001I like these big crowds of sounds. All right. Do we have any patron concerns this evening? >> I do, but I need to shut my phone off so I don't interrupt anybody else. have to stand. State your name. You have three minutes. >> Okay. I'm ready if y'all. >> Yeah, we're ready. >> Before I get started on my time, I got a couple questions. If you got two items up on the agenda and you want to speak on them, uh, but you run out of your time on the first one, can you get back up later on after everybody else has had a chance to speak? >> No, unfortunately not. >> Huh? >> No, you cannot. Three minutes is per per patron. >> Per patron. Yeah. >> And does the answer that I get back
002from them? Does that count against my time? >> Yes. >> All right. I got like a minute and a half. >> You've already wasted a minute and a half. [laughter] That's good. That's good. That's good. Okay. Uh I don't know exactly where you all are at on everything. I know you're going to be bringing back up the extension for the contract with them. I don't know what your status is on the report that you were going to run about uh contracting the workout and stuff. I'm going to assume you're not going to vote on contracting the workout issue that's going to be reviewed yet. [clears throat] Okay. So, I'll limit my discussion towards the extension plan. And I see that you have that on your agenda. My hope is that you do vote to offer
003an extension to the United Mine Workers. And in doing so, I hope that you go forth with it with the intent to sit down and let the United Mine workers help you try to resolve some of the issues that are facing. In other words, bargain in good faith. I've set negotiated contracts before and you want going to be good for everybody, then both sides have got to be open and honest across that table and explain why they want this or how's this figure fit in with it. I would hope that you would dedicated and say that in this six months time, we will see that we sat down with the United Mine Workers X number of times and get it done because I know you're busy and I know that Tim's busy elsewhere and in
004this busy world, you got to set them times down. Now, I'm going to ask you, I'm going to put every one of you on the spot right now. Do you have any complaint against the performance of the workers that have been in that are now involved in this? Did every they've been doing all right for you? You had any issues with them that would bother you? They're basically been good workers, I would assume. Would you say that? >> I I would say no. Not all of them are >> Not all of them are good workers. >> Good work. >> Okay. All right. You have a procedure in your contract to address that. I assume I have not read your contract. >> I say I have not read your contract. >> You have procedure in there.
005And that's the mechanism to go through. >> The benefit you have from these workers is they are as much a part of this school as that brick is right there. And that's the type of worker you want. You want a worker in tough time who is dedicated to the facility or to the job that they have. They live here. They love it here. If there's an issue with one, the mine workers puts in a grievance procedure in which you can take uh your actions. They feel necessary. They have a right to try to adjudicate that in a fair manner. So fairness and justice is all these workers are looking for. And I'm glad to see that you're offering forth an extension. And I hope you do dedicate that time to sit down there with them
006and make these findings. >> Sir, your time is up. >> Can anybody yield their time to me? >> No. >> Thank you very much. >> Good try. >> Anyone else? >> My name is Dennis. I live in which is city address. But anyway, but anyway, I've been a lifong res. But anyway, uh on this uh the situation that uh that customs been put into and it's it may be the whole school system up there. But on uh you go from top to bottom or you go from bottom top or you just look at it? I mean, where do you start? cut first. >> So what I usually try to do on cut making cuts is as far far away from the classroom as possible. Um our core mission is to educate the children of this
007community. And so u that's where you know you start from the outside I guess and work your way into the classroom. >> Okay. So uh on the funding part uh if that's broke down will you give the public a money or amount how much shortfall you're going to be in. And so it's broken down evenly through the whole system, not just one sector of it. And you know, you see where cost can be made up and work with the whole corporation together to try to come up, you know, so people have to do their job and it's just going to be cost effective. You I'll talk about it right now. Time left. >> A minute and a half. >> A little less. >> Can I reserve that? You said walk. >> You got to use
008it now. >> Huh? >> You've got to use it now. It's now or never. >> Well, okay. Uh, okay. >> But that's why we're getting that's why we're getting prices. >> I mean, that's why we're getting prices so we can see what >> Okay. I just I just want to know what you're thinking and stuff when you set contract out you know you're deal you may deal with a different company and you may be dealing with the same people or other people to be considered too you know and I guess real quick like I you point [laughter] >> you can talk another three minutes Yeah. >> Anyone? Thank you, Dan. Anyone else on concern? >> So, just to come back to what the gentleman said earlier, the next six months, the reason why we did
009the extension is so we can look at all aspects of this. And yes, we do want to sit down with the union as I shared with the board of the custodians prior to Christmas when we I shared this with them and I said during this whole journey, you're going to be part of this. This is going to be transparent. We're going to share with them. We're going to have them be part of as we determine whether this is going to be outsourced or not. They are our family. We don't want to lose any of our custodians. We want them to stay here. Whether that means they work for us or they work for the outside agency, we don't want to lose any of them. And I think that I know some of you guys have
010been talking about people getting fired. We are not planning on firing any of those people. So that's that's something that when we go into the negotiations, that's one of the key points is that if we were to outsource, those people just move to that company. And we want it to be a benefit to them, not not a detriment to them. But yes, we're going to be I mean that's why we wanted to give that sixmon window for us to make sure we do this right if we're going to do that. If not, we want that six months to be there so we can negotiate with the association to get a contract going forward. >> Can I ask? >> Yes, sir. >> Let's say let's say outsource them and you have a company comes in now.
011Would you say you need to keep some of these employees to work for you or they say but then here's the sticky point? Yeah, you keep them but we're only going to pay them say$8 or $10 an hour. >> Again, I mean >> that's definitely stuff we're going to look at. >> So all that stuff is definitely what we're going to look at. >> We're just a while away from that point. maybe shuts. >> And once again, I want to point out to everyone that this is not something that we want to do. This is something that the state is forcing us to do. Um because we like you said a few moments ago, we have to look at all aspects and we are we have bus contracts coming up in the future. We're going
012to look at bus contracts and determine can we reduce our bus routes. um you know as we've had teachers retiring we look at those numbers in our classrooms and say can we hire that teacher you know replace that teacher or can we eat that teacher meaning not replace that position so there's all different kinds of ways that we look at stuff and then as well just our facilities our facilities needs a lot of updating um we need new equipment for our custodial staff as well so so there's just a lot of different variables that we're looking at as we move through this process M Mr. Bottoms. >> Yeah. Thank you for allowing me to speak, Mr. President. I'm here, of course, in support of the workers. I'm really sad that the workers had to go
013through Christmas the way they did. They didn't even know they had a job. That that was pretty sad. So, that's a failure of the system. And and we're talking to the union leadership Why didn't we have something in place? Why did these people have to be suffered through Christmas not even knowing they had a job? >> I don't think anybody ever said they didn't have a job. >> No, >> I don't think right or was it month? >> We're still under contract now. I mean, >> well, okay. We support your negotiating in good faith in the next six months with the you it out. They do not have control. You'll lose people for one. They'll lose their retirement. Perk is really good retirement. It's state. It's fully funed. If you sub it out, they will
014lose that, right? >> Y and that has been shared with them. >> Oh, have to share it. We know. >> Yeah. >> So, we're asking you to darken your faith with these people in six months. We know these people. They're good people. They're hard workers. We say the word custodian, but you know, they I guess they do a lot of maintenance, too, right? And we're proud that they have a good contract. They make it good. They've been here. Some been here for years. Anyone else? member of the local union here works and I know how many we're going to have that we're going to have many working ways of dealing with that without that shouldn't be one of the main ass than and I'm sure others have too. [snorts] You're not going to get that
015when you make just folks have the dedication the money these people have no idea who you're looking at or what business have people everywhere they're not going to be spending money here that money coming back something even though these people would decide to go to a business to me that's doing a person wrong they lose a lot of people invest more involved than just saying okay we're going to save x amount of dollars maybe you do not have to me there are morals morals in how you do not just hope everybody everybody thinks about what I I need your job. I've been anyone else got one behind you. Mike >> my biggest I guess my biggest state your name please. >> Robert Shoeer. uh lifelong resident here in Oklahoma City. He graduated from this school
016in 1973. I guess my biggest concern is is uh you want to contract talking about contracting these jobs out you have to pay that company that you're going to contract these jobs to an x amount of dollars out of that company that you're going to hurry or whoever takes over. Then they go out and they hurry somebody else. Well, that dollar up here just shrunk whenever they got to go hire somebody. They don't have to pay them benefits. They don't have nothing. The people on the top up here, you're the school board. I don't see where you're going to save any money by contracting these jobs out versus making a contract with these people you have now. I I just don't see it. >> But if if we don't research it, we'll never know. >>
017Well, understand that, Steve, but uh you know, you knew this contract was going to expire in December. Uh looks to me like, you know, somebody uh would have been had a little bit information going along and said just let these people hang on. I appreciate uh the fact that you're going to extend the contract for 6 months. Is that right? >> That's going to be voted on momentarily, but yes, that's what is expected. Yes. Well, then when we come down to six months, you think you'll have yours in a row and you know what your money situation stuff is? >> You know, if we can get all the the uh all we doing three or four, three or four companies. So, you know, we got to get them back from them. So, and then we
018got to go over them. We got to go over them with the [clears throat] janitors. >> Is that Is that money that you got to pay these uh other contractors? Is that going to be public for everybody to know? [snorts] >> I mean system I think uh >> it has >> what I'm saying is is I just like to see the figure that what you're paying now and benefits of what you're going to be end up paying. >> It'll be public knowledge. I mean >> and then there's and then you you have these people that come in. I don't know of very many companies that will hire existing employees. I don't know very many of them that ever done that. They might keep for a while till they look at them crossey and they fire
019them. The these people's been in this situation in these jobs they know their job. They know what they're doing. It's like Mr. got said if you've got a problem with them, there's a procedure you go through within the union to get it ironed out. Don't let everything come to a head and say, "Well, hell, we're just going to get rid of it all." Don't do that. Please, I just ask you, bargain in good faith. >> Thank you. >> I would ask the same of you and I mine workers. >> Anyone, you got something you want to say? Mike Cromer Mag I just wanted to you said that you wasn't satisfied with workers summer workers [clears throat] you get when [snorts] you contract people come in do jobs you don't always get good help either and
020you you're a contractor >> I know what you mean >> okay you got some good good workers and got some not real good and there's some make up Like I said, we're just asking bargain in good faith and that these guys have a job. If you get a contractor coming in here, where where they coming from? I mean, are they going to be local people or are they going to be Evansville or if they got to drive up here every day? We've [snorts] had that at a church down Matthew down there that we've hired contractor to clean the church. They don't come in. They don't come in. They don't come to work. probably went back and used our own people. >> Is that is that a particular company or were those individuals? Yes. >> Well,
021I'd like to know the name of that company. >> I don't know. I don't know. I don't know who it is. >> Okay. >> I can get it for you. >> Okay. I'd appreciate that. >> I just ask you to bar these people have a job. Only a job. >> We've got We've got intention. So that shouldn't be an issue here. Anyone else? >> Don Jul, I just got a couple questions here. Obviously, I understand the board is one of the good faith. He skipped the school corporation is amazing. I've been in this area. I was raised in Spurgeon. So the question I have for the superintendent, I guess, is in the last three months, how many bargaining sessions have you had with the union? Have you called them? Have they called you? >> We
022have talked and meetings. >> We've had any meetings. >> No, you've not. >> Now, they've been available, but you haven't. Is that correct? Is that what you're telling? about the board and I were discussing what we wanted to do to proceed and so we've not met with the association yet. >> Past six months. Usually we just communicate through email. >> Yeah. Email. So you never sit across the table. >> No. Because I've not bargained with them yet. >> That's not bargaining, guys. I'm telling you right now, you don't bargain over the phone or across the table. You sit down across from somebody and discuss what you need to discuss. I will I will interrupt. Ralph and I have conversations and he's the representative here in the building. >> Okay. You sit down with the >>
023I usually communicate with Ralph since he's my local guy. >> But you've not said Okay. So that answers my question there. The there's not been any negotiations [clears throat] in six months. Now the other thing is uh backing on the other comment you understand when I walked in school here it was clean. It looks nice. This room looks nice. It just didn't get done by somebody. It got done by dedicated employees. I've been in basketball games. I've been softball games. It's it's dedicated employees that keep the grass mode. Okay. Now, question I have you've got these dedicated employees that are very valuable. Every business knows that your employees is what builds your business. Then you bring somebody body else in. Are they vetted? I'm just concerned with everything going on. Are they vetted to be
024around kids? Are they, you know, these other companies run through a 100 employees every month and now they're sending up somebody with a background that maybe not that you don't have any control over. Once you hire them, you don't have control over who they're sending in. That's just something I want you to think about. before you hire somebody, how are you going to control the people that's coming in? Are they um upstanding citizens for lack of communication? Okay. But in my opinion, there's only one person that's important and that's that child sitting in that seat. Period. Not you, not you, not you, not me, not me. That child is what's important and that safety of that child is what is important. And I'm sure this whole school board thinks the same way. Think about that
025when you have your think about that when you sit down across the table eye to eye. Okay. Thank you for being honest. >> You're welcome, sir. >> Anyone else? All right, thank you guys for your questions. >> Okay, this evening we start off by this is the reorganization school board meeting and we will start off with nominations for school board president. The nomination for school board president. Nobody wants to be president, huh? Nobody wants anybody else. >> Steve again. Any other nominations? >> Usually I ask for a motion to approve Steve as president 2026. Got a motion. Do I second? >> I'll second. >> Got a motion second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same. That carries. Congratulations, Mr. Spear, your board president again. I turn
026the meeting over to you, sir. >> Thank you for vice president. >> I have done it now. I think two years. anyone else to approve as vice >> president. All those in favor say I. >> I thank you. Congratulations, Josh. >> All right, we need a secretary. Who was secretary last? >> The one that does all the reading. >> That's correct. >> Secretary nominees. I need a motion to approve. >> I'll make a motion to approve. Motion. We have a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> Congratulations, Lyn. >> All right. >> Okay. Ready for appointments? >> Yep. >> First up this evening, I recommend Christina Salman as corporation treasurer. Need a motion to approve that appointment. >> I'll make a motion to approve Christ. >> I have a motion. Do
027I have a second? Second motion second. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. Oppos the same. That carries. Next up to see me on the appointment of deputy treasurer uh Danny Mehouse. >> Do I have a motion for Danny Mehouse as deputy treasure? >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Have a motion second. Any further discussion? >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> [clears throat] >> and that carries at the appointment of Danny House as executive board secretary. I need a motion to >> I make a motion for Danny House as executive board secretary. >> I have a motion for that. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Have a motion. Second. Uh any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying
028I. >> I oppose the same. That carries. I have a recommendation for Jason Spindler to remain as school board at I need a motion for that. >> Make a motion for Jason Spinler to be attorney. >> I have a motion for that. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> I have a motion. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> Oppos. That carries. In your packet this evening, you have the list of schoolboard meetings um pretty well the second Monday night. The only funds that we are changing that will be in October due to fall. moved it to the second Tuesday of that month. So, so those would actually be the 2026 school board meetings, not the 2025 school board meetings. So, I need a motion to approve those
029schoolboard meetings. >> Have a motion to approve those dates for school board meetings. >> Okay, I have a motion to approve those meetings. Do I have a second? I'll second. Have a motion second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I >> I >> oppose the same. Okay, that carries. Um this evening, uh the board has not done this in the past. State legislature last year uh did change the school board compensation. Historically, the board members have received an annual stipen of $2,000 upon based upon statutory requirements. The [clears throat] statute has changed now that you can receive 10% of beginning teacher salary which would be $4500 for 2026. Um it is the board's decision on whether they want to stay with 2,000 go to the 4500 or can go anywhere in
030between that. So um and I know that our board one board member is not here this evening. You were able to table that if you wish to table it to the next board. >> I make a motion to table that. >> Okay. We have a motion to Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Have a motion. Second. Any further conversation or discussion? Okay. All those in favor of tableing that signify by saying I. >> I. Oppose the same. That will be tabled. Um at this time we are going to suspend our regular session and we're going to open our board of finance. Um first up this evening we have resolution number 2026-1. This is to establish the East Gibson School Corporation Board of Finance and authorize the entire board to serve as the
031board of finance. Um, we also recommend that the board president and board secretary serve in the same capacity on the board of finance. So, Steve and Lynn would serve as president and secretary. Need a motion to approve that resolution. I like motion. >> Okay, I have a motion to approve that. I need a second. I'll second. Okay. Any further discussion on that? All those in favor signify by saying I oppose the same. Okay, that carries. As part of the uh board of finance, you have in your packet an investment report and depositories. The school board, like I said, received those. The report showed that we received $84,430.66 in interest from the corporation checking account. And that receded into the following accounts. The education fund uh was deposited with $71,76685. The operations fund was deposited with
032$12,664.61. In addition, East Gibson School Corporation has invested $2 million into two two certificates of deposits and earned a total of $51,259 in 2025, which was receded into the rainy day fund. This is a total increase of $9,729.75 over 2025. So, we did do well with that. I will tell you that we are looking closely at our CDs. Um, they are coming due and the rates aren't as good as they were a few years ago. We're actually probably going to make more in our checking accounts. We may move those back into the checking account. So, but we are still communicating with the bank on that. Um this evening I am required statutoily to give a state of the schools u presentation on the financial condition of the corporation. You have that presentation in your packet
033and as well as in front of you there. Um the first ones are provided from um I don't know what the acronym stands for. They call it DOAB. This is a school [clears throat] dashboard financially of how the corporations across the state are doing. As you can First off, the first U one there is average daily membership. This is mainly our enrollment and of course our enrollment has dropped significantly through the years. We will look more into that here in a few moments. Uh we did have a bump up and if you'll notice as well these charts only go through 2425. So it does not have the 2526 of enrollment data there. But we have, as you guys know, we dropped back in October from where we were last year. Um, historically across the schools,
034across corporations in the state, the spring number is always lower than the fall number. We have no idea where those kids go to. They just suddenly disappear. But, uh, historically, most districts will drop in their second count date. Fund balances. Um this is something that has been fairly positive and I think it definitely demonstrates the board's um difficult decision that they had to close has definitely helped the school corporation um to be you know to gain back some of that those finances. Um you can take a look there at our fund balances over the past few years. Education fund um and the operations fund has increased in the um the fund balance. So that definitely has been positive for the school corporation. [snorts] The next one deals with our annual deficit and surplus. This looks
035at the revenue that's coming in as well as the expenditures going out and determines whether we have a surplus. that we're spending less than we're taking in. In 2024, we did have a higher revenue than expenditures. Um, so our fund balance um did grow. We weren't eating into our cash balance, which is which was a positive as a school. The next one deals with fund balances, percent of expenditures. Um, this is continues is going up, which means that it's a positive. Um, you know, our fund balances are definitely increasing, um, which is definitely making sure that that that we're able to cover the expenditures going forward and that's a positive for us as well. In 2024, we were at 67.4% and we increased that from 52.6 in 2023. So, that was an increase there. The
036next one, um, I'll be honest with you, I never like this graph. Um, this shows all the different types of revenue that comes into the corporation. Um it's very confusing the way they have it layered, but we receive money from all different locations. We have federal money that comes in um through grants. Uh we have state revenue of course is our largest amount of money that comes in. Um kind of coming back to what the question was asked earlier. The education fund is mainly supported strictly by our enrollment. And like I said earlier, our enrollment is going down. So the amount of money that we get from the state is going down. our operations fund which controls um our custodian as well as our facilities are paid out of that's a tax supported revenue or
037levy fund and so that's supported through our taxes property taxes but that kind of gives you the different revenue types there I go through all of that to kind of get more into specifically for East Gibson where are we currently October enrollment was at 653 um I asked the principles to kind of look at where we are Currently, we're right around 641 now. So, that's definitely a drop of about 12 kids. When you look at how much that is that we're going to be losing in funds, it's about 90,681. Um, we received the corporation transfer report. We have 829 students with legal settlement, meaning that they actually live in the East Gibson boundaries. 66 students who live in our boundaries actually attend East Gibson. 47 students are coming from outside of the corporation. We have
038195 students that are going someplace else that is a public school corporation. So those 195 kids that could go to South Gibson, they could go to North Gibson, War County, Pike. So our net transfers is a negative 148. Our nonpublic transfers outgoing, so this could be charters or it could also be proial schools is 28. So our total looking at net public transfers as well as nonpublic is a negative 176. It's a lot of kids that we're losing. Pre-educed lunch, we're at 59.4%. Special education is at 27.5%. English language learners very small there but 6%. Last year our certified staff highly effective teachers was 22 effective teachers on their evaluation was 39 and we had three ineffective teachers. Do you know I have a question on this as far as students transferred and out um
039is there like a number across the state like so we have 829 or percentage so we have 829 within legal sentiment but only 641 how are we compared with other corporations you may not know the >> yeah I have to look at that I know that on um it came through I think ISBA where that was presented at and I think they said 79% statewide of the students attend their public schools, excuse me. But yeah, it can be, you know, very very different. I know today I was talking to one of my fellow superintendent um I think from last year to this year EVSC lost 500 kids. So it's it's not just% and I don't know what their enrollment is. >> It's a lot different because [sighs] and you know one of the things that
040we're going to talk a little bit about further down the road is is just the ease now for students to go online. you know, I don't like this teacher or I don't like being here or I don't like getting up and getting out of bed in the morning at 7:30 or whatever. And so they convince their parents that they want to go online and they go online and that is definitely becoming a big issue. >> The homeschooling too. Yeah. But the online is really becoming more and more of an issue. on the vouchers. Vouchers that the state,000 >> go to a public school say my kids They still have to go >> that money just follows the child. >> So that child goes from here to South Gibson then that money goes to South Gibson
041>> which is is that less than a voucher paid by state? >> No, it's actually more than what the vouchers are more the state. It's about actually I can tell you exactly what it is. This year it is $7,556.75. >> So if I sent my kid a gift or something per that much and he stayed here and went to the local school. So people don't realize well they do realize I guess if the state's pay they don't care you know we are trying to figure out we have a number of kids whatever coming in >> and see what that is. How much money and what would make it better say to attract more kids to come here and I think we talked real quick for vocational things for kids actually come to school they use
042that high school kids here that don't want to be school teachers that don't want to take Spanish or foreign languages that want to come in work with their hands and know when I graduate I go out and be a farmer, a welder, electrician, et schools to uh implement those types of pathways have to be made available by us. Now, now the difficulty for us is that lack of money and the lack of teachers that are available to hire for those pathways. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's true. So, you know, it's it's the state does a lot of things without thinking about how it actually affects the kids sitting in the seat >> and like kids going to school in a area versus say county as much as we do It's just a different environment for them
043versus here in tal. [cough and clears throat] So the next one going down looking at some enrollment trends. Um in the spring of 2015 2016 we had 927 and a half students. Um like I said in the fall of 2526 this past fall we were dropped to 653. This was a decrease of 274 and a half students. And when you multiply that times the current per student payment it would be 274,327.86. That's how much the corporation has lost. Now, that may not be all because of our doing. Indiana as a whole is dropping a population. We're becoming more of a senior state. So, just but still in 10 years time, we've lost 274 kids. So I did a little bit and I know um went out to chat GPT did some AI stuff and I
044plugged in some of these numbers and said what's projected enrollment based upon where we are. You can kind of see there 2627 projected fall 645 spring 652 going on down through to 2930 would be a projection the fall of 621 spring of 618. Keep in mind right now we're showing 641. So we're even a little bit quicker in that projection. So So let's look now at the financial side of it. Education fund balance at the end of the year was 880,96542. This was an increase of 147,88197 over 2025. The operations fund balance was 1,98049104. This was an increase of 15652602. And that did in that fund does include the 2731 17250 that we sold Francisco for. The rainy day fund balance was 2,6069044. Um this was a drop of 147767 but we bought those short
045buses out of our rainy day. So that's where that purchase came from and really quite honestly we paid a lot more for those buses. So we've actually through interest made some of that money back and like I said two million of that is still invested in certificates deposit. When you look at all those accounts we are up total about 156,000 this year almost 157. So that's positive. Your per pupil expenditure has gone up from 25 to 26. Like I said, we're now at $7,556.75 is how much we get per pupil. In addition to that, probably all these gentlemen here realize that their property taxes have gone up. It's not because of us. It's because the value of your property has gone up. So your assessed value this year was 360,476419 and in 2025 it was
046actually my fault was 300 3,600 3 million >> 360 million. I'll get it correct here in a moment. Last year was 348,379,623. So it's definitely gone up because that assessed value has gone up. Our tax rates have gone down because we've not had to keep our tax rates as high after the amount of money that we've gotten. So our tax rates have actually dropped from 82 cents in 2024, 77 cents in 2025 to 75 cents this year with what we were for in 2026. I will tell you that the education fund and the operations fund is higher than it's been the past five years. So we've done well I Once again, I think because you closed Francisco, you had a lot of needs on that facility over there as well as the class sizes were
047extremely small. And so that difficult decision definitely helped the corporation to continue to go. The next thing once again went to AI uh projected financial trends looking at where we stand at with our ADM. Once again, I said our our membership, the number of kids that come here determine our state >> [snorts] >> What I did here for this one is I projected out a 2% increase of state revenue and a 2 and a.5% increase of expenditures. So this kind of shows you that by fiscal year 2030, we would pretty well be breaking even as far as our surplus is concerned. Keep in mind this doesn't take into account any retiring teachers. Um it doesn't take in account that as your ADM drops, you may not replace a teacher. you may shrink your building as
048a hoe. So 2425 was a very busy year. We accomplished a lot. Uh we completed the school board sections of corporation strategic plan, the school safety completion of exterior doors with an 81,000 school security grant. We now have a full-time school resource officer. We implemented uh the jobs for America's graduates. Just like the gentleman were just saying here, this is a program that's specifically focused on those kids who want hands-on experiences. Unfortunately, um our state cut that program and so that program is going to go away. Um but we are going to have it for one more year. It's going to be called a workbased learning pathway and we hope that we locally will be able to keep keep that program going. our preschool program, our Little Trojans preschool program. I've been very excited about
049this program. Um, we received a total of $155,000 for the playground to be installed this coming summer. 150,000 of that was donated by Toyota. The other 5,000 was donated by RWE, the uh solar project that's going in. We also got $5,000 from the Betty McCulla. This is part of the Gibson County Community Foundation. And we also received 30,000 from Centerpoint um energy um to purchase all the furniture. Last year we created the middle high school multicategorical classroom so all of our special education kids are able to stay here going forward. We also created the whole child classroom and uh this is to help our students who are coming into our buildings to learn social and emotional skills. We completed our new NEOLAM corporation policies. Um those are going to be going live any day now
050on our website. We also received a grant for $15,800 for the STEM integration grant and this is going to be able to provide mathematics professional development to our teachers. We implemented the salary schedule this year for our teaching staff. And then as well we've done ongoing facilities improvements. So some of the challenges that we're facing and the opportunities that we have within the education fund the challenges is just enrollment um you know trying to keep our kids here the ease of school choice as we shared earlier the state revenue in the budget the cost of qualified candidates to be competitive and then what we're seeing mostly is the benefits the current health plan we need to definitely take a look at the other thing that we're experiencing here even excuse me in open city is
051just housing needs. We don't have the housing for families to move into. And then just as well, the students that are coming in our doors have a tremendous needs. Some opportunities that we have is what's called the ambassador program. And the ambassador program is something we're looking at starting for next school year. This is where we invite members of the community to come in once a month, have a breakfast or lunch with us, and we're going to share different aspects of the school corporation so they get a better idea of what's happening in our schools. The preschool program is pretty well at capacity at this point in time. So, we're looking for next year, do we need to split it into a three-year-old and a four-y old class. The special education program is definitely an
052opportunity as we have those kids come back. And then, like I said, the JAG program, we're looking at moving that to more of a work-based learning opportunity. And then as well, as the gentleman asked, we're looking at possibly trying to add in next year a construction class to help increasing our career technical education programs um to meet what our kids need. Our challenges and opportunities for the operation fund is just the age of the facilities, school security, electrical and natural gas costs as you guys know are continuing to go up and then just the human resources costs. The opportunities we have is the development of facilities plan, grants for social for school security and the ambassador program as well. So 2026 is here and some of the things and what I've done for the board
053is is that looked at those high priorities that you established within strategic plan. So those were ensure student success, attract and retain high quality staff, develop a long-term facility improvement plan, promote the preschool and early childhood education, leverage community investment to strengthen corporation efforts, and continue financial stewardship. So underneath each of those ensure student success when provide professional development on differentiated learning, standardsbased instruction, analysis of data. All of this is provided through grants. The creation of construction trades pathway. Attract and retain high quality staff, research healthcare opportunities, and continue to increase compensation. Develop a long-term facility improvement plan. Um the board would hope to meet in the next few weeks and months um the selection of corporation architect a facility assessment and development of facilities plan and continue to address school safety promote the preschool
054and early childhood education as I said evaluating the need to separate the two classes in the three and four year old and then as well we want to provide professional development on early literacy leveraging community in investment to strengthen corporation efforts devel develop and implement the ambassador program and then continue financial stewardship, seek local, state and federal grants and work with financial planners to maximize our financial resources. Overall, I can say this president and board that the corporation the decisions you made with the president of Francisco has definitely helped bring the corporation into better financial shape. That concludes my state of the schools. If there's any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them. Thank you. We're ready to go for approval. >> All right. You had a chance to look over December 15,
0552025 minutes. Any questions or comments? If not, I need a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion. We have a second. >> I'll second. All those in favor say I. >> Opposed. We've also had a chance to look over the treasur report and claims. Any questions and comments? If not, I need a motion to approve. >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> Second. >> Mr. President. Uh, first up in no business this evening, you have the memorandum of understanding with the International Union of United Mine Workers of America for the new pay rates and an extension of the current contract to June 30th, 2026. I did speak with the representative from United Workers and they did agree that they would they agreed to extend the contract to June 30th, 2026 if the board approved
056it. So, I bring that forward. I need a motion to approve that. Make a motion to approve that. >> I have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. Have a motion. Second. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppos the same. Okay, that carries. Next up this evening in new business. First of all, each of you have at your seats the conflicts of interest forms. We complete this annually, so please complete that and get that back to Danny. for her to file away. Then next up this evening for consideration is resolution 2026-2 for tax levy fund transfer. This is something that we annually do um I guess historically way back when we we transfer between levy funds for an emergency or something.
057So we just mainly do this to make sure that the need to transfer like the operations funed the debt service we are able to do that. So I need a motion to approve that resolution. I'll make a motion to have a motion. Do I have a second? >> Do I have a motion? Second. Any further discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Oppose the same. That carries. Next up this evening, I need permission to seek proposals for replacement exterior doors. This is funded by the safe school security grant that we see we received from the state for $92,500. The staff novel group will be the clerk of the works and distributing the request for proposals. I need a motion to approve that. >> Have a motion. Do I have a second?
058>> A motion second. Any further discussion? >> These doors are how old? They're originals. Majority of them are original doors. >> Okay. >> Not all of them. >> Okay. >> The ones the old part. >> Yeah. Uh the kindergarten doors, there's back doors that go out. Those are pretty well stuck. You can't get out of them anymore. So, we're replacing all of those. There's some double doors right there by the cafeteria that go out to the uh dumpsters. Those are going to be replaced. Um Yeah, pardon's on the list, but I don't think we're we're kind of focusing here getting those 1950s doors taken care of first. [laughter] >> So, it works. >> That's true. >> So, anyway, that's I think those are ones we're focusing on. We're going to try and what we always
059try to do is try to get as many as we can done with that grant money that we can. So we got all these up here last time. >> Yeah. Yeah. So like this one up here, this hallway was replaced. One of the other hallways was replaced. >> Cafeter was replaced. So yeah. >> Well, I just I kind of wanted everybody to know how long >> you're saying. >> Yes. And it's wonderful because it was not shutting at all. It was just like blowing open in the morning. Now it shuts. It's very, very nice. >> So once again, like for the community, this is all grant funed money. So that that's the nice thing about it. This is coming from Homeland Security to fund these things. So I think we have discussion. Um got my
060motions, right? >> Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I oppose the saying. Okay. That carries. Next is the seating. You have a walk-on uh facility request for Adabo Stand for Truth concert. They are doing a concert during the school day. This is for a free community concert on the night of January 26, 2026. Mr. Cruz, you want to say anything about this? >> Uh, they they're a musical group that were they contacted me because they were going to be at Southridge and so they're going to be it sounds like several locations. Um, and they are going to be here on the 26th. And he asked if they do a free community concert. And >> what time like what time is it? So they requested 6:30 to 10:15 for the rest of the facility.
061So I don't know what time they plan >> In the evening we're we are having one 6th through 12. They are performing for 6th through 12th grade um at 1:00 during a school day. Yeah. >> So this would be free for the community. >> Is this kind of like maybe uh they're going to speak with the students as well? >> Stand for truth, good character choices. Yeah. Okay. >> Great. I'll make a motion to >> Okay, got a motion to a second. >> Second. >> I got a motion second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I >> oppose the same. Okay. >> Mr. Sper, do you want to explain the Emma real situation real quick? >> Yes. Uh the last meeting um we had one board member absent which is the
062same situation this evening but after looking into the Robert's rules of order a little further if we've got two board members abstaining and that's what happened the last meeting and the remaining two members present voting in favor of it that is an adequate proper vote. So that decision from the last meeting stands authorizing her hire and there's no need further approval by thank you sir. >> Okay. Next up this evening we have the following in FMLA the personnel Sydney Bing and Bridget Rio and then hiring we have Jamie Gray moving from parttime to fulltime need a motion to approve the personnel recommendation. >> I got a motion. Do I have a second? >> I have a motion and second. Any [clears throat] further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >>
063Opposed to saying. Okay, that carries. Um, reports and information as I shared with you. I already talked way too much tonight. So, I'm going to not give a report. You heard my report. So, I'm going to turn over to the to you, Mr. President. >> All right, principles. Let's hear what you got. Okay. So, I did um I had a I think we've all I think it's okay to say we've all had a conversation um with Lenro and requested some information just as far as uh you know the end of the first semester and kind of what the academics look like uh for the high school and the middle school. So, I pulled grade reports, looked at um how many students had um failing grades, like what percentage of our students had failing grades. So,
064when you look at with Memorial High School, if you looked at just credit earning classes, there are 1,260 attempts at earning credits. Um and we had 6.1% failed to meet those requirements. Um so, very happy with that. I think um you know, with with high school students, you start looking have it broken down by grade level, looking at freshman, looking at 10th graders, looking at 11th graders. You look at our seniors who are close to graduation, they're over 90%, you know, achieve their credits because they're close to the race, you know, they're they're close to the end of the race. They see the light at the end of the tunnel. Um, and then I think it's just typical when you look at ninth graders that you see kind of a dip. That's the first time
065um that they really have to earn credits and understand that that means they have to get um a D or better. And with the new diploma they actually have to get a C or better to get the enrollment diploma. So, um we've had lots of conversations with our students, especially our freshman because they are the first cohort that's under the new diploma track. Um so, you look at those kids, most of them just chose enrollment. Um I think because that's typical, you you talk about, you know, kids not all wanting to be school teachers or not all wanting to be doctors. Um I think we have done a a good job of encouraging that all kids can go to college if they so choose, but that doesn't mean that all kids need to go to
066college if they don't want to. Um, so there is definitely with a new diploma the opportunity for employment. Um, and so we're already having those conversations with our current freshmen and our eighth graders. We just got today. Um, they have a a sheet that went home to parents asking, "Do you want enrollment or employment paths?" And then what's your area of interest? So, you want to go into health sciences, you want to go into construction, you want to go into uh you know all of these things. I will say that our high school students uh do always have the opportunity and we promote heavily sick tick as the opportunity to do like auto and diesel mechanics construction. Um they're added cosmetology next year. So all the girls were jumping on that to to be on
067in the cosmetology track. Um but for the most part um you know happy with what I see as far as those students that are achieving. >> Do you know where we stand on the 6% what's the nation's average >> for achieving credit? I don't know the answer to that but I can see if I can get that statistic. >> I mean it seems like we're doing really well. We are >> we are I will say that most I can confidently say that in most of my high school classes now you get up to TR and precal and calculus um you might not pass that class because you don't understand the content and that's okay because those are kids that are going to go to Purdue for engineering or want to you know and really you
068want your engineer to know how to do those things so you want that to be an accurate depiction of what they're capable of doing. But for the most part, if a student's not passing a class at the high school level, it's typically because of task completion. Um, so we're going to have some really open conversations at the high school level with the new diploma tracks about um, you know, if a student tells me they want to go employment and they want to be employed, they want a job. The real focus of this the state is they they can't miss three they can't miss any more than three unexcused days. Attendance matters because we all know like in the workplace, we want people going to show up, right? that's half the battle. Um, so, you know,
069they're getting the task completed and they're here, like they're probably going to pass those classes. Uh, because our teachers do a really good job of, you know, uh, and I will say, we talked a little bit about attendance. And even my kiddos, there are some that attendance clearly makes a difference in their being able to pass the classes, but for the most part, uh, my teachers do a good job of, you know, being being absent is not enough of an excuse for you to not to do that work. I need you to do this work. So, they're making it up during Trojan Pride and different things. So, I I'm happy with 6.1% being uh the number of my high schoolers that didn't, and that's total credits. That's not just And then at my middle school,
070it was lower. It was at 4.3. Um, so when you look at 4.3%, you look at u, you know, my sixth graders, it was 96% of them achieved a C or higher in all of their credit earning classes. Um, my eighth graders were 91, my seventh graders were a little bit lower. Um, but A through C's are are really good. We have uh, you know, the the we have the policy that if they fail, um, English or math or English and math for one semester then they're automatically considered um for retention and we might have two kids on that list. U but for the most part they're passing. We are taking a real concerted effort at at focusing on um testing you know the test because that is so much accountability is coming back. I
071don't know if everybody's aware of that with the A to F letter grade um but it is legislatively required that we have letter grade and we're being graded right now on how we're doing without it being in in writing about how we're going to be graded. But we know I learn is going to be a part of it. Uh so we are doing a concerted effort. Kids are knowledgeable about where they're at. Um which I think is half the battle owning that data. U so I'm happy with the things that I see. Uh you know I feel like attendance is always something that we battle with. You know getting them here getting them here consistently. Uh So that is something uh I had 14 students that were that were absent at least five days and
072those are five unexcused because excused absences don't count towards that total number. >> Was that middle school? >> Middle school 14 at high school it was more than that. It was 30. Now I do we do have more high school students because we have an extra grade. Um but it's still you know statistically higher at the high school level. It's hard to hold on to those kids at the high school level. I'll tell you what once they turn 18 especially. Uh but you know I'm really happy with what I'm seeing is kind of um the pendulum swinging towards accountability and you have to be here and you have to earn the grades. Um and I think we're we're taking some steps in the right direction as far as that's concerned. Um I will say just
073on a positive note um we've had a lot of conversations with the new diploma and employment track about um upping our game in the departments. Um, so we did meet this week with Katie Beck from Southern Indiana Education Center to talk about a modern youth apprenticeship for our education pathway. Uh, which the modern youth apprentichip, if you look at workbased learning, it's it's it's a step up from what we're doing right now. So, our our students that have taken education pathway courses as juniors and seniors um could have the opportunity to interview with uh our lovely elementary school principles and we could use those students in the classrooms to help with instructional assistant duties. Um, and there is a work and earn program through the state of Indiana that we uh we would pay them,
074but we would get 50% of that payback for employing the students. So, um, something that we're just in the beginning stages of looking at, I'm sure I'll come to you with more information as we begin to um, get those details. And then Mrs. Reinhardt and I did meet with one of the things that we've been consistently talking about is um you know the health health sciences is a huge industry um for us especially as our population um ages you know who's going to take care of our population and so we did go to good Sam um this week and talk to them about um the possibility of doing internships for our CNA program which was voted on last school board meeting to shift to a CNA versus biomed science So we have done that. We
075we I'm proud of taking a step back from iPad usage in the middle school. I'm going to brash on that. Um because our uh you know techn if you have had more than 20 minutes of a conversation with me and technology comes up, you know, I hate technology. Um I know it has its wonderful benefits. Um but I think it's done a disservice to our young people and it's hard for our teachers to battle the distractions that are available on those devices. Um so we have taking those out of the hands of our middle schoolers for the most part unless the teacher gives it to them and says do this. Um, so I'm proud of that. Um, I did institute a exit survey for our kids that are leaving and I just want the board
076to know that basically like if you're leaving Wood Memorial High School, why are you leaving? Um, they don't put their names on it but they basically tell us or middle school I should say. Why are you leaving? You know, how what did you what could we have done better? What did you think we did really well? Um, I think that's important data for us to have. Um, you know, because I a growth mindset. Let's improve. Let's do better. Um, and Indiana College Corp, we're one step closer to offering the Indiana College Core, which we have to offer. That's 30 credits by the time they graduate high school. Um, for our current freshman and classes after that, they have to earn the Indiana College Core to earn the highest diploma. So, if we don't offer that,
077they can't even achieve the highest high school diploma. I'm hoping that we partner with IU. Go Hoosiers. Um, so that will be coming to you as well. And I will end with I will be out all next week at Disneyland or Disney World. So Mickey Mouse [laughter] keep all them kids in line. >> Oh, there's only four. >> Only four >> and four adults are going. So I think I can handle that. >> You better keep them adults in mind. I know who's going with you. >> Yeah, >> Mrs. Park. Okay. So, um, as I shared before, I've been very engaged with our data this year. On our first checkpoint, um, my third grade and my fifth grade classes were both above state average of both ELA and math. So, um, that was exciting. And
078this data kind of goes right along with that. Um, during the first semester, I only had one student who did not pass a math class. Um, and so that's less than 1%. In language arts, we had students who did not pass, but still um that's only 2.8% of my total population. So that's encouraging. Um and then in science, we had three students who did not pass um and that was receiving an S. Um so that was only 2.1% of the students. So I'm very encouraged by those numbers. I feel like our teachers and pair professionals are working very hard to we have been doing remediation groups and zeroing in on what each student need and we're able to provide that support. We usually run from about 210 until 240 every day. So each student is
079getting something that they need during that time. Um one thing that I would like to see in my building as far as excused or unexcused, but 44 students have missed five or more days just in the first semester. Um, so that is 31% of the intermediate school have missed five or more days. >> But the problem's not the student. >> Yeah, >> that's the problem. >> Not when they're third, fourth, fifth grade. need to deal with the parents. >> Now, like I said, some of those are sickness, you know, I did not break it down or an excuse, but but I definitely something that I feel like a little better. >> You can't teach the student if the student isn't there. >> Exactly. Exactly. And actually, >> that's hard to take. So, it's hard Thank
080you. >> Okay. So, at the primary building, um, one of, um, my focuses through the first semester was to help some of our students who, as Dr. Gavin mentioned earlier, they're coming to us with a lot of need, especially early on. which I do feel like um a goal for the next school year is to really push all of our options for early childhood because we need these kids here as soon as possible. Um and we're getting kids coming into kindergarten that are not ready for kindergarten and so we need um we need social emotional academic um you know support and to do that we need them in our Head Start program. We need them in our little program. We need school. Um, so really advertising and pushing that I think can be big. Um,
081at young ages we struggle sometimes socially and emotionally knowing what how to handle ourselves and so um I have nine students who um were on a reduced day um throughout the semester. So they have special transportation or parents have to bring them later or earlier just depending on the student. But of those nine, seven of them um are either have either extended their day or are moving towards extending their day. Like there's a plan in place. I know I know when they're going to be full time. Um and really I'm excited about that because we were having days where some of our adults weren't getting because we were monitoring children all day long. Um and so they're becoming more independent which is what you want at this point. Um my absences um yeah they don't
082look very pretty either. Um but again um just have 57 students or [clears throat] more um and that includes um prek all the way through second grade. Um the ones are hitters I have plans in place and um come up with other options. So um instead of grade especially because we do a lot of um H and S's and S plus um I pulled our dibbles um scores from the fall and we are currently dibbles testing this week. So we will have more information at the next board meeting at the our group. Um so we have language arts and math and so for um um in the fall we did this in October and I had 32% of our students be at proficiency 27% was above proficiency and then that left 26 well below proficiency
083and 15% at below. And so I'll be looking at this to see how we close some of those gaps. And then um for math um we were at 25% proficiency, 21% above proficiency and then um our well below was at 37% and below is at 17%. And so even today our kindergarten my kindergarten teachers came and gave me their results because they're done. Um they've seen some really um good gains um that we were all happy with. Um and I know Mr. Park and I are really going to be focusing in on a new reading series and looking at you know with this new accountability model what does the primary school need to do to support what's happening at the intermediate level and We're looking at, you know, what we're teaching and, you know, how
084can we make sure that we're producing students who are ready to ladies, I appreciate it. A lot of good information there. So, keep up the good work. Now, we got uh food service lady here, and she's been dying to talk this whole >> I know. I I wish you guys would just give me a microphone. The um we have some major highlights from this last month. We did our breakfast with Santa, which we had um lots of really happy kids getting to see Santa and stuff. And actually, we've separated it this year and did one at the intermediate and one at the primary instead of doing them all at the primary together. And I think that went really good because I feel like the older kids participated more than they did the years before. So,
085I thought that was good. We've had So, we've had lots of fun donuts. Our meals are looking good. We've had really good milk counts. Um, some things that me um and Miss Powers are working on is a breakfast walking club. We're talking about incorporating the walking club in the morning and added breakfast to it where they can come and get breakfast and get a point and then when they walk they get more points for it. Just something silly, but I think that'll help. Um, but that's pretty much it. We walk in the cafeteria. >> The principal for a minute. >> Okay. [laughter] >> How about the ladies down there? Secretaries. Anything you want to say? Everything's going good without Miss Ginger. >> We're busy. We're hanging in there. >> I've seen pictures of Miss Ginger's
086vacation. Look fun. >> Yeah, jealous. >> Board members, questions, comments. I just want to thank the ladies for taking the time to do what I asked uh and point out that our teachers are doing a great job with the kids that we have here. It's the kids that we don't get here that you can't educate and you can't fix. So, you know, that's that's a community issue. That's not a us issue. That's a community issue. And, you know, we've we've got to find a way to get our community on board. >> And I will say something I will say that of our families that have left, it has not been because of our school. Um it is because of family issues, job issues, housing issues. Um it has not been anything reflected on us. Some
087have said I wish we could stay. So, you know, I know, you know, we have the outliers, you know, [sighs] differences of opinion, but for the most part, we've had positive feedback on some of the students that are leaving. We definitely need community. >> Yeah. Before I do that, I was just gonna say thank you to uh to the principles for providing that information and to the teachers. I see Dr. Sman's here. So, uh on the high school side, thank you to intermediate, primary, and high school, middle school as well. So, I appreciate what they all do. I need a motion to close the board of finance meeting. >> I make a motion to close both of those meetings. >> Second. >> In favor say I. >> I. >> Thanks everyone for coming. See you
088next month. >> [laughter] >> texted you earlier [laughter] as you were spacing off. You were literally like [laughter] I saw you