025 legislative session was to provide additional property tax relief to our individual taxpayers beyond the current 1% tax cap. The state funding formula increases were minimal and
041as noted only approximately 2% across all school districts statewide. Unfortunately, that provides little opportunity to increase or expand student programs or services or to even keep up with inflation. Next slide. We're going to look at each fund. We're not going to read those. Um the our education fund is primarily to in uh support direct instruction and is primarily people. It also includes those curricular materials, textbooks, worksbooks, instructional student supplies, and instructional software up to that newly allocated amount that was um the state now provides. Um, speaking of that amount, um, it is about a $158 per student or for our 202526 budget, approximately $920,000. Next slide. Our operations fund. All other people and programs that make up the school corporation are funded here. Recall that in 2019, the state combined and eliminated the separate transportation,
042bus replacement, and CPS funds and created the single operations fund. The operations fund also includes the former general fund, non-instructional people, and items such as custodial folks, maintenance, utilities, and central administration. Since those services and non-instructional expenditures did not just vanished because educ the um ed general fund was changed, they were reassigned to the operations fund. I I am continuing here to repeat this all these years later because this combination of funds and reassigning the these other expenses back to from the um from the general fund to the operations fund is why we transfer part of our state support to the operations fund. Next slide. This is just a kind of a graphic representation of what does that operations fund uh cover. It is the people outside of instruction. So bus drivers, maintenance, custodial and
043corporation administrative support. It's also utilities, corporation property and casualty and cyber insuranceances and the it also has some of these other things like bus fuel and bus replacement in there. Um but the top go the top getters are people, utilities and insurance. Next slide. Debt service. The debt service and fund includes the outstanding debt payments for the budget year. And we have general obligation bonds, holding corporation lease rental payments, common school fund loans, and our debt service fees. Next slide. Thank you. Um that is a lot of numbers and that is our remaining payment obligations from now through 2041. As as we discussed at the time that the capital improvement debt was approved in 2021, repayment of this undertaking replaced the vast majority of our existing debt. We added a GO bond in 2023 that
044we began repaying in 24. We added a GO bond in 24 that we began repaying this year. and we added a geo bond here in 25 that we will begin repaying in 26. We also obtained a common school fund loan to assist with the cost of replacing student iPads and Chromebooks. These bonds have provided the corporation with the opportunity to update and improve our instructional co-curricular and extracurricular facilities throughout the entire district. Next slide. The referendum fund. The referendum fund may fund any lawful expenditure other than debt payments um that the school corporation has. Our referendum fund assists with teacher salaries, stipens, and teacher retention, student um aids in the classroom and lunch, reading specialists, instructional coaches, nurses, high ability aids, multilingual programs, teacher and aids, our SRO's, unique student experiences, professional development for our
045teaching staff, and special programs in accordance with the corporation's strategic plan. Next slide. This is something we haven't seen before. This is the referendum proposed revenue spending plan. For referendums with a different tax amount than were previously approved by statute, the school board must annually adopt a spending plan for those funds. This was the plan that was adopted by the board in June of 2025. In order to pursue the current referendum renewal process since our proposed rate of renewal is different, the format is prescribed and must account for the maximum amount for which the school corporation may levy. In the upcoming renewal, the maximum amount that the school corporation may levy is $16,179,52 or 39, whichever is less. As a result of the 2025 legislative changes, not only did this time frame change referendums to
046November only, but the legislature also put constraints on the amount of funding that a referendum levy and rate could provide to the school corporation. In the past, the 22 cent referendum rate was applied to the assessed valuation amount and the dollar amount to be received was a mathematical levy result. As AV grew, the levy grew even though the rate remained constant during the entire referendum. Now the new legislation sets that maximum rate and maximum levy and those remain in place throughout the eight years. Neither can be exceeded at any time. Thus, as AV grows each year, the maximum rate you cannot um that we use u will produce a smaller levy amount um that than the actual maximum levy amount. So, while the school corporation receives the referendum funding that was approved, the amount cannot
047grow unchecked during the referendum period. That's a mouthful. Um therefore, in order to have enough funding in later years, the board may determine that it is prudent to levy the maximum amount in the early years of the referendum cycle and save those funds for use in later years. Or it may simply levy only the minimal amount needed to fund the current year budget. Next slide. This is a picture representation of what we would propose that that $16 million would cover. Um, it shows that we are proposing that we would levy that maximum rate, but we would only budget to spend what we immediately need in 2026 and the unbudgeted funds would be put in the rainy day fund as a savings for future years. Next slide. onto our plans. The bus replacement plan for 25
048or 2026 through 2030. Buses may be replaced on a 12-year cycle. We have generally held to the replacement cycle and occasionally had to replace a bus earlier than 12 years if the repair cost had become significant given the age of the bus. We have also kept buses with low mileage and minimal wear and tear longer than than 12 years and use those as spares. The budgeted replacement costs are based on the type of the bus. The replacement for the year um is the number of buses that are eligible for replacement in each of those years. in 26. It reflects that we have chosen although there are four buses that could qualify. We have chosen that we will replace three because those three are having significant mileage and require ongoing maintenance that is beyond the normal
049maintenance and repair. You can see that we're pa we're facing some years that um that number will increase significantly of what's eligible. But at each year, our mechanic staff and our director reviews each of those buses to make sure that it does need to be replaced at that particular period in time. So, some of those may not actually need to be replaced in the year shown, but those would be what we know about right now as potential um for replacement. When bus replacement was its own fund prior to 2019, there was no question about adhering to the plan and having enough money to fund the eligible buses because the tax funds were specifically um levied for that purpose and they were maintained in a separate bus replacement fund. Now that bus replacement is part of
050the operations fund, we have to do a little bit of a balancing act between strict adherence to the plan versus reallocation of of funds to other operational expenses. Next slide. Capital assets and capital projects plan. Projects and assets that cost more than $10,000 must be listed by year and reviewed as a part of the annual budget process. Those detailed lists were um posted on the Dunland and the Gateway websites and I did not um re replicate them tonight here. Shame on me. Um CPF projects are developed by reviewing our con comprehensive building assessments, evaluating our equipment, and looking to needed changes that will enhance our educational program. As a result of the $ 160 million capital improvement projects, we were able to shift many of the previously proposed CPF projects for our K to8 buildings
051to that district-wide initiative. However, the current projects and equipment in in the current plan consist of both routine and preventative maintenance of our existing buildings and equipment districtwide. The asset portion of the plan includes instructional technology upgrades for um Chesterton High School since the high school was not able to be upgraded as a result of the various bonding projects today. The totals shown here are certainly greater than we can actually expect to accomplish with our educ our operations fund structure. While these things have been prioritized, we continue to make um rep prioritization before we begin any work uh or make any of the purchases. Inflation and availability issues continue to be a cost and timing factor when any significant project work or equipment purchases are considered and that just adds to the ongoing rep prioritization
052and adjustment to these plans. Next slide. This is a statutory notice regarding the budget hearing and adoption. The estimated budgets and tax le levies are provided along with the maximum operation fund levy and the expected circuit breaker losses for the upcoming year as a result of Senate enrolled act one. However, the direct credits to taxpayers are also part of the amount shown here and that is in the um 2 um $2 million almost $2.3 million. 1.1 million of that overall $2.3 million loss is a result of these new credits. Taxpayer credit losses are real and they will be immediately affecting our amount of money that we receive in our operations fund tax levy. Which means that the school corporation um will propose a budget on in that uh fund of 23.5 million for 2026. But
053we will only receive tax revenue to support 21.2 2 million as a result of the existing tax caps and the new direct taxpayer credits that were enacted by the general assembly earlier this year under SEA1. The numbers on these forms are maximums for which we can be approved during the budget process. For example, we are advertising that operations max levy at $18,850,000. And that's slightly greater than what you see at $18,73353, which is what the state has set. we're only going to be approved for that maximum of the state, but we always protect ourselves um by making the advertised estimate slightly higher so that if there are any state changes that increase that maximum levy amount, we can capture those additional funds. The debt service levy is higher than in 2025. This is expected as
054a result of the capital improvement projects undertakings, the general obligation bonds, and the common school fund loan repayments. As we noted previously, this amount act represents the actual amount required for repayment during calendar 25. The operations fund levy is greater than last year because that levy amount is simply a state determined multiplier this year of 4% and it is apply applied to the prior year's levy which then makes a mathematical increase to the amount that we are eligible for. This process is used with schools throughout the state and it's set by the state. The levy for the referendum fund shown here is the entire 39 cent maximum levy for which we are eligible if the November 25 referendum renewal is successful. A final rate and levy will be determined when the DLGF completes its review
055of our budget in December. A final opportunity is provided to the board at that time to reduce that amount if if they desire. Next slide. Assessed valuation growth for the last year was 2.1% for the referendum fund and.9% for the operations and debt fund. Um that's the first time in a very long time that our actual uh levy or our actual AV growth was so minimal. Um what you see there is that what we are going to advertise and what we um actually the growth that we expect those have already been set by our county. Um so the numbers that we have there for actual pay 2526 are real. The circuit breaker effect though continues to impact the amount of tax funds we actually receive. And now with these additional credits to homeowners for property
056tax relief from SEA1, as we just noted, although we put up a $23.5 million budget, we will need to reduce that budget for the loss of revenue that the circuit breaker and tax credits cause. That reduction will be made by limiting the potential capital projects and assets items that we actually pursue. As the circuit breaker and tax loss credits continue, the already limited growth in the operations fund revenue make it difficult to support the increased costs for routine maintenance, fuel, electricity, heat, and all other expenses that we can't control. And really, that's no different than the challenges that we all face in our own households with budgets and what we need. Next slide. The expected 2026 total school tax rate is approximately 22.1 cents higher than what was actually approved for 2025. We are projecting
057$125.28 for 26 versus 314. that was our actual. This is a result in the change of the proposed referendum tax rate. Should the referendum not be renewed at the new rate in de in November, the prevailing 22 cent rate will remain in effect through calendar 26 and the overall budget or the overall tax rate will be reduced to reflect that change. The referendum budget will also be reduced to match the reduced revenue. 2026 would be the last year for the referendum funding if the current renewal does not pass. Last slide. Changes, challenges, and what is happening beyond 2026. Curricular materials. State funds are insufficient to really cover all the needs that exist for curricular materials and instructional software. That gap is covered by our ops fund in 25, but it will be covered by the
058referendum fund in 26 and beyond due to the circuit breaker and tax cap credit losses that reduce our operations fund revenue and budget. Corporation contributions to turf that has increased or will increase for 26 from 9 and a half% to 10.1%. That equates to approximately $160 to $180,000 additional cost in 2026. The education and referendum funds where teacher retirement is paid will be affected. Increased fixed costs, goods, services, fuels, utilities increase and continue just like at home. annual ongoing student device replacement. Devices were initially purchased on a four-year lease and were all the same age. A planned replacement schedule that is ongoing was enacted last year. So, this is year two of that planned cycle so that we are not leasing but we are paying that as we go. The last big challenge is Senate
059enrolled act one from the general offend the general assembly and how it is a affecting our property tax and our property taxpayers. The effects of this legislation include not only the direct property tax relief credits to taxpayers in the that are uh already noted, but it also resets the net assessed valuation of individual taxpayer homes over the course of the next six years by decreasing the taxable AV more quickly than market value of our properties are increasing. This change essentially decreases the annual revenue available to the operations fund and leaves no method to recoup that lost revenue. Lastly, Senate Enrolled Act One also has provisions to phase in revenue sharing of our already reduced operations fund levy dollars with our local charter schools. There are also likely other effects that will be uncovered as time
060and legislative interpretations move forward. Sadly, this loss of funding with no mechanism to replace it puts us at real risk of having to scale back programs, staffing, student experiences, and health and safety initiatives that our community would expect. Last thing, the budget will be adopted on October 20th. At that time, the board still has an opportunity to reduce any budget, levy, or tax rate for 2026. The board may also make additional rep um reductions when the budget is actually received in November. So final adjustments um will be provided through a resolution that you will approve on the October 20th board meeting. Time for me to say Dr. Pettit, any added information that you would like to provide prior to the board opening the public portion of this meeting. >> Thank you, Lyn. Very comprehensive. Thank
061you. There being none, we are adjourned. have to call.