001I'm still trying to like process everything, you know. I don't want to be like an hour, but it's kind of clear about why does my thing never turn the right way? No. Okay, forget all day. I just went to a friend, I bet. Yeah, [Music] that [Music] This probably Thank you everybody for uh coming out this evening for our regularly scheduled July 8th Elcart Community Schools board meeting. At this time, I'd like to call the meeting to order. And would you please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation. Thank you. You may be seated. Mr. Weaver, the Elkart promise. The Elkart promise. Every student is known by name, challenged, and supported by highly effective
002staff and in partnership with the community will graduate career college and ready for life. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Weaver. Our invitation to speak protocol um should have received one of these pamphlets uh on your chair. Um when your name is called, please step forward to the podium and the mic. You will have three minutes to speak on any agenda or non-aggenda item. Uh during this time, uh please uh uh keep your um uh comments uh uh away from personnel or personal student issues should you have any. Um other than that, Dora, [Applause] thank you. Diane Carr. Okay. Since the last board meeting, it seems as though the promise that everyone having a job quickly faded away. Yes, Chartwells has offered jobs to employees. However, those offers have been rescended days later. For example, one
003of the employees worked an entire day for Chartwell only to be told they no longer were due they were no no longer needed due to something on the background check. Now, I understand that could be concerning. However, the issue was found um to be dismissed and there were no charges. She worked for Elcart Community Schools for two years with no issues. Their standards should have been communicated clearly prior to promising jobs for your employees. If ECS and Chartwell standards were different in any way, then every employee should have been made aware of those differences in their standards prior to promising anyone a job as well as presenting it to the it as though they would have one. I feel that there should have been some protection for our employees who have been with the corporation
004with no issues up until the transition. This was presented to you in a way that I feel has been deceiving. We were all told that we would have a job. You were told that not only would we have a job, but a pay increase. In my last communication, I explained to you how the increase was false, and now this is proving that it isn't a job for all of us either. Additionally, this feels as though they are grasping at opportunities to eliminate employees with unrealistic standards. Are they simply trying to rid themsel of as many employees as possible? This employee reached out to Chartwells and questioned their decision and also questioned the understanding of the statement, and I quote, "Everyone will have a job." And she was told, "That's just something they say." During board
005meeting on April 22nd, the superintendent went as far as to question the C CFO, saying, "So, the employees that are here today will be here tomorrow as well." His response was, "Absolutely, and next year." I would also like to point out that during the process, Sharon Stout was one of the only people in our office that was willing to try and trust this process. She had hoped that she would be able to continue with Chartwells, but was informed that although they would like to hire, the district didn't want her. Is this Chartwells pointing the blame back to you? When will we stop pointing fingers and receive full transparency? I'm in the process to resolve the issue of being compensated for my bank PB days, which I spoke on during the last meeting. I reached out
006to HR and the business office, as I was directed to do by a board member who took the time to discuss my concerns. I greatly appreciate you talking to and making yourself available to help your community and the people you represent. I'm also trying to represent my former co-workers by voicing my concerns, showing them they were valued by the people who worked alongside of them. I will continue to do so and hope that along the way we can find a resolution to all the concerns that have been brought to your attention regarding this transition. you Sarah Castleman. Good evening, Sarah Castleman, Food Services. Previously I was here and I spoke of my displeasure of loss of acred sick and PFI time in the amount of 969 hours. The thought of that loss has settled in
007and I went through thinking how I could have done better to assist in the welfare status of our division. I went through how I could have used those benefits in a time when my family and myself needed to use them. I went through what it could have been and what should have been. And I realized, thank goodness, that the real payment that I received for my 14 plus years with the district was not actually financial. It was the camaraderie and the companionship of those that I've been blessed to work with. The obstacles that we have overcame and the hard times that we work through, the problems that we solved together. So sure, it is bittersweet to let go of the loss. and I have fought myself hard to be willing to accept defeat for my
008own sanity. However, I am oh so thankful for opening my eyes to what is really important, something that nobody can take away. There will always be students that need to eat, and Elcart is blessed to have such compassionate staff to plan and prepare those meals, and I will always be blessed to know them. Thank you for your time. All right, that was it uh for the public comment. Uh this would excellence of Elkart. Thank you, President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff, community members. I'm grateful the opportunity to share the highlights in the areas of academics, arts, and athletics. With the July 4 holiday holiday behind us and the summer season in full swing, things have been a little quieter across the district. Summer school has come to a close and many of our
009summer partners programs are just now starting back up to finish off the summer. Some staff and students are also enjoying a well-earned break. That said, we still have some well-deserved accomplishments worth celebrating. That's not the right I'm sorry, not the right slides, but I'll tell you about our academics. Representing eight different Elkart Area Career Center programs, 14 outstanding students brought their talents to Atlanta, Georgia to compete in the 2025 Skills USA National Leadership and Skills Conference. four placed in the top 10 naturally nationally with one earning a third place finish in arts. Last week, several Elkart High School students performed in the Indianapolis as members of the Indiana Allstate Jazz Choir. Selected through a comp competitive audition process, they represented our district with excellence and showcased the strengths of our music program. For athletics, last
010week, Elkart High School football scrimmaged two of the top teams in the state, Hamilton Southeastern and Zansville at Indiana Westland University, excuse me. Our team competed well. Coaches, college coaches, coaches from IWU took notice, asking about some of our players and speaking with the team after the scrimmage. In addition to the strong showing on the field, our athletes had a chance to tour the campus and spend some time in the pool, making it a memorial day for our students. Future happenings. July 25th is our first annual Elcart football night. It'll be 700 p.m. at Rice Field. Football players from our youth football league, middle schools, and high schools will take part in onfield activities while families and community members can learn more about each of the level programs. As always, please be sure to follow
011our district and school social media pages as we share each day the excellence of Elkart schools. Thank you, Wendy. Next on the agenda, we have the consent items. Do I have a motion? I'll move. I have a second. Second. I have a motion. I have a second. Do we have any discussion regarding the consent items? Yes. We have one donation from NIPCO for $625 for supplies to be used for Alcart Community Schools. And then we have retirements. We have Thomas Jones from Cleveland. After 18 years serving our sixth grade students, he is retired. He did a great job with our kids. He was wonderful. And then in our food service department, I figured it out. 94 years of service and they are retiring from Roosevelt back the freshman division, a truck driver from commissary and
012our commissary food service. So each one of them have served you know our students like like our commissary staff has already stated for years and with the love of their heart and they've gone through different buildings most of them I know but we're so thankful to have them and the opportunity for them to serve our students. So, in appreciation of 94 years of service, I celebrate our food service department. Thank you, Kelly. I have a question about one of the contracts. Yes. Um, there's a contract in there for an attendance of an absenteeism coordinator, full service community grants. I think I see and uh my question is is that you know one uh what is the existing absenteeism rate at monger does anybody know that okay and if not okay two within the contracts shouldn't
013we also one stipulate what that is today and then also what we want it to be obviously we want it to be zero but what are the milepost and how long is it going to take to get us to a lower absenteeism rate. Um, I don't expect anybody to do anything with it right now, but going forward in some of these contracts and stuff like that, they need to be performanceoriented and goal oriented and timebased so that uh we actually know that we're achieving what we expect to achieve within this corporation. I know a lot of you are doing a good job out there and I appreciate that very much. But that one right there just happened to be an example of a place to start to say, "Hey, we need to hold our contractors
014to milestone, goals, and time." All right. So that we know that they've actually earned their money out there. Thank you, Mr. President. Yes, I would um like to um request that we pull the discovery contract and the Monger contract um from tonight's meeting. Um the reason being um with the discovery contract, I think we need some clarification on some renewal language um on that contract. And then um as far as the Monger um contract um we need um there were some questions about the time frame that's listed and I think there's been some discussion on um adjusting that um and so if we could bring those back at the next meeting um I think it would be appropriate. Very good. So, I have a motion to um pull those uh from the consent agenda item
015uh this evening and bring them back at our next meeting. Do I have a second? I have a motion and I have a second. All in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. Um was there any other comments regarding the consent agenda aside from those two contracts? Hearing none or seeing none, we have a motion. We have a second to accept the consent items. All in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. New business. Mr. Renman. We have the school technology advancement account application. Yes, sir. President Scott, Dr. Huff, school board members, members of the community. Good evening. Um the bis the district qualifies for a lowinterest common school fund loan in the amount of $28,64. Um the tech department the business office seeks board approval to use these funds to make technology
016purchases we can't make with other without other funds. Thank you. Do I have a motion on the uh STA application? So moved. Do I have a second? I'll second to Well, kind of know where this is going. Paper scissors. What? Um, any any further discussions or questions regarding this application? None. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. else under new business. This is a short agenda tonight. Uh Dr. Huff, the floor is yours. Uh I'll be brief. Thank President Scott, members of the board, community. Just wanted to just first um just give a quick update to community regarding some uh funding withholdings from the federal government. You may have saw over the weekend that um currently that um funds that were supposed to be distributed to Elcart Community
017Schools on July 1st are currently under review at the federal level. Those would be your funds that are allocated to title two, to title three, and to title four. Those funds typically pay for professional development. Those funds typically pay for a few of our staff members who are inside of those line items. And also they support our e our ENL learners. They support our translation services. They support our STEM initiatives. They support so many things that make our school district a wonderful place for kids. Um I believe if you've looked at our end of the year report that 16 pages that we sent out to the school community that we sent out to um members who um who are not in our community such as our realtors or to our chambers. Uh you can see
018that Elcart Community Schools provides a great investment for our for our families. Um those funds are essential to do the work that we that we do. Um and I feel like us uh our district just like other school districts are probably caught pretty blindsided by that. Um making the already hard job of leading a school district where you're need to be fiscally responsible but also make sure that you're providing outstanding services to kids much more difficult. Um, so I just want to let you know that it will not change how we um do business here in Elcart Community Schools. Um, we will always make sure that we provide outstanding services for people for our kids. But most importantly, I just want to let you know those ramifications of our state budgeting, our federal bud budgeting,
019and then also our um declining enrollment. Those things all play huge factors to the decisions that are being made. Um, I want everyone to make sure that they come back to our next board meeting on July 22nd. We'll have policy analytics here to talk about um how those convergences of of um those funding streams how they will impact on Elcart Community Schools. I think that will be very eyeopening um not just for our district, but it should increase our knowledge base when we're talking about the decisions that um we are making today. I'll be flat out honest. Some of these things should have occurred years ago. You can't fix everything in one year. You can't fix everything in two years. But you can be courageous enough to start to do the things that you should
020do. And so I promise you from those lens, I'll always make sure that we are making sure that we're making decisions away from the classroom and make sure our classrooms, our kids get everything that they need. Um I'm just here at the central office level. there will be eight less administrators going into next year. So I I believe the cuts have started here as well. Um so um I these are not conversations I want to have. We want to talk about put our focus on the students as always. But the business side of school does exist as well. So I would be remiss if I didn't share with our school community um that that $1.2 million that is currently being withheld will have huge ramifications on certain services that we provide. Um, and so that
021was just that's my update that I have to share with the community to Mr. Scott. And I do encourage everyone to come back next week at our July 22nd work session and our July 22nd board meeting to see the presentation policy analytics on some of the things that we are moving forward on some of the recommendations that we make from a physical a fiscal point of view in Elkart. And so I'll turn it back over to you, President Scott. Thank you, Dr. H. I just have one follow-up question. The $1.2 $2 million you mentioned that is uh accumulative of the title two, title three, and title four grants that Yes. over a two-year period. And remember, these things are already previously uh approved at the federal level. So, typically around the state of Indiana, you
022would already received your second portion of your allocation. We would be in the second year of those um of those um funding streams. And right now, they're currently paused. And but that doesn't mean that we have we can't we already have planned to utilize those things. So, Very good. Thank you. Do we have anything from the board? I just want to say welcome to some of our new administrators and and part of our team and we're excited to see all the great things that are going to happen as you guys collaborate together, you know, from transportation to education to everything that we have there. Um, and I I paid her a compliment, but I I really want to say this. I want to thank Wendy Wood for the way that she has stepped in. Um,
023and really like our Facebook page and all of our communication has just gone through the roof and it has been wonderful and people in the public are taking notice and I think like we need to always take the time when there's hurt or pain or different things that we're we're doing in our school system, loss of money, that we celebrate the people that we have inside of our building. So, thank you Wendy for everything that you've stepped up and you're doing and it it is wonderful what we are seeing happening out in the public with your communication. So, there I'll add on to that job well done when you didn't have the slides. Uh that were correct. Um so, uh very very good job there. And uh uh our next board meeting may want to
024add just Adam because they did you know you had a lot of good content there. So maybe we'll just go over those quickly uh in the beginning, but uh way to pivot and uh continue on. So great job. Um I'd like to uh to Sarah Castleman's point there about you know focusing on what's important and stuff. Um one of the things we all need to realize is that the rate of change going on around us for many forces that we don't control. uh the one consistency from the dawn of time has been nothing but change. That is it. Okay? We cannot expect changes to stop to slow down to wait for us and stuff like that. And when the change happens the thing that we need to do is to do the best for ourselves
025and our family we can at that particular time. I'll give you an example is that um I'd worked for a steel company, fourth largest steel maker in the United States for 23 years and I was a purchasing guy and I thought I was pretty good at my job and I had a vendor in there one day and he asked me that question, how long you been working here and I said 23 years and he called me a dinosaur and I'm thinking I was insulted, right? How could you call me a dinosaur? And he says, well you are nobody has a 30-year career anymore and stuff like that. Sure enough, he was exactly right. I wasn't going to have a 30-year career. Wasn't going to have a 40-year career. They fired me and three years later,
026they went out of business and stuff like that. However, the point being is that I suffered with my wife and kids until we were down uh to our last house payment and stuff like that. And luckily, I got a contract job and stuff like that that lasted for about 3 months. And then that company eventually hired me. And uh I've had about six different employers in my lifetime. And probably five of those employers have also fired me at the same time, too. However, the moral of the story is is that each job I got was better than the one I had before. It paid me more money. The working conditions were better. Everything was better about what happened. But it takes time. It takes, as I told our cadetses back in April or February, grit,
027perseverance, and attitude. GPA. What is your lifetime GPA? Your grit, perseverance, and attitude is what you need to carry you through. And fortunately, I possessed a lot of that. And what I didn't have, my wife had. So that worked out quite nicely for us. But in losing a job, what it forced me to do was focus on, you know, what was really important. That was my wife and kids. And uh so much so that uh I had that job for 14 years before I got married. And so I was I was the guy that job was me. And when I lost that job, I lost my identity. And for a guy, for anybody, that's a hard one to pill to swallow. And so if you need, you know, help, support and stuff like that, you
028know, talk to your friends, uh, you know, get counseling or whatever it is, you know, do the things that you need to do, okay? And sometimes you have to do very undesirable things. And my undesirable thing was I never ever wanted to wait and go to the unemployment line. In my last career change, my son said, "Dad, I think I was 60 years old." And dad says, my son says, I'm driving you down to the unemployment line and you can stand in line and collect unemployment. And guess what? That's what I did. That was a very bitter, bitter pill to swallow. But I did it. And out of that, I went through because I'm 60 years old. The state of Indiana thinks that you don't know what an Excel spreadsheet is. They think you don't
029know what a computer is. They think you don't know what a Word document is. But they put you around with a bunch of other people in the same circumstances. And lo and behold, there was one kid in there. His name's Scott Blair. And they they force you to go around the table just like we're sitting here. And you have to give a 30-se secondond elevator speech. And you practice that every week, right? Until you get good at it and stuff like that. But that one kid, he hit it out of the park. He had a three-piece suit on. Nobody else had that on. He hit it out of the park. So I afterwards I stopped and talked to him said, "Where'd you learn that at?" He said, "Well, I had some coaching and stuff like
030that." So anyhow, lo and behold, he said, "Uh, there's a guy that wants me to do a purchasing job over in Mishwaka." And he said, "I don't I'm an engineer. Don't want to do purchasing." And, uh, so anyhow, uh, I hooked him up with some other job opportunities and stuff like that. And he ended up working for Dometic and stuff like that. and I ended up getting the job over Mishawaka that he didn't want and stuff like that. And so then I turned around and hired him back from Dometic and he now works for me. We do quite well. We've both been there. I'm going on to our 11th year and stuff like that. But you will be surprised how things will change in your favor, okay? If you just bear with it. This what
031we do here and what my feeling of it's like playing hockey, you know? Hey, something goes wrong out there. You miss a goal, you do this, you get in a fight, they put you in a penalty box, but guess what? You always get to play hockey again. All right, that never changes. Okay, go play hockey. Okay, you know, take your time, collect your thoughts, you know, pull yourself together. You can do this. Trust me, if I can do it, you can do it. All right. Thank you very much for listening to me. Appreciate it. I I'll just thanks Doug. Um I'll just say um to the public comments I always appreciate hearing the public comments. Um you know we can't always respond right away to those public comments or when we do respond it may
032not be always what you know is wanted to be heard but I would just say that the comments aren't on deaf ears. We do hear uh we do do our best to make the best decisions uh for everyone. Uh but I just want to say thanks for the public comments. you know, we do hear you guys and we're doing the best we can to make the right decisions. That's it. And, you know, we we do follow up if there if we we hear something that we aren't familiar with or haven't heard before, we do ask questions and and say, you know, is is did I understand this correctly? Um is this is this uh how how this transpired? Can you give me some more detail? So, um, it is somewhat awkward to to Eric's point
033is just sitting up here and and listening to someone to to to speak at a microphone for 3 minutes and and feel that uh when there's no response there's there's no one's listening to you, but you know, we are and and we we we do our best to to come to the right decisions. were very thoughtful and strategic and uh you know just understand that this format does not allow for the engagement that uh sometimes could be very productive and sometimes would not be so productive and that's probably why you know this format is the way it is. So um you know you make great points and as as well as you. So um just uh so you you do understand uh you know we are hearing you. Anything else you have? Have nothing else
034meeting ajourn. Thank you everyone.