ECS Board of School Trustees’ Meeting 3/11/25

001e e e S no I'm good welcome everyone uh at this time I'd like to call the March 11th 2025 elcar Community Schools public work session to order the floor loano floor is yours this is it's just miss on yep good [Music] evening all right good evening president Scott members of the board and Dr Huff which is exited um I'm delighted to be here tonight um to share with you uh an update as far as the work that has been done in the human resources department um before we begin I do want to take a moment to introduce the team members while not with me I do have some information here um regarding uh who they are in the positions that they hold um each one of them is a dedicated and committed to the

002exellence of the elard so I do want to make sure that I take a time to recognize them so the department is comprised of seven team members each one of them uh with responsibilities for key and essential functions which have a direct impact on the district as a whole and that in nuto is a department I would like to begin uh to uh provide just an overview of some of the key responsibilities and efforts in recruitment hiring and retention uh the team is responsible for managing job postings application process seeing ensuring and smooth and fair hiring process the department also processes applications for certified support staff substitute teachers lay coaches volunteers so the list is quite extensive in addition the department coordinates also student teacher placements Employee Engagement initiatives while we also uh will'll be

003touching on those and a little bit uh further on the presentation but that also includes retention and recognition programs additionally we support employee through benefit administrations such as FMLA which is Family Medical Leave Act um also leave request workplace accommodations the employee assistance program which offers vital services to our staff one of the vital roles that the department plays is navigating uh the fine balance between ensuring that we are providing board policy compliance while at the the same time providing support to the employees and to help provide some context uh when referring to the various employee groups the slide here provides a breakdown of the different categories and what do you have here these numbers are indicative of the current school year as far as certified staff and those who fall in this category are

004your teachers um as well as counselors social workers therapist so in essence it would be anyone with a position that requires a license from the Department of Education it would be any of your certificated employees when we are looking at classified or support staff uh these individuals while the list is not all inclusive uh certainly um it's individuals that work behind the scenes to ensure that we're providing support to the students as well and then when we look at administrators looking at that number it does encompass our building principles as well as District leadership and uh when it looks at substitute teachers you can see that we have a healthy pool of substitute teachers we certainly utilize this resources to ensure that we supplement some of the instructional uh pieces that we provide to students

005and with substitute teachers that includes both retired teachers as well as regular substitute teachers all of whom have a desire to provide uh support to students and learning and so when we look at the makeup just for the school year we're looking at approximately over 2,000 employees uh that we provide support for now this slide here um talks about um primarily the comparison between student enrollment and our teachers or FTE when looking at this information we went back as far as 2019 just to provide some context and also to show some of the trends that we have been experiencing um as you look at the trends from 2019 in comparison to 20242 you notice that our student enrollment or ADM which is the um light blue bar it's U slowly declining as the year progresses

006while the bottom graph which is the dark blue that represents the number of teaching staff that we have in the district in that number uh you'll notice the line that has been pretty steadily while there has been a slight decrease in the last year or two for the most part that has been pretty steady and so while you're looking a student enrollment that's declining our staffing has been pretty consistent and then to the side you'll also see just to provide some context and provide some numbers it lists the student enrollment as well as the number of staff that we have registered for each particular year now this data also represents um or we can make some observations based on that that we also need to look at Staffing while one can say that it also

007shows that we've been able to consistently retain staff which is a positive at the same time it also signifies that we want to make sure that we are looking at our staffing to ensure they we're adequately staffed in comparison to our student enrollment numbers so with that said it just highlights the need to continuously uh reassess the staffing needs throughout the district not just in certified teaching but all teaching positions um in this particular case we're just comparing it to teachers when we're looking at hiring Trends again we're looking at teachers and this graph here just shows the trends that we have been noticing throughout the um last five years again this now drills down in comparison to um the teacher staff that we had at each school year and then uh the attrition and

008as well as those numbers that we have had to rehire every year as uh teachers retire or resign in this particular um chart you'll notice that again with Staffing year after year um we have continued to hire staff while the percentage of staff that we've been hiring has been slowly declining as we have been assessing needs is still has been fairly consistent I do want to um point out um the significant change in 2023 24 school year just to provide some context as to why that number is slightly higher than the previous year and the current year um that year we did have to provide some support uh when it came to um hiring literacy cladr coaches to provide those instructional supports at the elementary schools I also want to make mention that uh we

009were awarded an APR Grant which is ATT track prepare and retain and that Grant allowed the district to provide opportunities for individuals that want to go into the education field um so through that um we were able to increase um the Staffing to help fill some of those positions that have been vacated um now as we are looking at also the Staffing I wanted to make a note that we're also looking at some of those hard to fill positions and it is um of Fairly known that some of those hard to fill positions are primarily secondary level which is math and science particularly in content we've also started noticing an increase in enl teachers as well so I mentioned reassessing and looking at our staffing needs and some of the measures that we use uh

010currently have in place to assess appropriate Staffing are uh some of the followings I do want to make a note that when a position vacates we do not automatically post that position we do go through a process in which the position is evaluated and then after it is determined uh through instructional leadership and finally approved by the superintendent then that it soon we move forward with posting that position but before we get to that point there are some considerations that are reviewed when making that determination and some of those include looking at our student enrollment uh the area of need for that particular particular position is the considered their hard to fill position and then once we assess those we also look at do we currently have staff within um our um Realms that we

011are able to tap into that could be resources rather than hiring from the outside we can use our internal resources and certainly last but not least and one of the most important on as well is looking at our finances do we have the financial resources or is there funding available to be able to support that position and these are some of the measures that we have been actively looking at particularly this school year when we're looking at having to replace a position or to refill or add a position I mentioned a little while ago some of the challenges um but just to reiterate some of the challenges that we have been consistently experiencing the last couple of years has been just a decrease in number of students that are going into the education field um

012as far as um people that are going into the student teacher placements that has also declined um but also in addition to that that the competition we are also competing with the private sector we are a business just like anyone else the services that we provide is education to the students but uh we are competing with our local neighbors um we're also looking at funding funding has also become a challenge when it comes comes to what we have available to provide as well as changes in education if you look at just the landscape that has changed dramatically in the last several years they has also had an impact and the opportunities that are available I want to again reiterate our areas that need um we have been looking at um areas of math and science

013and when we talk about what we are currently doing for strategies um some of those like I mentioned we're filling them with non-traditional candidates that are going into education um we're also being able to provide some support but through that some of the positions that we're feeling are looking at uh individuals that require some additional training that currently we have um within our staffing needs about 10% of the staff that we have on Emergency licenses and that's through um they're going through a transition to teaching program to help provide that license or they are in the process of taking an assessment to be able to get that license and so that also augments the need for those areas that are hard to fill like math and science um so in order to meet that current

014need as we are cognitive whether we need to do more to attract those currently we are utilizing resources such as our current staff they has taking on additional instructional responsibilities we also uh use our Resources with our substitute teachers our substitute teacher pool is quite healthy in which we also have a vast volume of retired teachers uh certainly individuals that come to um the district with educational experience who help provide some of those supports through long-term assignments and um those are some of the ways that we're currently addressing some of those needs in regards to strategies to go along that um we also want to make sure that we have systems in place to support train and retain our Educators and we have a mentor MTI program in which the program provides new Educators uh

015pair them up with a season educator to help guide and provide uh support in the classrooms uh we also provide professional development the district is also very rich in the type of professional development that we offer and the different opportunities with those professional developments we're able to offer staff ability to refine their skills and focus on classroom management instructional strategies and content specific uh learning the district also uh provides the opportunity for licensing Pathways we have had the opportunity to provide for El the English Learners as well as high ability endorsements and what this does it provides our current staff the opportunity to obtain additional qualifications that then they are able to provide additional support in the classroom particularly in those areas also as I mention our substitute teachers they are a great benefit to

016the district and we certainly utilize services our student teachers we do host student teachers uh from various universities here locally and that has also become a pipeline as well as we currently have a cohort of individuals that are through the APR grant that Grant ended in September so this is the last cohort that we have through that APR Grant to provide licensing now um additionally we've enhanced the benefits that we offer such as pay maternity leave uh including license expense reimbursement increase contribution to Viba and all those in effort to um make the district more competitive and attractive to retaining top talent I mentioned our student teachers um this slide here shows just some trends that we have been observing with our student teacher placement and the trends also align with what we've been seeing

017in regards to individuals going into the education profession if we compare to 2021 and 2022 when we had 19 student teacher placements to what we currently have for 2025 you can see that that has decreased now we have been able to through the teach student teacher placements hire teachers once their placement is complete to fill those vacant positions and the universities that we partner with primarily are listed on the right hand side we work very closely with the local universities IUSB Bethel Goan and in speaking with one of our partners um in regards to just the volume of student teachers we were not seeing many placements in the fall in one of the um Community Partners I'm sorry University Partners mentioned that because their enrollment is low and they want to maintain good working Partnerships

018with the different school districts they have had to implement that every other year as far as aware student teacher placement are made so for instance with I USB right now um elar happens to be the recipient of the student teacher placements on a years and that is just um just a testament to how competitive it is with student teacher placements in addition the student teachers have the opportunity to decide where they would like to go um so this is also another uh example of just the landscape they were in when we're looking at individuals going into education when it comes to few um Partners in career Affairs obviously requirement requires strong Partnerships um also we want to make sure that we continue to strengthen those Partnerships and so while we currently attend Career Fairs we

019also hold tabling events in which we make ourselves available and present uh for students to um know about Elkart um we also utilize jaw boards um right now we are working closely with Nimble to expand the manner in which we currently utilize Nimble so that we're able to have broader access to applicants as well as continue to post on LinkedIn indeed the various job boards this year we have made very strategic efforts to also um highly post with handshake because that is a direct um partnership that sends out that information to the local universities particularly students that are going into education and certainly making our information available at universities so they may include that information on their career boards as we look at um the recruiting efforts while this has been helpful most of the

020recruiting efforts and hiring really comes from word of mouth and individuals that are familiar with the district and also peer encouragement um and like I mentioned student teacher placements that has become a pipeline for the district um I do want to go back slightly just to mention um some of the efforts that are currently being reviewed in the need of math and science um as we look at initiatives and um tools to be able to attract and retain especially in those content areas as Math and Science you'll notice that in your board packet tonight there will be a recommendation from the administration for um a resolution to be able to provide or authorize supplemental payment particularly to teach in those content areas not only will that help attract but also retain our current staff when

021we speak with um our neighboring districts um they too experience the same challenges that we are when it comes to attracting those particular talents and they have also um implemented some of these initiatives as well which includes a supplemental pay now some of the areas of focus as we look a head as to what the Department's currently working on priorities with the sixth grade transition to the Middle School uh just as an update we continue to assess staffing needs the initial placements have been made communication did go out to staff as well as principles last week announcing their placement we continue to have discussions with staff and needs in other areas um that we will be working um uh shortly to staff such as El and special education now that the general education staff has

022been made in addition to that um to help with the transition there will be a meeting that's scheduled for March 13th from 2:15 to 3 I'm sorry from 2:15 to 2:45 in which the Middle School teachers um they have well the teachers who have been placed in Middle Schools will have the opportunity to visit their respective buildings meet with the principals meet their colleagues and then just have an opportunity to have some questions answered so we'll have that available to them to help with that also in regards to summer school we are in the planning stages for summer school we're working closely with instructional leadership to ensure that we're providing the necessary Staffing support to ensure that we provide meaningful learning experience for students over the summer as far as um another project we're working

023continuously every time uh we look at assessing and streamlining processes one of our um efforts this week is we will be working with a vendor that we utilize for the staff for the employee management system to help us and help retrain and focus on how to better utilize the system um to be able to maximize it and this will allow us optimization of um the data that we're able to capture within the system to be able to extract information as we continue to look at staffing needs now when it comes to um staff recognition uh the district does firmly in acknowledging and recognizing dedicated staff uh so there are a couple of events that are coming up uh we will be honoring uh distinguished support staff retirees and the teacher of the year and those

024dates will be coming soon uh we have a couple of events in April and then in May and those dates will soon be coming but aside from those I do want to um end with showing just a couple of pictures of the efforts that we have been really strategically focusing on to ensure that we're provided the support and recognition to all of our hardworking staff um the pictures that we have here in front of you are just some of the um recognition that we started with throughout the school year and then as we plan and look towards uh the end of the school year again with our Teacher of the Year events and recognitions so with that and closing I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to present some information and if

025you have any questions uh more than happy to help in anyway okay thank you right that concludes are you presenting no thought there was more one in the board welcome Hey welcome good evening School Board uh members uh Dr Hoff do you guys mind if I if I give you something real quick before I start like people come to the podium sir thank you sir thank you good evening and thank you for having me I appreciate it appreciate the opportunity to talk about the career center um as many of you board members have have been here for a while I've I've wore this out and I have my opportunity um I say have 35 minutes we're going to take all 35 of those um so let me just go ahead and start and give kind

026of a a brief overview uh a brief overview but but I think it's important that we we have some of those things in there for for Mr Ivory um you know as we got to get him caught up with some of the things that we do so we'll we'll go through the following topics up here um and we'll go ahead and start with that overview um this is our 53rd year of serving students at the Elkart Area Career Center if you did not know that um the Elkart Area Career Center uh was founded by leadership of the CTS organization um back in the late 1960s for students that were not College Bound um but things have changed and we've been fortunate and Nimble enough to continue to adjust programming to the need um the needs

027that we have not only in our community but our state and Beyond um enrollment uh this past year not that I pay attention to it was 1348 um when we started the year on count day um I have been at the career center now for 12 years um and a leadership capacity for seven of those um when I started at the career center that enrollment usually bounced around between about 1,100 um we're on five consecutive years of seeing that growth um and we better see it again this upcoming year um and years that come after um applications wise a combination between first and second year applications um the last four years we've had over 1750 students applying for programming you're doing math that you're saying okay why we only serving 1300 students um I always

028like to make sure that folks get all those pieces um first and foremost every student that applies for the Elkart Area Career Center um is maybe not academically prepared or have the necessary attendance for their school um to invest that tuition for them to be at the career center um so there's a handful of students each and every year um where it may not be the best investment for that student to be there the other factor that I like to bring up is that we have two programs that have a hard cap on them as far as in how they serve and they are two extremely popular programs cosmetology we can only cap at 44 students in the first year program we probably get 110 applicants for cosmetology each and every every year um so

029we're not going to be able to serve all of those um the other unfortunately is welding because it's it's huge um to our community it's a huge Community need but due to safety we we put 48 students total in there um so those are a couple of the the areas that we look at on on where we're missing the mark others are our capacity and obviously with the investment by the school district and the two building projects uh we're working on addressing those capacity in several of our programs um if you don't know it's 10 school districts that feed into us um pretty much everything in Elkart County minus Fairfield although we do get um random amount of Fairfield students on an annual basis um because they cannot access programming in their Co-op um the

030private schools we serve four private schools Bethany Christian Elkart Christian uh Michel wam Marian Granger Christian and The Homeschool population is something that we've seen a consistent uptick in um we're at this point now about 30 to 40 homeschool students access our career center and I want everybody to understand that that's not how it looks across the state um there are some CTE districts that will not serve homeschool students um for various reasons I'm not I'm not going to get into that um but us at the elard Area Career Center we're here for our entire community and so if we have students that are qualified and can be beneficial contributors our community we should be providing that opportunity and so I'm very proud that we um have that opportunity for The Homeschool students to access

031our programming um we do this through 30 career Pathways 29 of those are ones that are within house we have our one partner and that is the Barber Academy downtown which we're in our second year in that partnership um new program that started last year was our pre-law program um an outstanding program we really knocked it out of the park with our instructor and the students and the engagement that we see there um feather in our hat we are the only pre-law program in the state of Indiana um when we got ready to launch this program um we had been looking I kind of monitor those things five of us had applied for it um we get it probably late September and my instructor comes to me Mr alal will get this and I saides

032R.J and um uh he goes I would I would like to collaborate with somebody and I said perfect I'll reach out to the CT directors and find out who's doing this we're walking alongside them uh one after another down they went um either they couldn't staff it or they couldn't get the student interest so we are the Trailblazer in that space and that's something that I think we are more than comfortable doing um and it would be exciting to see how that program builds out um next year the only program that we'll have coming on board is software development um it is something that we've been eyeing at the career center for probably at least three or four years uh on an additional it offering um currently we only have our computer networking um given

033the growth in the it fields and then some of the uh other recent happenings in our community uh with you know partners coming in that would value software devel velopment we're looking forward to having that launch next year also um one of our bragging points that I I like to put up there is uh we were the first endorsed um early college career center in the state of Indiana U what that means is that our focus on um postsecondary outcomes um is recognized by cell the center for educational leadership and learning out of University of Indianapolis what that does is in a typical high school setting it looks at how those early college programs are are established what students they serve how would they support those um cohorts at a at a career center like

034us um it's something that is open to all students um and depending on your program what your outcomes look like and we'll get to those here in just a few minutes but that is something we're very proud of and something that we continue to work very hard to maintain um that credentialing any questions on that that first slide perfect oh Jake um just a quick breakdown on the table here uh in case you're curious to figure out where our kids are coming from um you can see the trends over the last five years kind of the es and flows um I think probably about halfway down that I think we're all interested in looking at our Elkart um High School population um things that that I continue to look at as Career and Technical education

035has become more more and more an Avenue for a number of students across the state um obviously it is pushed by being able to check that box for graduation but I also think there's a lot to be said about the cost of post-secondary Education um I also think there's a lot to be said just about career exploration and families seeing that there are a lot of other options um that are great options for a career that don't require the four-year degree as those things occur um I try to keep an eye as best I can on the high schools that we serve in the pathways that they offer um the reality is to serve the volume of students in our community beyond the career center all high schools are going to have to offer internal

036Pathways that's just a reality right um but being mindful of the pathways that are being offered is something that I try to pay close attention to um because in certain areas when we're duplicating um duplication isn't necessarily meaning that the quality outcomes are the same as that we may get in other spaces and so as our partners um continue to work towards Career Technical education trying to have very supportive conversations with superintendents and principles at the high school level um because we always want to be able to support them as they build out but also share caution where C caution needs to be shared um some of our partnering schools up there I think are are moving pretty aggressively um and time will tell on whether they're able to sustain those efforts um but we

037obviously have to stay extremely mindful when we see um drastic fluctuations uh in those enrollment numbers and those are kind of things that I I look for because those could be warning signs right so just wanted to share those numbers with you um so H how do we factor in graduation and how do we determine what a quality program is at the lcard Area Career Center um I think I've talked about it before and and I will Reas it again um in our current diploma and not necessarily talking about what was just released here um prior to the new year um there are three boxes to check for graduation everybody in this room uh when you graduated had a check box number one which was your credits earned right um when the new diploma requirements

038were launched in 2018 became available in 2019 we learned of the next two boxes um the second box was that employability box which is student had to either be able to show um that they had participated in service based learning project based learning or work-based learning since 2019 the career center has been a consistent Checker of that second box because of our strong focused on Project based learning um it is something that all of our programs are trained in uh we we hold annual training in those areas when teachers are on board it it's an expectation we have an internal team that does that work um all of our programs know that that that is the expectation um and so that is one that we always like to put out there the second box that

039we check or have the opportunity to check is box three box three is what is in place of what used to be standardized testing believe it or not and this may shock some of you in this room a standard te standardized test may not be the best measure of somebody's preparation for College and Career Success and shocking um and so they came up with a number of options um that a student could fulfill to check that box three that's where we come into space um the first and most common one is concentrator status a concentrator in Career Technical education is a student that finishes one complete year at the Elkart Area Career Center maintains a c average not dropping below AC for both of those semesters so so you can't have a failing grade in

040one of those semesters and still get your concentrator status um this is something that we are laser focused on um our support team uh as far as an our atrisk team tracks students attendance and grades um meet bi-weekly and then they have kind of their marching orders on where they're going to need to provide those supports um a lot of communication happens not only with that instructor the student the family the partnering school and wrap around as many services as possible um many of our schools are depending on us to be able to reach that concentrator stat status um and so it's something that we take very very seriously um what also is not listed up there if a student were to not reach concentrator status let's say that a student moves in the middle

041of second semester they they're not able to finish the semester that student could still be given an industry certification that is recognized by the state to check the box or that student if they were working dur dual dual credits if they had earned nine dual credits prior to the departure we could still B check that box so we have safety nets that are in place for our students that leads directly to what are the things we measure um the things that we measure are the same things that the state and federal government is measuring our programs um Career and Technical education has 10 indicators that we are measured upon um four of those we have no control over whatsoever um and that would be sat English performance SAT Math performance ninth grade biology and um

042graduation rates at high schools I take it back we have a little bit of influence there um but what we have a lot of influence is the next three pieces there um looking at that dual credit attainment and more specifically the Dual credit attainment where students are earning more than nine as you can see we have quite a few of our programs that do very well in those areas we continue to look at that piece as we are trying to prepare students to have credentials to walk out the door um the state recognized industry certifications are somewhat of a moving Target um there has been a certification list that's been in place at the state level for the last two years um it will be changing it will be getting updated we've been told this

043for at least the last year we've been told that we'll see this list coming out hopefully by the end of April um it's important that we keep an eye on that because this is uh informed by employers across our state um on what are those certifications that actually have value in a student walks out the door um and you can see we offer that in about 70% of our programs um and then the work based learning uh I'm a firm believer in quality work-based learning opportunities and what that does for a region um we have [Music] a e for that course you've been placed as an expectation you're going out at the career center they're earned um our students do not go out unless they are qualified for that position so it is a second-year

044student almost 98% of the time they have to have quality uh attendance um they have to be performing academically and they can be pulled back at any time um currently we have 258 students that are outside of our walls working in work Bas learning but we also have all of the spaces that are listed there at the bottom where workplace simulations happen in our Center where students are still performing the same services that they may if they were with an employer partner but because of a number of variables maybe the programming space the equipment that we have or a lack of Transportation allows them to do that work there so we probably have between the handful of programs that are there at the bottom we probably have another um 150 or so students that are

045doing work-based learning right inside the career center um why is that important if you've looked at the new diploma requirements and specifically the seals it's going to be huge for all of us that work in secondary education so we remained mindful of that um and then we have our our quality metrics well how do our students do um I started off by talking about concentrating status and why concentrator status is so important yes it checks that box for graduation but it's the first thing that has to occur for us to be measured by the state and the federal government the indicators that we are measured on start when a student hits concentrator status okay so once they've went through that full year of a program with a c average Now they're checking the boxes and

046all those 10 indicators and become part of that denominator um concentrator status as I focused on last year our rate of concentration was 79% um that's a very high percent the prior year I think we were at 74% we continue to be mindful of that um how do we get those students there one of the challenges we have like almost all Educators right now is is getting students to school um stent student attendance is a huge issue across the board I think everybody in this room probably knows that um but when you look at the career center for us many of the labs are not going to be replicated anywhere else so if they're missing those valuable handson skills and training um it's difficult for some of those students to attain the type of grades

047that they need the second piece that we look at is how many of our first year students are we getting back for a second year this is important for a number of reasons first and foremost the benefit for programming at the Ard Area Career Center happen when a student's there for two years they don't qualify for work-based learning until their second year they're most certainly or most likely not going to be able to finish a post-secondary credential unless they're there for two years many of our certifications happened during that second year so the things that were measured on by the state if our students are only with us for a year and leave we have no control on how we're measured because that student is now gone um it is vital that we continue to

048form strong relationships give reasons for students to return um we've gotten very attentional with our messaging and the way that we work with our first year students um because here's the other factor that we have um some of our school Partners will send a student to the career center for a year train them up then keep them on their campus that senior year to send them out work-based learning with the skills that we have provided that saves them the tuition cost they also then get their reimbursement dollars from the state of Indiana so how do we fight that the only way that we can fight that is the relationships that we build with the student and the family right and hope that those students and families advocate for being back at the center for second

049year um next quality measure is dual credits um we see dual credits obviously at the post-secondary level and a number of spaces at the career center is no different um and I think the thing that I'm gonna be very honest and upfront with is we have a high number of dual credits that are earned but how many of those dual credits are going into a finished credential and how many of those dual credits are being taken forward for something else um it is a great thing to celebrate and and I will most certainly celebrate it um but at the end of the day we need to do deeper dives into figuring out what is happening with those students that are earning them are they taking them forward um next is the work-based learning um in

050there I indicate 75 hours reason that that's important is once again if we're looking at the state level uh on your indicator students have to um Eclipse 75 total hours to be counted if they don't hit 75 hours they don't count if you look at the new diploma requirements and the seals they're in 75 degree increment or 75h hour increments um it's important that we we recognize that and stay mindful um industry certifications um 517 are those that are on a list um that checks that box three for the state of Indiana there's another 324 that are important to our partners examples of that would be in culinary there is a Serve Safe certification um that anywhere in if you go anywhere in the public and eat you will see that posted within that space

051if you do not do not eat there um it is something that is has to be in place um and so for us the Serve Safe um food handler certification is the one that we utilize the state recognizes a Serve Safe manager no offense but not too many 18y olds are going to step out into a manager role but they're more than likely going to step into a line cook so the certification we want our students to have are ones that going to get them immediately employable um we have a handful of them that are very similar but there are something that are are local industry Partners recognize um and then the last piece there on the student outcomes uh is looking at our largest student organization and that is skills USA um we had

052our skills USA Regional we hosted uh back on February the 1 um I believe that day we had 90 plus students that were participating in 17 competitions um we won 17 of the or 11 of the 17 competitions 54 of our students Advanced we had a number other 93 um that did not have to participate in a regional event so we have 147 that are um qualified for State uh a little smile on my face because the state competition is the last Friday and Saturday of Spring Break um I can't tell you exactly how many of the 147 there are going um but that's okay um last year we had 13 that um then won the state competition and advanced onto Nationals and that was down at in Atlanta um it's always a good time

053um for for me the the competitions are a great way for students to build confidence that's the first thing that I recognize um the second thing is in the number of those competitions there's scholarship dollars and sometimes even tools available but I think the thing that that hits the hardest is student experience uh we had a group of of kids down last year obviously and um we're at the State Fairgrounds that's where the Hub is but there's a number of competitions that are in different areas of um Indianapolis and so I had two young men that needed to go to an auto um competition so they hopped in with me to go to a tech school I can't recall which one it is and as we're making our way there I'm making small talk and

054one of the the students um is a Northwood student because I asked him I said hey when's the last time you guys were down to Indianapolis and he well I was there for the State football game and then the young man in the back seat said I've never been to Indianapolis and I just paused and had to get my next thought together but things like that you know um those great experiences that those those kids have an opportunity to go and see that I don't think they would have the the chance to get to um and note our students don't pay for any of that um all that stuff is covered Transportation lodging food it's all covered um this is why I handed out uh our program guide because this is one of the things

055that I think has really helped us over the years is getting very specific with our student student messaging if you if you open that up um you'll see that in theide the very first cover we have those three little slogans there the the choose your path develop your skills and Make Your Mark um this is huge because the consistency of this messaging I think is what has helped us continue to get more and more students that are dialed in when they reach the career center um the choose your path piece uh we have an inventory tool a career inventory tool that is embedded in the application um we also use this messaging whether it's at our openhouse whether it's our student tours um you know we we had our sixth grade students from Elkart last

056year for the first time we'll have them again this year so how do we connect some of those previsit activities and get them used to that language so as they're going through the um following years and get ready to schedule they understand when they see these things um not with with student tours uh we've had 15 instructional days that we've we've had to give up for tours and it's a delicate balance like like how do we ensure that students get there and see what we have to offer without turning it into the Ruth mirror um and so that that is a delicate balance that we continue to work with um and then we have Outreach camps um we had a summer camp last year that was an engineering camp uh we will run it again

057this year um we started doing some work with Tolson Center uh with after school and looking to see if we can land there with with the summer camp also then the develop your skills that that is really what we are talking about when we get students there and how we help them understand um what is it you're going to be able to take away from here how do you brand yourself um and I think that is one of the most important things is as we're talking with students and getting them in our spaces it's not just the technical skills but it's the career skills it's the things that regardless if you take this path forward what do you take away from here um when I started at the career center I used to believe that

058students were guaranteed to get one of two things when they came to the career center either they would find their passion and it would catapult them forward or they would find that this is what they didn't want to do and they would make another Choice I'm wrong all students that come there are going to develop career skills that will help them inform whatever that decision is and be successful in whatever they choose to do um and that is something I think we've been very um dialed in with uh continuing to make sure our students get that and that leads to the last piece there the Make Your Mark how do you ensure that whatever you walk away with from your time with us that it is going to position you for moving forward um the

059networking in the field we have all kinds of opportunities some of you have participated in some of those opportunities um we do the resume development so we do all those things that are going to help a student regardless if that's the path they choose and then I think this is uh makes us really special it's the Community Partnerships um when when you look at the Community Partnerships we have a number of different ways that we can engage with Partners whether it's our three large events that happen throughout the year um whether it's sponsorships um on the back cover there you'll see all of the different companies that are sponsoring us this year note all of those dollars are for student enrichment opportunities when we talk about taking kids to skills USA how do we offset

060those costs through sponsorship dollars um there's other ways that we do that we induct our students in the National Technical Honor Society we cover all those costs through sponsorship dollars um work-based learning obviously uh many of the employer partners that contact us uh are looking for talent right and and that's okay um but we really want them to be more than just um a talent agency we want to have them involved so you can see during last school year we had over 364 organizations with us uh the three large events that we hold each and every year employee ability skills panel uh which usually takes place the last week of September kind of sets the stage for what it what it means to be at the career center you can see the volume of partners

061that it takes to run that event mock interviews if you don't have anything going on next Thursday and you want to see it in action um we have our Mack interview day uh currently we have 191 partners that are signed up we've actually close the window uh for getting Partners um because I think we have what we need but it it is a wonderful F day it is my favorite day of the school year um because you can see so much growth in 15 minutes um from students that are kind of of waiting in the line in the ranks with a resume in hand nervous as all get out to go sit in front of an adult and talk about themselves and then come out the backside and see that confidence and ask their instructor

062to go back for a second round um it's awesome uh and then lastly will be the career fair we were able to hold the career fair over here at Elkart High school last year um great space for the event we had uh 90 employer Partners last year at that event uh it'll be interesting to see given the the kind of uh job climate that we have out there what that turnout will be um and so that is May 1 so if you w to um come by and see what it looks like the sponsorships piece talked a little bit about that um you can see those those members on the back total contributions for the year um other things to celebrate if you haven't been over um welcome any time to take you through the

063surgical Services area um as many of you know we've we've talked about this a handful of times if you've been around from the time that we talked about it being a course a year and a half later we we get the course rolling in from January of 2021 until we cut that ribbon in August it was a grind the entire way and it was very beneficial and it was worth every day that we put into it um the partnership there between Beacon Goan h Health ivtech the Community Foundation the other partners that donate supplies endlessly Unity OSMC St Jo medical um was able to get us the space that we we needed not only for our high school students but for our adult students remember these two areas of programming were not available locally until

064we brought them here families were driving an hour and 15 minutes one way to be able to access that programming that's not good enough for our community so very thankful for that opportunity um early childhood education uh and our partnership with growing kids want to celebrate this um we are one of eight pilot schools that was asked to join um an apprenticeship Network for our students um and right now we have I think we're at eight apprentices we were at nine and we had a a family situation for one of our apprentices and had to to drop out um there's a lot of chatter about apprenticeships um in in Indiana and the model moving forward and how how do we leverage that um and we'll talk about that in the next slide but in this

065situation here with these kiddos this made all the sense in the world um students have an opportunity to obviously go out and get paid but they have an opportunity to be supported all the way up through their bachelor's degree at no cost um throughout this they've been receiving gas cards to cover all of their back and forth growing kids and their mentors have been able to receive a number of um supplements and our supplemental materials um even some compensations so a great partnership um I bring up Beacon Health again um just because we're seeing a lot take off with Beacon uh currently we have 59 total students that are placed in Beacon facilities doing work-based learning um that's huge um yes it's a large network but but how do we continue to tap into that

066resource and that's that's for me to get figured out um and then we see our quarterly newsletter if you don't receive it I'd love to know um if you haven't read it shame on you um but it gets out there uh a lot of people see it we get a lot of great feedback from it um and it and it goes to everybody that we touch and Beyond so very thankful for um Brenda metf on our staff who pushes that out Brenda does wonderful work and then opportunities there's always opportunities um first thing that I I I look at and I think about is as a career and teched Center in Elkart County for over 53 years we have a lot of established roots and for a very long time we've spent almost all of

067that time on Juniors and seniors in high school I believe there's so much more that we can do um schools are struggling with a couple of different initiatives that have moved forward and that are going to continue to move forward first and foremost the career exploration piece is is a huge lift as we get more dialed in for those four-year plans at the High High School level how can the career center position itself to be a support for the community in that fifth through eth space the the next one is is work-based learning um work-based learning is a mess I mean that's just the reality of it with the expectations that we see in the diploma requirements um it is going to be more and more difficult for employers to understand what kids are in

068front of them and it's upon us to take a step forward and say we can help identify for an entire region how we map that out and I don't mean this uh in a negative way but a student that goes through a pre- nursing program at at Elkart Area Career Center compared to a student that's going through a Health Sciences pathway in a high school are not the same students okay so how do we help employer Partners understand that we need work-based learning for all but we need appropriate work-based learning that matches the skills of the student has can't be babysitters right can't just have them sitting there taking spaces but how do we make sure that we have proper placements um graduation piece we've talked a lot about that I won't belabor that anymore

069I see three minutes um so we want to make sure that we stay mindful um as more and more information comes out about diploma requirements and more specifically the seals how does the career center promote um seals and how students can earn those through the career center I'm a firm believer that the new diploma requirements um are are tailor fit for a current Tech head Center because we can check so many of those boxes um I put the city of Elkart in here because this is something that i' I've been trying to continue to work with the city of elart since the time I've been a director looking for Avenues to create Partnerships um whether it is looking at our services like law enforcement and fire uh whether it's looking at our um Building Trades

070program and how do we get into the City and start to develop housing within the city um as we all know that there's a shortage there how do we how do we create more Partnerships and look for those opportunities so um we'll continue to explore those and then the last piece I put on there because I'm a Fool If I don't put it on there because it's it's all the chatter that we hear what do we do with apprenticeships how do we do it where does it make sense this will never never be the sole focus of the elard Area Career Center but for a number of our students this makes a lot of sense so how do we tap into those potentials questions or comments left you two full minutes or no minutes presentation

071appr thank you very much as usual thank you thanks that's behind SC take take five minutes we go ahead and take uh a five minute break and reconvene for our uh 7 clock board meeting e e e I get cold so I open the Bine otherwise I give it to you okay okay thank you uh everybody for coming out to our March 11th 20125 uh elcar Community Schools School Board of Trustees meeting at this time I'll call uh the meeting to order please rise for our Pledge of Allegiance 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 Ivory uh the Elkart promise sure every student is

072known by name challenged and supported by highly effective staff and in partnership with the community will graduate Career College ready and life ready thank you our invitation to speak protocol uh everybody should have received one of these pamphlets uh on your chair if you would like to speak please fill out uh this portion of it and uh turn it into Dora uh at which time I will call your name please come to the podium you will have three minutes to uh speak on any agenda or non-agenda item um at uh any discussion uh involving charges or complaints against employees of the school district or student uh please refrain from such charges as this is not the venue for that we have a a policy and protocol in place uh for those issues Dora do we

073have any public comment thank you when you come to the podium please uh state your name and your relationship uh to the district uh Chris Bartley hi Chris Bartley um a relationship to the district uh currently Lead Teacher for School of Business uh special education mild disabilities uh teacher at the 1012 campus um resident velart graduate of the District parent of kids who graduated from the district I don't know so as I was sitting at home writing an IEP and watching NCIS and reading the board packet from Friday uh I came across a something that concerns me or uh made me question made me get up out of the house and come out um um back of my paper scribbling we have um there's a request in there for three Consultants that are about $250,000

074for a year I was just hoping at this meeting that we'll get more uh detail as to what the purpose uh focus of these Consultants are going to be um and then the other thing is the resolution um as a special education teacher I am very aware of how difficult it is to get some positions within um content areas specifically your resolution um is for um science and math definitely areas in which we could use um more certified highly qualified people I don't have a problem with assigning bonus I am concerned about the uh continuing and it appears to me in reading it above and beyond uh the retention bonus because you're a math you get 500 th 500 oh my gosh wouldn't that be amazing if we got 500,000 uh 5,000 and then again

075for the science my concern is building resentment within those of us who have been here through the amazing times and the struggling times uh and we sometimes I sometimes feel overlooked and and again I don't have a problem with the signing bonus I have a problem with the retention bonus um oh one more plug unified track defending 2024 state champion we started our uh season uh practices started Monday we have pretty good turnout so I hope to see all of you all of you at at least one of our home meets this year which don't ask me I don't know them off the top of my head other than April 19th is our Elkart invite which also happens to be a day that the um uh exceptional Learners are putting on on a disability Fair

076on the inside of the high school at the same time zero awesome thank you uh next we have Joshua Kinder good evening members of the board um I'm an elected board member with ETA and a 12-year math teacher for Pand Middle School on the agenda for tonight's meeting is a resolution regarding supplemental pay for a select group of teachers at ECS ETA is not very pleased with this plan the school corporation seeks to use signing bonuses and stips to address the ongoing shortage of teachers but offers those bonuses only to math and science teachers the truth is all teaching positions are hard to fill and hard to do not just math and science jobs all teaching positions are contracted for the same amount of time why should math time count more than social studies time

077or science more than language arts time the truth is the teachers of ECS want to be United not divided we negotiate as a democratic Collective because we expect to be paid according to a common contract no secret add-ons no special carve outs no playing favorites We Stand United so treat us that way way ECS should strive to offer competitive pay for all teaching positions the teacher shortage should not be played like a game of academic whacka moole why don't we lift all salaries in ECS why don't we put more value on the talent we already have if Math and Science pay goes up something has to come down and it's bound to come down on the shoulders of our staff those bonuses would affect the bottom line for everybody don't make ECS teachers pay for

078a teacher short AG we had nothing to do with for many years ECS and ETA have negotiated in good faith for a fair common contract for all teaching staff each side brings wisdom strategy and great ideas to the table in the interest of our common goals but ECS did not bring tonight's resolution to the discussion table blindsiding its most essential workers what eta has tried to bring to the table is a plan to pay our sixth grade teachers for the overtime they're putting in this year to accomplish the transition to Middle School it's surprising to see this plan for assigning bonuses when dozens of current teaching staff so clearly deserve some extra pay for extra work right now ETA feels silenced but we know our voice matters if our work brings value to the corporation

079why isn't our voice value this time at the beginning of this school year Dr Huff gave us a new motto start right now if the board moves forward with this resolution what exactly are we starting right now in Elkart we would be starting to single out some teaching jobs as more valuable than others starting to divide School staff against itself starting to seow seeds of resentment that will mature into conflict bitterness and resignation let's table the thing and start collaborating right now so we can move forward to the best benefit of ECS stakeholders thank you [Applause] Melissa gross um good evening I'm Melissa gross I am a special education teacher at Westside Middle School um I came out to speak with you about a year or so ago um and I said that the Elkart

080promise had been repeatedly broken for my students um so I'm here tonight to give you an update some examples of things that are going on and many suggestions um first I'm proposing that we change our district motto um obviously our current motto is start right now unofficially since I've been an employee here it's been ready sorry ready fire aim um and I think that that's about right case in point is what we're doing in the Middle School level with testing when the I learn checkpoints replaced nwea we were told our students needed to do three checkpoints a year and then they would take the ey learn test in April then it became that some kids needed to do checkpoint one opportunity two then all of the kids needed to do both opportunities of checkpoints two

081and three um at Westside checkpoint 3 is tomorrow and Thursday and that comes directly on the heels of our language arts performance perance assessment which we've been doing since Monday um this is in addition to the common formative assessments and common Sumit of Assessments that our students have to do currently a middle school student will spend 60 out of 180 days doing some sort of standardized test that is onethird of their school year ladies and gentlemen remember the episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ela were working in The Candy Factory and everybody was going well and they were taking their little chocolates off the conveyor belt and putting them into the boxes and then the crazy supervisor lady came out and said speed it up boys well you know what did Lucy and

082Ela start doing after that they didn't get their little candies into the boxes anymore because they couldn't keep up all right they stuffed the chocolates into their shirts and under their hats and that's how teaching in a middle school feels right now we're trying so hard to do our jobs well but not all of our kids can be little chocolates that fit neatly into boxes and we don't have shirts and hats big enough to put all of the ones who missed the boxes entirely secondly we fired before we took aim with programming and materials ISL was used by both math and language arts teachers for Bell work and to reinforce contents and skills that our students personally needed repeated but it was taken away from us at the beginning of the year finally just last

083week language arts teachers were introduced to Lexia which is a program that's similar to ISL why did it take us 34s of the year to get a replacement program I also wonder when we're going to have something for our math department because the program that we've got right now is kind of like having a concept of a curriculum but it leaves out several of the standards that our state wants us to address in the end no matter what teachers do our students are going to struggle to show growth if we have to continually piece together other resources um I was going to talk about hiring and the the board packet but um I'll skip that for now and yes I know I'm overtime but I took a night off for my hsse class and so

084I'm I'm going to stand here until I'm finished I promise I'll be brief gross please it uh um you you are over time and we have to stick to the three minutes I'll be just I'll be brief I promise okay something that should go a long way toward filling positions and retaining the staff that we have would be improving professional courtesy and teacher autonomy there is a recent suggestion that teachers should Implement Bell workor and exit tickets that they were given by upper level Administration my first question is who's going to grade these things second question is my bell workor and my exit are customized to what my kids need if somebody is coming from higher up M gross could you please finish up okay I [Applause] apologize next we have uh moment of Pride

085uh Echo presentation thank you good evening Dr Huff president Scott School Board of Trustees I am Carrie Anderson Pro executive principal Bart high school and I am incredibly proud to introduce um three of our students that embody we talk about our Arts programs our athletic programs and most importantly our AC our academic programs and we are here to listen um to three of our outstanding seniors an meta bernon wiitar and Ben Miller tonight to make a presentation and they hope to partner with Elkart community school so um kids good luck the floor is yours uh I would just like to start and thank all of you for listening us today I he already introduced a little bit but I'll introduce myself my name is Bren wiar I'm a senior here three sport athlete um participate

086in NHS and student government uh my name is Ben Miller I do two sports and I'm also in student government and NHS my name is Angi meta I'm in um a lot of music activities and I do NHS student government and ssac uh I would like to start um with the inspiration we have for this club we'd like to create nonprofit We like to create called uh echo which stands for Elkart Community humanitarian organization um one day when I was at my internship program my co-workers was mentioning how he was packing boxes to help with uh hurricane Helen survivors and on top of that my grandma actually lives in Florida half the year and she she had experience kind of the hardships good I I I figur there may be some some folks behind the

087scenes that uh that were assisting because if not um having the uh uh nonprofit bylaws on articles you just handed uh to us I was uh pretty impressed with um the ability so thank thank you guys for they they they did do that well very good very good oh this this is great guys this is this is great are there any other questions well just thank you because it's an example to I love that the Freshman division is involved that's so important to them because they tend to feel as if they're left out and plus like you need to grow this community after you're gone but having um young like disciples or servants in our community that show the way to what we need our youth to be doing as they become men and women

088in the world it is by far I I applaud you guys so much and for your involvement too I mean like you know like no offense but sometimes people kind of go a little hard on athletes like do they have the heart of a servant do they have this are they just in their sports or what is happening here and you guys as young men and a young woman are are going to set a fire in alcart community school is something that our our students need to know that they have the ability to do so you know thank you I really think this is wonderful and I support you wholeheartedly and will support anything I can to help you guys grow yeah yeah thanks I'm really proud of you guys quick question maybe you guys

089said this how long has this club been in existence so we had this idea about maybe five months ago yeah and so guys did this in five months that's crazy that's impressive yeah so we made the club within kind of the first month and we've really just been waiting to get in front of the boards we can get permissions we can get everything officially going well I just ask the question because I think God Troy said it right I mean it you know to see a problem and solve for that problem and then come up with bylaws to kind of help with that it's pretty impressive so thank you you had mentioned local companies um working hand inand with you guys do you already have commitments from local companies that are going to participate we

090do not have commitments yet but I mean there's definitely I think there's opportunity for example the company that we internship does a lot of community involvement and I think they would be willing to help in something like this awesome all right great job guys thank you for your time thank you thank you chasing that guy next on the agenda we have uh board member recognition Dr Huff good even president Scott members of the board Community um last week I would last time we were here we had an opportunity to recognize the work of our outstanding board members for all that they do for our community and what they do for children and really leading in in difficult times we know education space can be not only a place where our kids that we just left

091this presentation or see a problem feel a need it wouldn't happen if without your supporting the things that you do behind the scenes also you're on the front lines you have to make difficult decisions in the face that you have to own not just for today you have to own for the rest of time so I I know that you don't take these positions in these roles lightly but I also know that if I ever go and not publicly recognize My Bromance with Mr Weaver I would hear about it I would hear about it forever Mr Weaver was not able to join us at the last recognition but Mr Weaver has been an outstanding advocate for myself a pretty a pretty Firm support but also most importantly um a great member to this board for

092a very long time um so this evening I would just like to take a moment to recognize not only Mr Weaver for the things that he does as our current board vice president and for a long-standing board member there also is someone else who is no longer with us on the board but will always be with us in spirit and heart and a a huge advocate for elcar Community Schools don't let the B don't let the beard fool you this gentleman is is oh he's back there he's listening this gentleman back here is full of Life full of energy but most importantly is a servant not just his heart but servant in hands he has um opened his his thoughts his time and his energy to me and and and in ways I'll never be

093able to repay um Mr bler um in his my short time getting to know him I couldn't ask for a better man to um to get to know in this role in his seat um so without any further Ado I will just like to take a couple moments to formally recognize both of you for the work that you've done for elar Community Schools and your time as board members and we just have a little bitty token to give to you so please come on down and join us Mr Weaver and Mr bler to make a speech no you don't Jeff you're never going away Jeff you're like you're like um Mr Ma we're never getting rid of you yeah yeah I have other concerns about it I'm second yeah I'm gonna second it in uh

094my defense uh you know they called a retreat and uh didn't tell me where it was at so I went to Mexico instead you know and um so anyhow but I did have a great time and thank you everybody so much for uh you know the recognition I appreciate that very much we got many videos karaoke couple other things great pictures why we were slaving away nice I well just in case you mentioned that uh you know uh Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline was the one on tap because everybody in the world knows that one all right so you really couldn't hear me singing too much but uh everybody you know a lot of Canadians down there so they weren't happy with us either by the way okay be quiet all right stop it okay well

095we're just gonna move right along um with the agenda uh tonight um next on the uh agenda we have the Excellence of art uh Miss wagler Podium is yours all right great thank you president Scott members of the board Dr Huff and the community I I am never I I am always surprised and yet I don't know why but we have such outstanding students and every board meeting when they come and they present like they just keep blowing me away with their entrepreneurship and their test scores and um I I get a chance tonight to be able to highlight um some more of our students broader across the district so last week Mary daily students oops didn't go there we go Mary daily students recently explored land and water through an exciting unit from science

096kits thanks to our partnership with ethos students created their own worlds shaping labeling identifying the land forms and their projects turned out amazing showcasing Hands-On learning and action and they even got to pour water over their landforms to see how water um travels over land Elkart High School interns at Elkart General Hospital through our partnership with Beacon Health Systems are gaining hands-on experience in the medical field these students pictured here are planning to pursue nursing and biology at IB Kentucky IU blooming and Ball State and we're grateful once again for our partnership with the hospital after a great season with the Elkart high school speech and debate team two students made it all the way to State Ian Kelly and Miles iira both competed in the category of radio broadcasting just one more example of

097our students exemplifying the Excellence of Elkart and students in all of our element schools worked hard on their IAD exams with Mary Feer elementary teachers providing outstanding support leading up to what they call show what you know day staff and students created a celebratory atmosphere encouraging their second and third graders as they showcase their reading skills in observance with mental health awareness week students at the Freshman division wore read and shared encouragement by writing inspirational messages on heart-shaped notes their thoughtful words help promote positivity and support within the community and by way of the Arts we had four middle school students from north side and Westside who earned a spot in the Indiana all Honor Choir they were selected by Statewide audition to perform with the top middle school singers from throughout the entire state

098of Indiana the Arts bring life across Ross the district blending creativity with education and at Bristol second graders combined research and Artistry by creating President's Day puppets which they shared with first graders as they presented the puppets they also shared the facts that they learned about each of the Pres presidents that they studied making history both engaging and interactive and in athletics congratulation to Gabe kiric um I don't know if that's how you say his name who finished eth is it close yeah I know we have a lot of Polish and car so who finished eth in the state in the 100 fly also congratulations to high school gymnast Aubrey Fruth on being named the icgsa academic All State and we have a lot going on leading up to spring break we again have FAFSA

099assistant we have some music coming up with all state band and the musical the afjrotc military ball is also coming up and our winter sports program March 17th also by way of Arts a lot of Arts coming going on the winter G and percussion showcase is March 20th so come out and and that's their Community night so come out and um and recognize them as well and as always please continue to follow our social media for up todate happenings throughout the district thank you so much you Aon next we have the consent items do I have a motion move I have a motion do I have a second second I have a motion and I have a second do I have any questions or comments from the board yes we have with a total donation

100of $1,505 to the alcar high school dance Mar on we had three Community donors Garrett and Brandy Brewbaker HF restaurants LLC and Welsh packaging group that help fund that and make that a very great success and then you just heard Aon talk about the brain change to mind and the mental health awareness notes of encouragement throughout the year we receive all of these donations and we received one from Crossroads Community Church of the nazarine for $1,200 so for a total of $2,250 57 our students benefited once again from our great community outreach thank you mollins any other comments from the board all in favor opposed eyes have it passes unanimously uh next on the agenda we have new business uh Mr Thorne we have board policy 8210 uh school calendar thank you president Scott members

101of the board Dr Huff tonight the administration is presenting for preliminary consideration proposed revisions to the district's policy governing the creation of our school calendar the proposed revisions reflect the authority granted to school district to to to seek a 103 waiver from the Eno Department of Education under Authority granted to idoe pursuant to IC 20326 as you might recall the school district is currently operating under 103 waiver granted by idoe early in calendar year 2024 again bringing this to you for preliminary consideration tonight thank you um next we uh have the resolution uh thank you tonight the administration is seeking approval of a proposed resolution authorizing the payment of supplemental pay to teachers holding certification in math or science in grades 7 through 12 as you might have observed during Miss Lozano's presentation we continue

102to have challenges in terms of filling these specific positions uh throughout our secondary schools as you're well aware the job market for such positions is extremely competitive upon approval of this proposed resolution the superintendent will be authorized to pay a signing bonus of up to $5,000 and also be authorized to pay annual rective int retention incentives of $2500 to these individuals as well as our current teachers holding such certifications I might also add that our current Master contract also includes retention payments for teachers so this is supplemental to those retention payments we are seeking your approval of this resolution tonight thank you um Mr Thorne um based on uh some of the comments we've we've heard here tonight and some questions internally I'd like to uh have a motion to uh table uh this resolution

103uh to to give uh some time to to get some questions answered and discuss to be had I'd like to uh table this till the first board meeting after spring break I do not know the date on that um 22nd 22nd is it the 22nd yes so it would be uh April 2il 22nd April 22nd so move second I have a second all in favor I I opposed MO carries unanimously thank you Mr Thorne uh next we have uh Dr Huff hey thank you president Scott members of the board um Community um want to give a huge um um shout out to our elementary principls teaching staff um as they've just got done conducting well they're still conducting I with our um amazing young folks in our second and third grade down there and some

104other um students um obviously information is in Bargo but I really expect in a few months to give um an amazing report to our community um just looking at some preliminary numbers um elart is definitely on our way we should be very proud um in those buildings I expect to see very uh a lot of huge growth um looking at preliminary data I I I think you'll be very pleased here too I'm I'm kind of being koi with that but um I'm very excited on the inside I want to give a a thanks to the leadership of Mrs scrip um Dr Rous um and all our elementary principles for all that they've done it has been um wonderful to dive in to look at that data we had administrators up at 6: am on Saturday

105looking at their I read data um and they are very pleased the kids uh in the class room have been working their little tails off and it shows up in on this assessment so I just want to say thank you and I look forward to giving a very formal report to the board I think you'll be very pleased about our results this year um is that correct Mrs KRA yes I I am very pleased too I would like to play poker with you me too because I said I was being koi um uh addition additionally I would like to um give a huge shout out to um High School um our Advanced jazz band and Gold Rush Vocal Band made it to the state finals um they quite an accomplishment only nine jazz band and

106eight vocal bands um are selected for state finals each year um they don't know the performance time but I know it is Friday March 21st um again elart is shining in the area of of the Arts um with our long history um um is opheim who leads the um arts and communication division shared that today excitedly um and there's another piece of information now I really can't share that but we do have a state finalist as one of the top 40 students in the state of Indiana recognized by a very prestigious institution yeah what's this Pokerface saying you don't know so um we can't release that information until April 25th we received the news today that one of our very own is is going to be recognized um Statewide as one of the top 40

107students in the state of Indiana a very prestigious academic honor to receive um for their dedication for their work and most importantly uh for being an outstanding student in the classro so when I say that our students are at the center of everything that we do is to create outstanding experience for them I think Elkart um leads that every single day and thank you teachers for um pouring into these students um and then lastly I want to just thank the uh our Administration team for all the hard work that they are doing along Bes sides with our teachers and um teachers and our our board here um a lot of work um um I don't say a lot of work I keep saying the word work it is a very difficult time in education um

108when I say difficult time is there's something new that's coming out every day from either the state house or federal level and it and it there's a price to pay to keep your head cool when the rest of the World Turns up so I really want to say that been receiving wise counsel from um those who've been the seeds a lot longer than I am around the state but look loc Al too um so I just want to say thank you for Contin to fight the good fight for children and for staff you do it every single day um and I would be remiss if I didn't give a a a huge kudos to our um Safety and Security team and for our administrators um at the high school level um this week um we

109had another uh situation at the high school that dealt with um a student who clearly was in need um some support um but it lets me know that our procedures work a kid saw something and he said something and he went to a trusted adult that's what we want when we send our kids to school we want them to trust the adults who are there and the situation was handled um professionally and handled quickly um I also want to talk directly to the parents who are watching I know that all the 100,000 of you who are watching us this evening um it's important that we take care of our weapons at home please make sure things are locked in drawers please make sure that conversation with your child understand that these things are not to

110be brought to schools that these are for protection for your home um if there's an issue that's occurring at school we have multiple ways that you can um contact the school sprio the teacher the administrator any anything but I want to say that it is important that um we start having these conversations at home and then at school if things are brought to school um there are severe consequences up to exposion um and that's just to begin um so I don't take these instances lightly our number one job is for our kids to come to school and then to make it back home to you so if you can help us out by having conversation with your children that would be great just like we're having conversations here at school about making sure that kids

111are play nice in the sandbox so to speak um but again thank you for all that you do I know there's a longer update in normal but again I think it's so important that we understand that kids have access to more of the world and what they probably should have and so up to us and is accumed us to make sure that they don't have access to things they shouldn't so I just want to say thanks for my time tonight and it was under three minutes Mr Scott so I am good and I'm gonna turn it back over to you thank you Dr Huff no problem uh anything from the board this evening yeah um I have a comment um it's interesting and um we have buildings and stuff like that and they're really just

112buildings until you fill them with people and stuff like that uh uh we could go Thursday the Nia had their National swim beat down at the Aquatic Center and stuff like that the place was completely filled with you know college age kids and their parents and stuff like that they had people from Florida California Nebraska Kansas and Minnesota and um did I get that right no you did not hey I thought the kid was from a foreign country I said my goodness I like gez that's Minnesota and um so uh anyhow but I mean the noise the activity and the you know and just talking to parents down there they who had been there before and stuff like that they love that facility they said that facility is second to none anywhere they go in

113any Collegiate Sports out here so we should be very proud of ourselves as Elkart Community Schools as uh having being able to partner with the community and Beacon Health Systems to uh put that facility together so anyhow kudos to everybody in this room and our entire organization for making that happen thank you anyone else all right meeting is adjourned thank you everyone e