001fighting. What was the update? here. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's kind of surprising a little bit. Yeah. Did you [Music] All right. I apologize. is we're running uh a little late. So, I'll uh call the meeting to order for the June 24th, 2025 Elkart County Schools board regular board meeting. Call to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Feel like I'm doing a a lot today. The Elkar Promise. Every student is known by name, challenged, and supported by highly effective staff and in partnership with the community will graduate career college ready and life ready. And that is our Elcar promise. Our invitation to speak protocol. We have some tonight. Um, for those of you uh who would like to speak, we already have some filled out. There's a little sheet here. Please fill
002it out. Uh, put your name, uh, organization you represent and affiliation uh, with the district. Uh, once your name is called, please come to the microphone. You will have three minutes to speak on any agenda or non-aggenda item. Um, please use this time uh uh to to speak on issues that are not personnel or student uh directly student related as far as identifying uh any any issues along those lines. This is not the proper uh venue for that. So with that, we'll move on to public comment. Thank you, Dora. First uh public comment is uh Sarah Caston. Good evening. Good evening. I wait for the three minutes or it automatically goes. Take advantage of it. Go. Okay, here we go. All right. I'm used to addressing like a cafeteria of students or maybe a kitchen
003full of employees. So, this is a little different setting, but what we're learning is to be flexible. So, bear with me. Here we go. All right. I I just uh would like some help and clarification, I guess. and what we're trying to do here with the food service transition. Um I accept absolutely that we have to make these changes in order for grow growth and progress and I support it and above thinking of all these things I do believe that there's a lot of good to uh come out of these chartwells uh transition in far as um like accountability. I'm a fan of that. I love rules. I love people that follow rules. Um, and I love supporting rules. I think the uniforms are a great idea because I have seen in the past people
004come to work in sweatpants and to me that's just a little unprofessional. So there are uh things that I do support in the chartwells taking over the food service. But in this um something I do not support is uh the loss of my sick time and my acred PFI time. I fall in a category where I'm not uh able to retire and I'm at four 14 years and seven months of service and um so I have 969 hours acrewed and if I total that out that's about $26,000 um and so I'm the CFO at my house 25501 Shawn Drive and we've done this uh budget check and so that really doesn't fit in our budget to lose that because what we've done is save that time for the future. Uh, and my my mother-in-law would
005come over and watch the children when they were sick because it was important for me and growth in progress to go to work to support my staff, to support the students, and above all to be one of those Elcart Promise exceptional employees. Uh, so it was important to me. So, kind of what I'm asking as I'm running out of time watching that clock tick down is I'm wondering if if we make the certain exceptions for uh different groups of people. So, the people that don't fall in the Oh, it's clicking uh in the retirement category or the people that um are almost vested, we're making an exception for them. What I'm asking is maybe for the people that have the 10 years vested and an acrruel of over 500 hours, is there any way we
006could come to terms of maybe putting that 40% to our retirement or is there an acceptable number that we could agree on to put towards our retirement? So, I don't feel like all of that is taken out of my pocket. I'm out of time. Thank you for listening. Thanks, Sarah. That was very good. All right, just uh making sure that I made the appropriate notes. Um Shannon Stone. Okay. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. Um, I am Shannon. I work for the food service department at Elcart Schools. These past few weeks, I've went over in my mind what I could say to you to change the s the situation. And ultimately, I've came to the conclusion that there's probably not much. So, I decided to go a different
007route. I did some research and I discovered that Subway is the number one food chain located in the United States at 21,56 restaurants. But in reality, school cafeterias hold the number one spot with roughly 95,000 cafeterias across the US. That means that we as food service employees for the schools um help run the number one food chain in the US. And we should do it proudly. This past school year alone, our elementary ska staff served 1,277836 meals to our community. Our commissary made well over that in meals. Um because that number does not include daycarees or any other vended services. Our drivers delivered those meals, rain or shine, snow or ice. Our allergy department oversaw 392 students every day, making sure that they received a meal that they could eat. Catering worked hard every day
008and night, as well as weekends for our community and always stepping in when needed to help in the buildings. Middle school served 268,759. Beastro High School and um freshman served 477,870. In total, that is 2,24,465 meals in 180 days. I know that being part of the food service family is not always the most glamorous job, and that at times we feel looked down upon or unseeded or unheard. You may feel as if we don't even matter, but you guys do matter. You matter to me. You matter to food service. And most of all, you matter to the children that you feed every single day. Ken Street, you have worked hard every day to make sure that kids are fed, food is delivered, meals are compliant, kitchens are staffed, and I once heard a speaker say
009that for every person that God has given you the right of leadership over, you will have the power to help. But to keep in mind that that is also the same number of per people that you have the power to hurt. Fortunately, we were blessed to have Pam as our leader. One time she personally bought these pretzels for everybody across the school and staff for hero day. And they were broke. There were some that came in and they were broken. And I asked her, Pam, why don't we just hand those out as we're making these bags? Why don't we just hand those out to the staff? And she said to me, because I don't want one staff member to feel like they are not as important as the one who gets the one that is
010whole. And that meant something to me. It showed me how to be a leader. So, I just want you guys to know that I am proud of who we are. Um Pam truly cares for her staff. She goes to battle for her staff. She appreciates her staff. She encourages her staff. And when she says to do something, we do it. We do it not out of fear, but out of respect for her in the job. So, I only hope that I can be half of the leader that Pam has been. And I just want to thank you all of food service for the hard work that you put in every day. Know that I appreciate you and I will miss you. Thank you, Angela Swam. So, is that a C? All right. All right. Good.
011Okay, I will try to talk fast to get through this. Okay. All right. I'm Angela Schwam. I'm the food service secretary and I've always been proud of to be a part of ESC. I have met and worked with amazing people here in this corporation and um I've worked actually for Elcart Community Schools since 2007. Started as substitute teacher and kind of worked my way through. Um my sons are even alumni of Elcart Memorial. So that says how long my children have been in school here. And I have to say it breaks my heart with the lack of transparency and clear understanding during this transition for the food service outsourcing company that's been it's been eye opening and unsettling for me which is not my past experience with Elcart Community Schools. Back in April I was
012directed to create a spreadsheet for all the food service questions and concerns and as a staff we were excited that we were going to get our answers. Out of 15 questions, three questions were answered with very little information or insight. As employees, we rely on our income to provide for our families. And being left in the dark is very unsettling and scary. Not receiving answers to our questions just furthered our fears and worries about securing our employment with an outsourced company. Not only were our questions or concerns not answered, but at the meeting held on June 12th, Kent Street was not even a part of the outsourcing schedule, which then furthered our concern that we're not a part of the plan. We're not a part of the outsourcing need and and security that we were
013promised. In the email that was emailed to me, it stated, "They don't label positions as 9 or 12 month roles. Instead, assignments are based on program needs such as catering or summer feed. I am a 12-month employee and as that is also 23 roughly other food service employees, we basically would lose our 12-month status. We would only be able to work in the summer as needed. I count every bit that I earn towards supporting my household. That would take a huge deficit for me to transition to Chartwells. And as well as that, I would also lose my I have 837.5 PFI hours. I received 96 PFI days plus my two FI days plus my 3 weeks vacation. All lost to only receive six holidays, five sick days in which I'll be pointed for as I
014use them. Another concern is we were incentivized to be able to move to Chartwells by receiving our PB banked time because I'm not choosing to go to Chartwells. I will lose that as well, which seems unfair because I worked hard to receive that time. I came to work. I was always here. I was reliable. And now because of that, I will lose that as well. But I will say ECS could have done just a much better time better job of communicating to us what the vision was, what was going to happen so that we wouldn't be in the dark and have so much fear and only have 13 days to decide what to do for our future and how will it affect us. So I just ask that please do better ECS. You have amazing
015amazing staff here and please do well by them. Diana Carr. Good evening. My name is Diana Kari and I'm an employee with food service. On June June 13th, I reached out to question what the best way was to contact the board. I was informed that I could send an email and that it would be forwarded on to all of you. That same day, I sent an email and to this day, not one of you has acknowledged receiving that email. A simple response with I received the email would have been appreciated. So, that is why I'm here today so that I can voice my concerns, my disappointments on how the district handled the outsourcing of the food service department as well as the disservice um they have done to the employees that have been here for
016years. I understand and respect the hard decisions you all have to make to balance the district's budget while being fair to the taxpayers with minimal disruption to the students. However, when making decisions like this, you should take into consideration the hardworking employees who have dedicated countless hours to serve the district and the students who attend it. I have been an employee since August of 2011. I have 1,248 hours of sick time and 14 days of banked PB days. I have accumulated this time because I showed up. I was here for the students, the staff, my co-workers, and the district. Yes, ECS has offered to pay the banked PB days if I would go with the other company. However, there was no lateral job movement available, and I would also go from a 12-month employee to
017a 9-month. This earned time is a benefit we've worked for and it should be honored equally and fairly across all impacted employees regardless if they choose to be employed by the new company or moving on to other opportunities. Up until this point, we have been dedicated employees and should be treated equally. A spreadsheet I'm so sorry. It's okay. Nobody did. A spreadsheet was kept and the questions were not answered. Either no one would or could answer those questions. We deserved answers to know how to proceed with our lives. Answers to these questions could have eased some of the worries that people felt. It may not be it may have been presented to you all that we would get a 5% increase, but when we go from a 12-month to a 9-month employee, that is not
018the case. Um, how would this impact your family? And if you were in my position, what would you choose to do? For myself, I've chosen to review pursue a different opportunity. But considering all that I've just stated, I don't feel that I should be punished for not getting paid or not getting paid for what I worked for. I am asking that all employees be treated equally. Thank you. All right, that's all I had uh for public comment. Thank you. Um, excellence of Elkart Wendy. 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. This past week, students attended the Elcardary Career C Center's camp innovation explored a variety of hands-on engineering challenges. Students experienced everything from electrical
019circuitry, 3D printing, and robotic arm operations. Westside Middle School's academic excellence extended far beyond the local level. A group of students recently competed in a National History Day finals in Washington DC. As part of the competition, students created displays and presentations highlighting key moments in US history, which were reviewed by a panel of judges on a national stage. Students on the Earth Science Colorado trip explored the natural beauty of geology of the region through experiences such as a hike to the Messa Summit and a visit to the Oay Hot Springs. In the area of arts, this past week, Elkart High School's choir director, Jeff Reiner, spent time working with some of the state's best student vocalist, including several Elkart High School students, as they prepared for the upcoming Indiana Allstate Jazz Choir performance later this
020month. For athletics, Elcart High School's incoming sophomore Ben Divido wrapped up an impressive season by finishing tied for 12th place at the IHSAA state golf finals, helping the Elcart Lions secure 13th place overall in the state. Last week, the Elcart community came together to celebrate our two-time state champion unified track team. Athletes and coaches shared stories about their hard-fought season. And at the end of the celebration, attendees had the chance to have a team portrait signed by the athletes. Elcart High School's cheerleaders and football players are making an impact this summer, showing leadership as they work with younger students to build skills and share their Lion pride. Cheerleaders led the annual elementary cheer camp while football team members helped out at the Goan College COE camp. We're excited to see the athletes supporting and inspiring
021the next generation of Lions. Future happenings. July 25th will be our first annual Elcart football night. As always, please be sure to follow our district and social and school social media pages as we share each day at the excellence of Elcart schools. Question. Yeah. The uh first annual football night. What all is going to take place? What's the agenda look like? What I understand is going to be all grade levels of football will be present, but I don't have all those details yet. Yep. Thank you, Wendy. Next on the agenda, we have the consent items. Do I have a motion? Move. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and I second. Do I have any uh discussion or questions from the board regarding the consent items? Um yes, I have our donations
022which ended up tallying $6,800 and we received um $1,960 from the uh to the Elcart Athletic Club for unified track um their expenses. And then Walsh Packaging donated $2,500 for the Girls and Boys Golf Club so that they could have new equipment and materials needed to continue growing on that, which they had a very successful season. And Hartsler Guttermouth Funeral Home donated $500, which we saw at the National History for their travel expenses. Premium Concrete once again donated $1,000 for the development of our football team. and Crossroads Community Church of the Nazarene gave $350 to the Pieran charge to mind. Bellini um farms, which I thought this was a really interesting one to read. They donated $500 and it said it was a thank you gesture for the excellent service provided on the farms international
023truck. So, that donation is to be used to grow our diesel program. So, once again, we had $6,800. And may I say um that I should have done this in the very beginning, but we usually do a moment of silence when we lose one of our own staff and we did. Um we lost Evette Wigfall um at Pimaran Language Arch. Um she had eight years of service with us. So if we could just, you know, take a moment of appreciation uh for her family, which we're very thankful for her and very sorry for her loss. Um we have and we heard some of the food service um employees speak, but looking at our retirements, uh we had 142 years in total with multiple food service uh commissary staff that are um leaving our school system
024after many years of service. And we're so thankful for them. And we had Linda Cogghorn at um Pimraham um school, Jenny Green at Cleveland, Pam Peterson at Feaser, Valerie Ron at our commissary department, Rebecca Shulie at the freshman division, Missy Smolen uh at Westside, Dimple Wear was an administration secretary at food service, Marlene uh Worthington at Westside, and we also say farewell to somebody who is very dear, who I didn't realize until I looked at how many years of service, Jason, you're leaving. uh seven years. But I am I'm thankful for all your service that you did and and also to another employee that we have that going. But anyways, I thank you for that, Jason, because um you actually I want to just tell you how much I appreciate you because you taught me
025a lot in these seven years about technology. And I'm sorry if I challenged you, but um in the meantime, uh we appreciate all of our staff and and you heard some stories there, but we're thankful for all of our children that have been served by many of our members in our school system. So that's that. [Music] Thank you. Welcome. It's positive think gang. It's positive. Anybody else? All in favor of the consent items? I opposed. Motion passes. Next we have old business. Mr. Thorne, board policy 3422 uh.12s, employee in miscellaneous positions compensation plan. Thank you. Good evening, President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff. Uh this evening the administration is recommending approval of the following proposed revisions to the compensation plan for this employee group. Uh the first position would be a new position
026uh entitled the food service specialist FSMC oversight. This individual uh will serve as our liaison between the business office and our food service management company. Uh this individual is responsible for ensuring that food service management company adheres to all of the contractual requirements set forth in our agreement as well as complex uh compliance with all of the various federal, state and local regulations related to child nutrition programs, financial accountability and effective vendor performance uh in the support of our district nutrition program goals. In addition, uh we are including in the within the salary range the project director for the full service community schools grant. Uh as noted, this is a grant-f funed position. And finally, converting uh the compensation meth method used for the manager of community and family engagement from an hourly rate to
027a salary r wage range. This change will not result in any increase to the total annual compensation allocated for that position. uh happy to answer any questions you may have related to these proposed revisions. And again, we are seeking approval this evening. Oh, do I have a motion? Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion to second. Do I have any questions regarding uh this board policy from the board? Hearing or seeing none? All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Uh on to new business. Um um I guess it's a resolution. Yes. Uh this evening, the administration is recommending approval of a proposed resolution regarding the certification of electoral districts. Indiana school districts, including Elk Community Schools, with schoolboard members who are elected from specific electoral districts, are required to review those
028districts following each denial census in order to determine whether any adjustments are necessary. In compliance with this requirement, Elco Community Schools conducted a review of its electoral districts in October 2021. Following this review, it was determined that no changes to district boundaries were needed and this decision was communicated to the Elkart County Clerk of Courts at this time. However, during last year's legislative session, uh the general assembly passed revisions to Indiana code section 3-5-10-7.1. This new provision now requires formal reertification of that determination even if no changes to districts were necessary which was the case for community schools in 2021. Our purpose in presenting this resolution is to meet this requirement under the statute and we are asking for your approval of that resolution this evening. Be happy to answer other questions you may have
029related to this proposed resolution. Thank you. Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Do I have any discussion or questions from the board regarding this resolution? Seeing or hearing? None. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you, Mr. Thorne. Next under new business, Mr. Quiet, we have uh uh 1028 projects and additional appropriation hearing. Yes. Good evening, President Scott uh school board and uh Dr. Huff. Um tonight we are holding an additional appropriations hearing for the issuance of a 2025 taxable general obligation bond. um this bond um it's a taxable bond permissible through the state um to reimburse previous expenditures um of a capital nature that the district has spent and so it allows us to capture um
030dollars on roofing projects and other bus purchases things of that nature that fall under those categories um and to reimburse ourselves. The reason we're proposing this today is as we've shared um in past meetings um we've continued to spend down our cash balance. Um, this is a financial mechanism that will allow us to extend that runway, if you will, of cash reserves for the district as we work diligently to continue to reduce the spend. Um, as we've shared, um, revenue um, is not the primary driver of this. It's our own expenses that we've seen over the years as we look work to benchmark those. And this will give us a little bit more time to realize some of those savings that we've started to put into place. Um, as a reminder to the community, um,
031we've looking at the food service, um, and the opportunities we have there, um, should save us in the tunes of half a million to, uh, or more a year and some transfers there. We're putting in time clocks to help to manage personnel costs. Um, and we continue to evaluate our studenttoteer and just staffing ratios in our buildings to make sure that we're providing the resources necessary uh, to provide the best um, opportunities for our our students. um every day at Elcart Community Schools. And so this bond uh this will allow us the opportunity as we get closer to the end of the school year or the calendar year um to evaluate where our cash balance stands um and the ability to uh to have a one-time infusion, if you will, of cash um to have
032a prudent uh and responsible level of cash reserve um for the school district. I will emphasize this is not a um long-term solution to um offset some of that spending. These the the hard work still needs to be done to reduce um the spending that the district is doing, but this does give uh um a bit of a softer landing, if you will, um as we uh look to realize the savings that uh the school board and the district are working so hard to achieve. So being a public hearing, we would need to we'd be required to open that to public comment if there is any. Right. I should have done that at uh so if I will uh suspend our board meeting at this time and open uh up a hearing for the uh
033public hearing on the additional appropriations uh for 1028. Um, anybody uh in the audience that would like to comment or make a uh have any questions on this appropriation, uh, now is your your time to please step forward to the mic. Seeing or hearing none, do we need is this is this the only one, Zach, that we need to leave it open for the hearing? Um, I don't I don't believe so. The additional appropriations we already had a hearing on. It's just um an adjustment. Um, do Yeah. So, given given the opportunity hearing or hearing uh nothing from the public um do I have a motion uh for the uh approving of the 2025 issuance of 1028 uh issuance of bonds? I just had a question. When you ask that, are we going ahead and
034make an emotion on all three at once or are we doing individuals? We're going we're doing we're going to do it individually. So this the first one, yeah, I want to be clear. The first one is the approval of the resolution approving the 2025 issuance of the 1028 projects, issuance of bonds and reimbursement and related matters. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and I have a second. Now, do I have any questions or concerns regarding uh this issuance? I just like to make a couple comments. Um, you know, this is this is not where um obviously we want to be. It's it's an avenue that we can use to help us. Um, I think there's been an immense amount of work that's been done um by Dr. tough, his leadership team,
035Zach and the financial office as far as um reviewing contracts, processes, procedures, um looking at where um money is being spent, how it's being spent, um and reigning reigning some bad decision-m in. Um I I find it a little frustrating that we're at this point. Um, but we're at this point and so I think it's, you know, it's we have to do this. Um, I, as I've conveyed to, uh, people, we have to get our spending under control. We have very difficult decisions that are going to have to be met. Um, nobody's going to like them, but that's where we find ourselves. We are a district that is making some really big strides in some in some big areas. um we have a ways to go and this is part of the bumpy part of
036that. Um so while I'm a little frustrated at the point that of having to do this cuz I look at this as using a credit card um that I understand this is going to help us temporarily um and to get get us to a point um to be able to realize some of the savings. Um but I but I want to make clear that as a district we are we are rebuilding our district. Um, and there's a lot that goes into that and I think people need to understand where we are. It's not easy. Um, but we've seen some great things happen under this leadership team um, with the success of our kids and their learning and we've got to take some time to focus on the backside that people don't like to talk about
037much. Um, and so I I will support this in this case, but I think the community needs to understand there's a lot going on behind the scenes that we are trying to manage um and and put this district back on top where it belongs. Any other comments from the board before we vote? Um, I think I do need to close the public hearing. I'm being advised that we should have a second uh um allow comments on the AB and C additional appropriations. So, if you'd like me to cover that briefly, I can um please share some background on that. We're still Yes. So, um the the reason for the additional appropriations on the A, B, and C uh 2025 bonds, as a reminder, those were the bonds that we've already approved and sold. um through
038uh for the middle school um move. Um the reason for the additional appropriations is the way that those were bought in the open market was there was a premium paid on those bonds. And so when we approved a $6.6 million appropriation, that's just the the rough round number. Um there's actually an addition there's a little more um available to the school corporation to spend the standard the controlled uh project scope. And because of that premium that the borrower or the purchaser paid on that, um, we are now able to, uh, increase the appropriations by, um, I think it's roughly $4,000 per, um, bond issuance. Um, so not a ton, but an extra 16 to 17,000 that can be spent as we're looking to remodel those middle schools and get them ready for our sixth graders
039to to enjoy those spaces. Um and so that would be the reason I guess as a side note a reason for this um the dollars uh that the the bond purchaser paid um it allows them to post it you know when they go to sell on the market at a different interest rate. We secured that um at a 3.8% 8%. Um, but they're because they paid this premium, they can report it on their books as a different rate of return or rate of return as they go out to the market and try to sell their their those bonds and that's how they're making their money on that, right? So, um, that's the reason for it. Um, but we also we do need to have the board and make sure that the public has opportunity to
040make comment on those additional appropriations of $17,000 roughly. Okay. Thank you. So, at this time, uh, since we're still in public hearing, um, is there anybody that would like to make a comment or have questions regarding, uh, the resolution to increase the additional appropriation of the 2025 A, B, and C bond proceeds and interest earnings and related matters. Seeing or hearing none, um, is there anything else that we need to discuss while we're in public hearing? No. No. So I can close it. Yes. Thank you. All right. At this time I will uh close that and reopen unsuspend uh our board meeting and go back to our official board meeting so we can take action. So we know we have a motion on the table for the uh resolution approving the 2025 issuance of the
0411028 issuance of bonds reimbursement and related matters. And we have a second. Do we have any questions or comments regarding that before we vote from the board? Hearing or seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. Passes unanimously. And now I will ask for a motion on the resolution of the uh resolution to increase the additional appropriations of the 2025 AB and C bond proceeds and interest earnings and related matters. Do I have a motion? motion. I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a motion and I have a second. Do I have any questions or comments regarding uh this resolution from the board? Seeing or hearing none, all in favor? I opposed. That motion passes. And now, Mr. Quiet. We have uh the resolution for the approval of uh additional appropriation of
042bond proceeds and interest earnings and related matters. The second one. Well, yeah. Third one. Third one. Yes. The So, this would be the increase the additional appropriations for the A, B, and C. We would also need uh an appropriations approval for the 2025 taxable GEO that we worked through. Um so I would say um the one we just approved would have been for the taxable GEO and now we can approve the AB and C um additional appropriations of that $17,000 for the middle school renovation bonds that we we sold. Yes, we're doing we're doing the appropriation for the AB and C. We just did that. And then the the other appropriations that we're asking for in addition is on that 2025 geo bond. That Yes. So, we would need that motion. We didn't Yes, that's
043the one we missed. We didn't do the That wasn't It wasn't this here. We do the geo bond on this one. That's the first one that we No, that's that's just the hearing. So, this is the first one we did. That's a geo bond. That's the geo bond. So, what are we doing now? So, then we have to do the we have to do this resolution. Now, we have number three right now. We have not done the third motion. We need a motion for the third resolution. That's the A, B, and C. So, I Troy, go ahead. We just did that. No, we haven't done the third one yet. We haven't done the third one. We have only done two. We need to do the third one. So, who's going to motion the third one?
044Motion. Okay. Second. Second. Thank you. Okay. Now, is that a I I need some clarification. Yes. So, in So, if you going to the agenda, we have the 1028 projects and additional appropriation hearing which we entered into. Correct. First resolution was the approving of the 25 2025 issuance of 1028 and then we have a second resolution following that one that I believe we did not address. Correct. And additional appropriations of the geo bond. Right. Correct. So we would need to and correct. That's the one we did not address yet I believe. Right. We did we did address the AB and C. Correct. Okay. Where we're at right now. No. So stay at the middle one. Yeah. the middle one. So we need to do the geo bond the approving additional appropriations of the geo bond
045proceeds and interest earnings and related matters. Yes, that is what I I need a motion for. So move second. I have a motion and I have a second. Do I have any discussion or comments or questions? Hearing or seeing none. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. The last resolution is uh approval uh of approving the appointment of a treasurer. Yes. Thank you, President Scott, board of trustees, and Dr. Huff. Um the school board is recommending the approval of Miss Rhonda Ross as the district treasurer. Um effective uh July 1. Um, this will the she will take over the duties that I currently uh hold at Elkcart Community Schools. Um, I'm excited to have Miss Ross on the team. Um, she is uh comes with a lot of experience both in the classroom and and um
046outside. She holds a teaching certificate, a principal's license, uh her CPA, MBA, and a uh JD. Um, and I Miss Ross is here with us if she like to the benefit to this also is that she's completely up to date on all of these resolutions. So if there's ever any questions or anything, she's walked handinhand with Mr. Quiet, so she's thoroughly prepared if in the future anybody has any questions about these resolutions, our new partner here can handle those questions and take care of them. Yes, thank you. Um, good evening, President Scott, board of trustees, uh, Dr. Huff, and the community. Um, I'm honored to be with you tonight and I would like to introduce myself formally uh to the community. My name is Ronda Ross. Um, currently serving as the assistant CFO here at
047Elcart Community Schools. I have been um shadowing Zach and working with him closely over the past five, six weeks. It's been a pleasure getting to work with the ECS team and the business office as well. Um with that said, I look forward to moving onward with the initiatives already started by the superintendent and the CFO um to face the challenges ahead. Um some of our business office initiatives include remaining responsible stewards of public funds including working towards continuous improvement uh specifically continuous improvement uh of internal controls uh cross departmental collaboration to find more efficiencies all with the goal of supporting our schools so they can improve student outcomes and move the needle. So thank you. Thank you. Do I have a motion appointing uh the appointment of treasurer? So move. Do I have a second?
048I have a motion. I second. Do I have any questions or comments from the board at this point? Thank you for everything that you have done. Thank you. You're welcome. Looking forward to you, Rhonda, but missing you. Any other questions or comments? All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Do we uh I've noticed council has stepped outside. Uh could you could you check on them just to make sure procedurally we've we followed everything. I get nervous when two or three attorneys get up and walk to the hallway. Good. I I I've confirmed that they um feel that we're okay. They've conferred and and we have the resolutions that we need to move forward. So, um good to proceed. Thank you. Transparency is uh certainly what we uh strive for here. So, we want to make
049sure that we are doing everything above board and if there was any uh questions or we had a misstep, we would want certainly want to correct it and correct it now. So, thank you for checking on that. Uh next on the agenda, uh financial report. Yes. Um this will look familiar. Um again so this is uh through May uh close of May um where we stand um at Elcart Community Schools. Again um you will notice um our largest expense continues to be um people. Um the education fund between wages and benefits is roughly 9 uh7%. As um Mrs. Vandervel pointed out, you know, there's some tough decisions that will need to be made as we move forward um as a district. Uh but uh needed um even if you cut the 3% remaining, that doesn't
050um make the cuts needed to um bring us back to the spending levels that we should be at. Um, as we look at our consolidated cash funds, um, as a reminder, at our last month's board meeting, we consolidated our, uh, operating referendum fund and transferred the balance into the operations fund. You won't see uh, the difference in this chart that those dollars just moved within uh, the funds that are already considered in this chart. Um what you will notice is that our cash balance is uh down to 4.9. Um this is the lowest it will be. Um we have already received our June dispersement of our local property taxes which was uh $12.9 million. Um and so this is a um a trend of the cash flow that you will see because of the the
051tax dispersement um from the local uh county. uh as that comes through it hits in June and December. So again, we're going to hit June and we'll see that start to um tick back down, it will uh we should start to see in September and October some of these cost savings that we've talked about um starting to take fruition. And so again, as we look at in getting into December, um the green and that red line are a 10 and 15% uh cash balance to expenditures. And so just to give us an idea of what that prudent range would be um and we can continue to keep an eye on that as we move forward um and what that looks like for Elcart Community Schools. Um again, this is uh an important time uh a
052critical time in which some tough decisions will need to be made to uh correct this. And uh we we've put a lot of things in place and I'm proud of the work that we've done um to address some of these and I think that uh it will we will start to see that trend reverse and I'm confident that with the school board, Dr. Huff's leadership um and the team that we have here at ECS that this this will be realized. So um this concludes my uh financial report. If there's any questions, I would be happy to answer those. Any questions uh from Mr. Quiet from the board? Seeing or hearing none, thank you for the financial report. Uh we'll move on to the insurance report. Yes. So the insurance update through May, we've seen an
05380% loss ratio. Uh that uh the month of May, we did see a bit higher of loss ratio than we have in the past, which is due which you see that increase to 80. I think we were at 70 last month. um some really neat opportunities. Um as you know, we've we've moved uh brokers to help engage with communication and education with our our staff to better understand our plans. Um one of the offerings that we brought on was Sumis uh and they provide some bit of a concier service specifically through some more difficult uh or challenging medical times. Usually you don't need your medical plan until it's an emergency and it's nice to be able to provide some supports and so Sumus has collaborated has started collaborating with Marathon which is our clinic that
054we also uh provide so that we can start uh referring them to each other and and building some um synergy for lack of a that's a cringy term anyways um synergies between those two um and to better serve our staff um to better uh help them navigate this the the health plan that we do have available. ailable for them. And then Sumus is also offering a master class. Um we have access to two of those a year. This one focuses on uh cancer and kind of what you do and and some things you can do to navigate a cancer diagnosis and those situations. Again, an opportunity for us to provide resources to our employees as they navigate these. It's also will build a um knowledge base and something that they can come back to. So
055these are recorded. they're live with a with a local doctor that's going to talk about a specific issue. Um it will be recorded and kept in what our our new um website that has our benefits website. And so we're we're working hard with uh the Gallagher team to really build out a robust communication uh strategy around our health plan because we put a lot of resources into that and it's an important benefit for our staff and we want to make sure that they they know how to use it best. So, it's been encouraging to see um the progress that we've made in in that with that change. And that concludes my update, insurance update. Any questions or comments? I'll make one quick one. I I do like the collaboration or the synergy between Sumus and
056and the clinic. uh you know the clinic is a is a fixed cost alternative uh uh to primary care needs and it really kind of sits in front of the health plan. And when you can marry those two together and and and educate uh the staff of when to use the clinic and when to uh you know you know go to the clinic to initially and if you need to go uh to see a specialist you know refer out and and engage at that point with the the benefits. But the the fiscost mechanism of the clinic is is you know it it is a moneysaver uh for us and and uh we're very fortunate to have a provider and a staff there that's been there for many many years uh that do great quality work
057and so um you know this collaboration doesn't always happen um with uh health plans and that have on-site or near side clinics associated with them. So, I'm I'm glad to see that this is uh uh something that we're doing here and and and giving folks a full understanding of, you know, when to when to seek care, where to seek care, the most uh uh effective way to do that and and the most cost effective way not only for the employees and their families, but also for the the district. So, thank you for starting the uh that collaboration. Any other questions regarding the insurance? Mr. Quiet. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Hoff, the floor is yours. Thank you, President Scott, members of the board. Um, I first want to just uh say thank you to um
058Mr. G. Nessie and his team for all the work that they're doing to make sure that our kiddos are ready for uh middle school, our middle school transition. Our kids are transitioning middle schools. Um that they're ready up to date. I really um appreciate the work that you and your team has done. um you have really knocked it out of the park by making sure that um not only are they going to enter refresh spaces, but you've done um some really out of the box thinking with your team. So, I just want to say thanks. Um if you go around and you go into those buildings, they may not look like they're going to be ready to go on August 15th, but they certainly will be. So, I just want to say thank you to
059all to you and to your crew. Um also, we have um students who are in summer school at all levels. So, um, this is the last week for summer school in Elcart Community Schools. We have our second and third graders who are going to be taking the I read assessment. I know all of them are going to knock it out of the park because they have to. Um, I really, you could have laughed on that one later, but that's fine. No, no, it's not that's not real if you have to ask. But no, I I want to say thank you to the leadership and to the teachers who are helping to serve those kiddos, particularly in grades two and three. Um, a kid needs uh an educator's confidence every once in a while, and I
060think they have the right people that are in front of them. um to help them to do great on that assessment. Um last and certainly not least, I'd be remiss if I didn't say thank you to some of the my co colleagues in from this building who will be um transitioning away from the hectic night of board meetings at 7 uh No, Barb, don't look at your watch. Uh and they're and they'll be going to do whatever they want to do in life. I think the greatest gift you can get in life is to spend time with your family and your loved ones and um because every moment counts but as a newer superintendent which is kind of wearing off obviously um I think it's important that you really acknowledge the people that helped you
061to grow into your seat to become a little bit more confident into what you do. So I just want to say a personal thank you to all of you who are um moving off the district leadership team but you're leading in life. There are kids who are in college because of the words that you or the experiences that you provide them. There are kids who are going to come back tomorrow because of the things that you have shared with them over time. So, I won't personally single you all out, but you all know who you are. Um, who've made a difference and your legacy in Elkcart is established forever. You will have people talking about you for years and years. In some cases, they'll be talking about you for years and years because they need
062to, cuz they heard you cussing through the door. But anyway, these are some of my favorite. I have so many stories to share w about just how much uh these individuals have really um not just helped me personally, but will do anything for our school district. Elkart is a better place because you chose to work here. they're a better place because you will continue to support to share facts about our school district and also to tell people hey we have the premier school district I think in northern Indiana and is because you know what I lived and I worked there so I just want to say thank you um to all of you and also enjoy this is your last um board meeting you are more than welcome to come back keep it at three
063minutes we appreciate you if you do but I just want to say it's it's it's been an honor and this year and a has really flown by. So, um as we welcome as they are going off into whatever they choose to do, um I also think at board meetings is important to acknowledge all the people who choose to work at ECS as well. Um we have quite a few people who the last few weeks who have chosen to come and work in an outstanding organization and I think that that's a testament to um not only to the school system but to their colleagues recommend them to work here too. So, I just want to say thank you if you're on the board report tonight. we're we're glad to honor you on on day one of
064your journey as well. So, we look forward to um seeing you as you come and serve children also. So, um with all that being said, I want to turn it back over to uh President Scott, but thank you to um those cabinet members. You know who you are. Thank you, Dr. Huff. Anything for the board this evening? No. Okay. Well, right at 8 o'clock meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone.