ECS Board of School Trustees’ Meeting 11/25/25

001Oh, dinner of champion. All >> right. >> [snorts] >> I know it's amazing Kelly. Are they? >> They should be done, >> right? >> Yes, it's 7:01. Doug's not going to be joining us tonight. No. No. Yes. [laughter] 100% true. >> Oh my gosh. [laughter] My stuff. >> And you made me forget my stuff. You need a moment. So, I do need a moment actually. >> Hey, I rushed him on. I apologize. >> [cough] >> All right, I think we're ready. Uh, thank you everybody for coming out to the November 25th, 2025 Elcart Community Schools Board Meeting. At this time, I'd like to call the meeting to order. And please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. >> Mr. Ivory, the Elcar Promise. >> Sure thing. Every student is known by name, challenged and

002supported by highly effective staff, and in partnership with the community to graduate career college ready and for life and life ready. I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr. Ivy. You're welcome. Uh, invitation to speak protocol. Um, when I call your name, please step up to the microphone. State your name and your affiliation uh with the district. You'll then have three minutes to talk about any agenda or non-aggenda uh item. Um, please uh you know, keep it to the three minutes as uh we we we try to adhere to that. Um, please do not publicly discuss personnel or personal student issues. This is not the format. uh uh to do those uh type of uh bring those issues to light. So with that said, we do have one public comment tonight. It appears Britt is it coverstone. Okay,

003please step forward. Um, hello. My name is Brett Coverstone and I'm a third grade teacher at Mary Feeser. This is my sixth year with the district. At the beginning of this year, our enrollment was already over 64 students. Despite this, my grade level was dropped down to two sections. As the first day of school neared, our numbers grew to 37 students per classroom. We were told they would not all show up. On the first day of school, I had 34 students and my colleague had 35. After being in school for three weeks, we were told they would let us hire a parah, but not an additional section. My teammate and I began to plan for this new reality. Then the next day, we were told that we would have to hire a third section, not

004a parah. As we interviewed, the candidates were hired into other buildings as so many in the district had been treated the same way that ours had, while a select few had locked out and still to this very moment have class size class sizes at less than 20 students. As time went on, my colleague and I expressed concern about the interviews. While many of these people seem like very kind people, we question their lack of qualifications, especially to be taking students out of a classroom with two educated, licensed, and highly qualified teachers into a classroom with someone who had either not completed an education degree student teaching or who had been removed from their previous place of employment. We expressed concern for many reasons. the stress that our students are already under due to the impact

005of iid. The fact that a third of our students spent half of the last school year without a certified teacher in addition to the simple fact that we have already spent half of the year with these students. They have learned our routines and procedures. They have learned what to expect and how we teach. They have gotten comfortable with each other and we have learned about how they learn and what their needs are. We have repeatedly asked two things. Can we please just try to hire a PAR? This way we could pull groups for interventions while also having an extra pair of eyes in the room to help the other 30 students and ensure they are successful. And will we be compensated for having a class size that exceeds the district threshold? It's almost December. We

006have been told that we will not be getting a pair despite asking for this instead of a third section several times in recent weeks. Our choice was to either hire someone as a teacher who again had never taken a single education course and we could teach them how to be a teacher during our prep time while they took our students out of our classroom or we could have nothing. My colleague and I chose our students. We chose to ensure that they continued to receive an education from someone who was trained and had put in the work to learn how to teach them, which is not something that anyone can just walk in and do. We couldn't imagine a single parent who would be comfortable with the idea of their child being removed from a classroom

007with a highly effective licensed teacher with years of experience into a classroom with someone who does not hold a license, someone who does not have a degree, nor are they actively trying to get one. As kind and as motivated as they might be, we also cannot seem to get an answer about whether or not we will be compensated for any of this. Situations are being created that we know are not what is best for kids while teachers and students are being forced to deal with the fallout without even being able to request reasonable aid or compensation. And I reject the idea that this is the best that we can do. Thanks. All right. [clears throat] No more public comment. We will now uh move along the agenda to the moment of pride. Sam Germaine and

008Jonathan Weaver. Welcome. Nice bow tie. I like that. >> Uh good evening, President Scott, members of the board. Um Dr. Huff and our community. It's so great to be here. Uh yeah, my name is Samuel Germaine. I'm a senior here at Elcart High School. >> My name is Jonathan Weaver and I am a sophomore here at Elcart High School. and we are honored today to be uh presenting the moment of pride for late October and the month of November. >> Our first topic is the track or treat event that we hold annually which was held at Ricefield on October 30th. We had 450 volunteers from 50 different community and school programs and the thousands of people who attended the event enjoyed their trip to Ricefield. So earlier this month, uh, we gave all of our

009Elcart High School freshman the opportunity to visit our Elcart area career center. Um, and this really gives them the opportunity to immerse themselves theirelves in, um, the, um, in the programs that we offer here at the career center. So, this is really to encourage the kids um to start encouraging the kids super early in their high school career um, to start thinking about what they might want to do after high school and if they want to get involved in any of these programs as soon as their junior year and at high school. Alongside that, we also had the Elkart High School freshman meet their future counselors. And when they met, they discussed their potential future classes and opportunities for them in the future in their high school education. >> So, our EHS uh spell team

010actually placed second at regionals on November 3rd. We held our annual ECS Bandfest on November 5th in North Side Gym. Um we had four of our Elkair Community School bands attend and perform. And the bands were the sixth grade beginning band, the seventh and eighth grade band, the advanced jazz band, and the pride of Elcart marching band. Um more than 250 students, Elcar High School students um attended the Latino Institute summit that was held at the Century Center. And here they were connected with colleges, industry professionals, um and getting information on scholarships, uh what their college application should include, um ways to get financial aid, and overall just make educ further education uh an affordable experience for all. We also had students and families that attended the college go Sunday which had Notre Dame and

011we and they re the families and students received information about how to apply for federal student aid. Um this was a very informative meeting that um made future education a affordable for all and all the participating students and families were able to submit FAFSA applications. >> Uh so Unifi Cornhole, this is a brand new activity that we're bringing to Elkcar High School. Uh this is really cool because we're one of only 16 schools in Indiana uh doing this activity. This is really cool. Special Olympics has actually provided us with all the all the tools necessary, all the boards, all the bean bags to actually start this activity. So, and this is supposed to be a filler event um in between unified um flag football and unified track um uh to provide an experience uh for

012all athletes regardless of their mental or physical disabilities to be um to be involved in a competitive activity like Unifi Cornhole. On nove on November 14th, we had 10 sophomores and juniors who attended the UL leadership training at the aquatic center and they were joined with the students from different high schools in our area. um our annual stuff a bus food drive. Uh Elkar High School uh student government members um helped gather these donations which included non-p perishable foods um toys, gift cards, etc. And all these donations are going to be distributed to families and students in need in our community. On November 11th, which was Veterans Day, our Elcart High School AFJOTC students honored our veterans in our community for their service. Alongside this, the Elcart High School student government members also made thank

013you notes and distributed them to veterans in our community. Uh at our fall sports awards this year we had um countless number of athletes receiving receiving awards in all district in um all different types of awards. We had 26 academic allconerence 11 academic all states, two conference MVPs, five all district, five all state, including our boys soccer team who were the NIC champions and cheerleading who got first, third, and fifth place at their state level competition >> on November 14th and 15th. The Elcart High School performing arts program put on their fall play named 12th Night or what you will by William Shakespeare. A lot of people attended to support our wonderful performing arts programs. Yeah. Alongside that, uh, both our intermediate and adv advanced jazz bands performed, um, on November 12th in front a

014of an incredibly sized audience, which really represents um, our stellar band programs here at Oakar High School. >> For our perfect attendance for quarter 1, we had over 300 Elkart High School students who had perfect attendance for the first quarter. Specifically, over 100 of these students were freshmen. They for a reward the students were able to have ice cream to show that it is a very important to have perfect attendance and this is a huge step towards excellence in education for Elkar High School. >> Yeah. Looking forward uh after Thanksgiving break we'll have our ugly sweater run. NCAA eligibility night, our commencement speaker auditions, FAFSA night, magical dinner, parent night, a winter celebration concert, our student cocoa cookie and movie night, our district chess tournament, and finally our coral winter winter song concert. So again,

015thank you, President Scott, the members of the board, Dr. Huff, and our community for allowing us to present tonight. Thank you. [applause] >> Great job, guys. very very polished um presentation, very impressive. Thank you for sharing all the great things that are happening in the high school and wow we just couldn't be any more proud of you too that you you have a a gift young man and so [laughter] you so very impressed. Thank you. I just want to share that with you. >> Great great job both of you. >> Great job. >> Yeah, they did wonderful job. >> We should have known when they when they walked up in the the bow tie and the tieb we We we were in for excellence. >> Job well done. >> Yeah. >> Really? >> All right.

016Uh Mr. Giansi, the construction update. >> Good evening, President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff, and members of our community. Tonight, I'd like to provide a brief construction update on the various projects that are underway around our district. So, I'm going to start with the same quote that I presented back in April. The physical environment of a of a school, its classrooms, hallways, and facilities can significantly impact students ability to learn with well-designed, modern spaces, fostering engagement, creativity, and academic success. I bring this back because you're going to see a number of projects tonight that are nearing completion. And I believe that each one of them represent our commitment and dedication to our students and the facilities that they learn in. [clears throat] Excuse me. So, the first project I'll focus on is the

017Elcart Area Career Center. This is actually I'll point out a shot of the new addition. So, as you're traveling along California Road, this is what you'll see out front. And this is a a project that is uh actually one of my favorites. I think this has turned out extremely well. So, the project really consisted of two uh two components. The first was a renovation of an existing space to move WVP and WVP the radio station into. And this project really consisted of creating new studio spaces and working with the existing office spaces. It was completed on September 1st and the radio station has been operating out of that space since then. The second major piece is that new addition that we just looked at. Construction, believe it or not, is nearing completion after a little

018over a year uh of being under construction. Uh we are set to be substantially complete next week, December 4th, when we will do our final punch list and walkth through. The project is set to turn over to us on December 31st and we will occupy it for use on January 5th when we start the new semester or the new school the new year, excuse me, after our fall rec or after, excuse me, our winter recess. The addition in uh includes uh the four additional classrooms, small group instructional space and large training room all designed for the criminal justice program. However, as you'll see in the next slide, the large group space here is going to be similar to what we have at ETI and it's a space that'll be designed to be used for the

019students and their various activities as well as district events and perhaps community events such as college fairs that the career center would host. This is a slide that represents one of the four classrooms. They're all identical, so you get an idea of what all four will look like. Uh they're very nice, nice size. They look out onto the the California road, uh which I actually think is a nice view. And so I think it's going to give the kids a a great the students a great space to work from. And finally, I include this slide because we had to figure out what to do with a 1971 building with a very unique facade and figure out how to marry that into a brand new building. So, we decided that we would just keep it as

020is and actually um make it stand out a little bit. So, when you're able to walk through the building, you'll see the new building is on the right and you'll see the existing building on the left in this photo. And we are essentially paying homage to that old construction, if you will. Second project I want to focus on is actually two different projects at the annex. The first is the diesel tech project and the second is building trades or construction trades as it's also known as. These two projects have been underway for quite some time with diesel tech starting first and actually being completed at the end of June and turned over for use by the students and staff for the start of this school year. And they've used it every day since. The construction

021trades is tracking on the same uh schedule as the addition on the main building and we will be walking through that addition on December 4th for our punch list as well uh for that to be substantially complete and to be occupied by our students and staff on January 5th when we return from winter recess. That's interesting. I'm missing a photo. Well, this is supposed to be a photo of the There we go. This is a photo of the new classroom. So the the building trades project actually takes us from one to three classrooms. And this is the newest and largest classroom which will actually be large enough for traditional instruction as well as hands-on instruction and demonstrations. Uh where the existing classrooms were quite a bit smaller. So being construction trades, we'll want to be

022able to do some different things with electrical, uh carpentry, HVAC, this classroom will support those activities. And this photo actually shows the new main entrance which faces east. You can see the doors to the left, a new office for staff members, and then the the lockers, and this will be the break room for the students. So, we've replaced the the cramped, outdated space with some some very modern space that we feel will be very appropriate for the activity here. [clears throat] The next project I'll focus on is Elcart Health and Strength, Elcart High School Health and Strength. This is actually a rendering from prior to construction. So, uh, as we move along a little further, you'll see a photo of this same area, and I hope you'll recognize how closely the actual project resembles a

023rendering, which isn't always the case. An aerial photo. So, between these two photos, you can see that not only are we going to have the interior workout space, but we also have two turfed areas that will also be used for workout space on the exterior. This project is also nearly complete. It's two weeks behind the other two, but we're still right on schedule. Substantial completion is scheduled for December 17th. We'll do our walkthrough on that date. And on the 18th, we'll begin moving in the weight, cardio, and training equipment as well as the classroom equipment. This project will be turned over for use on January 5th as well when we return from winter recess. and it includes the construction of over 10,000 square feet of fitness area for cardio, free weights, and weight machines. And

024then there's also a classroom, training room, offices, and storage. So, this is the photo I was referring to. This is the area that you saw in the rendering, and you can see the similarity. We tried to be very true to what we presented at the very beginning of this process. This is the new classroom that's inside of the building. So, it'll be very nice for our PE classes as well as any other meetings that the athletic department, music department, any of the student activities might wish to have in here. This is a view from the northeast corner showing the enormity of the space. And I'm going to move on because I took this one a little before they actually started installing the new turf and the new rubber flooring for the weights. So, this is

025looking at a similar area to what you saw in the pre uh previous photo. This is the new training room, athletic training room. Have a variety of pieces of equipment that will be used for training for our athletes in particular, but also can be used for our students as well. And finally, I'm going to focus a little bit on the middle school projects. They've slowed down considerably since August, beginning last January, we began the process of renovating each of the middle schools with work that was completed through our own facilities department and our own staff. And then by the end of summer, we had also completed the renovations and working with core construction and Jaylake architecture which included the renovations of the existing homecck and industrial tech areas to create new classrooms. We created the

026sixth grade area. We renovated the first phase of restrooms in each of the buildings. And then once school started, we started phase two of the restroom renovations. Phase two was completed at Pieran and Westside last week. and phase two at um North Side will be completed next week along with the HVAC equipment. Once we're done at North Side or I'm sorry, by December 8th, so that is actually the following Monday. Once that work is completed, North Side will be 100% complete from a contractor standpoint, from an outside uh uh contractor standpoint. We do have some work that we will continue that's similar to what we did last year with some new flooring and finishes throughout. And then Westside actually has a third phase of restrooms that will begin next week and they're scheduled to be

027done February 9th, which was uh also by the original contract that extended us beyond the original December 31st that we had hoped for everything else. And finally, the HVAC units that if you've been in their schools, you'll recognize some portable units in some classrooms and some of the new classrooms. Uh they were delayed during manufacturing. So unfortunately, they will not arrive until almost February. We'll continue to operate with the temporary units and then the new units will be installed and once those are done then all three of the buildings will be complete with the work we've been doing with core construction. So a few pictures I presented this slide back in April that showed some of the existing or an existing condition in one of the classrooms and then new conditions new renov after renovations

028with the work that we completed. Couple examples. This is Westside restrooms, new restrooms in Pier Moran. We took the opportunity to use school colors in the restrooms. It's one of the few areas in the buildings that we did that. We didn't want to um do too much with them, but we thought the restrooms would be an ideal place. And honestly, I think these turned out fantastic compared to what was there, which in all the buildings were original. New classroom in Westside. This is actually Mrs. Walt's high ability room. It's set up as a flex room. So, she actually has sinks and additional countertops so they can do some of the experiments that go along with high ability in this room. This is Mrs. Thompson's room at North Side. Also, a similar setup to Mrs. Waltz.

029And then I had to throw in a a shot of Pieran. Unfortunately, Jeff will probably be upset with me, Mr. Hemorline, that he's in this, but I wanted to show one of the new rooms at Pieran as well. New orchestra room at North Side. new general education classroom at North Side. And then finally, a shot of the corridors with the new lockers. This is actually Pier Moran looking from the southwest corner to the north and to the east and the stairway which we actually replaced the existing carpet which was quite worn with new vinyl treads. So, the work has been ongoing but overall I I hope that everyone is as pleased as I am with the results. Any questions? I just have a comment. I just want to say that one, thank you for this

030update. I think we for sometimes forget how much activity is going on around the district. And then two, uh, a lot of this work was completed by our own staff. So again, I just want to say thank you to those individuals um, who worked on this project um, and who worked during the day doing their regular job and then worked overnight doing this to get this to make sure we met all the time most of the timeline. So just want to say thank you for your leadership and to your team. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Next we have uh Miss Wood, excellent of Elcart. >> Thank you, President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff, community members. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share highlights in the areas of academics, arts, and athletics. For academics

031at the Elcart area Career Center, mechatronics students recently completed an impressive hands-on engineering project, building an automatic can crusher from ground up. Students disassembled existing technology, programmed the automation components, and designed and constructed the full frame of the device. Elkart High School 10 through 12 counselors visited the freshman division school of study to help next year's sophomores prepare for success. Students met staff learned what to expect in their school of study and explored academic and professional opportunities. In addition, freshmen have been visiting the Elcardiary Career Center, discovering programs that will be available to them as they progress to the high school and prepare to be college and career ready. In the area of arts, Riverview Elementary students recently explored key artistic concepts through a variety of grade level projects, all of which are displayed throughout

032the school. Students focused on line color, texture, and patterns in works such as color wheel turkeys and textured owls. Created night sky cityscapes and studies Alexa and studied Alexander Calder's stable sculptures. Through this project, students strengthened their understanding of applied line, movement, color, and atmospheric perspective. In 3D art at the freshman division, students explored how different materials interacted by decorating inflated balloons with newspaper. The project required careful precision and delicate handling, helping students understand how to work with fragile forms and considering the challenges artists face when creating an unconventional materials. In the area of athletics, earlier this month was the elementary boys basketball skills night. Bringing together fourth and fifth grade players from all of our 13 elementary schools. Hundreds of young athletes had the opportunity to learn directly from Elkart High School boys basketball

033coaching staff and players, gaining new skills and building excitement for the season ahead. The fall sports program at Elcart High School provided an opportunity to recognize our student athletes for their team and individual achievements. Students were honored with awards highlighting leadership, perseverance, and strong performance throughout the season. For our future happenings, November 26 through 28's our Thanksgiving break. December 2nd is our NCAA eligibility parent meeting. December 4th will be our FASA night. December 6th, the ugly sweater run. And December 6th, the magical dinner. As always, please be sure to follow our district and school social media pages as we share each day the excellence of Elcart Schools. >> Thank you, Wendy. Great job. >> Next on the agenda, we have the consent items as presented. Uh, do I have a motion for the consent items?

034>> Motion. >> Have a [clears throat] motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Uh, any discussion? >> Yes. And this is a moment that, you know, we take the opportunity to have a moment of silence on somebody that I shared at the last meeting had retired. Um, and after that meeting, um, Miss Stzman went home to heaven to her Lord and Savior. And so, we just take a moment of silence to celebrate, um, Amy and her and her trip back up to heaven. And >> [clears throat] >> So just a moment. >> Thank you. To know Miss Stzman was to really be honored and her and Miss Paca and Miss Tracy and the addition of Miss Sakiba made a phenomenal team. And so it's a very

035sad loss for her family and friends. But I can tell you that Amy is truly at peace now. So and in saying that, we also celebrate some retirements of some wonderful employees. Wendy Freeland who was 10 years of our freshman nurse. Um Marlene Reid who served 12 years as a bus helper on many buses and Mr. Curtis Williams uh he was 19 years at Hawthorne as the custodian and he did a wonderful job transitioning from a student-based learning center to the early learning center. So, we celebrate the retirements of each one of those employees and then we get the opportunity to celebrate again our community at $16,800 of donations. And um our career center received a silver sponsorship of $500 from Selkin International Care of Joseph Selking. And then this one is amazing and it

036goes handinhand with Tony. You just talking about our construction trades. $10,000 was donated from the um MCumber family fund uh from their community foundation um scholarship. So that is to continue to build our construction trades uh and development our students. And we received $5,000 in in a 2016 Chevy Tracks. And when those cars are donated, which this was donated by Jeff and Carol Garing, those actually get to go into the automotive cluster and they can rip those apart in any way that they need. So, if you have a vehicle that you're no longer needing and you just want to donate it, it's awesome to give it to the kids um the young men and women of the auto trades because they can tear that apart and do some really great uh learning experiences. Um Lousen

037Weaver Foundation donated 500 or $300 to support e um Elkart High School extracurricular activities and NIPCO donated $1,000 to support field trips, which those are always wonderful donations from our community. These are not a dollar amount, but they are so wonderful that TR University donated the opportunity for 50 students and five chaperrons to come and visit TR University for the future of our students. And our diesel technology um received a donation of um a motor from International Motor USA LLC. They received a steer axle, a drive axle, and um a large transmission. And so again, when you're in the diesel program to be able to get those donations and be hands on, that's a great gift from our community. So $16,800, three teachers of retirement or at staff of retirement and uh a celebration of

038life. We are saying thank you to our community again. >> Thank you, Kelly. Any other discussion from the board regarding the consent agenda? >> I have a motion. I have a second. All in favor? I I >> opposed. >> Motion passes. Moving on to old business. Uh Lindsay Brander. Uh contracts. >> Good evening. Board President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff. The administration presents the following contracts for final consideration. Basher Children's Home for the Therapeutic Supports. >> Go ahead and do both of them. Uh, and then also the Alcart County Youth for Christ, which is Lifeline. >> Yep. Thank you. All right. Um, do I have a motion to accept the contracts as presented? >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion. I have a

039second. Do I have any questions or discussions from the board? Seeing or hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Lindsay. Mr. Thorne. Uh, board policies. >> Thank you, President Scott, members of the board of school trustees, Dr. Huff. Uh, this evening, the administration recommends approval of board policy 2210, which is curriculum development. >> Do you want me to present all of all four at one time? >> Yeah, please do. >> Happy to do that. Uh secondly, uh we are recommending approval of board policy 2370 which is educational options, board policy 2370.02 which governs flex programs and board policy 5462 which uh outlines the protocol for retaking a class. >> Thank you, Mr. Thorne. Uh we have four board policies as uh described uh by Mr. Thorne for final consideration. Do I

040have a motion from the board to accept >> second? >> I have a motion and a second. Do I have any questions or comments uh regarding these policies? >> Seeing or hearing none, all in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. >> Thank you, Mr. Thorne. Next, we have uh new business on the agenda. Dr. Huff, we have the 2026 board meeting schedule. Uh thank you, President Scott. Uh good evening, President Scott, members of the board community. Um tonight, I would like to present the proposed board meeting schedule for 2026 and also request uh the wave of second reading at this time. >> Thank you, Dr. Huff. Uh do I have a motion to accept the 2026 board meeting schedule and also waving second reading? >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >>

041I have a motion. I have a second. Any questions or comments from the board regarding the uh 2026 meeting schedule? >> I would just ask Dr. Hoff, could you um highlight a couple few of the changes and what we're doing? >> Yeah, I certainly can. Uh um I'm sorry, Mr. Vonellum. [laughter] Um, one of the things that I think um, we try to take in consideration for our staff and for our community is that um, sometimes night like tonight are not the most ideal nights to be having board member meetings. We have things going on in our community that we think we want our staff to be a part of and our community to be a part of. So on certain months there'll be um, only months where we have one board meeting. Also, the

042board times will change as well. um we will move board meetings from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and our work sessions or executive sessions will move from 6:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. So those are some of the um things that you're voting on this evening and I think that's the option that you just chose. So um great follow-up question for the community so they can understand exactly what was happening. So hopefully is there any other questions about that? All right, thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? I I just have a quick comment. Thank you for taking a look at this and the way to be more efficient and way uh to be uh understanding not only of uh of your staff and and the time that they spend during the day. Moving it

043back to to allow them to to get, you know, back to their families at a more reasonable time, but also uh looking at the the calendar and the board meetings that followed a holiday. Um there's been a number of times I've I've been on a plane rushing back reading through the board packet uh for that the meeting and I think it makes little sense that in those particular scenarios we we've made an adjustment so that doesn't occur. So uh thank you for doing that as well. >> No problem. >> No other questions or comments? All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you Dr. Huff. Next, under new business, we have uh contracts uh for uh initial consideration. Uh Dr. Roush, welcome. You >> President Scott, school board of trustees. Dr. Huff, the administration presents

044the following contracts for initial consideration. Cardonics Incorporated for scheduling at the high school and middle school. >> Thank you. Um we're going to uh yeah, we just move through it, Maggie. Um, next one. >> Thank you. Good evening, President Scott, members of the board. Dr. Huff, the administration presents for initial consideration a proposed agreement with EDU staff. >> You uh Lindsay, >> the administration presents the Basher Children's Home Contract. This is for their Basher Alternative School program that provides services for high school students that require a higher level of care and educational support. >> Mr. Thorne. >> Thank you. Uh on behalf of WVP, the administration is presenting a proposed agreement with Interleague Group for preliminary consideration. >> Thank you. Uh all four of these were in our board packet. Um we've had an opportunity

045to review. Um are there any questions or comments from the board regarding any one of these uh contracts for initial consideration tonight? Seeing or hearing none, um please uh over the next uh couple weeks as you continue to review, please reach out to the appropriate uh administration who presented uh tonight uh with any additional questions so we'll be prepared to take it to uh um second reading uh at our next board meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh, you can still stay there. We I am we have uh board policies. >> Uh do you want me to just present all four at the same time? >> Yeah, please do. Okay, we'll be happy to do that. Uh, this evening, the administration is presenting for preliminary consideration the following board policies. Board policy 2411, which

046governance guidance and counseling. Board policy 3216 ACS, this is a staff dress and appearance policy. Board policy 8400, which over uh addresses issues of school safety. And finally, board policy 8451, which governs the process we deal with in terms of various paritic parasitic infestations. Bring these again for preliminary consideration this evening. Good stuff. Um, >> riveting. >> Yeah. [clears throat] Uh, much like the contracts that are presented for initial consideration, all of these board policies are also presented for initial consideration. We've had an opportunity to review in our board packet for this week. But uh should any uh uh any board members uh have any questions, please reach out to Mr. Thorne regarding the policies before they come back up for uh second reading. Are there any questions or comments regarding the policies tonight that

047you would like to address to Mr. Thorne? Seeing none or hearing none. Thank you. And lastly, the resolution >> seems to be building trades night. Uh this evening the administration is recommending approval of a [clears throat] resolution authorizing the transfer of real property from Elite Community Schools to vocational building trades. This will provide the opportunity for building trades to begin construction on a new home. Seeking your approval this evening. Do I have a motion regarding the resolution as presented? >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> I have a motion. I have a second. Do I have any questions or comments for Mr. for uh Thorne regarding this resolution. Seeing or hearing none, all in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Mr. Thorne.

048Mr. Ross, financial report. >> Yes. Good evening, board president, board members, Dr. Huff, and the community. I'm here to present the monthly financial update for the October finances. Our first slide here is our adjusted budget which I um spoke of last session. Uh you'll see in that second column um our 1782 budget which is the budget order provided by DLGF and our numbers were aspirational possibly inflated due to an expected higher ADM. So you'll see in that first [clears throat] quadrant here that we expected about 99 million. You'll see the items in a pinkish reddish color where we're making adjustments downwards to our receipts. Um looking at $93 million in um receipts. So that's a whopping $6 million revenue loss from our 1782 projections. [laughter] Um [clears throat] with that said, we had to um

049uh find that money somewhere. So we're going to limit our transfers um to operations funds. So we originally projected as you can see side by side 9 million that we could transfer we would only be able to make about 3 million and this will help us uh going back here will help us avoid this fund going negative by just transferring the 3 million. So this the goal of this slide is to show how we can end this um education fund imbalance at the end of the year. Um, so with that, we would have fully expended our $93 million budget, but we also have additional appropriation from carry forward purchase orders. So those would be expenses from the prior year that were encumbered and we can carry them forward and pay them in 2025 without exceeding

050our spending authority. So we have spent that. Doesn't look like we're going to spend all of it. So that's good news. we won't, it looks like we won't have to seek the additional uh spending authority due to us kind of dialing back some of our expenses. So, that is a bright spot there. Just kind of playing that out here. We could we're projecting our ending cash balance could be um 542,000. again just to end this fund um in the black and not being able to make that 6 million in transfers. That's how we get here. Okay. So that is our education fund adjusting the budget the revenue and expenditures. So just um would like to call your attention to the October column there uh circled. These were our expenditures for the month of October. You'll

051see our total receipts uh over 8 million um from the primarily tuition support. Uh you'll see wages and benefits our primary expense out of this fund. We are trending downwards in wages and benefits. Our average wages expenditures and two pay months or months where we have two paychecks is about 5 uh2 million. So this is trending down which is good news. And just calling to your attention that uh in red is actually our appropriation in terms of that 90 million budget budgeted expenditures you saw in the previous slide plus the 2 million carry forward POS you get about $93 million of spending authority just to tie that back into the previous slide. And so uh bottom line is our cash balance for the end of this month in the education fund is about 3.5 million.

052Just keeping in mind our goal is to still transfer 2 million over to the operations fund. We we've transferred one already this year. We still want to transfer another two to stabilize that fund. So, um some bright spots there, but you know, cautiously optimistic moving forward. Um wrapping up with our education fund here, you'll see our cash flow for the year. uh you see it trending upwards which is good and this allows us to make those transfers that I mentioned to the operations fund. Just a caveat you'll see next month for November and December we will have an adjustment to our tuition support from the state due to you know our loss of ADM. It's like okay we've supported you at this student amount you didn't get those that many students so we're going to

053draw some back. So, we're looking at revenue going down in the education fund in November and December, about $900,000 for November, and then again another $900,000 loss in December. Okay, moving on to the operations fund. I'm just calling your attention to October. Um, started off with a negative cash balance there. Um and we um have total receipts of 7.6 million. Um that's due uh primarily to the bond proceeds that uh geo bond that we procured. Um so our total expenses are trending downwards uh as well and we have our ending cash balance of 3.1 million in this fund. You will see a slide forthcoming that kind of details more of the um savings and um where our expense savings are coming from shortly. Okay. And just looking at the trends of the operations fund, you

054see how it has its peaks and its troughs. That's um very typical for the operations fund because it's based on receipts primarily um from property taxes which we receive in June and in December. So, it's going to go up and it's going to go down until we get our next influx. You do you do see October has that nice uh that green bar. Well, that was the bond uh we just spoke of. So, we got that influx of cash in the operations fund to help stabilize that fund. Uh rainy day fund uh ending cash balance is 6.7 million. No changes from the prior month. And taking all these three um funds together, you see our cash balance is uh 13 million there in October. So you got the rainy day added with the operations, added

055with the education fund. So um you've seen this slide. It's a summary of some of our savings initiatives that we've been working on. And the newest addition there at the bottom, which you may be hearing more about tonight, is our district footprint and our consolidation assessment. So, um, I've put together kind of an update on where our savings initiatives have led us, um, to this point. So, the new items are circled or the updated items, I should say, are circled there in red. So where I'm updating the um staff level the staff cost we've done some as you can see some updates to subpay uh look and reviewed extended contracts reduced central office. So to date we're looking at over half a million dollars in savings when we compare August payroll through October this time

056that time frame 2024 versus 2025. Um jumping on down to professional services, we have spent less than budgeted and that is bringing in another savings to kind of offset um some of the expenditures that we have with our higher staffing levels. So to date um you can see about 3.3 million in savings and or cost avoidance and these efforts have helped us not to have to be able to not to have to seek the additional appropriation. So right now we are trending in the right direction. Um and that concludes the monthly financial update. >> Any questions or comments from the board regarding the financial update? >> Please move on to insurance. >> Okay. [gasps] We'll do. We'll do. Okay. Our insurance update is looking good. Our loss ratio is holding at about 85%. Um pleased

057to announce our expanded Anthem network. um and our partnerships to enhance our claims processing and communications. More on that coming soon. And here's just a breakdown of where we were last year versus this year. Our loss ratio this time uh last year was 104%. So we were spending more than what we were bringing in. Now uh we're spending less. So the plan is performing better at this point in time versus last year. And that concludes the insurance update. you um know of any large claims that are that are outstanding that could still hit in 2025? >> Um we have an upcoming meeting and we will be reviewing that and I will report out on that. >> Yeah. Just just um during that meeting just if you'd asked um to make sure that if any of

058the large claims have hit the spec amount that we do everything in our power that there's any outstanding claims to get those in by the end of the year. So, um, our stop loss carrier will absorb those, uh, rather than the district. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Thank you very much, >> Dr. Huff. [clears throat] Good evening again, President Scott, members of the board, community. Tonight, I am here to give you an update on our consolidation efforts. Um, if you remember, just two weeks ago, I received authorization from the school board to begin this consolidation work. Um, but this work began a long time ago. Um we over the last year we've talked about um some really difficult things in our school district regarding some of our financial

059challenges, our footprint um and some of our um decline in enrollment. And so tonight I'm here to share with you some initial pairings um related to the consolidation based off data driven conversation some of the feedback that we received from our um state of the the district meetings and then looking forward to receiving some of our um feedback from our staff. Last week we sent a survey out to staff and as of today we have over 500 um responses that we will have to disagregate and make sure that their voices are heard through this process as well. I will share with you um in my now two years here um this moment is very important for Elcart Community Schools. We not only need to get this right, we need to get this right and get

060it right now. And so, um, hearing all the work that's being done by all the team members and my the teachers, um, I feel like it's a great sense of duty. It's actually an honor to be in front of you tonight to share with you, um, our next step and how to make continue to make Elcart a great place for kids, but also to shore up our future so we are never in this position ever again. And so tonight, I get the pleasure of presenting to with you with one of our your new tech directors, Mr. DJ Rhodess. If you don't know him, he is the outstanding gentleman there in the back. He's got the greatest beard in Elcart. Um, [laughter] but Mr. Roads, I just want to Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

061Hey, hey, he's your boss. So, um, I pay homage, my friend. Um, one of the things that I want to share with you tonight is before we go into this work, there's a lot of work done behind the scenes. When we get presentations done in front of those are individuals who are, yes, it's their job, but they're working on this on the weekend and at night time. We have strategy meetings every day from 1 to 1:15 to you know sometimes when they end a little after an hour where people are just back and forth sharing just some ideas of how can we make the district better, how we make sure this message is communicated and know what anticipating some questions that people are going to ask. I believe in transparency when it comes to this

062work and I think overall in the processes that we have been sharing over the last year and a half or so I would hope that we have stood up to that commitment. So I just want to um just acknowledge the hard work of the team and um this is our first school groupings dashboard. Again these aren't anything that is definitive. These are just recommendations that we're making to the board. the board will have the the tough decisions down the down the road to vote on any type of these pair of pairings, but they are also learning just like the community is um as well. Nothing has been decided and they're all been uh data driven. So um I will have a conversation tonight um with Mr. Rose as he will be doing the driving for

063me um as we go through this process. So Mr. roads I would first like to use to start off in our pairing to the in the west and that will be I'll just say Cleveland and this dashboard will be available tonight and I wanted to walk with you on how you can utilize this dashboard when this is uh presentation is done um the community will be able to go ahead and do the same thing that we're doing this evening we had members of our team create a video that will be sent out tonight so to show you exactly how to go through this uh process with all your family and friends when you're um looking at this. Some of you got it. Um you'll be able to to look at this yourself and actually talk

064about what the potential pairing. Some pairings just don't make sense um and it won't allow you to do that. But um this is the best pairing based off the data that we have at this time and we want to make these recommendations to the school board. So the first pairing that we have to the west of our school district is the Cleveland Woodland and Mary Dailyaly uh pairing and as you can see Mr. roads has selected Cleveland Elementary. I need to be very clear that does not mean that Cleveland is the school that is being selected for consolidation or selected to be a receiving school. It just means it's a school that you clicked on. Is that correct? >> Can you do me a favor and change that to any other pairing before I talk

065about what's on the screen? If you notice he now No, no, stay in the West reg not region. This is not NCAA, but please stay in the west area of our district. That will be Woodland. If you notice, and can you scroll down a little bit, Mr. Rose? Woodland is now the selected school. I want to share with the community what is contained inside the inside the information for Woodland. We go over the grade span. and we the enrollment, the capacity and the amount of empty space that Woodland has based off of the way it was designed, the year was open, the last renovation for the school district, um the physical space and do we have debt on the building, um the parking spots and bus loops, the total number of classrooms. When I say

066classroom, I'm talking about that are built for instruction. And then lastly, the per pupil spend. And the reason why we call it per pupil spend, it's the choices of the district on how we are providing services at that school. It is not necessarily the school creating their own per pupil spend. So I think it's very important that we um share that information. Also below that you can see if Woodland is paired with partner school 2, which is Cleveland, there's a little uh box there. DJ, Mr. Rose, can you circle move your magic wand around that? that will share that will say the selected school and the partner school their combined enrollment that is if every student rolls up it will be a total of 786 and if you go back to the um selected school

067you'll see would that pairing how does that impact that pairing and you can see do the same thing with partner school number one we have provided this information for every single one of the pairings though it was a substantial amount of work to uh upload this DJ and Mr. Rose and his team have um want to be as transparent with the community as possible. Um I also before we move to a different parent, I want to go and show people um what is also contained on this um in this on our parent on our grouping um sheet. Mr. Rose, will you scroll down a little bit? One of the things that you will see there are some additional information to the to the left. This is this all this information will be contained on our

068um landing page. We have built a consolidation um landing page that um you can see all of our state of the district, our financials, um uh previous reports that we've set out. Um our facility assessments as another um I think a powerful tool. Um this year um Elcart and on August 26 we share with the community the um actual financial I'm sorry the physical condition and ratings of each one of our schools and then they can go back and look at the uh state of the district presentations to the right in the note sections I think is important these enrollment counts are based off our fall ADM counts or October 1st counts. Um so that's what they had in the buildings on that day. the reason why we be changing every single day because we

069get kids to move in and out. ADM is actually the the dollar amounts that we can actually really financially um tie to each of the buildings. So, it's important that people know that that is based off that date. Beersley Elementary is not included in this pairing selection. And there are some reasons why I would like to uh explain to the school board and to the community. That is a multi-purpose building where we earn an agreement with one of our community partners for a 25-year lease. um that community partner raised significant amount of funds to um um complete some of the construction additional construction of that and so did Elcart Community Schools. Um we are tied with them for the next 25 years and also to be a very good steward to our community. I think

070don't think at this time it would be wise to u break that lease. That is just a recommendation to the board at the board at any time you can say you want to go in a different direction but I'm for initial consideration I'm not bringing that up to you as an option. Um, and then below, I just wanted to let you know there are some things that are unique about some of our other schools as well. At Roosevelt Steam Academy, there is a home to our district's high ability program. And then also, Hawthorne is the home to our prek programming in the district and is not included on this list because it is not a standalone elementary school. So, I wanted to make sure that that was something that was also brought to your attention.

071Again, this information will be available to the public at the end of this board meeting. it will be sent out and it'll be attached to our website. So, I wanted to just let you know that is how the pairing um the first pairing was. Um Woodland, Mary Dailyaly, and Cleveland. And you probably maybe ask, well, how did you decide that? The main goal is to try to keep our kids together in cohorts. And I also use a criteria that was authorized by the board of just that last week. So based off of proximity, transportation, financial cohort, I'm sorry, cohorts, um the accessibility and the programming that is in those um areas is how we came up with the parents. It just naturally seemed to work out that we did it by the areas of the

072district. So that is the criteria which we utilize. We didn't just throw random schools together. we we really make sure that we are tried and true with what the board has authorized us to do in this uh in these situation in this situation. Um so that is the um I don't want I did not name them and I don't think it's appropriate to name them but I would just say that is for the western part of our district. If you want to move move to the northern west part of our district Mr. Rhodess this is an additional pairing that we have here. Again he just selected Oslo. It's not something that is it's not saying that that is a school that will again is is being considered for either closure or consolidation. Just that's where

073he selected. Mr. Rose, will you uh switch to another school? He now as you can see Pinewood is now the selected school. Same similar information but very specific to their school. We providing all the information for each of the schools as you can see here. Um Miss Rosary scroll down a little bit. Same process. You can see if you pair Pinewood with Mary Feeser and all the students roll over, you can see what that pairing number will look like. And then if you do the same thing with Pinewood and Oslo, you can look at that as well. And so again, um same process. The board will have an opportunity to ask me any questions about uh these pairings and then in a few months from now looking in more of the February, March, I will

074come back to you with final recommendations should you choose to accept these pairings. Um, Mr. Rose, will you go to another area? He has now moved on to the eastern part of our district and he selected Eastwood. Would you switch to another school? And same process that we have. Again, the goal is to be 100% transparent with our community about what is the makeup of each of the schools, how how old are they, what how new are they, and then how much um does it actually cost to um educate a child there. Um, I think in our history, this is the most uh, transparent we've ever really been with our community in this area. And I'm super proud of the work. Um, as you can see in this area here, same setup. Um, Mr. Would

075you switch the schools one more time just so you can see Riverview, um, is a selected school and the numbers change at the bottom. Um, far as what it would look like to be paired with partner school one and partner school 2. The additional information on the page does not change. Oh, one other thing, Mr. Rose, I would like for you to highlight when you go to the top and I would like to give a uh a huge shout out to Sydney Lopez Bonner and her team for helping to translate this as well. You're able to also manipulate this information and put it in Spanish also. So, will you show that Mr. Rose what that will look like. So, all we want to make sure as many of our community members are able to go

076out and see this information and make sure that they are able to be very well informed throughout this process. And I think that is a huge step in accessibility, but also I think that's another step in trans um in transparency. So I want to thank those members of of of my team and those who I did not name who who spent lots of time translating this as well. So again, I just want to say thank you for doing that also. Um and then finally, I think it's our southern schools that we would like to show the pairing there. Um Monger again, he selected Monger just to open up the pairing, but he quickly switched it over to Mary Beck. same same pairing situation. Um should the board choose to um accept these pairings and what

077you're then charging me to do is make decisions based off that group and that's where our consolidation work will work in that particular area. Um I then plan to come back next week, not next week, I won't be here next week, but in two weeks I will give you staff survey results. Um and then we can start to talk about well what does that look like from some of the things that impact staff? What does that look like as far as some of our facilities? And then we um we let the data play out and we then bring some final recommendations back to the board um in February. In the meantime, I do think it is an prime opportunity for our school districts to um work on some of the issues I think some of

078our staff has have brought forward this year. Some of areas in our district the the it's growing and in some areas in our district not growing so much. We have schools that have very large have very different disparity in classroom sizes and classroom makeup. And I think this is an opportunity for us to look at that as well. And so um as we go about this work um you may see us come back and say hey is we may need to redistrict part of this and that's where we need community input and we need to bring this information to the board so they're fully informed. Um, we may need to look at where certain our programming will go as we go through this process. But I think this is a great time for us to

079show the whole world and really our community that this will not only will be done and we done well and be done with the with our main thing in mind which is our people and our our our people which is our staff and our most precious product which is our our students. So, um I just want to let you know these were our initial parents that we would bring to you um this evening. I will close with this um because again, should you choose to accept these as your initial round of pairings, we will come back and this will be the basis of of where we'll do this work. Um I want to commend the board for your support uh through this process and this is not something that like I said has just started

080um in the last month too. This has been something that's been going on uh we've tried to start telling the story pretty much at the since the beginning of this year and really have appreciated the opportunity to um with your authorization through resolutions to explore on how to make our school district a stronger much more efficient place for our staff our community and for our students. So, at this time, I I I want to um open up to any questions that you may have with me for this process. >> Thank you, Dr. Huff. Uh any questions? >> I don't have a question. I just have a comment. Um first of all, thank you very much for your leadership um as we go through this and um the team, DJ, and the rest of everybody who's

081involved in putting [clears throat] something like this together. I this school district has never done anything like this with anything that we've done with this level of transparency and accessibility for the community. I think this is extremely important um to get this information out so people know where they can find it. Um and I appreciate everyone who is part of this project. It is a huge undertaking. Um, but I think the more we can educate our community and with information like this, they're going to look at things and and have a have I think a lot of eye opening um things that they see that they had no idea. Um, and I think that's really important for this to this community as we engage with them. Um, and and making sure that we're making good

082decisions for our district and moving our district to be a very well-run, successful um, both from a stability standpoint financially and for outcomes um, and the education that happens within our buildings. Um, so thank you very much for you to you and your team um for doing this because this is this is a big deal and it's very user friendly and gives people an opportunity to get in there and start you know really digesting the information. >> Thank you Mr. Fonella. We appreciate it. I believe an informed community is is an investing community. Um, I think we have a a we're on the ground floor of making sure that people are able to not only be informed, so to say, but also when you're informed, you have a voice and you can actually make decisions

083and be a part of the decision-m process. And so, if you go in that consolidation page, we've answered every question that was offered by our community. And we will do the same for our staff members as well. You can see exactly what our community has said. Um overwhelmingly 97% of our community understands that we need to move forward. We can't continue to operate with the same footprint that we have today. Um that was that's evident in not only the anecdotal information that I received but also in the their responses and they come up with lots of suggestions too on how to move forward. To me that is very encouraging. Um I'm this is this work is not for the weak. [clears throat] This is something that needs to happen and but how it happens is

084on us. We we will do this with care. We'll do this with precision and we will do with input from all stakeholders because it impacts everybody. This is just not something that impacts elementary schools. This impacts every single person in the school district. Everyone will have an opportunity to have a voice. So again, we're doing this for a I don't want to just say for finances. We're doing it to make our district really the best place it can be for kids. This was decided a long time ago is now being executed now. >> I I just like to add on to what Ann said, you know, the the work your team and and and you have put into this so far is is outstanding. Uh I I do want to make a point of of

085clarification that you know uh some people may think that you know decisions already been made. the board knows, you know, what schools are going to be closed. I I I can tell you with 100% confidence that we do not know any of that information, nor have we made any decisions because we have not been presented with the criteria and the recommendations from Dr. Huff and his team. As an example, this was not in our board packet. The board actually saw this dashboard at approximately 650 tonight was our first time that we saw and it was presented to us. So in reality, we are seeing it in real time um with the community and everybody here online or will be able to use it. I mean I'm I'm going to go home tonight and and and

086play around with it. It will be my first time to actually look at the data and the numbers. So I just want to be very clear that you know this is this is something that uh you know as a board it's our it's our job to to take the recommendation understand the recommendation recommendation and as Ann pointed out to be educated uh along with the the community and the stakeholders as to why uh these decisions are being pushed forward in the best interest of the district and ultimately the students. So um yeah this is this is great work. Um, I I I had a few questions. Uh, didn't really have the time to to get answers to them. We we will get answers to them, but uh, you know, thank you and your team for

087putting this together. It's it's it's a it's a great first step. And I hopefully it builds confidence in everybody that not only are we we looking at all aspects. Uh, we're we're we're following the criteria has been laid out and this and letting data really drive the decisions here. >> Yes. Um, and that's purposely not given to the board, not for any reason other than I want you to when you make this decision, you're going to be making probably one of the most important decisions that you can have as a board member. You'll be shaping the the district for forever. Your vote will it matters. The work that we're doing here, it matters, too. But at any time you could decide to go in a different direction. So I think for for me to have

088these conversations with you um a little bit ahead of where the community at now there will be a time obviously where you will have to wrestle with the decisions and the recommendation that will be coming but I I do think it's very important for our community where there is out sometimes in the world that things have already been decided. So just tell us no that's not the case. Not the case. the board has [clears throat] not been informed of of the of this way. We can go this way. They're seeing this just like you are for tonight. And that's very intentional. Um it's also very scary as a superintendent to to to have the board see something in real time. Don't try that at home, ladies and gentlemen. Um but I I do want to

089say thank you, President Scott, for um your your kind words and your to Mrs. Vonella. >> And I don't excuse [clears throat] I don't want to be repetitive, but I I do think it's important for me to also say that uh I agree like I echo those sentiments. I think, you know, um this is the first time we've seen this. I think it's very very user friendly from what I've able to been able to see so far. I think it's extremely informative and you're exactly right, Dr. Huff. At some point, we will have to make some decisions based on the data. And I think it's very helpful uh for us to be able to also go home and play with some of these things as an informed community member, but also a board member. And

090so I appreciate the work that's been done. I'm very appreciative of of this. It's going to be very helpful as we sit together and talk about the information and let the data drive our decisions. So thank you for that. >> Oh, thank thank you. Appreciate it, Mr. Ivory. Um, I think one of the things that at least have heard from the community is that they want through this process, they they want information in a timely manner. They want you to stick to the timeline that you said you're going to so they can make the choices for whatever they need for their families. They how we prepare presents this information. It matters. Is it done in a professional manner? Is it done with clarity? Is it done with complete transparency? And then lastly, the quality of

091the decisions. Have you veered away from your criteria or have you are you really sticking to them? We are going to stick to everything that we presented to the school board. So that was overwhelmingly the feedback from the community and I look forward to hearing the feedback from our staff. Um so I will wait if there's any other question from the board. I will just talk about some next steps um that we need to do in order to continue on this process if you agree um to move forward with these pairings. [snorts] Any other any other questions? Any any disscent in not agreeing with the pairings as presented today? Then uh yeah, I think we can move move forward. So we're we're ready to hear about the next steps. >> Okay. Well, probably in the

092next steps, I will work with my in communication department to have um another round of of community meetings where we talk about what this process looks like and also redistricting. Um we will also um make sure that this information is available on the on our website so you can go look at the dashboard. That information will go live. There will also be, like I said, a video that will be has been narrated so you can actually um if you didn't follow all my instructions today, remember Mr. Ro's instructions today, you're able to navigate this at home. Um and then continue to if you're watching something, continue to send us your questions or your and your comments. Our our team constantly looks at the website for any new additional questions that are being asked. Um and

093so staying informed is very important through this process. So, we send to the community every week a consolidation up uh update um that goes to families. Um but I think our dashboard and our website is is much more user friendly than it used to be. And so this is going to be where we house all this information. So I just wanted to say those are some of the next steps. So those dates be on the lookout for some of those dates for more community engagement. >> Are there any other questions from the board? >> No, I I just again I will reiterate I said it a couple weeks ago. Please from the community, stakeholders, parents, uh community members, please engage. Please use this dashboard. Please forward your questions, concerns. Um you know, there there there

094may be there may be something that uh an angle uh that that we haven't thought of. Although the criteria, you know, in in what you're looking at is very thorough, >> but I think that's important. and and as a board we will we will go through uh you know all those questions, statements and concerns and and and and look at those and in whether or not we accept uh and approve the final recommendation. Thank you. All right. Going right back to you. >> I need a second. >> Yeah, take a second. I have to get my life together. All right. So, anyway, thank you, President Scott and members of the board community. Um today I had the extreme privilege of going to the freshman division to um look at some of our uh health and

095um health projects that was that were conducted at the media center. If you haven't had an opportunity to go over there and see what the great things that our kids are doing um you should we had over the last two days they've done an outstanding job. Um the thing that I was most impressed with about today all the kids did a great job. One thing that AI will never replace is human connection. having kids stand up, shake your hand, introduce themselves, you could see how nervous they were. That was the hardest part of the presentation because they knew their material, but we're all looking for that human connection. The kids want to be seen. So, I just want to say, uh, hats off to the teachers who led that today. Um, that was a wonderful

096job. Uh, but the kids, um, I learned more about things that I should learn about and some things I did not want to learn about, which is fine, but the kids, the presentation skills were great. And so you can really tell that the kids took pride in what they were doing. So just want to say thank you for that experience today. Um I also want to um on Monday and last Monday had an opportunity to go to Spellb and was really proud of the work that uh was done. Our teams competed very well and I think there's another round that's coming up. I want to say huge shout out to Kristen Cedarberg who helped oversee that and Alex Holtz who was a great MC for that event. um those kids do not play when it

097comes to to spelling. They just don't. And so it was a great event and I think it's for Elcart to be able to host those things and for other people to come in and see uh our our great district. Hats off to you. So I wanted to say thank you Kristen for your work. Um another thing last Friday had an opportunity to go down in Indie to uh have two of our educators recognized by the Indiana Department of Ed. We had um Kathy Enfield from Westside who was the RISE employee of the year. And we also had uh Denise Emmer from Eastwood recognized as the literacy educator of the year in one of the two educators of the year in Indiana. Those are huge deals. We were the only district that was had multiple people

098recognized for their achievements. And that's a that's a that's a huge honor. I want people to soak that in. And when when you go and you get recognized at the state level and if you know Denise, she is a kind of an outgoing individual, she had a blast and it was very you get humbled really quickly when people us as educators, we sometimes don't like to talk about our work. We just like to do our work and I just to to spend the night to spend the time with them at that event and to hear the state superintendent and have other tables come up and say, "Hey, you're doing great work and Elcart and continue doing things for kids." I think that meant more to her than the recognition. Wonderful job. And I just want

099to say that's a huge honor for Elcart just to be a part of that story. But those those two educators deserved it. Um, and they're back at work today. I was at their uh what do they call their Macy's? Uh, balloons over blues over Eastwood. Is that where it go? When I tell you those kids do this 67 to me one more time. [cough] >> No, you and you do it right back. It It was great. They did a great job. But she is like a local celebrity at that school and welldeserved. And Kathy and Bill, she just she just keeps her head down and working down at Westside. So, um, hats off to those two. And last but certainly not least, Elcart again has um the only school district in the state of Indiana

100had three uh social workers nominated for Indiana social worker of the year. Three out of the final 12. And so that shows again that we are taking care of our kids, our kids not only for the academic needs, but their effectiveness needs as as well. It's just as critical to get kids where they need to be. They have to come into environments where people are prepared to deal with the the things that they the kids bring to school. Kids bring excellence, but they also bring nervousness, too. Um, and to have three of those individuals. I [gasps and sighs] Let's test my memory because my screen is off. I think the individual was at one was at Beardsley, one was at Monger, and one was at um Elcart Academy. I know their names, but I will

101butcher them again. You can check. See, my screen is off. Um, but to have three when no other district in had more than one and we're the only northern Indiana district that was recognized is hats off to us. We do social work very well here. We take care of our people. I just want to say thank you to all the leaders in those areas. But also, if you're watching and you're at that school, I just want to say you are seen and you're value. We appreciate you. And my last little gift that I want to share with you tonight, um, I'll be running over to the basketball game, but they wanted to make sure that I showed everyone here. They received their championship rings, a unified track. They received their ring tonight. You know, since

102I didn't ever get one of these back in high school, I will wear it with pride here. Um, and I will quickly take it off cuz I'll lose it. But these are wonderful. I can't wait to see those on our kids finger running around. And these kids know about they put two on there cuz they went back to back. And so I think they're going to look forward to having mean three this year. So again, when people talk about all the things that are happening in Elcart Community Schools, remember those things, too. We're doing some great things for kids, doing great things for family, and you're all are making a difference. So after that, I'm going to turn it back over to you, President Scott. >> Thank you, Dr. Huff. Um any parting comments uh

103from the board? I just like to um echo um I had the opportunity today to spend some time over at the freshman division div division um doing the health presentations and you know I always enjoy doing those. I think it's great to have conversations with the kids and and um I echo a lot of your same sentiments. But what I would like to say is if you ever have an opportunity um and for the the community members to to go into our schools and sit down with our students and and learn from them and listen and just have a conversation. Um, I think you will be very impressed with what you see. Um, and I encourage anyone and everyone um to if that's something you're interested in to reach out to the high schools. I'm

104sure they will be thrilled to have you. Um, and it because it is a very rewarding experience um to see the great things that our our kids are doing and just have that those really meaningful conversations and getting to know them a little better. Um, so it was just a really it was a really great morning and I'm glad that I was able to participate in it. And my moment of unsung heroes [snorts] goes to the bus garage talking about quickly our mechanics. And did you know that their day starts at 5:00 a.m. and ends at 10:00 a.m. And there are seven people that are taking care of 150 buses, 60 school vehicles. And I found this out that is cars, plows, trucks, um cat loaders, back hose. It it's amazing. Dump trucks. And so,

105and I want to say to you guys, if you've never been to our mechanic garage, it is so clean. It is unbelievable. Unbelievable how clean it is. So, inside of that garage, you have Taylor is our head mechanic. Nate is our assistant. Steve, Ralph, and Andy. Steve, Ralph, and Andy are our mechanics. Mark is our mechanic on our evening shift. And Dan steps in as a shop helper and a like mechanic. And you guys have to remember, not only are they taking care of, like I was talking about transmissions earlier, which I love anything to do with diesel mechanics or cars, they can rebuild a training right inside of our building if they need to do that. I mean, they don't have to shift it out. We are set up like that to take care

106of our vehicles. So, inside of this, they they show up and they plow and make sure everything is ready to go. They have to step in not only as a mechanic, but they have to drive buses when it's necessary. So, these seven men who run a phenomenal mechanic building are unsung heroes, making sure that our buses are always moving. They drop everything they have to in the event that one of them is broken down, taking care of all of our vehicles, taking care of our staff, and inside of that building are just just amazing people. So, once again, sharing with you the unsung heroes made by, you know, run by Taylor as our head mechanic. They are some of the nicest human beings you will ever meet and humble and they do a great job

107for our school system. So, thank you to our bus mechanics and their amazing garage. >> Thank you, Kelly. I I I learned something about you every meeting. I >> That's amazing, isn't it? >> Your love of transmissions. I just had a weird bizarre thing. Don't even get me started. I have a massive addiction to car transmissions. I don't know why. >> I would have never known. >> I know. It's weird. [laughter] It's weird. make sure we wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and then an opportunity to celebrate with their families and spend time with their loved ones. And um that that's what I would like the final thing to leave them with tonight is that um these times are not um always guaranteed to come back around. So um it's a good opportunity to reflect and

108spend time with your family. So please enjoy that and disconnect from school for a little bit and then we'll see you back on Monday um when it's time. >> You stole my thunder. So >> I'm a considerate individual. >> Everybody enjoy enjoy Thanksgiving and enjoy the time away. Please spend time with family and reflect. Meeting is adjourned.