001without everybody will stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Heavenly Father, we're thankful for another school year that's coming to a close. And Lord, you have blessed this school tremendously. Lord, with uh good students, good staff, and good administration. Lord, we're so so blessed in this community. We just ask that you watch over everybody this summer. Lord, those that are coming back this fall, bring them back safe, safely, and ready uh ready to help students out again. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right. I called the meeting to order at 6:34 that was late. How come we're late? Me. It's all me. I forgot
002an award that look that I messed up. No, it was me. I I forgot the award and we didn't get the person told. We didn't. No, it's not on any um and so we are going to skip the pre special presentation that will be pushed off till next month. Okay. Um, I don't think we have any Do we have anybody here wants to speak to the board? I don't think so. Well, outside of public comment. Okay. Do we want to go through all this first and then do the Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, it is recommended the agenda for the May 12, 2025 meeting be approved as presented with additions, corrections, or deletions as recommended by the board. Do I have a motion? I'll do it. Second sharing. All those four 70 is recommended the meetings
003from the um April 14th and May 5th, 2025 meetings be approved as presented. Do you have a motion? Second Natalie all those four. Okay. So 601 is recommend that the claims number 20105 through 201246 be approved as presented. Do we have any comments on the claims? Nope. Okay. Do I have a motion? Heather second Natalie all those four 70 okay Mr. Louis, would you like to take over? Do we want to do that first? It's okay. Oh, wait. It's not. It's not. Okay. Okay. So, um, first thing we're going to do is have the project hearing. Um, the next item on the agenda is for the board to hold a project preliminary hearing on the proposed project. After a presentation by the administration and its adviserss, there will be an opportunity for the public to
004make comments about the project. At the hearing, we will ask that each person limit their comments to three minutes and the topic be limited to the proposed project under consideration. The notice of this project hearing was published as legally required. At this time, I will ask Douglas, superintendent, to explain the proposal of this hearing. Before we do that, I think Do we need to We need to have a motion to have the project. Oh, okay. Sorry. I'm all out of um So, do you want to take the lead on this one here? Yeah. Um Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'll just run the All right. Um so, to have the project hearing, I do need a motion to approve a project hearing for discussion of the general obligation bond of 2025. Motion. Okay, Kim. Second,
005Dennis. All those four 70. All right. As uh Scott was saying, um he passed it on to me here to explain the purpose of this hearing. So, uh, pursuant to Indiana Code 20-26-7-37, before a school corporation may spend more than $1 million to build, repair, or alter a school building that will be financed by a lease or bonds, it must hold a public hearing at which explanation of the potential value of the project to the school corporation and community are given. These public hearings and the adoption of the resolutions are the very beginning of this legal process. These resolutions establish the maximum financial terms for the proposed project. Okay. We will now hear from s um hear from superintendent um about the process of determining and communicating the project the community and the need for
006the project. I'm reading all this just because it's very specific. We we were given a very specific uh directions and script from the legal council. Screw it up. So, basically, I'm going to explain to you the need for the project and the a very brief overview of where we're going. So, uh, during the summer of 2024, Eastern Green Schools partnered with all Green County school systems in a collective or in a collaborative grant initiative led by the Green County Foundation to expand preschool offerings across the county. This effort successfully secured funding through the Green County Foundation's grant, which will support our shared goal of improving early childhood education access through the region. Uh the amount of money that we received was about $400,000. Okay. Um in addition to this this joint grant that we received
007from the Green County Foundation, Eastern Green Schools independently applied for a Ready Schools grant during the summer of 2024 through the the regional opportunities initiative to further support our preschool expansion. Unfortunately, we were not awarded the ROI Ready Schools grant. Despite this setback, the need for expanded preschool services within our school community continues to grow. To better serve our students and families, to ensure children are fully prepared for kindergarten, and to increase overall district enrollment, Eastern Green Schools began exploring additional funding avenues. As a result, we are proposing a general obligation bond to finance essential renovations and improvement to the preschool wing. A few uh components to that expand that we would be expanding the preschool capacity from two classrooms. We would include a third preschool classroom, one toddler room, one infant room with the
008possibility to maybe grow to a fourth preschool room in the future. Uh this would also support community needs by providing early childhood services that promote school readiness and support working families. And finally, this would enhance enrollment opportunities by offering more robust early learning options within our district and hopefully get more students in school ready at an earlier age. In addition to the expansions to the early learning, we are also um adding a a a section here for uh any surplus funds from the bond would be used to purchase newer school buses. This would be a strategic investment um that would help us do a couple things. It would be a proactive way for us to address some budgetary constraints that we're beginning to fill from Senate Enrolled Act One, which is now a law, um
009which reduces our annual operation budget due to statewide property tax reform. and I will discuss that a little bit later in more detail. Um, it will also reduce some long-term cost by modernizing our bus fleet now, thereby minimizing future operational expenditures. Um, this bond initiative is a key step in ensuring that Eastern Green Schools continues to grow, serve its community effectively, and responsibly manage our fiscal resources. Um, okay. We will now hear from Mike Thurber um representing Thurber and Brock, our MU municipal advisor, um, about how the proposed project will be financed as well as information about the effect of the typical on the typical property taxpayers. Thank you. Would you all like me to stay? No, it's up to you. Whatever you're comfortable doing. I'm going to stay right here. Okay, thanks for having
010me and it's good to see you all again. Uh, so Mr. Lewis and Mr. Carmichael uh have stated, this is the project hearing on the general obligation bond issue uh that is scheduled to sell uh later this year, most likely in September. So um my piece of this hearing is just to give you as not stated maximum financial parameters for this project financing. So tonight we are uh excuse me you all are authorizing the amount for the general obligation bond issue of 2.1 million million2 million100,000 um you most likely won't issue uh that amount in bonds and there's a reason for that. Uh if you were to sell the bond issue right now, the maximum financing amount would be 1,785,000. Uh you you and every other um taxing unit entity in the state is limited
011in terms of how many general obligation bonds they can have outstanding at one time. uh you currently have no geo debt or no geo bonds outstanding. So your gross capacity, your uh the largest amount you could issue is that $1,785,000 amount. The reason we are approving a greater amount is because we will most likely wait to sell these bonds until after your new net assessed valuation figure comes in from the Indiana DLG. Um, if that new net AV number comes in much greater than your current net AV, that will increase your capacity to issue geo debt. In other words, if you get a net AV amount that's much larger than your current amount, when this September rolls around, you could issue more NGO loans. And that's the only reason for the authorization of greater amount
012than you could issue right now if that makes sense. So, uh 2.1 million is being authorized tonight and you can always scale that back. Uh even if you don't get an increase in AV, you can issue any amount up to that amount that you wish. Um so, as I said, we will sell bonds most likely when your new net AB comes in. And that also helps us uh really hone in on the tax rate impact in the year 2026 next year when the repayment of these geo bonds begins. So um about $100,000 of the total project financing amount will be used just to pay costs of issuance on the bond issue. So um if you did a million785 about a 100,000 of that goes to pay costs right away leaving you 1,685,000 for hard and
013soft construction costs. Uh so whatever the uh amount of the bond issue is, you can take about a h 100,000 out of that amount and the rest is uh left for bricks and mortar hard and soft construction costs. So we are estimating um that the bond issue even if it is issued for that full amount will have a an impact on the debt service tax rate of between 10 and 11 cents u and I really feel um that it will be less than that uh even if you did 2.1 million and financed it for 10 you'd be looking at a debt service impact of about 10.8 cents. So if you scale the project amount back a little bit, um the impact on debt service would be a little less. Uh the first payment on these
014bonds will be in June 26. So uh for the 26 27 year um we'll start off you know and with a um the debt service rate will increase by maximum of of 11 cents could be less. Uh we could get really lucky on interest rate. Uh you could get a new net AB figure that comes in pretty high. That's what we'd love. Uh but again, these are we're setting maximums and I'm uh my my job, if you will, is to give you the worst uh the worst news I can tonight. Uh and that is the greatest financial impact upon the school corporation. So, uh we we we will most likely carry the out 10 years. Um, again, we're being authorized for a term of greater than 10 years, but we will not take any longer
015than we have to to repay the full amount of these bonds and interest there. So, uh, we will get a credit rating from Standard Force Corporation on the debt. uh we will be reaffirming our bond rating from from S&P that we already have on the lease rental bond issue. Uh so we received that bond rating for the central campus and the high school projects last fall. U obviously we never sold bonds for those projects. So we will be reaffirming that rating which is an A rating. Great job. That's good news. Um, and we'll be getting a rating on these GEO bonds as well. That is going to um to bring you the lowest interest rate on the bond issue. If we didn't have a bond rating from S&P, a credit rating, your interest rate would
016be higher on these bonds. And quite frankly, in this market, I wouldn't want to go into the market without having a bond. That's that would be kind of a scary thing to do. So, what else can I tell? If you sold bonds today, the interest rate would be maybe 4 and a.5%. We are authorizing a maximum rate of 6% on these bonds. But rest assured um our underwriters uh have been instructed and they they do a great job of this. They will we will achieve the lowest interest rate we can when we get around to selling bonds. So um the central campus high school project that is not a part of this hearing. However, um to give you uh to put everything in kind of a broader perspective in terms of timing, uh those bonds,
017the building corporation bonds are scheduled to sell in early July and close in late July. So, you're scheduled to have bond monies for the building corporation issue in late July and then again in September. Hopefully, it's September when we uh sell the GEO bonds. Uh we really have to close on the GEO bonds this calendar year to get a tax levy on those bonds for next year, 2026. But uh there there won't be any problem getting the GEO bond sold by December one of this year, which is really when the DLGF would like to have all bond issues closed. So that's a little bit about that. Um happy to better explain anything or or take any questions that that you might have. the the 10 cent. What is that percentage of our overall base rate
018for the school right now? You're at 38 say it's 3784 in debt service and I'll better look just to make sure I think it's 378 and that is just the debt service. That's just the debt service. Yeah. Yep. So, the goal with the um central campus high school bond has been for the debt rate to go back up to the 45.9 level when those bonds are issued and to not exceed that in debt service. So, yeah, you're right. It it may not be that high, but it may very well be that once we issue the building corporation bonds, the debt rate gets back up to 04599 where it was in when you approved that debt. Okay. Okay. So, that was the the debt service rate back then. It dropped a little bit. Um, as you
019all know, it was much higher in years prior to that. Uh, but our pledge in 23 when the resolutions for the central campus high school bonds were adopted was that the debt rate wouldn't exceed 45599 once those bonds were fully sold. And we still believe that. So to get to your question, um a 10 cent impact from the geo bonds would be adding 10 cents to that 46 cent rate. Okay, if that answers your question. So um I don't think it'll be any higher than that. I'm hopeful it will be low at this point. I'm hopeful it will. Um we really don't know what your assessed valuation is going to do. Uh it would be nice for continued increases like we have seen uh to date, but that may not be the case with the
020new sea one. Um which is most likely going to reduce AB sometime down the road. I wouldn't be surprised if we get a a good figure in this next time, but when 27 and and 28 and and and and future years roll around, it could be that that those values decline. And and that wouldn't just be for you, right? Uh the state is bracing for that type of income. Um hopefully for whatever reason that isn't the case, but that's again that's what we're prepared for and bracing for. So longwinded answer. That's all right. 46 cent expectation from the building corporation bonds. I'm gonna I'm gonna give you 10.8 and if you want to round that up to 11. Why? That's you know but around 56 cents is what I uh expect. debt rate to be
021once both series of bonds are issued. You're welcome. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Okay, we'll now open the public hearing. As I mentioned earlier, we ask that you state your name and address, limit your comments to the proposed project and financing, keeping any comments to three minutes, and avoid being repetitive if possible. Is there anyone who would like to speak? Okay. No. All right. Yeah. Thank you to all who participate in the hearing. We appreciate your time and interest in the projects. Please note that this is just the first step in the legal process. The board will continue to work with administration professors professionals um to look for efficiencies to conserve tax dollars while meeting our educational needs. Okay. So, we need to Yeah, I'm I'm uh the next step here is that
022I will summarize the project resolution. Uh the project resolution is required when the school is planning to spend more than $1 million per building. It contains the estimated hard and soft construction cost and the cost of issuance and establishes the total project cost. It also contains the estimated tax impact. Okay. Um Yeah. Okay. So, first we have a motion to adopt resolution on um the general obligation bonds project. Um do I have any discussion? If not, do I have a motion? Sharon. Do I have a second? Kim, all those four. Okay. 7. Okay. Next, um I am summarizing the preliminary bond resolution. Again, a legal qualification that we have to go through to begin this process. The preliminary bond resolution contains the project costs for the project, maximum interest rate, and other financial terms such
023as the first interest payment date and maturity dates of the bonds. Okay. Do I have a motion to adopt preliminary resolution on general obligation bonds project? Kim, second by Mike. All those four. Okay. 70. And finally, um I will be summarizing the reimbursement resolution. Uh the next resolution is a reimbursement resolution relating to the financing of the construction project. This resolution permits the school corporation to reimburse itself from bond proceeds for any cash which it might spend on the project prior to the closing on the bonds. It is required by federal tax law in order to preserve the school corporation's ability to reimburse itself. Okay. Do I have a motion to adopt the reimbursement resolution on general obligation bond project? Mike all those four 70. All right. Now we're we're going to shift gears. we
024that when there we were talking about the geo bond that we are looking to sell as as Mike was was sharing perhaps in September. Um now we um are going to learn a little bit about the lease bond project that was started in 23. Um and we'll start with some information from Steph Nogle Group and Jialter. So thank you Mr. Lewis. I'm going to stand up. I've been sitting all day. So, uh, tonight we have, uh, Jenna and Dale Wagner with Crawalter and also Dina Gilhoff with Stephanogal Group. Um, the purpose of tonight's meeting is to review the preliminary priority projects that we've been talking about the last several several months uh, in work sessions. I'd like to present those, recap those, and also um give permission to move forward with those projects as well
025as seek permission to approve the design professionals uh to perform their design services for each of those projects. um at the central campus. Um all the estimated costs for these priority projects will be covered by the lease bond amount of $4,190,000. And at the high school campus, all the preliminary priority improvements will be covered by that lease bond of $4 million,000. Um, starting with the priority improvements at the central campus, um, the low slope roof, which is I consider the flat roofs. Um, all those roofs will be replaced. Um, they're in dire need of replacement. Um, the gabled roofs will also be replaced. And along with that, um there's rock wall panels on the fascinate included in those uh those gable roof replacements. And with all these projects, we are implementing alternates to help protect
026the budget as monies allow. So that's always a good thing. Um the other priority item at the central campus is the electrical switch gear replacement. Um so that is uh another priority um project that we will also be addressing. Um then as Mr. Lewis talked earlier, the prek early learning center improvements which will be covered by the geo bond uh will be part of the project as well. And I have Dale Wagner if you would like to do a brief overview of that. If not um it's totally up to you, Mr. Lewis. We will probably as we get closer to sell bonds we would redo this anyhow. Correct. Would we come back and do that again or would this be the I'm asking? Yeah, as we do go through design development before we issue uh
027get seek permission develop the construction documents they will present the final design. Perhaps we could wait on the early learning s unless you would like to do it. No, I think you described it pretty clearly in your earlier confirmation. Okay. So we we would do more details when we get to that point legally with the GR. Okay, great. Um so that those are the priorities uh improvements at the central campus. Moving on to the high school campus uh are the track and field improvements which consist of removing the existing latex surface, milling the asphalt, installing new asphalt and new latex rubber surface. Also removing the existing chain link fence and post and installing a new perimeter fence around the track. will be an alternate again to rebuild the discus and shopput event area. Um the
028other priority improvement there is provide ADA parking lot and a drive. They're just um just directions right here just west of the the track and field and uh east of the soccer field. So, um that will provide ADA parking for handicapped people as well as emergency vehicles to serve better serve the soccer field. Uh also there will be a ADA restroom building uh there on the west side of the track. Um that restroom building will be ADA compliant. Um, part of that project will include a new sanitary force man that will pump the sanitary waste across the underground across the track to the u existing wastewater uh sanitary line that eventually goes down to the wastewater treatment plant. Um, another priority improvement is to improve the asphalt parking lot there on the the main parking
029lot uh in front of the school. Um, it it's starting to fail in several areas. So, that parking lot would also be replaced. Um, and also the bus transportation parking lot. Uh, that would be uh new asphalt installed there. So those are the those are the priority projects that we've been talking about last several months. Um and as I mentioned, we have two action items. One to uh approve all the priority projects that we've been speaking about the last several months at the central campus and the high school campus. And also the action item number two would be to approve pro uh proceeding with the proposals received from the design professionals uh to start the design development of uh these priority projects. Any questions? Okay. Do we have any comments from the board about any
030of this before we I just want to thank Scott and the team for diligent work. Yeah. Sharing and working with us on this whole process. We've been very open to our suggestions during our work sessions and um you know even outside of the work sessions communication with with myself and uh the whole team involved from financing to legal. and you've been working with us the whole time and I I appreciate that especially as someone new to this position. I appreciate all your guidance there. We appreciate all the time you put forward in the work sessions and all the questions. Great questions. Thank you. Yeah. Now, we decided on the track fence we're going to replace that with an electric fence. Right. Do I need the motion then? Uh, I'll go ahead. Okay. So, there's no
031other comment before we Okay. Um, then I am looking for a motion to approve the updated lease bond project list as presented by um the Stephanov group. Kim have got a second Dennis. All those four. Okay. So, got to get to work. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. All right. We have uh several other pieces to our agenda here. Um first, uh I seek a motion to approve an overnight trip for the high school girls basketball team to attend an overnight team camp at Transennsylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. This will be on June 16th through 18th. Uh this summer, cost of the camp is $195 per camper and all high school players are asked to attend. Since it's out of state and overnight, we need more approval. Um, I do have one question. Um, are all the
032players able to attend um, financially? I I don't know the answer to that. I do know that there's u some work being done with a boosters program and I I don't want to speak for everybody but I know if the student struggles to come up with the funds if they reach out there will be there will be a way for us to uh you know find a way to help that student participate if if they so choose. Right. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Do I have a motion? Heather second. Dennis for I got to go to Transennsylvania. All right. Um I seek a motion, another out of state trip, a motion to approve um the following middle school basketball teams to travel to Only Central in Illinois. Uh we have a fifth and sixth grade
033girls that would be June 25th. Uh seventh and eighth grade girls June 27th. Fifth and sixth grade boys uh the exact date to be determined but it will be in June. And the same for the seventh and eighth grade boys. Again these are u those dates will be determined as well. Uh these are not overnight camps. So thus the cost the only cost to the school would be to transport them to and from. I speculate, but that'll probably be through a mini bus. Okay. Any questions? Okay. Do I have a motion? Dennis second chair. All those four seven. We'll continue on with the theme here. Another overnight trip. a motion to approve an overnight trip for the girls volleyball seniors and the coaches for a senior bonding trip in June. The dates are still to
034be determined, but the most likely date is June 20th through 22nd. Uh they will visit Holiday World. They will camp at Holiday World and then go kaying and canoeing in that area on the next day. So I seek that motion. Yeah, this is just the seniors. Yeah, just the seniors. Okay. Yeah. Is this like the coach is sponsoring it or is I believe that is the coach. Yeah, the it's a Yes, it is the uh Yeah. How many does this affect? Do you know? I I do not know the answer to that. I do not know how many seniors we have. I'm sorry. I haven't heard. I do know that other sports have done this. I know that the football team did an overnight uh for their seniors. That's something that they've done in the
035past. I remember doing something just for seniors. Okay. Any other discussion? If not, do I have a motion? Sharon second Kim. All those four 70. Okay. Um next uh we have our certified employee handbooks. Um I seek a motion to approve the certified employee handbooks for the elementary, middle school, and high school. A little backstory. I I did ask the uh admin to compare them. And while each building has its nuances and maybe some due dates they might have that are a little different and expectations from week to week, we wanted those to be as consistent as we could get uh for fairness and equity equity across the the corporation. So they did sit down and do that and work through that. So I just seek your approval on those handbooks. Any discussion? You're just
036such fun things to edit. Are you being serious or sarcastic? kind of sarcastic. Oh, okay. Justin, did you just have a ball doing yours? Is that No, never mind. I have a motion to approve this. Natalie second. Sharon. All those four. Okay. Uh, next I have midyear graduation. A motion to approve three students for early graduation. These students will graduate in December of 2025. So, are they seniors graduating? Are they early? Yeah, they they're they're graduating at seven semesters. Okay. But they have the credits. Yeah. Yeah. It would be Yeah, they would have to earn their credits. Yes. Any discussion? Okay. Do I have a motion? Mike second. Natalie four. Okay. Next, I'll move on to personnel. First, we have a resignation. Um, I seek a motion to approve the resignation of Whitney Evans as
037elementary library facilitator effective at the end of the school year. Okay. Do I have a motion? Natalie second. All those four 70. Uh, we have an additional resignation here. Um, I seek a motion to approve the resignation of JC Needler as an elementary teacher effective at the end of the current school year. That's too bad. Family is moving out of state. It's not no other reason. Just her and her family's moving out. She couldn't stay behind. I guess not. Guess not. What grade is that? Do you know? Kindergarten currently. Yes. Okay. Do I have a motion? Dennis second. Natalie. All those four. 7. Uh, an additional resignation, a motion to approve the resignation of Cammy Jacob as day custodian at the high school effective May 16th, 2025. Okay, do I have a motion? Natalie second.
038All those four. All right. Another resignation. A motion to approve the resignation of Kaylee Michael as night custodian at the elementary school effective May 28th, 2025. Do have a motion that second all those four seven. All right. Next, I have a resa another resignation a motion to approve the resignation of Dylan Ael as freshman class sponsor. Do I have a motion? Heather second. Sharon. All those four 70. Another resignation. A motion to approve the resignation of Maline Cage as middle school art teacher effective at the end of the school year. We voted on that last month, didn't we? Okay. Well, that's okay. I mean, we voted for it once already. Do it again. We'll do it just for a motion. I wasn't certain if it was okay. I just Yeah, I remember that. We were
039all so upset. So, all those four. So, well, we're giving a second chance and Are you sure? We got rid of twice. I think for um these other positions we also voted on, didn't we? No. Oh, we didn't. Okay, we did not. I I think you're reading my memos and we probably discussed these at a work session afterwards. We did. So, I'm wondering if these weren't discussed, but not actually read your memo. Hey, evidence we did. All right. So, uh, next, uh, I do have a couple hirings here. A high school teacher. Um, motion to approve the hiring of Alexander Triple as our high school chemistry teacher for the 2526 school year. Alexander is here this evening. Welcome. Would we welcome him in? So, it would be really awkward if we didn't vote for you,
040right? You bring donuts. They never bring donuts. Dennis likes food. I do too. Doesn't mind if I'm back here again. I sure voted bring food. Yeah, I was going to say Well, now we're going to rethink about a motion for by Dennis. Second, Natalie. All those four 70. Welcome to Eastern Green. Welcome Alexander. We're glad to have you on the team and uh we look look forward to to uh seeing how it goes for you in high school science, primarily chemistry and Yeah. Okay. Welcome aboard. Um next I seek uh a motion to approve the hiring of Austin Matricardi as a high school English teacher for the 2526 school year. This is a position um replacing uh Lori Van Demander who is retiring. Um, and some of you may or may not know Austin is
041a uh graduate. I believe it was fifth. No, 16. I think he graduated. I think that long. Yeah, I think it was 16 because I think he graduated with my stepson. Okay. Motion by Dennis. Second Natalie. All those four 7 when Eastern kids come back excited and he's got some experience in workforce of media and stuff like that. Some some unique things he can bring these young kids in their young minds. Um another uh I seek a cheerleading coaching position. Um a motion to approve Angie Enman is the high school varsity head cheer coach for the 2526 season. Okay. Hey now, didn't Sorry. Does he need to finish for a reason? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Because you don't know. He could take it a different way. I think I trust him. Yeah. I have a second.
042Heather, all those four. Angie's done a great job for us. She really has. I remember I think she was her youngest one wasn't even born yet when she started when she started. So, she's done it for a few years and done great job. She rescued the program. Yes. Um, another cheerleading coach position. A motion to approve Amber Reeves as the high school assistant cheer coach for the 2526 season. Have a motion. Heather second Dennis. All those four and Amber have worked together for several years. She's been her right hand. So, we have some more ECA positions we will go through. Um, I have boys basketball varsity head coach. A motion to approve Jamie Hudson as the high school boys basketball head coach for the 2526 season. Have a motion Dennis. Second, Kim. All those four
043six against 6. Thank you. Um next uh we'll continue with ECA uh motions here. High school football assistant coaches. Uh last week uh we had a special board meeting to approve coach Nikkerk as our new football coach and he has gotten us uh these list of individuals to be his assistant coaches. So I seek a motion to approve the following as assistant coaches for the high school football program. Kendall Reed would be an assistant coach paid position. JC Lewis an assistant coach paid position. Isaac Jackson, assistant coach, paid position. Bo Miller, assistant coach, paid position. Gary Ray, assistant coach, paid position. And Jeff Jackson as the assistant coach, but a volunteer position. I will add that we have four slotted e approved slotted positions for um ECA pay for football assistance. So those five coaches,
044that money will be divided up. Um that's how the five will be paid. Um how that's going to be divided up. We'll really we'll sit down and talk with coach Nikkerk because he might have a lead assistant. I we haven't worked through those details but he does he would he's requested that we get those five individuals paid. So that motion any discussion motion Dennis second other all those four 70. Okay. Um, next I have the girls basketball varsity head coach. I seek a motion to approve Jeremy Clark as the high school girls basketball head coach for the 2526 season. Any discussion? Okay. Do I have a motion? Sure. Second. All those four 70. Uh, I have a few more coaching. I have some boys basketball varsity assistant coaches. I seek a motion to approve the
045following as uh the boys high school basketball assistant coaches for the 2526 season. Jacob Carmichael as the JV coach, assistant coach, Tyler Bruff as an assistant coach, and Kyler Hudson as assistant coach. These are all paid. I believe those are all paid positions. Yes. Okay. Any discussion? Do I have a motion? Are there second? Yeah. Four. Did you go up? Yes, I did. Okay. Sorry. I just wanted to double check. 70. All right. Next, we have some den some donations. I seek a motion to approve the following donations. Um a $200 donation um from the the family of Mrs. Liz Roberts to the Hunter Roberts Nancy Hacker Fund. A $50 donation from Sharon Yarbert to the Hunter Roberts Nancy Hacker Fund in memory of David Burch. Um, and I do want to take a moment
046to uh at least mention David. He's a former teacher here. I believe he spent his entire career here as a teacher. Um, I know David was uh instrumental in helping our new middle school when it started and uh when we started organizing that in 2006. And so he served as a seventh grade science teacher for us for a number of years before he retired. And even upon his retirement, he came back and filled a couple maternity leaves and was always willing to help out. And uh I know if you were ever out at a cross country meet or a track meet, you would run across David Burch. Um he he had a passion for that and he ran a fast meet which which people love. Track meets can efficient. Yes, he was very efficient with
047it. But uh you know we we give the best uh you know his families and our thoughts and prayers, but uh I did want to at least take some a moment to mention David while we had the opportunity there. So we have that $50 donation for Mrs. Yarber in honor of of Mr. Burch. And we also have a $55,000 donation. It's an anonymous donation. This uh donation will be used to fund a student uh support specialist at the high school. It's a one-year uh donation. If if it works out and is effective, then it could be continued for two years after that. But that is a donation from an anonymous individual in our community. uh that money will be used to pay the salary and benefits of an individual that uh we will work to
048hire that will in essence serve as an assistant guidance counselor, but they will work exclusively with students. They won't do scheduling and things like that. They're going to work with students and their needs with mental health issues. Yes. And what will be the requirement for that position or has that been decided? Um I I don't have that in front of me. Um, I mean, they're going to have to have a BA and the back a background in that area. I mean, we want to get the most qualified person. I do know that the uh um the individual that worked with adult child would probably apply for the position. Um, so I know that's one candidate. I know of a couple others that have a bachelor's in something in that area that will probably counseling or
049social work. Okay. Yeah. And finally, um, the following companies, individuals made donations for teacher appreciation at the high school. We want to recognize them. Starbucks, Crane Credit Union, there was an anonymous donation. Ver Verona Verona Coffee House, Square Donuts, Freddy's Frozen Custard, Crumble Cookies, Pizza Hut, Hawking Hill Coffee, um myself, uh central office staff, Eastern Green School Board, Ruof Home Mortgage, Chick-fil-A, and Salon 45. We certainly appreciate their efforts to assist with high school teacher appreciation week. And we have many others who help with teacher appreciation week and I will talk about them when we get to my discussion at the end. And whoever gathered these donations, thank you. I believe that that was Mr. Kirkindall. That's that was really wonderful. There's some nice nice donations. So some great donations there as always. We appreciate,
050you know, everybody in our community that steps up and helps out. Um I seek a motion to approve those. Okay. Do I have a motion? Dennis second. Natalie. All those four seven as always we appreciate all our donations and I do not have any late items. So with that um I have a couple um administrators who for various reasons couldn't be here this evening. So Dustin I think you get to go first. spotlight. I just have a few closing things. Um, first, thank you to Mr. for our field day that we had on Friday. Uh, kids have a lot of fun as always. He puts a lot of a lot of work into those days. Thank you to the middle school students who came over and help and all of our related arts teachers. Uh,
051thank you to Mr. Jackson Inman who was principal today on Friday uh with me. We had uh we had a great time. Um, and just some dates for you guys. On Thursday at 10 o'clock is our kindergarten graduation in the middle school gym. And then on Friday at 1:30, we'll have our fifth grade um celebration in the elementary. Thank you, Miss Evans. Mrs. Needler for everything they've done for us here at the elementary and thank you all for a wonderful year. Lindsay, do you have anything from special ed? Thank um I do have just a couple things for uh uh Miss Clary and Mr. Kirkindall. Um the middle school wants to shout out to all the students and staff and thank them for all their efforts during iLearn testing. Um, you know, a lot of
052time and effort goes into that and the students took it serious and worked hard on those. We hope to report back in June with some preliminary results for for all that testing. We will not have AP testing that that won't those results won't be back for a while. Also, Miss Clary wanted to give a big thank you to Jordan Webb for organizing the middle school field day. Um, that was all a success. uh middle school. We um I kind of helped with this, but the middle school held a meeting with the incoming fifth grade parents and families to discuss the transition. Um we had a great attendance at the meeting and felt like we were able to communicate the reasons for the move and answer any questions they had and just on behalf of Miss
053Clary and the entire team, we thank the fifth grade families for attending and sharing their thoughts and concerns. It was a a very productive meeting. Um good turnout. Very good turnout. Yeah, it was a very good turnout. Um, and it was tough to find a time where there wasn't conflicts with community ball and other activities going on. So, we did our best to try to do that. Uh, finally, from the middle school, the eighth grade Washington DC trip took place last week. Uh, students and teacher chaperones boarded the charter bus Tuesday evening and they returned here early Saturday morning. Um, it was reported that it was a smooth trip. Everyone enjoyed learning about our nation's capital. I'm sure the adults did not enjoy that long drive ride on the bus. It's not comfortable. I've done
054that a few times. But, uh, a big shout out to all the adult chaperones and especially to Mr. Martinddale. He he does a lot of behind the scene work organizing that trip and and various stages. So, always a great opportunity for the middle school to get to do the uh the DC trip. Uh, for the high school, um, Mr. Mr. Kirk Doll want me to formally invite everyone to the commencement ceremony on May 24th. It will start at 11:00 a.m. and I know I've talked with most of you about that already. If you are able to attend, I will share more details, arrival time and all that. I will be communicating that with you. Uh we would like to thank everyone who donated to the high school during teacher appreciation week. It was a fantastic
055week. Um he didn't put this in here, but I will give uh Eric some credit. He came in on the weekend and painted himself. Um, I provided a little bit of paint that we had here. He painted the the teachers lounge. He bought some stuff out of his own pocket, put up some decorations and stuff in the teachers lounge. So, he did all that. I do believe his wife helped him. So, I want to give her a shout out, too. But, uh, he did that on his own. So, you know, he he's, uh, it takes some time to do those kind of things. So, we appreciate him recognizing his staff by doing that. Uh this week is finals week at the high school and students are working hard to prepare for their finals. Those finals
056will be held on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Um they had over 590 individual class requests to opt out of their finals and most of those were granted. Um how many again? Uh 590 individual. So like one student might get seven potentially. Yeah. Depending like you can't opt out of a dual credit class and that type of thing. So, um I know my own kid tried to opt out of a couple. I don't know. He was really close on one. I think you have to have an A. Uh and then your attendance has to be a certain level. So, and that has been a very motivating Yes. for my child at least. Yeah. It would have been for me too as a student. Um at the June board meeting, uh Mr. Kirk Doll says that they
057will put that he will put together a comprehensive update for testing, academics, AP and attendance and all that just to show the impact of the year. And uh finally, he just said he would like to thank the staff, front office personnel, maintenance, custodial staff for a fantastic year. Without their help, without the help of everyone, it just wouldn't have been the success that we've had. So, okay, I've got a I've got a little bit more than they have. I guess some stuff that I want to share. Um part of we've already talked about just teacher appreciation week. I also want to you know we appreciate our teachers every day and every week but uh it is always nice to take a week and get to recognize them. Um and we also want to thank everyone
058who stepped up and helped us show our appreciation to the teachers includes many different families from the community, many different businesses. Um we read some of those. I know at the elementary we had all kinds of boosters and all kinds of PTO members that did various things. So, we appreciate all their help there. I also want to talk a little bit about Kids at Hope and and the training that we have coming up. Um, I want to share with everyone that on May 19th during the teacher inservice day, all elementary and middle school teachers and teaching assistants will take part in training for our new initiative at the elementary and middle school called Kids at Hope. Um, I'm going to give just a brief overview of what kids and I'm really selling it short, but
059I'm giving you about a paragraph here. uh kids at hope is built on the belief that all children are capable of of success. There's no exceptions. You know, unlike, you know, a lot of times you hear the at risk model and so forth, this approach emphasizes instead of at being at risk, uh emphasizes the hope, belief, and potential of every kid. Uh just a a few of the basic guiding principles. Um it embraces the universal belief system that we believe that every child can succeed. Um, and this will guide students through time travels, helping them set goals for the future in in key areas, not just in an academic goal, but an education and career goal, a home and family goal, a community and service goal, hobbies and recreation. Um, so that's really oversimplifying it,
060but uh and and as we we become trained in it, um, we will probably do a quick overview for the board after we have the training. Um our training will consist of everybody getting a three-hour training and then in the afternoon into the whole next day we will have 10 to 12 um teachers including the administrators and myself will be trained as train the trainers and I will then train the bus drivers in mid July. So that's the plan moving forward. So, so all of the staff, bus drivers, minus the we won't we we're not expanding into the high school yet because typically it is I'm not going to say it's an elementary and middle school program, but that's that's the place to start. We're going to see goal setting to grow. Yeah. Yeah. But
061I do want to personally thank u each of our faculty and staff members. You know, that that last work day, that's a big day for them. they get a lot of work done in their classrooms and they finalize items and we are asking them to give up at least the morning half of that to to do this training. So, uh we do appreciate their their time to do that. So, so we they they were they were open to listen to it and while I know everybody would, you know, in a perfect world would choose not to do that, if I have everybody here, it's easier to do the training than to try to bring them back over the summer and and it's more cost effective. they're already contractually supposed to be here. If they come
062back over the summer, then, you know, their time is valuable. We would compensate them at our PD rate. It just that would drive up the cost of the training. So, I I appreciate I just want to be on record as saying I thank the teachers for their willingness to to do what might be best for our kids in the long run here. Um, I do want to just take a moment and talk about the play uh that the students put on, Catch Me If You Can. I just want to congratulate the cast and crew. Um, it was great to to see the play. It was performed May 2nd through 4th. Uh it was just a fantastic production. Um anybody that's never been involved in a play or had a student involved, uh the amount of
063time, effort, dedication that goes into this type of theater production, it's remarkable and it's done on a on a shoestring budget. So uh uh the finished product was just something that they all could be proud of and and kudos to Mr. Drummond, all of uh the students that were involved and and everybody that helped with that. So, just want to tell them well done. And thank you to Scott that was at every performance and helped with lighting and so forth. So, we appreciate that. Uh, he mentioned kindergarten graduation. For those who have who didn't make it, the music department will be selling DVDs at the Okay. It will stream it due to Yeah. legal licensing, but we can sell DVDs. Okay. So, I'm going to read much of this next part, but uh uh this
064past uh Friday, I shared a letter with the entire uh faculty and staff, every employee that is is employed here. Um there's just been a lot out there, and I I want to kind of read through this and talk a little bit about some school finance and just try to be as transparent and keep uh all of our constituents in in the loop and in the know of what's going on. As many of you know, school financing, excuse me, has been a major topic in the news in recent months. With a mix of speculation, rumor, and uncertainty all coming out in the media, I want to offer some transparency about what we know, what our plans are, and how we will continue delivering a highquality education for our students. Uh, first off, this is a
065legislative budget year. So, let me explain a little bit about what that means. Um, this year is a budget year at the state level, which means two important things. Many new laws are being proposed and enacted and passed, and a two-year state budget will be passed as well. Both of these actions will have significant impact on our daily operations. Uh, first I want to talk a little bit about the property tax reform bill, also referred to as Senate Enrolled Act One. One of the most impactful laws in the is the Senate Enrolled Act One. Also, as I stated, is known as the property tax reform bill. This complex legislation phases in changes through 2031 and is projected to significantly affect funding for public schools, road maintenance, law enforcement, libraries, and more. For Eastern Green Schools,
066this will directly impact us. It's expected to reduce our operating budgets, our operations budget. And and for those of you that don't know, our operations budget will take care of salaries for non-eing positions or wages and salaries for non uh teaching positions. All things transportation, purchasing of buses, the maintenance of buses, the gas that goes into the buses, all of that comes out of operations. uh building any building maintenance that we have to do, any general upkeep, all of our utilities, um most of our technology comes out of the operations budget. And finally, any work and any upkeep on our wastewater treatment plant, and we're unique as a school that we have two wastewater treatment plants that we have to maintain, which is is always a challenge. So talking to experts in the area and
067one thing about this bill is is is this law that is passed, it will affect each school differently. It used to be they would pass a law, they could send out a run and every school there, they could do that run and you would know exactly where you're at. This new law is much more complicated. Um so we estimate a 9 to 12% reduction in our operation funding for the 2526 school year. That equates to approximately 325,000 to $450,000. Now, please note that while these cuts are estimates, we will certainly experience some form of reduction in the operation fund and we we anticipate in future years there's going to be even additional uh reduction in our operation funds because of the way that the um Senate enacted bill one is set up. Okay. Um, so
068that's a little bit about the operations budget. Um, a piece I didn't even discuss is uh the circuit breaker and that's another adjustment to it which that's what causes those numbers to jump to 350 to $450 or 325 to $450,000. Um, I also want to talk a little bit about the education budget. Uh so we're also monitoring the state's um bianual budget which affects our education funding um and what we use education funding for that's teacher salaries some teaching assistance are paid for out of that uh curriculum and classroom materials and any other instructional type expense comes out of the education fund. But most of the education fund, the biggest part, over 60% um actually closer to 68% I believe for us is used for teacher salaries. But early indications show that the very little
069new funding and there's the elimination of the separate textbook reimbursement. Um so if you recall back uh three years ago, parents had to still pay for their textbooks. Okay. The state changed that and they gave a a separate uh line item in their budget to compensate schools and that compensation was approximately $150 to $160 per student that we got back from the state and that was across the board. Every school received approximately about that much. Um now for some grade levels that met or exceeded the cost but for many other grade levels it did not. Okay. So, the schools picked up some of those extras because it was then illegal to send a bill to parents even for some of the consumable items. So, with this new budget, we are not getting new money for
070the textbooks. Instead, they're just rolling that in to the ADM money that that we will be getting. So, there's a a slight increase. They're projecting a slight increase in our education funding, but then when you figure in that extra money coming out, that slight increase is virtually non-existent. And at the state level, they're going to talk about there's 2% more money and that they're doing that that we're getting this 2% new money even in a a terrible projection for our economy. and and I do appreciate the legislators and the governor the legislators and the governors looking out for us, but it is a little misleading because a lot of those extra funds are being sent to voucher programs for kids to go to charter schools and private schools. Um, and my my understanding is the
071next calendar year, um, it's almost universal for people that want vouchers. I I think the the income stipulations are disappearing, but I don't want to misspe and say that completely. So, with all that being said, while we don't, it doesn't look like we're going to experience drastic cuts in the education fund, we still have to be cautious. We still have to be aware of that because uh all of this is intertwined. Even though they're separate budgets, we just have to be cautious. Um, another piece that I wanted to add in this is there's some uncertainty with the federal department of education. Um, as most of you probably are aware and it's been reported in the media, the federal government government has begun the process to dissolve the the federal department of education. Uh, we get
072important federal funding from the DOE for such items as title one um which title one is used for um teachers and teaching assistance, some professional development and instructional materials for students who are at higher risk um level. And I'm oversimplifying that. Title two is primarily professional development money that we get to help train our teachers. Uh the kids at Hope, we are using some title one money to help pay for for some of that. We're fortunate that's much of that is 24 title two money we're using. But but we we just know that there are going to be some cuts coming from like we're not going to lose title one altogether. I mean title one's going to be shifted to another department. Title two will be shifted to another department, but we have been told
073to anticipate and to expect some cuts in those areas. And we already run our title one and title two very tight. Matter of fact, we picked up some of the title one shortfall for this past school year with our general education fund. And we may or may not be able to do that moving forward because of the way things are tightening up. So, what does this mean? Okay. So, despite all these changes, our commitment to the students that remains unchanged. Everybody's going to show up. We're going to do our job. You know, we're here to do a job, and we're going to do it. Even if it's with a shoe string budget, we're going to do it. We're going to make it work. Um, but we will need to continue to uh provide the best
074education that we possibly can. However, there there are some things I just want everybody uh hopefully anybody who's listening out there uh you know, we're going to have to evaluate all programs and expenditures. you know, we're going to have to to just really do an analysis of is that something that we absolutely have to have and there are things like that or are there some ch some some adjustments we can make. Uh we're going to have to make tough decisions on staffing, transportation, and maintenance and areas like that. Uh we're going to fill open positions very cautiously and and look at all the parameters involved. And finally, we're just looking for efficiencies across all departments. and we've already started this process. And like I said, I've tried to be very transparent with our current staff
075so that they're aware of these things. We are committed to retaining all of our current employees as long as they're in good standing, you know, and uh we we want to keep all of our current employees. So, we might do some work through attrition and things like that. Um but we will work together to navigate these challenges and work to maintain transparency and collaboration. I do want to note, I think it's important since we talked about uh the lease bond project and the potential geo bond that neither one of those projects will have a direct impact on operations or the education fund. That will affect our debt services fund um as they talked about. Um and of course, you know, I that will have an impact on our taxpayers. Um, but it will not be
076a direct hit in our operations budget or education. I will say doing the the lease project and the potential geo bond project will allow us to protect operations a little bit because we can fix some things that we may not have to continue to put bandaids on. So, I think it it it is a good time for us to be doing these uh the two the two potential bond projects. While I know our our taxpayers are are, you know, they're going to feel the brunt of that, it it will be a good thing for our school to to have that opportunity to do that. So, just as a final thought, I just I hope this update clarifies rather than confuses everyone's understanding of some of the fiscal challenges that we're facing here at Eastern Green
077Schools. Um, and not just here, it's it's across the state. Every school is is feeling this pinch, and they're going to feel it differently than we are. Um, my goal is to keep the public informed and involved. If you ever have any questions, please reach out. I'd be more than happy to talk about this and answer any questions that you might have. Um, the situation is going to present challenges that none of us wished for, but I'm confident that teamwork and we'll get through it. We can continue to make Eastern Green Schools a great place for all members of our school community. And I'm certainly uh committed to that. and I know that uh our admin team and all of our teachers and support staff are as well. So that's the budgetary stuff I wanted
078to talk about. Um I also want to just briefly talk about uh as we wrap up another school year. Just it's been a fantastic school year. Um, I wanted to extend my own heartfelt thank you to everyone that makes our school community special. To our families, students, the teachers, support staff. Their hard work, dedication, and care have made this year a tremendous success. Um, I wake up every morning, I'm proud to be back here at Eastern Green. Um we're we're excited for the end of the school year as everybody always is, but we've got a lot of work to do over the summer and we'll miss the students and uh we'll welcome them back here in August for another great school year. But as we head into the final four days of school, I I
079wish each and every one of our students and faculty and staff an enjoyable summer. I also want to offer sincere congratulations to the class of 2025. I might be a little biased with one in the class, but uh we're proud of their accomplishments and excited to celebrate their graduation on Saturday, May 24th at 11:00 a.m. in the high school gym. So, on behalf of the entire Eastern Green School Corporation, we wish each of our seniors all the best in their future endeavors and I thank everyone for a great year. That's all I have. Sure. Want to say thank you to everyone out there, all of you, staff, um, teachers, staff. Um, it has been such a rich year. I've been most familiar with middle school, um, and the activities, the relationships that I have seen
080throughout the year in middle school have just been phenomenal. And I just say thank you to everyone. But I also want to say thank you to the board and to Doug. Um, you guys are a great group to work with. So, I we've got some big stuff coming with the bonds and the expanding preschool and continuing with everything else that we're doing. So, I just thank you guys. Appreciate you. Good. I think I'm good. Thank you. Welcome, Mr. Triple. And um, thank you all. Thank you for that summary, Doug. I think that was a really informative. I know that probably took a while to put all that together. I just really appreciate it. I think it breaks down a lot for me and everybody else. Um, thanks everybody for a great year. Enjoy your summer.
081All right. So, there's not really a whole lot we can top with that, but um, we're almost there. We almost made it. It seems like it happened really fast, but a lot of long days, short weeks. Um, make good choices everybody over the summer. Come back. Do you have a Mrs. Fizzle word of wisdom? Is that her name? Mrs. Fizzle. Yes. Um, yeah. This isn't going to be a regular This isn't going to be a regular field trip. This is going to be magical. Yes. But I'm happy to be here. Thank you. Yes. Uh just proud of the senior class. Uh hope you all have great luck in the future and I hope many of you come back to the Thunderbird community when you get your education or jobs or whatever. Always remember you're still
082a Thunderbird. So any of you that can come back and help our community grow will be awesome. Good luck to you. Hi. Not much for me other than thanks everybody for a good school year and we'll see you all in June. So, I'll make a motion that the meeting be adjourned at 7:50 p.m. Wait for the motion. I'll wait for the motion. Somebody didn't follow rules when they were in school, did they? No, I did not. Okay. I I can tell. At least he raised his hand. Yeah. Dennis second. Hallelujah. Heather. All those