001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> OMG >> Basically what is >> Hey Leslie, Leslie, Leslie. >> [laughter] >> Leslie I don't want to get her attention. Leslie >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> I got to tell you. >> [laughter] >> I got >> But you ain't even But you ain't even okay. Why? >> Um >> Hi, I don't think she's here. Okay. I mean I can ask her. She can use wait to the normal time if she is ready. >> All right, I want to get this started as closely on time. We've got kind of an inclement weather situation. So we're going to move tonight's meeting right along. So at this time I'd like to call the Elkhart Community Schools Board Meeting for March 10th, 2026 to order. Please rise. Pledge. Thank you. You may
002be seated. Ms. Vandervellen and the Elkhart Promise. >> The Elkhart Promise. Every student is known by name, challenged and supported by highly effective staff, and in partnership with the community will graduate career and college ready and life ready. >> Well done. Well done audience and All right, our invitation to speak protocol. Everyone should have received one of these in the back. You have a little form. Please fill it out. Get it to Dora Dora state you put your name and um your affiliation with Elkhart schools and the topic. You can speak on any agenda or not agenda item during the uh uh public comment time. Uh when your name is called, when I call your name, please step up to the mic, state your name, and you'll have 3 minutes to speak on any agenda
003or non-agenda item. If it's a uh issue with a personnel or a person or student issue, please do not reference anyone by name. This is not the the venue to do that because of the Family Rights and Privacy Act we must adhere to. So, with that [clears throat] said, Dora, I will open it up for public comment. Thank you, Dora. Um First person, are these in any particular order? Just we're just Okay. Yes. Okay. Uh Tara Williams. Lucky number one. Welcome. >> [clears throat] >> It's good to be here in real life. Um Sorry, I'm really nervous. >> Don't be nervous. >> My name is Tara Williams and I've been teaching at Woodland my whole 25-year career. I also have a senior here in Elkhart. I never imagined that I'd be standing up here tonight,
004but I feel compelled to say a few things about the elephant in the room. Woodland deserves it. In my [clears throat] eyes, tonight feels like a funeral. Our principals will be highlighting Woodland's successes while in a few months the heartbeat of our school will stop. The timing of this meeting feels like cruel irony. At the last school board meeting, it was mentioned that the board members enjoyed touring all of our elementary schools on a Saturday. I really wish you would have come to see our schools in action. Visitors always mention what a welcoming staff we are and the way our staff works together is something special. Students feel loved, supported, and are truly happy to be at school. Witnessing that would have been much more meaningful than walking down empty hallways. It's hard not to
005be disappointed. Can you guys hear me? Okay. In the lack of transparency and respect given to our staff, the ones who have been directly affected by our decisions. Can you imagine the way we felt when what we heard what we were hearing about our school closing was confirmed at the school board meeting a month ago? Now we're hearing from other teachers in the district that our building is in fact being repurposed and not closing because of the cost to maintain it. I'm here representing all of the displaced staff in the district. Our morale is down. >> [clears throat] >> We're sad, stressed, anxious, but we show up every day for the students because that's just what we do. In my own grieving process, if I'm being honest, I am stuck between anger and acceptance. We
006aren't only losing our schools, but we're losing connections with students, their families, and our colleagues. Sorry. I got to hurry. Our positions are in jeopardy. And in many Sorry. >> Take a breath. Take a breath. >> Gosh. Our positions are in jeopardy and [clears throat] in many cases we're pitted against each other to get the placements that we want in buildings that we will barely have enough room for all of us. >> [snorts] >> And if that wasn't bad enough, in positions that are limited, seniority only counts among the buildings closing. Gosh, I really didn't want to do this. If you listen to anything that I say tonight, please consider the human impact on the decisions being [snorts] made and do the right thing by honoring our librarian's 14 years of seniority in the district,
007and she's here tonight. >> [snorts] >> It seems irresponsible that our librarian was hired days A new librarian was hired days before announcing the consolidation plan. >> [snorts] >> Because our building is closing, her years of dedication mean nothing. At the last school board meeting, parents spoke up and things were changed. >> [snorts] >> So, I'm really hoping that you'll listen [clears throat] to me. As you hear the presentation tonight and see Woodland's data, please [snorts] be mindful of the heart behind those numbers. Cuz they represent real students, real relationships, and staff that pours everything they have into our school. And remember [snorts] that all of the educators who have dedicated their careers to this district deserve acknowledgement and real transparency. Thank you. >> [snorts] >> Okay. >> [applause] >> Uh Lynn Borner. >> Good
008evening, Board. Good evening, Dr. Huff. My name is Lynn Borner, and I've taught in Elkhart for 12 years. I would It was I was split for the first 2 years. I was at two buildings, Woodland and Mary Beck. And I chose Woodland when I was able. I'm here tonight not just as an employee and parent, but as someone whose life has been shaped by the hallways, the classrooms, and the people of Woodland Elementary. I want to tell you who we are because I'm not sure you fully understand. We are the teachers who work for hours and years helping struggling students find their confidence. We are the staff members who greet every single student by name every day without fail. Our exceptional Ed team takes care of our students with the highest needs and they're always
009able to create opportunities for success. Always. Our office staff is there to support in any way they can. Just a phone call or radio call away. We had a parent the day after the announcement who put hearts on every single staff members door with encouraging words and happy notes. She's here tonight. >> [laughter] >> We are a community, a family like many others in the district that took years to build and one that simply cannot be reassigned on a spreadsheet. Our school may be closing, but what has not been told to us is why our people are being treated as afterthoughts in this process. Let's run some numbers. Over half of our staff has over 10 years in the district. Our special team, the five of us, I'm very proud to say have a total
010of 94 years in the district. But only two of us even have the opportunity to continue in elementary specials based on licensure or availability as of writing this. Our librarian, as Mrs. Williams said, has over 14 years in the district and could not even go for a position in elementary library because there wasn't one. But someone was hired just weeks before our announcement and marked safe. Even though she has 14 years and it's much bigger number than 1 month, it means nothing. There has been little transparency, little dignity and very little acknowledgement of what we, the displaced, have given to this district. We're sad. We're angry. Yes, we are devastated. But more than any of that, we are proud. We're proud of every child who walks out of our building reading, growing, and believing in
011themselves. That happened because of these people. And these people deserve to be treated as exactly that, people. I'm asking the board tonight, look up from the numbers, see us, honor what we have built. The closing of our school will be written into this district's history, and how you treat the people inside it will be, too. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Uh Howard Turner. Good evening, board. Uh as a proud graduate, parent, and grandparent from Elkhart Community Schools, I'd like to thank the teachers and other staff members who are being displaced. I do have a couple questions. First, uh understand the need for consolidation to get in within the budget. Are we losing any of the buildings to the state's charter? And then, seeing how our great city is has plans development to add housing, are
012those uh children going to have a school to go to? Thank you. Three questions. >> Kaylee Traver. >> Uh good evening, members of the board and superintendent. My name is Kaylee Trevor. I taught in Elkhart Community Schools for five years, leaving only when I had my twin daughters. My history with this district is professional, but today it's deeply personal. I watched Hawthorne close once only to see it reborn as the Early Learning Center that changed my daughter's lives. Hawthorne isn't just a building, it's a specialized ecosystem. To serve our community, this program requires ample space that smaller wings in other buildings simply cannot replicate. We need the five pace and four title one pre-K classrooms, but we also need the specialized environments that make inclusion possible. The sensory room. My daughter Ellie relied on this.
013It was her safe harbor, allowing her to regulate so she could return to her peers ready to learn. The motor room and the Minds in Motion hallway. Gross motor development is a foundational pillar for for special education. These aren't extras, they are neural jump starts for cognitive and social emotional growth. The specialized gym and library, facilities designed specifically for the unique physical and developmental scale of a preschooler. The human element. Luz Palacios. Beyond the walls, we must protect the people. I urge you to keep Luz as our translator. She is the bridge for our Spanish-speaking families. I cannot imagine the fear of discussing my babies with the team of experts without speaking their language. For a parent, that first evaluation is nerve-wracking enough. Providing reliable, real-time translation with someone who understands the nuances of IEPs
014and evaluations is a matter of equity and dignity. When we aged out of First Steps, I was lost. Even as an educator, I didn't know where to turn for a diagnosis or services that I couldn't afford out of pocket. The Hawthorne team held my hand. They conducted the evaluations and confirmed that my daughters had autism. They provided the speech and OT services that our insurance wouldn't cover. They guided me when I didn't know the way. Hawthorne catches our most vulnerable families before they fall through the cracks. Finally, if closure must happen, I urge you to open these buildings for one final evening. Hawthorne has been a cornerstone for this community for almost 100 years. Many of us never got to say goodbye when it closed the first time. Give this community the chance to walk
015the halls one last time and find the closure they deserve. In short, please keep the Hawthorne program, its specialized rooms, and its essential staff like Luz together in one building. Our kids can't wait for for us to get this right. They need it now. Thank you. >> Uh James Trevor. Good evening everyone. My name is James Trevor, and as you just heard from my wife, we are the parents of twins who transitioned into Hawthorne Early Learning Center at a critical turning point in their development. She spoke to you as an educator. I'm here to speak to you as a father. Um and Hawthorne really helped change my children and our family for the better. When we first realized our daughters weren't hitting their milestones, it was a heavyweight to carry. You feel isolated. You worry
016about their future. And when Hawthorne stepped in with their multi-disciplinary evaluation, it wasn't just data to us. It was the first time someone gave us a map. They confirmed the autism diagnosis, but more importantly, they gave us a plan to follow. I've walked those halls. I've seen the motor room and the sensory rooms in action. To an outsider, these might look like extra classrooms. To a parent of a child with special needs, they're essential medical and educational tools. You can't simply move a sensory room into a corner of a standing elementary school and expect the same results. These children need a dedicated, quiet, and intentional environment. If you fragment this program across four or five different buildings, you're not just moving desks. You're breaking a system that works. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Let's talk
017about the reality for Elkhart families. The speech and occupational therapy services our daughters received at Hawthorne were services that we literally couldn't afford through our private insurance due to high deductibles. Hawthorne is a great equalizer. It ensures that a child's progress isn't determined by their parents' bank accounts. Furthermore, I want to echo about Luz Palacio. Though we didn't need her, many Spanish-speaking families did. Communication is the bedrock of trust. If a parent can't understand the person explaining their child's disability, that trust is broken before it even starts. Keeping Luz is a common-sense move for the Spanish community in Elkhart. Finally, I want to address the closure itself. Hawthorne has stood for almost a century. If this board moves forward with these closures, please don't do it behind locked doors. Give us one last night. Open
018the doors for the families that grew there to be able to walk through one last time. >> [sighs and gasps] >> We are asking you to be stewards of our children's potential. Don't just look at the cost of the building. look at the cost of losing what happens inside of it. Please keep the Hawthorne Early Learning Center intact. Thank you. >> I'm defined. >> You said you missed me last time. >> I did say that. But my gosh, thank you. All right, good evening. I stand here again for teachers that were given notifications on February 20th, 2026 that their assignments are scheduled to conclude at the end of the school year. Our weekly newsletter stated that these notifications were also sent to staff last year, but that is incorrect, especially transition to teaching teachers. Notifications
019did not give teachers time to submit proof of licensure before May 29th or even by August. They were just told that their employment will terminate on the last day of school. Those teachers that you should know by name. Two of these individuals are transition to teaching people. Transition to teaching is a program that gives a person without a teaching degree a three-year license to take education courses and pass exams to become licensed teachers. These teachers need to have a degree or experience in the subject. Both people I'm talking about teach science. Both of these teachers were given deadlines to complete class work, but not licensure. Most people would assume they had three years to do so, but Elkhart told them out of the blue, you have two. For reference, when teaching to become a science
020teacher, you have to take a test that covers all science areas. Chemistry, biology, life science, physics, all of it, not just what you are teaching. How many of you could do that? Two others are on emergency permits, both veteran teachers, both teaching science, trying to help Elkhart out in positions that were posted for more than two years. Neither with a science background, so now think about them taking that science test. Another teaches a foreign language, the only person in the district teaching this language, again given a deadline for finishing the teaching part, not the licensure. And in this situation, because Elkhart paid for their classes, now has to repay Elkhart for up to 75% of those classes. >> [snorts] >> They have repeatedly asked for this amount and have yet to receive an answer. Talk
021about stress. All of these requirements are on top of the everyday responsibilities of teaching, planning, grading, covering, being involved in the school community. Elkhart Community Schools currently has four open science positions. All have been posted since 2024. The consolidation sheet for teachers shows six openings for science in the fall. There's also a foreign language position that has been posted since March of 2025. If Elkhart were to keep these science teachers instead of ending their employment, you would only need two science teachers in the fall. A much more doable option. Do you think there will be a windfall of licensed science teachers in the fall? What happens to the students that need these classes in the fall? Will science classes be taught in the auditorium because we don't have enough teachers? Guess that's one way to
022see if students are college-ready. Many of us are tired of hearing that we are being diligent, looking at individuals, making choices that are best for the students and teachers. Because are you? Are you really? Thank you. >> That concludes our public comment. Uh next we will have a uh business and international relations school study report. Uh Mr. Orbeonski. >> President Scott, uh Dr. Huff, members of the Board of School Trustees. Uh thank you very much for this opportunity to present uh evening. Uh I'm proud to say that uh for me personally, this is my 32nd year with Elkhart Community Schools and 29th as an administrator. And since the merger, I've been the proud principal of the School of Business and International Relations at Elkhart High School. So, I'm going to take just a few minutes
023to share some highlights and some things that are that are happening in our school of study. Um just make sure I'm getting the right buttons here. Uh just a little just a little bit of an overview of the makeup and the and the demographics. There are 22 teachers that have responsibility of evaluating. We also have two college two counselors and an early college counselors and two support staff and other people that contribute to that I'll mention a little bit later to to the operation of our of our school of study. Um just a little bit about the Oh, I don't want to do that. Sorry. Just a little bit about the demographics of of our school of study. It does mirror pretty much the demographics of Elkhart High School as a whole. The only real
024anomaly is if you look on the right-hand side, our school of study of the 390 students in it, 70% of them are males and 30% of them are females. Where over Elkhart High School overall is 52% male and 48% female. So, um the guys are gravitating to business a little bit. I'm not sure why and maybe we'd like to try to flip-flop that a little bit. Um Uh the instructional pathways, the graduation pathways that we have, the three main ones are the accounting pathway and you see the classes that are listed there, the ones that that you need to pass to work through the accounting pathway. We also have a business management pathway and and and encapsulating principles of business management, management fundamentals, and accounting fundamentals, and an entrepreneurship pathway, which is one of the
025newer pathways, that um uh the state has the state is initiated, and we have students that go through and earn their earn their graduation pathways to satisfy that part of the graduation requirement that way. We do have quite a bit of students though who do earn their pathway, that part of their graduation requirements, through dual credit courses. That's another way that you can earn your pathways. And we also have quite a few students in our school of study that satisfy their pathway requirement by attending the Elkhart Area Career Center and various programs. Um So, that's how they meet that how they meet that requirement. We also offer two new certification opportunities, Microsoft Office Specialist, which started this year also with QuickBooks. And those are the students the number of students that we have enrolled in
026each of those pathways. Um Uh next we'll just give it kind of give an overview of some of the things that our students are doing. I talked about a lot of kids get their dual their path one of their pathways through dual credits. We have 219 students that are currently taking dual credit classes. Um That is about 56% of the kids in our school of study. So, we do have a lot of kids that are that are taking a more challenging curriculum and we're working on dual credit classes, which helps satisfy that pathway requirement. Percentage of students on track to graduate. As you see, 10th graders, we have 85% of them on track. That increases a little bit to 85.29% for 11th graders. By the time they get to their senior year, we really work
027hard to make sure that we get those kids across the finish line with presently 95 17% of our seniors in the B and I R pathway on track to graduate. We also have up to this point students seniors that have been applying to different colleges and applying for scholarships have so far been offered over $2 million in scholarship opportunities. Now, that could be a student who's gotten scholarship offers from two or three or four different universities. They're only going to pick one of them which so they'll get the money from that particular college or university. But that's still quite a bit of money and I'm sure that will increase as as the semester progresses and we get more information and more kids get accepted into into colleges and universities as the semester and the year
028progresses. Just a snapshot list of some of the colleges that have accepted B and I R students already. We've got the Big East Purdue, go boilers, boiler up. IU, IU Indy, Grand Canyon, Purdue Fort Wayne, Tennessee, Texas A&M. We have kids that matriculate to colleges all over the United States. And so we feel that we provide them a good foundational education to have success in those different colleges. One of the biggest things are the biggest extracurricular or or business school related opportunity that kids have an opportunity to participate in is our Future Business Leaders of America. That is a club a competitive club that competes against other FBLA chapters throughout the state of Indiana. This year we've comparing last year to this year we've got 37 active members which is a 17 member increase from
029last year. We've got 25 registered for the state leadership conference which is coming up this weekend. Uh we have a group of students going down to Muncie, Indiana, leaving on Friday and coming back on Sunday uh to go to the state conference and and compete in the in the different uh categories that we'll talk about in a minute. Um they compete in a variety of events inclu- and they include role playing uh and objective tests, and they'll also be able to uh participate in developmental workshops. Um Last year, we actually had two students who were uh who were in first place honors in two different uh in two different areas. Uh Dylan Bressler, who was a current senior, uh last year he was uh earned first place in banking and financial systems. And what they
030do is they have a 100-question written test, and they're placed in a role-playing opportunity um where they have to or they're given a scenario and they have to work through it. And and uh Dylan, who's a current senior, he got first in the state last year uh in uh banking and financial systems. And we also had Kevin Mell, who was a graduate. Uh he graduated last year. He was number one in the state in the business management competition. Uh so we've got uh FBLA kids that are representing Elkhart High School uh doing well at the at the state level. Um This is just a uh a picture of some of our kids that attended the state conference in Indianapolis in the fall. It's an optional conference, but it's an opportunity for them to network and
031to gain leadership skills. And uh one of the one of the fun things they get to do is they get to go to a Pacers game when they uh when they're down there and then they come back home. Um so they had a lot of fun there. We also have Elkhart students in FBLA that are demonstrating tremendous leadership skills because we have uh four of our students uh that are either uh on the executive board for the state FBLA uh conference. And uh Allison Norris, who is a state officer for FBLA. >> [clears throat] >> We also have the the additional privilege of one of our own very own staff members, Julie Gerzac, a business teacher in our in our school of study who is the state chair for FBLA. So that she does a
032great job of keeping us in the loop of things and really supporting FBLA's opportunities and opportunities to compete. And we also have several um business teachers who are sponsoring that club and we'll have a chance to meet them in just a minute. They do a fine job of supporting these kids. Um just a couple of other just a couple of other things of a business kids like I said showing up and showing out. We had two of our BNI our kids that even though the bowling team was not able to advance to a state championship as a team, we had two individuals who did very very well. We had Colin Albright who was the individual state champion, the number one bowler in the state of Indiana for this year, a business kid. And we also
033had the individual state runner-up. So we got one and two for individual bowlers. Wyatt Skipper did a fantastic job and Wyatt was also given the bowler of the year award by the Indiana High School Bowlers. So we really like we're really proud of the efforts that these young that these young men have put forth. We also had a state qualifier in wrestling, Kyle Summer, a proud BNI our kid made it to the state finals in wrestling this year. Got out of semi-state. Didn't have the best draw going into the state finals when and it was going to be a tough road when when he found out his opponent was 55 and 0 going into state wrestling. So it was a tough road, tough road, but he represented our school of study and our school well
034down in Indianapolis. Um, talking a little bit about community partnerships here, through the internship program, all the schools of study have have a myriad of businesses that that we partner with and kids have an opportunity to to gain very good work experience, some paid, some unpaid. Probably the biggest partnership, the most notable one for us at Elkhart High School is with Lake City Bank, a bank with whom we have a great relationship. We have a bank branch right in the high school. Elkhart students, mostly B&I students, but sometimes students from other schools of study have the opportunity to work as tellers there in an intern in an internship program and get fantastic experience there. They offer banking services to students, the checking and savings accounts. It benefits the school in that our extracurricular programs and
035our athletic programs utilize the bank to handle their finances, which is convenient. They can, you know, take the receipts from from a football game or basketball game and go right down to make the deposit uh uh uh in our bank branch, which makes it very convenient for them. And the staff at Lake City also has done a good job of working with our business teachers in providing opportunities to come and speak in classrooms, to talk about financial literacy and other and other areas that that fit into the teachers' curriculum. So, we're very we're very pleased with that relationship with Lake City Bank and we look for that to continue for for quite some time. So, coming to the end, I just want to say that we have a picture here of the B&I R team.
036We're we're a pretty tight-knit team. We've got a lot of veterans and and and not a lot of not a lot of turnover over the past few years in our school of study and and they've built a quite a cohesive unit. I'd like to ask the BNI RT teachers that are here today to please stand up that enable to come and represent our school of study. We have MISS >> [applause] >> THANK YOU. MR. KAUFMAN IS ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, MR. Dolsman is business, Mr. Shafer is business, and Ms. Bartley special ed and also our very outstanding lead teacher for our school of study. So we thank her for all of her extra efforts. And that ladies and gentlemen is the school of business and international relations and I thank you for your time. >> [applause] >>
037Great job Mr. Wrublewski. Our our kids are doing amazing things at the at your school. They're going on a trip here pretty soon, correct? >> Yes, this this this Friday they're leaving for they're leaving for Muncie for the state conference is where where they'll have that competition and they're also they've they've been working very hard all year with doing fundraising and working to get corporate sponsorship so that if we're fortunate enough to have some state champions that qualify for nationals nationals that we'll be able to send those kids to nationals also. That's that's been a goal that was a goal of ours in the beginning of the year and hopefully we'll be able to achieve that. >> Wonderful job. I did appreciate that you said that it was only 30% 70% ratio, but our girls
038have three of the four executive spots there. >> [laughter] >> I don't think I was the only one who noticed that. So I just want to say how are we going to make sure that we are telling them about the opportunities at the in your school. So just want to say great job, but that was not not noticed. So we appreciate you. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate job, Matt. >> THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> NEXT ON THE AGENDA WE HAVE MR. BECHTOLD in the Woodland Elementary School reports. >> Good evening President Scott, Dr. Huff, Board of Trustees, and Elkhart community. My name is Jeremy Bechtold. I'm the principal of Woodland Elementary School. And I have the distinguished honor of this evening of presenting our school report for the 2025-2026 school year. I'd like to
039start off by introducing and recognizing our assistant principal, Ms. Nicole Surge. And uh we have several Woodland staff here this evening. Woodland staff, will you all stand up? >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you for being here. Uh to the school board, thank you for uh the trust you placed in my leadership over these past three school years. So, I have to apologize Mrs. Vanderwell. My staff was just so enthusiastic about something I was going to do. Um so, that's why we were chiming in earlier on. But, every new day at Woodland, students and staff take a moment to just as we did this evening uh say our Pledge of Allegiance. We recite our student code of conduct, which is the Rocket Pride Pledge, which you'll see on the slide there. And then, I ask for
040the students to be quiet while they hear the adults recite the Elkhart Promise. So, if you would allow, I would like to invite my staff to join me in the Elkhart Promise. Here we go. Every student is known by name, challenged and supported by highly effective staff, and in partnership with the community, will graduate career college ready and life ready. Thank you for that. Thank you. Woodland is a proud neighborhood school. Generations of families have walked in and out of its walls. Um in fact, before 2015, the only walls were exterior because in the interior, it was an open concept school. And so, um one of the greatest privileges I've had as both an assistant principal and a principal have been the opportunities to interview and put in recommendations to hire former Woodland students to
041join our Woodland teacher team. And we've been able to do that um over the years. It's been a great privilege. You can see on the screen in front of you the current student enrollment as of our ADM count February 2nd and the makeup of our families. First picture is picture of our girls volleyball team from this school year, city runners-up. And second picture there is picture of our third, fourth, and fifth grade student council representatives for this current school year. >> [snorts] >> All right, so let's get into it. What are we here for? Dr. Huff, we've heard you say over your time as superintendent, we want to offer kids um high-quality experiences. And we want to give them a guaranteed and viable curriculum that results in high academic achievement for all students. And so,
042with that in mind, these are our school improvement goals from this year. We want to move our IREAD assessment uh proficiency passing rate into the 90s. And we want to move our math and English language arts ILEARN assessment proficiency into the 30s, which would be putting us closer to the state average. And you'll see later on that we're primed to do that. This slide here just shows some trend data for those Ilearn proficiency scores in English language arts and math. One thing that isn't uh Well, I'll come back to this, but the first one ELA and in the yellow that's from 23-24 school year, um you can see we finished at about 16.4 proficiency um for English language arts as a school. And then the following school year 24-25, which would have been last year,
043um the staff was able to move kids to 27.7 uh percent, which um that that was for the first time in a while um Willen was able to eclipse even the um district's average for that. Um as of a couple weeks ago, our projection for English language arts proficiency uh with our third, fourth, and fifth grade students uh sitting at 31.3%. So, not quite at that 34% goal that we have in our school improvement plan goal. Um but we we are our prime to get those kids um into that 30% um range. Uh for our math in the yellow, uh that was uh 23-24 school year, 17.6%. So, we kind of had a history of math kind of outperforming English language arts. Um and then even though last year was the first time our English
044language arts kind of outperformed math in a while, our math still made significant gains as well last year, 24.8. So, looking at 7% increase uh is pretty pretty amazing. So, we're happy for our kids and for our families and the work that our teachers are doing. Projected for our math, we're sitting at 32%. Um that's what we're hoping for, so that would put us above our 30% goal for math. Um I'm on this, I want to talk a little bit about inside those numbers. Um For English language arts proficiency, it it in the 22-23 school year our multiracial students performed at a 23% proficiency. The year following that, they did 26% and the year following that, 32. So, we've got students that are pacing us and going above the school average in that in that
045group of students. From the spring 24-25 results from last year as well, um we had a 10% increase in proficiency in our Hispanic and Latino students. And we had a 5% increase in English language proficiency for our black and African-American students. Female students, we've heard about the females tonight already. Um they went from 18% to 35% proficiency in English language arts from last year from the previous year before that. And um Mrs. Borner kind of talked about this tonight with our exceptional learners, but English language arts last year, um our students with formal individualized education plans saw a 7% increase in the proficiency. In math, a lot of our a lot of our increases and our wins have been carried by again, our female students had a 10% increase from one year to the next.
046Um our black and African-American students had a 10% increase in math. And our Hispanic and Latino students had a 7% increase in math from one year to the next. Uh the next two slides I just kind of want to highlight uh the trend of certain cohorts. So, in the first column there, spring 24, um there's a proficiency rate there for third grade. Those are our current fifth grade students. So, when they were third graders, they performed English language arts ILEARN at a profic- proficiency of 13% as a cohort. Um they moved next year, the following year, to fourth grade, and they uh, more than doubled, uh, right? Their proficiency as a cohort to 35, and that cohort is on track right now to get 45% as a cohort as fifth graders. Uh, the yellow would
047be the same kind of, uh, trend data there for our current fourth graders, and then you'll see, uh, the 15% for our current third graders is our projection. That would make up our 31% that we're looking to get, um, as a school. Uh, same thing here with math. I just want to kind of highlight our fifth grade cohort. Um, as third graders, they demonstrated 16% proficiency as a cohort. As fourth graders, then they doubled that to 32%, and they're on track to to get 41%. So, it's a team team lift, you know, year to year, um, throughout the grade levels. So, I'm going to highlight a little bit of kindergarten and first grade, you know, that they're not taking the math I I learn, but in December, they took the winter in the WEEA, and
048our kindergartners scored in the 67th percentile nationwide, and our first graders scored in the 69th percentile nationwide, uh, on that test. Indiana Code 20-35.5 requires, uh, schools to annually administer a universal screener to all kindergarten, first, and second grade students to identify to do two things, to identify, um, who may be at some risk or at risk for characteristics of dyslexia, and then also allows for us as teachers to, uh, give targeted support as early as possible for kids. And so, um, on the screen, you'll see those beginning of the year, middle of the year, and then our end of the year projections for this, um, for this measure. Um, kindergarten and first grade are on track to kind of get around the same as they did last year, uh, in those grade levels. You'll
049see I also have something here about the number of second graders uh, who passed IREAD-3. So, in 23-24, we got to be part of the pilot program. We were able to pass 26 third graders, or I'm sorry, second graders in the IREAD-3 test ahead of time. And then last year, we were able to pass 32 second graders. And we are in the IREAD window right now, so I can't talk about results. I know that. But, projected, we have about 23 second graders right now who are on track to pass or will pass the IREAD-3 test. And so, we'll be talking to families here soon about those results. Just to continue with the IREAD-3, here's our trend data from the last couple years, and then our projection is the very far far right. Woodlands in the
050yellow, Elkhart Community Schools is in the blue, and the state is in the white. Our goal is we want to get up there where the state is. The state has a goal of all schools reaching 95% proficiency by 2027. And our goal is if we can get that 90, then we're just 5% away for the following school year. Um So, going into to the IREAD window, we can make some projections based on our year-long assessing, intervening, and monitoring of the essential learning targets that comprise the IREAD-3 test. And we can comfortably say right now we're around 65% expecting to pass this first round. And that would be above where we were last year at this point. And then we have 7 weeks until the next window opens up for IREAD. And students and the teachers
051will get together, plus we'll have the summer school work for those IREAD summer school uh as well, but we are going to continue working on getting some of those kids cross that 446 finish line. Okay, so how how have the Woodland staff done this? Um you've heard many of my principal colleagues over the year during their presentations reference Mr. John Hattie and uh John Hattie uh synthesized years and years of educational research um and then result that resulted in him being able to identify what are those high effect strategies and postures that schools and teachers can take to um uh that will result in the greatest academic growth and achievement. Um explicit and direct instruction uh off to the side there, that's that's John Hattie's effect size. Um I kind of pinpointed where I think
052it would fall within his research. Um but these are the ways that we do this as a as a team. Explicit and direct instruction um to to pair with that, uh skip down to teacher clarity and and lesson planning. Uh that's these are just good things that you know, we we tend to to come back to some of these things year in year out. Um teachers are again revisiting some of these things right now and will be continuing to do that in the fall. Um we have formative assessments uh in using the MTSS model. Um our PLCs are collaborating with our literacy cadre coach and the intentional planning and action meetings that go on with with those those individuals uh results in that collective teacher efficacy and that's the highest highest effect size um from
053Hattie's research. And then thank you again to the board uh for allowing and and approving the 24 hours of live virtual training through the Letters Volume 1 Volume 2 uh this year and last year, but it's then the application of that learning on teacher practice daily practice um that results in in student achievement. Okay, chronic absenteeism. So uh starting 2022-23, uh the number of students that we had that were chronically absent T was 23.3%. So, we're almost talking about one out of every four students. Um now life has not gotten easier for our family since 2022. Um so, the work and the effort on their end to partner with the school and our efforts, um again, I cannot say enough about the resiliency of our Woodland families. Um so, progressively have have decreased that. 25-26
054right now on the on the chart, that's a real conservative estimate of about 13.5. If I'm going to be a little more aggressive, I think we can get that down to 7%. So, that's where we're looking to get our chronic absentee population down below 10% this year. All right. And if you'll allow me, um the whole school MTSS model, uh is kind of how we do things and the way we want to continue to do things. Uh I want to acknowledge and thank some team members from the past several years that um who have either moved on um to new opportunities or are no longer with us. Um but they played a big role in what we have been able to accomplish so far and even in uh their impact into this school year. Uh
055and those names usually go un unmentioned. So, if you'll allow me, I just like to read a few few names of staff who've kind of helped us with this um in this endeavor. McKenzie Jackson Ingle, Ernest Ferland, Karen Fister, Asher Inkling, Jewel Istone, Bethany Wilcox, Emily Zitkus, Kimberly Knoll, Stephanie Lee, Tammy Tidy, Dr. Marsha Durant-Walker. She just just officially became doctor. Denise Kurth, Kim Barron, Angela Jones, Beverly Robinson, Frank Guzman, Otis Irving, Holly Powell, Clara Twyman, Jayla Ray Stewart, Lisa McFarland, Kelsey Rockstraw, Cali Alford, Heidi Pauline, Maureen Davis, Amanda Grant, Avon Dayton, Kristen Kaneski, Hayley Burkhart, Rihanna Sasson, Jamie Ingan. Um we have a great network of colleagues um who have come and gone and then also district staff who who help support student learning. All right. So, there's always kind of been a diaspora
056of Woodland Rockets. Um there have been many great um teacher teams that have come and gone at Woodland. Um we certainly stand on the shoulders of some of those teachers and administrators that come before us. Um we like to say once a rocket always a rocket. And in all in all those other cases where someone came and went the the place they landed, they always ended up making that place better uh bringing the Woodland way with them. And uh that's that's our hope for our students and that's our hope for our staff is that where we land next year um we will bring that same tenacity and focus on families and students. Um before I go to the next slide um the last slide is just a something our media team put together for last
057year from our I Learn Pep Rally. So, it's something that we did for the kids. We're going to continue to do that again this year as we get closer to this this year's I learn. Um but before I do that, I I would like to um demonstrate my rocket pride um by by reciting our student code of conduct. So, I'll demonstrate my rocket pride by being persistent. I will not give up. Respectful, working to be kind to everyone. I will show initiative by being a problem solver. I will be dependable, reliable, and trustworthy. And efficient, being organized, on time, and ready to go. >> All right. Yes, we want to welcome our guests of honor, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, and sixth grade students and teachers. And we're here today to get that pep
058spirit going even higher than it's been this week. Okay? So, the teachers have gotten involved, but we want to get the the students involved [music] this week before we start our testing next week, okay? So, let's give our uh guest of honor a [music] nice little round of applause. Yeah. >> [cheering and applause] [music] >> Thank you for your time this evening. >> [applause] >> Any questions? >> [laughter] >> Jeremy, you're a good man. >> [clears throat] >> Great school. You've done a wonderful job. Hold on. Let me access who I am. You've done a great job leading that school. You've done everything that the district has ever asked as far as leadership. Your teachers are outstanding human beings. You're a great leader of staff, you know, just a great man in general. You and
059I have talked a quite a few times over these last 2 years. You're just you're you were very humble in your presentation. Your state recognized for your growth in I read. That is a worthy of beyond a round of applause. That is going to kids are going to not remember that, they're going to be that for the rest of their lives. It's all because of those teachers back there and your leadership, Mr. Search's leadership. I'm getting myself together, you know sir. >> [laughter] >> You have worked tirelessly for your school. I want people on this side to know that >> [clears throat] >> we don't take these No one takes joy in any of these decisions. I I I hear transparency and I wish we could do things differently. You You raise great kids over
060there. That a community of students are some of the kindest individuals on the planet. They have never met a stranger and they probably should learn what strangers are. >> [laughter] >> But they have never met one. The few times I've been in at your school it's your kids are not just welcoming, they exemplify everything that we want from our littles to our adults. Actually, they could teach the adults a few things. And the community that you've created with your parents and your stakeholders, um that has not been lost on the district. It certainly has not been lost on me. I had an opportunity last year to come to one of your events with your family. It's not just knowing every kid by name, you know every kid by spirit. It's hard. I I knew this
061was going to be hard coming up after you and um speaking. Thank you to your staff members for for coming and support Mr. Becktold, but he also has been a huge advocate for you. You know I think you're an outstanding just just just man. So, um great presentation by the way. Um but um everything that we heard this evening the I know you'll finish your school, you're strong, and I know that you will continue to do great things for your kids for as long as and you'll make sure that they're fine even when they're not under your direct care because it you do have a way the Woodland way and they'll carry that forever. You will be remembered and for for your your your team. So, I'm kind of stammering here a little bit cuz
062it's hard to give you feedback on a presentation when I know the I I know that this is hard for you to be there and you handled it with grace and and style. So, I just want to tell you thank you for your leadership. I want to again if we can give their team another round of applause. >> [applause] >> AND THANK YOU DIRECTLY FOR ALL THE THINGS THAT you do and will do for kids and do for the Elkhart community. And that just just want to say thank you. >> Thank you. >> No, thank you. >> [applause] >> NEXT [clears throat] ON THE AGENDA WE HAVE THE EXCELLENCE OF ELKHART MS. WOOD. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff, community members. I'm grateful for the opportunity to
063share the highlights and areas of academics, arts, and athletics. In the area of academics, EMT students from the Elkhart Area Career Center partnered with third graders at Cleveland during their ethos wind, weather, water unit. Working alongside nurse Parmalee of the Med Ed Foundation, the high school students guided elementary learners through emergency response demonstrations and basic first aid practice, creating meaningful cross-age mentorship while connecting classroom learning to real-world medical careers. Also in academics, Elkhart High School's Miss Stores' dual credit biology students recently stepped into the role of lab scientist testing simulated blood samples to determine and Rh blood types. Through hands-on investigation, students applied their understanding of genetics and immunology while building real-world lab skills. >> [snorts] >> In the area of arts, Hawthorne Early Learners Center's students strengthened their fine motor skills during table time
064by creating President's Day crafts using colorful stamps. Also in arts, at Roosevelt STEAM Academy, kindergarteners combined art and geography as they learned about the seven continents and created their own globes. Students were incredibly proud of their creative work and new learning. 90 Elkhart High School student school music students performed at the ISMA State Solo Ensemble Festival for viano vocal piano on February 21st in Winger, percussion string on February 28th after earning gold ratings at the district festival. At state level, 18 events received the top honor of gold with distinction while 31 earned gold ratings and three earned silver ratings. In athletics, Elkhart High School senior Reagan Iron Reilly is a back-to-back section champion and is headed to state this weekend at Ball State. For our future happenings, March 11th, Northside Band and Orchestra is my
065preview concert. March 13th through 15th is the Elkhart High School Shrek musical. March 16th, winter athletic awards. March 18th is the freshman division choirs ISMA preview concert. As always, please be sure to follow our district and school social media pages as we share each day the excellence of Elkhart. >> Very much, Wendy. >> [applause] >> Next on the agenda is old business. Seeing no old business, we'll move on to new business. Um >> It's the calendar consent items. >> Oh. >> [laughter] >> That's before the old business. We have the consent agenda. Um do I have a motion? >> I'll move. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Okay, so before I do the donations, of course, we'll take um a minute to take a well some time to take
066a moment of pause and reflection on the loss of somebody who was a great leader for many, many years in our school district, which was Bruce Klonowski. So, if we can just take a moment in his honor. Thank you. If you didn't know Bruce, I'll tell you a little bit about Bruce. He started his career in 1969 at Pinewood, and um he served as an assistant principal at Roosevelt for 10 years, 27 years as principal at Hawthorne, 2 years in the administration building before he retired in 2014. But I added this, did he ever really retire? No, he didn't. Bruce just kept going and going and serving our community in all sorts of different levels, popping up at schools, doing different things for students, encouraging teachers, helping out with mentoring, showing up at all the
067football games, basketball games, but athletically, he was a IHSAA referee for 46 years, five women's state finals he um refereed at two men's state finals. He was inducted in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. And if you didn't know it and you didn't go, he announced games at Elkhart Central with John Miller. And I used If you watch The Muppets, I used to refer to them as Waldorf and Statler because honestly, that's exactly what they were like. And if you did 50/50, you knew exactly what was coming because even if you got $1,600 in cash, Bruce would ask, "Why didn't you do better?" I'm like, "Oh my lord." So, um and if you were not there, two other people would pop into that booth and it would be Bob Woods and Gary Stoltz. And that
068would just make a memorable career. But um one of the things that I reached out to and I was hoping Alan would stop by tonight and say something, but I kind of reached out to some people that like knew Bruce or some people shared with me. Some of the things that overwhelmingly people said was he coined the phrase the pride of the south side. And he was an outstanding um principal in the fact that everything about the school was attitude plus effort equals success. And he would say that over and over again. And some of the things that he did for the kids which they remember and some of them are teachers in our school district now. But he gave them exposures to college by taking them to Ball State games, Purdue games. He made
069their sixth grade graduation larger than life by having it at Central and showing them that dressing up for success was something that you well deserved. Um it was a meal, it was a formal, it was everything that you needed. He began home visits before home visits even were actually happening. So, he started that inside of his school and um somebody inside the building shared, "You help people, you push them, you make them feel as if they are noticed." And he did this with everybody, his staff, his parents, his students. He went as far as to do something remarkable with a young teacher that thought this was everything and he so very gently and politely really corralled her spirit right on out of education because he was like, you know, I think that you've got something
070else out there that's amazing and she was so thankful and ended up coming back and being a teacher after going back to school again and being mentored by him. But something that I thought was amazing that I was shared with me this morning, he was Hawthorne and Hawthorne was he. So if you didn't have an opportunity to know Bruce Klenosky, I tell you that our school was blessed to have him much like our school is blessed to have you, Jeremy. We are a very lucky group of people. So celebrating Bruce Bruce Klenosky this evening. And we have I'll flip to that as we celebrate. Let's keep going. Let's go with the celebration. Are you ready? We have a total of 19,070 19,000 and 19,750 dollars. So 1,600 was from the EEF for our social workers,
071which if you didn't know, it was just celebrate social worker time here in the school district and it was a phenomenal job that was done on behalf of them and we are thankful for our social workers. Edward Jones donated 500 dollars towards our theater program, which is Shrek up and coming on the 14th and 15th. As our JROTC prepares for the military ball, they just received 1,000 dollars in additional funds from Get Wet for a Vet and our automobile department our automobile technology at the Career Center received two Challengers and two post lifts that have a value of 16,000 dollars and that's for them to have training and our Alcorn Athletic Club donated 975 dollars to our boys track team. And so at 19,750 dollars, way to go again, community. >> Thank you. Small one.
072>> Yes. >> I have a motion and a Do I have any other discussion? Seeing or hearing none, all in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. As stated earlier, we have no old business, still. Uh we'll move to new business. Uh Ms. Lozano, personnel report. >> Thank you. Good evening, President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff, community. Uh this evening, the administration recommends the personnel report as presented. >> Lozano, uh do I have a motion to accept the uh personnel report as presented? >> Motion. >> Second. >> I have a motion, I have a second. Do I have any discussion or comments from the board regarding the personnel report? Seeing or hearing none, all in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion passes. >> Thank you. Real quick, Dora, can you correct
073that? Okay, I'm going to have to face the facts that my math was bad and Dora actually put the amount in front of me, it's 20,000. Sorry. >> Just uh for clarification, the donation amount. >> Yeah. >> It was 20,000. Okay. Let me make sure. >> Yeah. >> There was the personnel report. >> All right, it's already business, uh contracts. >> Thank you, President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff. Uh this evening, the administration presents for initial consideration a proposed uh plan to document and summary plan description for our medical flexible spending accounts. Brought for initial consideration. >> Thank you. This is for initial consideration. Should the board have any questions uh tonight, uh now is the time. If you have none, uh please and and some arise in the next 2 weeks, please
074reach out to Mr. Thorn uh with those questions regarding our uh flexible spending account and the um contract for consideration. Uh next we have Mr. Thorn, board policy 2340, field and other corporation-sponsored trips. >> So much. Uh the administration this night presents proposed replacement for board policy 2340 field another corporation sponsor clips for initial consideration. >> Thank you, Mr. Thorne. Again, this board policy is for initial consideration. Are there any questions that the board would have regarding this policy this evening? Seeing [clears throat] none, should any arise in the next 2 weeks, please reach out to Mr. Thorne as this will come back up at our next board meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> [cough] >> That is all we have under new business. As I said, we're trying to move along. I'm kind
075of keeping track of the radar here, so we're going to jump right to Dr. Huff. >> Very brief comments. Obviously, there's some weather that's out there in the community. Should there be anything that impacts our schools tomorrow, we will certainly get that communication out very quickly this evening. So, please be safe driving home. At our next board meeting, I'll be giving an update on transportation and HR. And I also want to say again, thank you for everyone for their reports this this evening. Uh That's it. I'll turn back over to you, President Scott. >> Dr. Huff, do I have anything from the board this evening before we adjourn? >> Yes, I'd like to uh talk about the sectional that we had over the last week and and um So, anyhow, and the I think the
076awesome effort that Elkhart Central put into the game that they had. Um talk about perseverance. I think which is an an important trait to have only scored four points [clears throat] in the first quarter and then to come back and to only lose by two points and that at some point they tied the game up along the way. And I think they might even led if I remember correctly, I'm not sure. Yeah. And so, anyhow, it was a you know, kind of a heartbreaking loss and stuff like that, but you know, games don't go five quarters, they only go four quarters. And um so, I want to give you know, kudos to uh you know, the coach and also the team out there that uh and the cheerleaders, the students uh you know, how they
077comported themselves uh you know, during the game. And also, you know, kudos to um Northridge for beating Warsaw, which is one of my favorite teams to beat uh along the way. That and Penn. So, uh anyhow, uh just remember those guys and stuff like that and uh we'll have a great team next year. I spoke with the coach afterwards and uh I I think uh you know, he's got the right guy and he uh he's going to have a good team. Thank you. >> Um any other comments from the board? All [laughter] right. Uh everyone please uh drive safe getting home. I looked at the radar, it's looks like it's over top of us, but uh drive safe and uh I'll let you get out of here. Meeting adjourned. Thank you.