001playing. Oh my goodness. [Music] Was this from And who gave you this? I did. Oh, thank you. That is research I put in from Jet. What is Oh, that was updated. Updated. Oh, perfect. We're in a minute. [Music] Oh. Oh, Lacy. I want to thank everybody for coming out this evening uh to the May 13th, 2025 Elcart Community Schools Board meeting. At this time, uh could we all rise for the pledge of allegiance? [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Mr. Bernett, the Elcart Promise. The Elcart Promise. Every student is known by name, challenged and supported by highly effective staff and in partnership with
002the community will graduate career college ready and life ready. Thank you Mike. Superintendent. Good evening everyone. Hey, tonight on one of the our board items, the superintendent's contract, and the board, I'm pretty sure, is going to um have some followup after I give some few thoughts. Um this weekend, I sent some information out to the school community um sharing that I will not be accepting the board's um proposed contract. I do want to share with the community. I do think it is fair. I think it's a I think it's what it requires for this position, but I also think it what is important is that things don't get lost um with misinformation, but also timing is important, too. I think a leader listens to their community, but I also think a leader educates. I think
003one of the things that I don't want to ever do is make things about me, particularly regarding the work that's yet to come in the next four to five years. Um no actually my favorite things start right now. We have tremendous work that we have to do in the school community dealing with programming right sizing our finances all those things need to be addressed and it doesn't I don't want this to be any type of barrier of those things. Um I think lastly um from my perspective I'm more of a behind the scenes type of individual. I think it's important to be at all the events to make sure that you're building relationships with everyone, but I don't want to ever be a story for our school district. This is the greatest gift I've ever
004had in my life to be the superintendent of a thriving school district. This is what I went to school for my entire my life and this is where I plan to be for a very long time. I am very appreciative of the school board that I have their confidence um in all my decisions and I feel like we the best things are yet to come here in Elkcart. Um big deal. I am typically someone who um feels like hey everybody should be able to earn what they deserve. But I also think for me timing is important. Tonight you're going to hear me share some other things towards the end. There's lots to celebrate. I don't ever, you will never hear me speak at this length about myself at this setting. Um hopefully in the future
005because it's not about me. But I do think um it's important for our community to know that they have leaders who listen. They have a board that listens and when we come back um cuz I do expect my contract to come back up again here pretty shortly that um you will see that the board and uh superintendent has definitely heard some things and there'll be some adjustments there. So um at this time I'm going to turn it back over to President Scott. Thank you, Dr. Hoff. Um, I also want to take this opportunity to to give a little insight uh to the board and uh this process. Um, you know, obviously we were we were coming here tonight to to ratify a a contract and uh you know, one of the things that you know
006uh happens and things change and and and and sometimes you have to take a a pause and listen. So, I have a prepared statement uh uh that I'd like to read uh regarding this process and uh hopefully uh um it will give some insight uh regarding this process. Um as a board, we invested a great deal of time and effort to find the right superintendent to lead our district. uh someone who can improve student achievement, set high expectations, and be accountable and rebuild our district for the future. We believe we found that leader in Dr. Hoff. And it's more of a it goes beyond belief. We know we found that leader in Dr. Hoff. And I want to be clear about this. Dr. Huff has unanimous support of this entire board. Um, we always don't
007always agree on everything as a board, but on this one element of support of Dr. Hub, we are 100% in agreement. We put significant thought into crafting a contract that reflects responsibil responsibilities and challenges of this critical role while prioritizing our shared focus on student achievement. Over the past year, we have already begun to see the improvements across our district. As as I think, you know, everyone here tonight has seen as well. Thanks to Dr. Huff's leadership and focus on our core priorities, these achievements were able to happen. Our core priorities as a board are to provide a safe and engaging learning environment, student achievement, financial stewardship and stability, teacher and staff excellence, parent and community engagements and partnership. With this contract, we are sending a clear message to our community and the district that
008we as a board are committed to student growth and to the achievement and to achieving outcomes that not only meet but exceed state standards. Student success and academic achievements are the number one driver of enrollment. And why that's important is as we all know with with new funding and school of choice enrollment is what you need to achieve your financial goals for a district. We must grow enrollment. We recognize that some of these changes are uncomfortable for some, but this is a risk we have chosen to take as we prioritize student success. We believe this contract reflects our priorities and is in line with those of similarly sized districts facing similar challenges. when we met as a board on several occasions, um we discussed, you know, what is what is the the comp plan of
009of districts with similar size and similar students, similar footprints with buildings and challenges. We we we looked at data and looked at what other superintendents were getting paid. We looked at contracts, numerous superintendent contracts and saying how are they effectively uh being challenged and and expectations set and we met several times discussing all of this. We even went to the point of looking at what he is currently getting paid and realizing that you know it is the same pay for this position within the district from three superintendent ago. Mark Mau was receiving this salary in 2012. We looked at a cost of living adjustment and said, "What would that look like?" And so we went back and and you know that has averaged 2.55% over the last 10 years. And you know, knowing that probably
010nobody in this room is is is still earning what they were earning 10 to 12 years ago and applied the cost of living 2.55% compounding it yearly and it took the salary well over to what we offered in close to the $230,000 range. And so we were trying to to look at all those things when we we addressed this this contract. It wasn't just let's pick a number, let's look at a district and put it into the contract. There was much thought that went into into this. And again, I I want to re reiterate, we fully support Dr. Huff and believe he deserves this contract that is on the table today. We are confident with his continued leadership. We will move our district forward. With that said, the board has always been a board that
011will listen and engage feedback, not only from the community, but from the one employee of this district we're responsible for, and that's the superintendent. I think you've seen the communication that went out over the weekend. I think you've heard his comments that he just made and uh that he will not be accepting the contract in his current state. and he has asked the board to reconsider its contractual offering. We will honor that request by removing his contract this evening and for further consideration and we will be presenting uh this amended contract again in the near future after we've had time to discuss as a board and and make those adjustments. So, at this time, do I have a motion? Um, so moved. I have a motion to uh resend the the contract at this time.
012Do I have a second? Second. I have a second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. All right. Our invitation to speak protocol. I don't see my little You know, I like to have Thank you. I I' I've learned to ask to see if we have one. So, we do have one. So, um when your name's called, I I think uh uh Tony, you you you you you know the protocol. Please come to the mic. uh as you've done many many times. Uh good evening. I believe I know most of you. My name is Tony England. I'm here. I think I have to say my capacity as a retired employee and as a proud parent starting next year of three Elkcart Alliance. I just wanted to come and say thank you all
013very much. I asked for a retirement date uh that was very different than my initial request and I appreciate you all honoring it and I just came tonight to say thank you very much. It has made a big difference in my life and I appreciate you taking the opportunity to to take that under consideration and make that happen for me. I wish you luck these last 12 years serving this community and these students have been amazing. Uh, and I truly love Elcart and can't wait to have three high school graduates from Elcart. Uh, and uh, thank you again. Wait, Tony. I got I got Tony. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I tried so quickly. I was going to do the Kevin Scott. You know, you can't and just walk away, but that didn't happen. I just
014wanted to say, Tony, thanks for your years of service. You stuck with Elkart through some difficult times, and we appreciate that. And so I wish you all of the best as a parent and I wish you the best in your retirement. Thank you for serving Elcart. A thank you very much. All right. Can I pull the Kevin Scott now and run? Thank you, [Applause] Tony. Next on the agenda, we have special recognition of retirees. Leslie Good evening, President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff, and community. It is my pleasure to welcome you to this very special occasion where we gather here to celebrate, to honor, and express our heartfelt gratitude to the remarkable individuals who have dedicated their careers and a great portion of their lives to serving the students, families, staff, and community
015of Elcart Community Schools. We're here to recognize our retiring teachers and support staff. People who have not only helped educate generations, but who have shaped the very heart and soul of our schools. Whether in the classroom, the library, the lunchroom, the front office, or behind the scenes, each of them has made a lasting impact that can't be measured simply in years. but in lives touched and futures shaped. But I do want to share that tonight we are recognizing over 1,000 years of service. Retirement is not just an ending. It's a well-earned new beginning. And tonight we pause to say thank you. Thank you for your passion, patience, wisdom, and unwavering commitment to excellence and care. Tonight is all about you and we hope that you feel celebrated, appreciated, and proud because you should be. You
016have earned every moment of this. So, we'll get started with our classified retirees. when we read your name, um please come forward and you'll accept a plaque um as a token of appreciation from the district and then you'll shake hands with Dr. Huff and the board and then we'd like you to step over to the side over here and wait so we can get a group picture together. Angie Bales, Secretary of Safety, Security and Risk Management. Cindy Bowers, Food Service from Eastwood Elementary. Deborah Brick, cafeteria manager at Roosevelt. I know we have people here tonight that are retiring. Trudy Connley, paraprofessional from Beck. Janet Deal, catering department driver at the commissary. I know this one's here. Lori Dissleberger, exceptional learner secretary from the educ educational service center. Michael Thoring, mechanic in transportation. [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
017Cheryl Duzy, head custodian at Cleveland [Applause] Elementary. Janet Pharaoh, Secretary of the Principal at Northside Middle School. Cindy Gilbert, district preschool support coordinator from Beardsley Elementary. Nancy Goldie, student services secretary at the Educational Service Center. Kathleen Goodrich, registered nurse at Pinewood Elementary. Vicky Krauss, paraprofessional prek at Hawthorne Early Learning Center. Tammy Lap, secretary to the principal at Bristol [Applause] Elementary. Laura Miller, registered nurse at Eastwood. Jan Rasco, paraprofessional at Elcart High School. Velma Schaefer, bus helper at transportation. Becky Tumi, head custodian at Beck Elementary. Christine Vanzyle, paraprofessional at Mary Feeser Elementary. Charles Warner, head mechanic at transportation. Gertude Williams, cafeteria manager at Beck. Jamie Woodfin, head custodian at Bristol. and Tammy Zoncker, paraprofessional at Elcart High School. Let's give them all a round of applause. Yep. We're not done, Daisy. Thank you, everyone. Now, we're
018on to our certified staff. We have Na Naomi Bombgardner, ENL teacher at Beck Elementary School. Lannne Berlingame, fax teacher at Elcart High School, the human services school of study. Carla Dar, grade two, Beck Elementary. Oh, I love it. [Applause] Rachel Denny, special education at Beck. Gail Draper, director of counselors, Elcart High School. Anthony England, director of exceptional [Applause] learners. Susan Felix, grade two at Beardsley Elementary. David Fel, mathematics, Elcart High School, Business and International Relations School of Study. Teresa Harmon, grade four, at Cleveland Elementary. Rita Jansen, grade 1, at Beck Elementary. Julia Johnson, music at Beck Elementary. Karen Kijack, language arts at Northside. Stephanie Nolton, special education at the School of Study, Business and International Relations. Denise Kurt, interventions at Woodland. I know this one's here. Susan Law, grade three at Cleveland Elementary. [Applause] Pete
019Listenski, Dieseltech at the Elcart Area Career Center. Margarita Mlan, culinary arts at the Elcart Area Career Center. Barbara Outka, special education. Pinewood Elementary. Fern Palmer, grade one at Monger Elementary. Pasha Rumble, cosmetology at the Elcart Area Career [Applause] Center. Mark Schroeder, science at Westside Middle School. Joan Schultz, grade three at Cleveland Elementary. Heather Sheldon, grade one at Mary [Applause] Feeser. Julie Stillwell, counselor at North Side Middle School. Kathy Stump, special education at the freshman division. Dennis Tegarden, construction trades at the Elcart Area Career Center. Kelly Weaver, physical education at Cleveland Elementary. [Applause] Beth Williams, supervisor of federal programs at the Educational Service Center. Mary Wiznookski, assistant principal at North Side [Applause] Elementary, and Brent Wolf, North Side Middle School. Let's give them all a round of applause. We miss her. She's retiring. Okay, I am
020so sorry. I have two other folks. If you guys want to come on up. Diane, where are you from? I'm at Oslo ENL teacher. ENL teacher. Diane Umel ENL teacher. Oslo Elementary. And I promise I will get you a a plaque. Holston, fourth grade. Sherry Holston, Mary Daly, fourth grade, elementary. Thank you. Did we miss anyone else? I am so sorry. We just want to thank you all for your years of service to the district and the students of Elkart Community Schools. Thank you. We're about to dance. All right. Next on the agenda, we have the excellence of Elcart, Miss Wagler. Good evening, President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff, and the community. This was probably my most challenging excellence of Elkcart to put together to date because there were so many things. I
021just started listing them all and I had about 45 or 50 and I thought I can't keep everybody here all night long. So I whittleled it down and have just a few of the highlights from academics, arts, and athletics. It's not There we go. Oakart Community Schools recently hosted successful kindergarten roundup and middle school parent nights. Incoming kindergarteners toured their future schools, met their teachers, and fifth and sixth grade families explored their new middle schools, making strong starts to the sixth grade transition. Our elementary math bowl added up for a big win for Roosevelt Steam Academy and Eastwood Elementary who each took home the top honors in their divisions. Congratulations to River Riverview student Julieta Marin for earning first place at the Notre Dame Regional Science Fair. Her accomplishment reflects the creativity, rigor, and passion
022and learning that we encourage in all of our Elcart students. Elcart High School seniors declared their post-graduation plans during the senior signing day, committing to future education at schools like Notre Dame, Purdue, Gan College, Butler, and Indiana University. And we're excited to see where the class of 25 goes and spreads their wings. Once again, I'd love to highlight Elcart High School senior Angi Meta, who is named one of just 40 Indiana academic allstars statewide by the by the IASP. This award honors her remarkable academic performance, leadership, and service. All qualities that she's she has demonstrated throughout her entire Elcart School's journey. And this was just from last week. On Thursday, we proudly recognized Amy Kindig as our primary teacher of the year and Beth Davis as our secondary teacher of the year. Alongside them, every
023school's teacher of the year was also honored for their outstanding dedication to students and their craft. So, congratulations to all them all of them. in the area of arts. Congratulations to the freshman tenor and bass, treble choirs, intermediate tenor and bass, cadet corral, chamber choir, golden corral. I had to make sure that I spelled that one correctly. And all of them have earned gold ratings at Isma Festival, the state corner finals as well. These outstanding performances reflect their hard work and the talents of all of our musicians. And then also in the arts, we do a lot with music, but we also have a really fantastic um art program as well. The annual youth art night brought together incredible artwork from elementary and middle school students all across the district from sculpture and painting to
024digital animation. Students proudly showcased their creativity and demonstrated the strength of our arts programming. By way of athletics, the Elcart High School boys golf team is on a roll with a 10-1 record and a recent victory over Gym Town and also a first place finish at the Gan Invitational with a record- setting team score of 302. Congratulations to Mary Feeser's girls soccer team and Monger's boys soccer team for capturing the district championships. It also highlights the success of our elementary athletic programs and the dedication of our coaches all across the district. And last, but certainly not least, girls tennis continues to shine this spring with wins over Washington and Gymtown. Meanwhile, our middle school tennis are full are in full swing and they're taking their sportsmanship to a new level this year. Future happenings. Today
025we already did this. Um I hope that uh if you missed it that you were able to go on our uh Facebook pages and look at the pictures, but today we had the unified Olympics. Coming up, we've got Memorial Day, last day of school, and then we have um graduation June 3rd, and we have three different sports awards banquetss that we'll be highlighting right around that time as well. And as always, uh, you can find all of our up-to-date information on our social media. Thank you so much. Thank you, Erin. Next, we have the consent items. Do I have a motion? Motion. I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a motion and a second. Do I have any questions or discussion from the board? Okay. So, we have with $10,155 in
026donations, many of our local businesses donated to different um projects inside of our school. So, the Beaverson family, Dave, David and Deborah, donated $500 to our boys track team. Our unified track team received $1,000 from Brian's tree service, of which also their son, Brian, is one of our teachers and a coach for the unified track team. Curt and Julie Olsen donated $2,000 to a wonderful scholarship at the Career Center called the Bruce Porch Automotive Heritage Scholarship. The Alcart Career Center received $475 for teacher appreciation week from Anovia and the Animal Care Clinic North donated miscellaneous supplies for the veterary tech program at $3,660. Jets Pizza, care of CPP Elcart, donated $750 to the growth of our athletic department at the Elcart High School. And then I'm going to zip through. These are all for staff
027recognition. Horus man, $325. Anonymous donor of 30. The Web Family $50. Raber Golf Course $60. Le Macaroon if you've never been there. Downtown Elkcart local business wonderful $20. Greg Volcano Pizza $40. Drive and Shine Headquarters 75. Navar Group 100, Freshies Pizza $50, Vogue Beauty College $100, Buff City Soap $50, and Hotel Elcart Tapestry Collection by Hilton $170. And last but not least, Jen at Matsky Flores did all of our floral arrangements for our teacher appreciation dinner for $700. And they are a giving phenomenal local florist business. And then even though we had recognition of our retirement, we have gone in the past where we just always talk about the retirees. And so just celebrating again Julia Johnson, eight years at Mary Beck for music. Our own Pam Meltchure, 31 years of service with our food
028department. And she has seen the eb and flow of so many different menu changes and program changes. A lady that a lot of people don't recognize, but if you're inside the school district, you know Cindy Gilbert. She spent 16 years developing and doing different programs for our staff, spending a lot of time at Beardsley Elementary. She did a lot of parent support and also encouraging our teachers teacher staff. She will be greatly missed and she just is one of the kindest souls you will ever meet. Um Kathy Goodrich, nurse at Pinewood for 23 little snotty nose years. You guys think about that. 23 years of that. It's amazing. Mr. Clyde Riley, who I just feel like stands all on his own. 25 years of service in our school district and such a very wise and
029charismatic man and Nicole inner daily paraprofessional 21 years. So adding to our over a thousand years I didn't want to go without stating that those were in this packet because I usually read them but all of those years of service and 10,000 $155 later I say thank you. Well done. Thanks. How many How many years of service was that again? What? Years of service of who? Cumulative. Well, we are over a thousand years right now. Okay. Yeah. Just what you said. Plus one. Plus one. Yeah. 1,000 plus one. Troy. Gotcha. All right. All right. Thank you. Have a motion and I have a second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Next under new business, Mr. Thorne, you uh have the remainder of the meeting, it looks like. So, let's start off with administrative guidelines
030uh 3121ACS, personal background checks, references, and mandatory reporting. Good evening and thank you, President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff. Uh this evening the administration is presenting for preliminary consideration and review a proposed administrative guideline relating to the procedures which are to be followed by the human resources department related to the conduct of background and reference checks for new employees to the school district as well as an obligation to conduct scheduled background checks for current employees of the corporation. Those are done every five years for employees. Uh the plan is to bring this back to you for further consideration during the meeting on May 27th. Should you have suggestion, revisions or corrections to the uh guidelines as presented, please feel free to contact my office. Very good. Thank you. Uh next we have board
031policy 3141.01A, suspension and dismissal of professional staff members. Thank you. Uh tonight the administration is presenting prelim for preliminary consideration a proposed revision to this policy. The proposed revision eliminates a requirement set forth in the policy to provide notification by a specified date regarding whether an administrator's contract will be non-renewed or the administrator will be reassigned to a different position. Uh this language is not required for by Indiana law and we are recommending recision of that language from the policy. again brought to you tonight for preliminary consideration. Thank you. Uh next board policy 3410.04CS substitute compensation. Thank you. Uh tonight the administration is also presenting for preliminary consideration proposed revisions to the compensation plan for substitute teachers. These proposed revisions will not take effect until July 1, 2025. The policy as presented increases the rate
032paid for substitute teachers with a substitute permit issued by the Indiana Department of Education to $120 per day and increases the rate paid for certified teachers employed as a substitute to $160 per day. The proposed revision also adds some incentives uh to teachers employed as substitutes who are working within a semester between 25 and 49 days. that in addition to their compensation, they would receive an $300 uh additional compensation during that period. And for those subsidy teachers working more than 50 days per semester, the incentive would be $600. The policy also does eliminate the premium rate which is currently paid to retired certified substitute teachers uh as this rate is no longer sustainable given the current financial challenges the district is facing. Again, this is brought to you tonight for just preliminary consideration. Thank you.
033Uh, next we have board policy 5350, student suicide awareness and prevention. Thank you. Uh, so that the district can be in compliance with provisions of Indiana code 20265-34.4, Four, the administration is presenting for preliminary consideration this policy which sets forth uh in detail their training requirements for district employees uh related to this topic. This past fall, all district employees were required to participate in this training policies presented to you tonight for preliminary consideration. You and lastly, administrative guidelines 5600B, guidelines for secondary school athletics. Thank you. Uh tonight administration is presenting for preliminary consideration review proposed revisions to the guidelines for secondary school athletics. Primarily these changes deal with just the issues related to uh the nature of physicals required of students participating in secondary athletics. Again bringing this tonight for just preliminary consideration review. Thank
034you Mr. Thorne. Do we have any questions or comments from the board on these uh proposed proposed policy and guidelines? Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, we have uh from the superintendent staff, but uh Dr. Huff is going to yield a little of his time uh to you, Zack. Mr. Quiet. Thank you, President Scott, members of the board, Dr. Huff, and the community. Um, I just like to take some time to um share with you um our current financial situation and the reality that we're in at Elcart Community Schools. Um, recently over the last week, um, Dr. Huff and I sat on an S&P global ratings call for our bonds. Um, that is Standard Empor, the group that rates public and private entities. Um, and they assigned us a rating of A um, for
035our 2025 bonds with a negative outlook. Um this is the second um rating that we've received with this negative outlook um for Elcart Community Schools. Um we have a double or a double A um long-term rating and an A with a negative outlook. Um and that's driven by last year's um experience of about a $10.4 million um draw down in our cash. Um what that means and we've we've kind of presented at different times on this, but um our we have spent $10.4 $4 million more than we've brought in in revenue. Um, and it is not sustainable. Um, Jake, if you can share, we've been working with policy analytics. Um, and this is their projection that they've given us. I think we've shared this with the board and some different groups. Um, but if we
036continue on this trajectory of spending, um, the district will be out of money sometime in 2026. Um, the need for change is real. The need for change is important. Um, and it's eminent. We have to act now. Um, I know we have looked at some things like our food service. We mentioned in our last meeting that we were going to look at a food service management company. Um, since the 18/19 school year, we've had to transfer um just shy of $5 million to support that program. Um, that should be a self- sustaining, if not self um earning fund. And so we need to look outside to find um some help and managing that and being fiscally responsible. Um since the fall of 2019 to the fall of 2024, our student enrollment has dropped by 12%.
037Um our certified staff has remained at 800 plus for that entire period. Our studenttoteer ratio has gone from 18 to1 to 14:1. Um, to put that into perspective, uh, 10,000 student district, which is what we are, 10,400, but 10,000 student district to move from 18 to1 to 14:1 um with a a roughly, you know, $80,000 cost, that's $12 million in additional expenses um that are needed to support that. Um, and that is um across the board. We've seen um substitute pay, extra duty pays um increasing on our our regular um wages by an average of 10 to 15% per pay period. So in addition to our regular wages, we're paying an additional 10 to 15%. Um the state of Indiana um a few years ago when they increased the per ADM um account or uh
038dollars per student um put um some legislation in place that mandated that schools spent state money on teachers. Um there was a mandate of 62% of state funding that goes to um teacher wages and salaries. Any certified teacher that's in the classroom for over 50% of their time. Elkcart Community Schools is at 73% far exceed um that standard that the state has put out. Um there's and um we continue to decline. Um I think we would our our fall enrollment um we saw another additional 150 in the spring count. So that trend continues and I think it's important to um inform our community uh of the realities of where Elcart Community School sits today. um these are achievable. I think we've identified many areas where we can uh address that quickly. Um we've been working
039to put plans in place to um extend that runway of cash, if you will, as we implement a lot of these savings measures. Um but the truth of the matter is is that we have overspent um significantly in the last year, year and a half. Um and uh we need to put some things in place to make sure that the district is um financially stable. Um and I think we do that by allocating resources based on our students and our families that we serve and realizing that that number has decreased and and the support that we provide. It needs to um look similar to that. I would say in addition we have seen um we have a a sprawling footprint of square footage. Um it's expensive to maintain and it's hard to create efficiencies um
040in an organization when you have that much footprint to maintain. Um and so I think in closing I I think we have a team in place that's able to do that. I think we have a team in place that's working hard. We've brought some partners in that are helping us look at that um benchmark against other districts and understand where we can improve. Um but it will take change. It will take some systematic changes. Um and um it'll take everyone at Elcart Community Schools to get on board and to be a part of that um success story. So may I ask a follow-up question, Mr. Quiet? Absolutely. Thank you, sir. Um can for those who have not seen this um this chart here, can you explain because you see clearly healthy cash balances of 26
041million starting in 2020 um to where if you look at current day reality if we don't make any changes by next year's minus uh $5.7 million. Can you explain to um our community what um has happened dramatically over those previous five years? Yeah, absolutely. I think um one of the things that we've noticed as we've been diving into these numbers um talk about the context too of the world too. I think we need to talk about what was happening in the world at the time. Absolutely. So 2020 and 2021 obviously we have co um you have er dollars that have hit we have a referendum fund that rolled off that wasn't renewed but we also had a co stimulus that came in behind that. We also had the state of Indiana coming behind that and
042saying we need to invest more in our education and so you saw more dollars per student. And so while our enrollment was declining, um our revenues and our resources increased or remained the same and I think allowed us to maybe not look at some of these decisions that should be made around those because it wasn't eating the cash balance. As you can see, we were actually able to put some dollars away and um I would give credit to my predecessor and being able to to do that. Without that, we'd be in a much uh tougher position than we are today. Um and so as those have rolled off um we now have the esser has been spent um we certainly do not have any dollars coming in from a referendum operating referendum. Um the state
043has drastically decreased its support. We're expecting a 2% increase to uh per student funding from the state and then um Senate enrolled act one uh we will bring more detailed information but will likely impact our district um in the couple of million dollars of revenue in our operating fund. Um and so what went from the you know early 2020s a very much a tailwind in terms of revenue and and the ability to do things has turned quickly into a strong headwind um of some things that the district needs to be very um strategic about how they approach and and look at the decisions from a long-term impact. I ask another follow-up question. Absolutely. And you know I enjoy our time together. Um, one of the things that's important about that S&P call is can you
044talk about um, you talked about the rating and what that means. Can you talk about um, what would happen if there were any changes in the rating and why did they choose to preliminary give us that um, keep our rating the same? I sat on that call. I kind of know that I think it's important we share that with the community. Um so last year when we had this call um we started to see that cash balance decline and and I shared with him that we would likely see it continue to decline knowing that we hadn't started to make some changes and this year I knew it was important for Dr. Huff to sit in on that call with us to really explain his vision and the things that we've started to do already. Um
045I think um just like any company, any earnings call that you are on, you have a C CEO and a CFO that talk about the vision and strategies for the school district. And I think that they have put some faith in um some of these ideas and some of um these initiatives that we've started to put in place and um given us uh again another before they downgrade us in that rating. Um given us an opportunity to do the things that we say we're going to do um to improve this outlook. Um, I think is that I just wanted to Well, I think in in just brass tax when you have a downgraded rating, how does that impact a teacher in the classroom? How does that impact how we do business? How does that um
046impact our school district? Absolutely. It we um ultimately it affects our um bonding capacity, our bonding rates. We're going to pay more money for the dollars we need to improve our our facilities. More dollars we have to pay there, the less dollars we have other places. and and it again those difficult decisions of where those resources are allocated get a little more difficult because there's a little less money um to go around when we talk about that. So um it really kind of impacts across the board. Um it also sends a signal I think to partners in the area and the community um that shows that you know that if a group like S&P is downgrading the school they might start to ask their own questions about what's going on there. So, um, I think
047from a dollar and cent standpoint, it it affects us, but I think from a reputation standpoint, it's also something we don't want to a path we don't want to go down. Final question for me, sir. I know this probably feels like a grilling, but it really isn't. I I think you should be very, um, you should be complimented on the things that you put in place, the internal measures, the things like time clock, making sure that the appropriate contracts are signed, making sure that we don't enter into enter any multi-year agreements that are not advantageous to the school district. These are all things that you you spent the last year doing um with you and your team, and I'm very proud of our business office team. But that being said, if we did not present
048to them a clear plan on what that looked like, they were ready to go ahead and downgrade our school district. So, I really want to be super transparent about that reality. Um the excessive spending, the $20 million over in two years, that was pointed out to me very quickly on that call. Correct. Yes. Yes, it was. Yeah. our our team's done a great job. We've got a great staff again, a great team in the district that's ready to take this on. Um but it is change. It's it it will feel different. Um but it's necessary. Um Hey, Zach. Um can you put a a dollar estimate number a round one on what a downgrade cost would cost a school corporation in this environment? I don't know. I mean tariff today gone tomorrow and um you've
049got uh interest rates. We don't know what are happening there, but uh certainly a range of at least a few million dollars. Um and just the amount that we're going to have to pay back on that which is you know down again down the line um lessens the ability um of those dollars to be spent in in the classroom or on the facilities that improve the classroom. So certainly in the millions um depending on the size of that bond. I'll say one last thing. it uh I think it is a testament to to your team and and what you guys have the foresight to do. I think uh downgrading was most likely imminent uh on this call. Um I think uh the way the questions or my understanding of the way the questions were were
050presented was more of what is your proposal uh uh for for these issues and when they heard that you know um we already have a lot of the the the items that they were asking for what our proposal what our plan was in place right now it's really changed the tone of that conversation. Um, so, you know, I think it's that foresight that that uh allowed us to keep our bond rating, which is critical. I, you know, you you stressed that. Um, it's not all doom and gloom. I, you know, there's there's there's things that we can do as a corporation in a district with the right leadership uh to to change that trajectory you're looking at on the screen. Um, I think we're we're situated uh uh in in a good spa spot to
051do that. U one thing I I would caution just like on on the phone call I think uh we could have been very easily downgraded and yet we had already moved we had already started and I think uh that that that is necessary in a in a in a scenario like this that you know we need to take action we need to be strategic we need to be thoughtful we need to be forward thinking but we need to take action and we need to take action now to prevent these types of things occurring this is not a wait and see it's a mustd do So, great job on turning that phone call around and already having those uh uh practices in place. Um and and and I even though I I get sick when I
052when I look at this, I have full faith and confidence that uh uh we will have the right uh policies and protocols in place to to turn this around. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. CL. Appreciate it. Absolutely. All right, Dr. Huff. all the the remaining uh time is is yours. How do I follow that up? But um I certainly want to say there's a lot of things that are on the personnel report. There are a couple things I want to highlight. Um on a personnel report today, uh Elcart High School, the board to your approval, you have a new principal at Elcart High. Mr. Anderson, don't look behind that person trying to see me in the right. I said I said that there's a new principal who'll be joining us here in July 1.
053His name is Phil Schultz. Um excited to have him join more energetic. has a history of um high expectations um in his previous school district. So, I'm pretty sure you're already on the Google machine trying to figure out a little bit more about this individual, but I I I feel like we're going to be in steady hands and look forward to him joining our team. Um also on this board report, we also have a new basketball coach who'll be joining our school community. Bodie Bender um will be joining us over from Mishawaka. He'll be starting um with us officially in July 1st, but I know he'll hit the ground running here pretty soon this week. So, I know that Mr. Anderson has been a key um uh point of contact and we have some uh
054things that are going to be ready to make sure that his introduction to our school community, our staff and to our students um are definitely going to um set him up for success. So look forward to that. Um we also you probably saw a lot of personnel movement across the school district. Um there were some people who were deans that changed their titles to assistant principal to kind of have alignment across every one of our um elementary schools. Um, also we have some positions that will not be refilled through attrition from the admin level. Um, Mrs. Williams, we love you, but I will be spreading out some of your duties across other individuals. Um, and that that's going to be pretty common across a couple of our other individuals as well. So, I just because
055we see someone retiring doesn't mean we're automatically going to go ahead and particularly from the uh, central office position. Uh my goal is try to keep as much as we can in the classroom. Um but I I will see seven pages of a personnel report. That's a that's a lot of movement um there. So you pro so I wanted to make sure I had an opportunity to express um why why those things are being made. Um also some people wanted different opportunities for their own personal career pursuits as well. So I think anytime the district can um help to grow our own employees in in that aspect I think that's critical as well. Um, and then last but certainly not least, um, I want to say thank you to all the members who, um, who
056you had to have these conversations with. These are not fun conversations to have. Uh, I probably sat in on I know with every administrator I sat in with every single one of those conversations with them and I was roughly 15 no 30 administrators I had to have conversation about some type of personnel change with um and they not just accepted one grace many of them understand that this is the challenge that we're here this is what I signed up for um taking this job now over a year and a half ago We are doing the work. One of the things that I asked for when I took this position was, "What do you expect of me as your superintendent?" They told me flat out, "You're not going to go into an easy situation." 3 months.
057Hey, re rearrange the middle school. Okay, we're going to do those things and we're going to do those things well. Next year, we're going to talk about well, what does some of the other things look like? We need to look at school time, routing, all those other things. I'm forecasting where we need to go to make sure it is an outstanding school district. And I want to give some little reminders as well of the things that we have accomplished this year. Our teachers um particularly after we have our teacher appreciation week. I sent this out to our staff last week. I'm talking fast so I need to slow down. Um to our teacher appreciation week, but the work that they do in the classroom has been phenomenal and that the results are showing up. Um
058you probably know our graduation rate one of the highest in um in this area, 94.5% up 4% from last year. $10 million in scholarships this year earned at the Elcart High School. Um that exceeded um their goal of five million and I think they'll blow right past that. Mr. Anderson is that correct? He's just saying stuff. Um but $10 million already in earned scholarship. That is life-changing money for our students. Um another thing I'm also very proud of PSAT and SAT data exceeded state average and growth this year. Hats off to you Mr. Anderson and whole high school team for the work that they put in in that area. Still have work to go, but we are closing that gap there. Also, another thing, um, Mrs. Lopez Bonner who's back there hiding, um, WEDA growth
059with her and her team up 52% over this time last year of the number of students who have increased in their WEDA levels. Um, Mrs. Kre and the elementary principles here. Don't try to hide, Barb. I see you over there. I read compared to this time last year up 13.7% growth. I looked at our preliminary English language arts school. Monger, you're back there bragging. Yes, that's how they behave. But but that across the district, English and language arts growth across all levels are are up when I say these things. And then there's another page that we sent out. We have construction activity going on. We have currently $81 million in construction activities across the district. Elcart is a busy, complex place. There are 27 different school entities that we have here in Elcart Community Schools,
060starting from preK all the way to adult ed. Proud to to have a little bit of say in each and every one of them. Mr. Quiet, when he was talking about that little graph there on the screen, that was if we did not do make any changes. Correct. There are lots of changes. I didn't have the luxury of multiple years to make those changes. you had to start right now to make those changes. And you know what? I feel like as a school district, we will do those things through consultation. We'll make sure that we get input from outside vendors who are experts in this area. But most importantly, our solution has to come from within. Superman is not coming to save us in those areas. We are capable of doing those things on our
061own. But I want to also leave on a little bit of high note from my end. The work is paying off. are we have outstanding teachers in the classroom, outstanding administrators, outstanding custodians, outstanding bus driver, anyone who impacts the lives of the kids here. There's no other place that I rather be because I see the the the payoff of our work. I told you this would probably be the most I ever speak at these board meetings. I want the results to speak for themselves. So when you walk away from here and someone say how Elcart Community School is doing in every one of our academic areas, you say, "We've improved in all of them. every single one and I expect to have the same conversation next year as well. So with that being said, Mr.
062Scott, I'm very proud of not just some of the personnel uh decisions that we have made over the last uh really year. These conversations have been going on for a year. But um anyone who has joined the Elcart family tonight, very proud of you. Go ahead and now you can go tell your family and Facebook and do whatever you want to do. Um but as far as the academic achievement and matter, those are things I'm most proud of for our school district. So, um, want to turn it back over to you. Thank you, Dr. Huff. And I I just want to comment on the on the graph. Um, you know, the one I way I kind of reconciled it is that's a trajectory that is not Elkart schools district's trajectory. We will do something and
063prevent that. So, uh, just just know and understand that. I don't think they'll let us say something. I think we have to actually have a clear plan. And one thing that we are is strategically where we're going to put people and staff and right size ratios, all those things. Right. This is a big this is a big school district with a lot of things to do. And oh, I just got you said something. I said a lot of things to do. I'm not being um as specific. You're not. But I'm But everything has to be tied to a metric of what we do here. It just can't be loosey goosey. And I think one of the things that you've seen in my leadership is that everything is tied to some type of outcome. I want
064to be held accountable by this board. I want to be held accountable by our stakeholders and by our community. I want you to be able to say, "Hey, you know what? The work that we're doing, the pay, the ROI is that the kids are getting a better education than I had." And that's what we owe to kids. That's the true Elkar promise. Great. Um I think our intent here is uh this graph that Zach had. What we're going to do is we're going to flip that graph over and it's going to go this way. Okay? That's where we're headed, folks. and we can do it. Um, so with ER's permission, I have the opportunity to share a couple of other exciting things. Receiving an email from Mr. Wyrick and talking about that for the sixth
065year in a row, our music department was voted one of the best communities for music education by NAM. NAM is the National Association of the Music Merchants. When you think about the nation, 935 school districts actually applied for this. only 18 in Indiana earn this honor and it's it's like a a rubric that you have to go through and you have to you know fill out um many aspects of it and one of the things that Dr. or Mr. Wyrick said is that Dr. MJ Robinson, he'd like to give a special thank you because they coordinate he coordinated the um submission of the application for this, but it is something that is um it celebrates the district and it demonstrates outstanding achievement and incentive in the music and education department. And we have many of
066our seniors doing phenomenal things in the music department. And so this is another honor. So, think about this. 935 school districts nationwide, only 16 in Indiana, and we were nominated for the sixth year in a row. So, we should be very proud of our music department. And weeks ago, we received this phenomenal little handwritten letter, which I just have saved. And it is from our students with the um United Sound Orchestra. And tomorrow evening, one of the things that we have going on is at the Elcott High School main campus. They will be having their concert at 700 p.m. tomorrow evening. So if you look at this, this is our Jen Ed and our students that are part of this orchestra. And this is just another part of Mr. Hyrick and his phenomenal team and
067what they do for the music department. And looking forward ahead too on May 27th, if you've never been, our academy will be having their senior awards. And that's more like some of our seniors share like heartfelt stories of what Brian and his team have done and the phenomenal things and differences that they've made in some of our students life that maybe they thought that nobody believed in them, but they fell into the hands of him and and their lives have changed forever. So those are some amazing things that are coming up. But again, kudos to our music department from the band, the orchestra, the choir, our our United Sound. They never stop encouraging our children to grow through their music. So thank you at the end. Yeah. Um I just want to say the month
068of May, as we all know, is so crazy with so many activities. um it tends to run people ragged and I had the opportunity over the last week and a half or so to um attend several schools with some of their events and had a great time and seeing everything that the teachers are putting in, parents are putting in to make these experiences really wonderful for our students. And um when I was at the um freshman division last week um meeting with kids on their um semester health projects, as a thank you, Darlene, Amy, and Missy had a little bag for us. And in it was a card. And when I got back to my office and I read the card, it just kind of hit me. And so I wanted to share that with
069all of you today. I think it's quite appropriate. So if you'll indulge me, the starfish story. One day, a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking up and gently throwing things into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, "Young man, what are you doing?" And the boy replied, "Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out, and if I don't throw them back, they'll die." The man laughed to himself and said, "Do you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can't make any difference." After listening politely, the boy bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the surf. Then he smiled at the man and said, "I made a difference to that one." So
070whether you're a teacher, staff, a sub, a volunteer, a board member, I just want you to know that you make a difference every single day impacting a student, a co-worker, a friend. And I just wanted to share that with you and to thank my friends at the freshman division for sharing this with me because it really had an impact on me. Anyone else? All right. Thank you everybody. Meeting adjourned.