001Evening. I'll call this meeting order at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 23rd, 2026. Please stand and recite the pledge of allegiance with me. >> 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. I'd like to welcome everyone this evening and uh appreciate you being here with us. Uh just a few opening comments as we get started here. Uh this is a meeting of the school board and public for the purpose of conducting the school corporation's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting. There is time for public participation as indicated uh by the agenda item number two for agenda and non-aggenda items. The mission of Gosh Community Schools is to inspire
002innovation, empowering potential and enriching our world. and our vision is to be go community schools Elkart County School District of choice. Moving on to item 1.4 is approval of tonight's agenda. Do we have any revisions to that, sir? >> We do not. >> All right. So, with that, the agenda is approved as presented. Board members, item 1.5 is approval of the minutes from our March 9th, 2026 regular school board meeting and March 9th, 2026 work session. Do we have any items to comment on those minutes? It shakes. So the minutes are approved as presented. So with that, we will go to item number two, which is the opportunity for public comment. Um, and I will invite Miss Kimbery up, please. Good evening, board members. I am submitting for the record the liability assessment and proposed
003mitigation report provided to the superintendent's office on March 2nd. The systemic instability in the transportation department that the district is currently facing is being treated by the administration functionally as a mark market inevitability. This is a strategic error. When leadership accepts high turnover as a fixed cost to be managed rather than a variable they have the power to solve, they stop looking for solutions and start merely managing the decline. This report identifies that the shortage is not an act of nature. It is the result of organizational decisions. Prioritizing a failing training pipeline over veteran retention incurs double whammy. the loss of decades of safety margins while paying a premium to train replacements. Ironically, why the district current culture is encouraging drivers to look and move elsewhere. Just as this board noted with the high school
004solar panels, building a new investment on a failing foundation is not prudent. A stable transportation future cannot be built on a foundation that encourages drivers to look elsewhere. Postponing action until the driver core is further depleted is the opposite of fiscal prudence. Ultimately, the public sees mismanagement of resources as referendum poison, risking the community trust required for future funding. Dismissing ground level data as inactionable is a dangerous oversight. It is a critical early warning system to catch liabilities like the tablet mapping issues before they escalate further. By refusing to listen to the expertise and realities of its driving staff, the district is effectively subsidizing the workforce of its competitors by sending veterans talent directly to neighboring districts. Despite a formal assessment of these risks, the administrative response has been silent. This refusal to engage with
005driver reality is why the district remains in a cycle of crisis management. Currently, drivers are being forced to act as a long-term buffer against this shortage. Integrity requires leadership be that buffer instead of the foundational workers under them serving that role. Retention is a choice. The district must also recognize that high driver turnover is a choice as well. Whether intended or not, every time the district chooses administrative friction over engagement, it is choosing the instability the transportation department is currently experiencing. The district should be prioritizing the most cost-effective high yield stabilizing strategy available and that strategy is retention. I encourage you to review these documents um and decide if is this instability an inevitability or is it a predictable result of the current operational approach. I request that these documents be made part of the
006official meeting record. Thank you. I have copies for everyone on the board here as well as the secretary. >> Thank you. We appreciate it. >> All right. Uh with that this evening, that will conclude our public comment uh item. So move on to item number three, which is our superintendence reports. >> Dr. Medaf filling in tonight. Well, I'm filling in for quite a few tonight. Um, Mr. M. Dr. Evans is not here tonight, but uh, one of the things he wanted us to kind of make aware of is we are entering our bond stage. So, we're starting to do some preliminary work next. Um, Mr. had asked that I also mentioned one of the things that we might be using at Giovan are beyond just upgrades and repairs or maybe some upgrades to possibly our
007soccer as recommendation of the administration. So um more to come as we go through the geo bond process >> going on to student achievement and commitments. So, uh, good afternoon. So, we are in the middle of a arts and alerts, arts and letters pilot, which is a newer version of our wooden wisdom curriculum. And so, we have that going in kindergarten and third grade in a couple of buildings, fifth grade and junior high. Uh, we had the first check-in this past week and things uh appear to be going well. Uh, the teachers were piloting. It is not a perfect product, but it seems like they're excited about the integration and how uh it is a little bit shorter than wind wisdom for lessons and things. And so all that to say that we have a
008few more check-ins with them for the duration of the pilot. They will be on site uh to hear what we have to say and then we will have a recommendation sometime uh in May. >> Okay, moving on to operational commitments. One of the things we've talked about heard me past couple meetings is the cell phone um no cell phones on on devices on campus were held within storage devices. Um we met with the high school administration early last week talked about how they feel they can best possibly enforce this new law and they would like to pursue the use of a storage bag such as a yonder bag or something like that. Students as they come in on airplane mode. They're put in there throughout the day. Students can carry their phone with them, have
009their phone, so it's not a matter of us stoing them. If people losing or anything like that, and then at the end of the day or when they leave the building, they quickly just have access to it after. So, we are we are pursuing that very similar to what some of our neighboring schools are doing next year. Next, you've heard us talk about our aviation program. One of the things we need for our aviation program as a teacher, we've been unable to find a teacher to not only help teach the aviation part, but also oversee the building of the airplane. Um, but we do have a a number of people that have expressed interest who are not educators and have been in the in the aviation world. So I'm kind of giving notification because whenever
010we go teacher the first thing we have to do is notify the board that we are going pursuing an adjun teacher for that position. So that is what we'll be doing. Um parks department uh we've been having ongoing conversations with the parks department about the model pickle ball court model. They're under coming up on serious um upkeep. Uh but the parks department has a couple ideas that maybe pickle ball might not be what ends up going there because of the flood zone. Um so they are thinking maybe skate park site skate park and then possibly Rogers members of the parks department will be here to talk to that question. >> Can I ask one question while we're there? Um, so I want to be careful how I say, but I've seen some of the people
011that hang around the skateboard area and with putting it directly next to an elementary school >> that those are also those are also some of the concerns that we would have to address with the parks department and come up with some if that is that is one of the possibilities. Um, that is what they were that is also one of our concerns. With that, we'll move on to people commitments engagement. >> I have just a quick update for the family engagement grant. So, we are, as you know, we are in year three of the five-year um cycle of the grant, and it's that time of year when we give our annual survey to families. Last year we saw an increase in many areas um for staff and parents and how they feel about improved communication
012um improved capacity of staff and parents to work together um and just improved connection overall. So we're looking forward to seeing again the results of the survey that opens up this week and that survey will be open for the next four weeks. So, we encourage all staff and uh families to take that survey to give that uh feedback to us. And then on April 16th, we'll have a couple of guests that will come on behalf of the work of the grant and they will interview Mr. Deo. They will interview some principles, teachers, um other administrators, and parents and gather a little bit more information to add to the data that will come back from the survey. So, just wanted to make you aware of um those things that are happening soon. >> Mrs. No, tell
013us how we did on the Lego robotics. >> Lego robotics. Um this is a inaugural year for us with Lego robotics and proud to say that Prairie View recently went to a competition and they um their second and third graders tied for first place at an event at Concord. So, very proud of where our students are and how they're growing in that understanding and the competition that goes along with that. So, congratulations to Prairie View and their team. >> Very pleased with the the turnout response we've got from parents and students to our robotics and we're looking at pursuing robotic teams up into the high school next year. So, very excited about that future. Uh the next thing really is just a little sugar. Mr. called me and wanted me to make sure that everyone
014unders since he no longer is coming to our board meetings how great the school play was. Susicle the musical the school musical was um was a great show. Uh if you had the opportunity to go and see it, it was really very enjoyable. He was very impressed with our students also with the fact that we involved younger students throughout the play. So we were very excited and wanted to make sure that I pass that along to everyone and also to congratulate the music department on musical. So >> Dr. Yeah. So, >> there we go. >> I have the privilege of the recognition um of this award this evening. Um, I had the privilege of going on the marine biology trip several years and cannot say enough, um, how impressive it is to go on that
015trip and see what Chris and Carl Weaver do, the organization that's involved feeding hundreds of people, keeping everyone safe, and having them learn an amazing amazing new things um, that will change students lives forever. And so, I'd like for them to come up and receive this plaque. I'm just going to read here what it says on the plaque. This plaque honors Carl and Chris Weaver. In grateful recognition of 50 years of leadership and dedication to the GHS marine biology program. Because of their vision and commitment, thousands of students have experienced the wonders of marine life, habitats, and ecology in the Florida Keys. Their legacy will continue to inspire generations to come. Squeeze some good. >> Thank you, Carl. >> And yeah, Chris and Carl, do you want to say anything about the 50th year in
016the trip? >> I would just Do I have to talk into here? >> Yes, please. Um, I would just like to say that um, we're very excited about this trip. We appreciate the support that we've had from Gan Community Schools administration and school board. And we have had we've been blessed with amazing students over the years. And we couldn't have done it this long without our amazing family, friends, and other colleagues um that have gone with us. So, we appreciate all of that. as a as a parent who has had students take part in that, it's an unbelievable experience and one that we're thrilled that Ocean can continue to offer and it's something that makes us unique in the area. So, thank you for Carl and Chris for their leadership. >> Yeah, it's definitely been
017a differentiator for our school system for so many years. It's one of the many great things that makes Gan special. It's it's educators who care about what the difference they can make into the students lives. We can't say that enough is go is a special place because of the things that we get to do here. And I I thank you both for your leadership for all these years. What you've represented to this district and this community is been very special. Thank you both. as a parent as former student and a pair of students participated in the program couple students program. I appreciate everything you guys have done. Thank you very much. So that will conclude our superintendent reports tonight. We will now move on to item four which are board committee reports. So I will
018look to my fellow board members and our student rep uh see if we have anything to report on tonight. you can start it off tonight. >> Um, we wrapped up our February event. Um, we sold flowers for Valentine's Day and donated them to charity. And for this month's event, we are we made greeting cards for women's national history month and we're going to be um also donating supplies to a women's shelter. >> Thank you. building and the house is progressing nicely sighting on finishing drywall and they should be done by mid and at the time of meeting the house but an update from last Friday has uh we also uh The developer has also agreed to sell for next year. So this is this year's project is house number other things for board members tonight.
019All right. So with that we will now move on to item number five which is our consent agenda items. We'll start with item 5.1, approval of accounts payable dated at March 23rd, 2026 and payroll dated at March 6, 2026. 5.2, approval of French class trip to France. 5.3 approval of German class trip to Germany. 5.4 Approval of Spanish class trip to Costa Rica. 5.5 2026 fuel price lock in 5.6 personnel. Um, do we have any I know we have maybe one question first before you highlight anything. Yeah, just the question was I know that it mentions the bow market prices. I know that over the weekend it dropped quite a bit. Um is does this have to lock in at this rate and I think it says it starts the 26th or is it adjustable
020up until the 26? >> Don is here so I will kind of fill in some of these details for us >> and I know that's an oil price change. I don't know how it affects the diesel, you know. Uh yeah, the the price is locked in currently when when we agree to that contract, that's when that price is locked in. Uh it currently it changes daytoday as you know and uh so we have to lock in at that at a price. And so when we commit to it, that's that's locked in for that amount of time. Um what you'll also see is we tried to uh alleviate some of the stress on our budget and we locked in for um we we locked in through September with gas gas prices. Those will be at 2
021293 uh per gallon. Um, and we locked in for April because at that time the uh diesel prices were just through the roof and and going and it doesn't didn't look like it was going to level out at all. So, we locked in for a month and then we went out with futures and uh we were able to lock in from May to August at uh 356. So, we're almost a 30 cent drop there. And then September to October, we're all the way down to 321. So, um, what with talking with Keystone, it was better to do just a six month instead of a year. We usually do a year. We usually able to hit that sweet spot in between uh December and the beginning of February, but that that sweet spot never came just
022due to the volatile market. So, we decided it was better to try and lock in and and try and go out in futures a little bit. But we'll continue to look at that. Um, just because the market is where it is right now, we're looking at November, December of next of of this year to see if we can go in at a lower price then, too. And we'll continue to watch. >> Okay. >> I appreciate that. >> Any other questions? >> Appreciate that. >> Um, I did want to touch Dr. Metaf wanted me to say uh just give a a little bit of a a price difference. Um the a year ago we were locked in at 307 for diesel and uh at gas it was 278. So it is it is quite a bit
023bigger budget but um considering the the market and how it's been really really volatile here lately then we're uh trying just trying to watch that. So if there's any other updates too during the next six months I can bring those if Dr. Cap wants me to. Okay. >> Well and considering some of those months summer months >> our our usage is down. It is >> comparatively to like right now >> it is uh what you usually do during that time is you lock in a a fuel uh amount. We have to lock in a certain amount for those number of months. So that's why the volume is a little bit high during that time but our price goes down during that time though. In our buses average, I believe close to like seven miles per
024gallon. Our diesel buses >> on our in our little longer trips, we can we can get up to that. In town, we're we're ranging about five is what we try and figure with our our small trips and all. So, >> okay. >> Appreciate that. Thank you. >> And then I could give you some stuff to highlight on the personnel maybe tonight. We do have some things to highlight. We have a number of retirements that we're sorry to see go, but have given us um some great years and some great and some have made the impact an impact in the lives of multiple kids, multiple thou hundreds of kids. And they are Cindy Burgerer, our director of exceptional learners, will be retiring after 25 years of service back there. Jeff WS, our psych, one of our
025psychologists from with EXEC after 26 years of service. And I see Jeff back there. Carla Plch, literacy coach at Waterford, but has also been a teacher at Parkside Waterford, a master teacher, a mentor teacher. Um, 20 years of service. So, congratulations, Carl. And then Teresa Zuk in our EEL department. She was an EEL support teacher at GIS with 12 years of service. But if Cindy and Jeff come up for plans for retirement. You're still thinking, huh? I'll say we thank you both for everything you have done to make go a better place and all the students lives that you have touched. Um like I said earlier I mean go is a special place and it's because of all the people that work here and and support our kids make them better for what they do
026and and bring them back to go hopefully. So, so with that, uh, the consent agenda items are approved as presented. All right, we will now move on to action items and we will start with item 6.1, which is approval of Gan High School head football coach, Dr. Maf, Mr. Pickard, Mr. >> Yep. >> So, it is my pleasure right now to announce the next head football coach at Ocean High School, Mr. Griffin go again. We went we went through a long committee. We had a committee of uh and some people in here were on it. Uh came up with the best candidate. We have a candidate I think that's going to be here for a while with us and we're going to turn things around. >> So I'm speaking for him, but that's that's our
027plan. >> All right. We'll give him a chance here in a second. So, um, so with that, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask for a motion and a second for item 6.1 for discussion and voting, and then we'll go to the next step. >> I'll move for the passage of item 6.1, approval of Ocean High School head football coach. >> It's been moved by Mr. Glick, seconded by Mr. Goodman. Um, questions, comments about this? >> Um, I go ahead. >> I will say that I did, it was it kind of slipped out a little early with the when the personnel roster got posted. Um, but I would I have had a couple community members uh reach out and very pleased with that's always good to hear. And and I'll say
028to the board, so I I was uh asked to be part of the interview committee. So, um it was it was great to see uh Griff come in. Um a lot of passion, a lot of excitement for what Gan can be. Um so I I felt and I would feel that the other committee members really felt this was going to be the right candidate for us. Um we definitely looked at others because I think that's the right thing to do but um you know it was the right time for the right person and I would say this is where we need to go going forward. So um I'll say my support is is that we move forward with this. Any other questions or comments here? All right. So, with that, we have a motion and
029a second on the floor. All in favor, please say I. >> I oppose. That passes 6. Welcome to Go Griff. >> Thank you. >> So, and we're going to give Griff here a few minutes to to introduce himself a little bit to us, maybe introduce your your guest as well because she's a part of this now. So, >> yes, absolutely. This is my my better half, my lovely wife. Uh this is Lindsay Hecman. We got married in June. Um and we've been together for nine or so, almost 10 lovely months, and we're very excited to be a part of this community and a part of this school system. I I truly believe in ability to be the school district of choice. Um I know the football is just a small piece of that. Uh for
030me, it's the whole pie, but I know body is as passionate about football as I am. That's okay. Um, real quick, I just want to take two minutes or so to talk about what is Goan football and the story of it. Okay. U, as I've been going through this process, I've heard things from people. I've heard uh some positives, some really great things about about Goan and I've also heard some stories about recent history with Goan football. But I just want to take a second to address that with so many people from the community here. Um so the story of goan football big picture uh go football program is an elite program in the northern lakes conference set the conf since the conference was founded uh it has had four state finals appearances and has
03110 northern lakes conference titles. Okay that is elite looking at all the other schools in the conference there's only one that even comes close to that. Okay so for the individuals who have been talking about the recent chapters of go football and how things have not been ideal for the program. I think that's a bunch of baloney because these stats right here say go football is an elite program. Okay. Now, like most things, growth is not linear. Okay? Growth is not always a straight line going up, up and up. And there's been some times over the past couple years where maybe things have not been ideal. Okay? But the biggest thing that I want to address tonight with all of us in here about this program that I care so deeply about already is I
032encourage all of us in here to continue with the process of speaking life into this program. Okay. Uh the tongue is very powerful. It's a small part of our body. Uh but it carries tremendous weight in the community inside and outside of the community. And I would encourage all of us here, no matter our role, if we're going to be a bystander in the community, if we just did a tremendous service, that's great. That's still an important role in the community, right? If we have an important role as a board member, okay? Or as uh human resources uh or support role or just being a friendly uh front desk uh lady, right? All those are important roles, but I encourage all of us in here to please speak life into the program. Okay? The past
033chapter is close. Okay, it's time for a new chapter and I would just encourage all of us in here to keep in mind that we the people in this room and in the surrounding area are go. Okay, and and to sustain a healthy football program, it does take a village. And that village is everybody. Whether you're just a fan on a Friday night, whether you have something to do with the day-to-day success, whether you made the decision to to vote in the next head coach, which thank you. I appreciate that. Uh I I I sincerely do that we are go football and even if you're not directly involved with the team or maybe you have been in the past, it's still our program. So when that when that team hits the field on Friday night
034or Saturday morning JFL, that is our teams. That that is our program out there, right? And we all do have a role that plays in that, right? Um whether it's saying hi to the football kid who who maybe have an outcome that they wanted, right? But they showed up Saturday morning, they got better. We see them out in the community. Hey, good job last night. I I know you tried your best, right? That's a role that all of us play no matter who we are, right? No matter what our title is. And those are our players, okay? So So let's love on them and let's speak life into them and to the people that support the program. Okay? And and here's the deal. Moving forward, that's how we're going to do it. speaking live into
035the program and then operating together as one. Okay, so I've got an awesome photo in here and uh Mr. Wed probably recognizes it from the uh interview and essentially it's a photo. Okay, and there's two possible things that we can see in here, right? Uh raise your hand if you look at that photo and you see a rabbit. Everybody see a rabbit when they first look at it. Okay, raise your other hand if you looked at it and you saw a duck when you first saw it. Okay, both hands if you saw both, right? Okay, I see both. Right. One of my jobs as the head football coach is to get everybody in here to see the same thing, right? Well, what is the football program? What is it good for? Well, number one, it's
036to build incredible young men and women. Incredible, world class, right? To get them to be incredible leaders of the community. They learn today, okay? They lead tomorrow, right? Be incredible members of the community. The other job of the football program is to win football games, right? Win trophies, okay? But that but that's secondary. If we build great young men and women, the rest will come, right? And all of us in here can play that role in building those men and women and doing that as one, right? For the football team, their pillars of success are going to be having a good attitude, not being sorry for themselves, not down on themselves. Have a good attitude. Sacrifice to achieve success in anything in life. It takes sacrifice. We know that. That's why we're here, right? Having
037ownership over what they do. Was that my fault that I missed that block, that tackle, or was that someone else's fault? Right? Or was that coach's fault that he did he called a bad play? Well, taking ownership is saying, "Well, what could I have done better?" Right? And when you do that, you have control, and we're going to take ownership of this team together, right? It's not anybody else's fault, okay? It's it's us as a community working together support that team having engagement. It's pretty easy today to just go through the motions, right? Check out scroll and scroll scroll some more. I've seen it. It's impressive some of those screen time hours and then doing everything with excellence, right? So, so operating as one, not only as a team, but I ask the community as
038well to operate as one. Operate with those pillars and please help our program operate with those pillars. Okay? I give you my permission that if you see a football player who's not meeting one of these standards, you let them know. And if they don't listen, then you let me know. And I I have plenty of ways to address it. I promise. Okay. Um so I'm really excited for a new chapter for Goian football for this community. Uh for my wife and I, we're we're really honored to be here. We thank you for your vote of confidence. Um and my final question is what role will you play? This is a new Right. And we all have the pen in our hands. We have the ink to write our our role in that chapter. This photo
039was taken not too long ago, actually. And that is, I'm a little biased, one of the best places on earth, if not the best, a football field on a on a weekend evening with the sun setting. It is it's heaven on earth is what it is. And in about 157 days, 2 6 minutes and 30 seconds. That place is going to be packed, right? And it's going to be packed with people that have done all sorts of things for the for the community and for the program. Maybe they're just a bystander. Maybe they're just a fan. Maybe it's a coach, maybe it's a parent, maybe it's the, you know, the wife of of a of a coach who dedicates long hours into what comes of them. Maybe it's a youth coach who's watched a kid
040grow up from third grade and now they're there supporting them on the sidelines. That place is going to be packed with people. play a really important role and my question for you is just what role will you play and I ask that that you give your best uh for the team and understand this is going to be a new chapter in football and we're excited about it I'm excited to see the role that you thank you say we are excited for you and and what you're going to bring to our program um starts today and we We will be there in 156 days, right? Is that what you say? So we will be there with you. So >> congratulations. >> Thank you. >> All right. So next we will go to item 6.2 which is
041the final reading of policy update volume 38 number one. Dr. M. >> All right. This is really our first um update since u adopting mola. Uh and we've done the first reading was at the last board meeting. Final reading was the time leading up to tonight. So we are recommending that the school board adopt the updated policies as presented. >> All right. Thank you. Uh so with that opening I will ask for a motion and a second for item 6.2. >> Move for the passage of item 6.2 final reading of policy update on 38 number one. >> Moved by Mr. Glick. Seconded by Mr. Goodman. U board members this is I think the third time this has been in front of us. um questions since then got everything answered that you've asked. Anything more? It's
042shaking. Are we ready to vote? Okay, with that we have a motion and a second on the floor. All in favor, please say I. I. Same sign against. That passes 6. Moving on to item 6.3, approval of Goan High School replacement of wrestling room air handler 2026. In your packet, you'll find a memo from Dr. Evans basically outlining the cost and the expenses of replacing that air handler which has needed to be done. I think Mr. Picker is here probably agreeing can get it can get a little warm in there. So, we would move we recommend that that be approved. >> Okay. Uh with that uh I will ask for a motion and a second for item 6.3. Motion 6.3. >> Second. >> Moved by Mr. Goodman, second by Mr. Garber. Uh, questions, comments, >>
043but it says that it's uh permission to advertise the project. Are we asking for a quote or where do the money come numbers come from? >> The money was already um dedicated as part of our uh our agreement with PSI and has already been out to bid. Okay. I believe Mr. Dr. Evans um put this on top of a template of a memo he had already had. >> I was just confused about how >> and I think it's it's important we are adding cooling to the room which has not had cooling before. Correct. >> During the winter >> just during the winter so we >> so I think that's good to note that was obviously last year we added cooling to the gymnasium. This is part two now adding it to the wrestling room. So,
044okay, other comments, questions. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. All those in favor of item 6.3, please say I. >> I oppose. Same sign passes 6. All right, that will now take us to our discussion items and we'll start with item 7.1, reorganization of special education at the elementary schools. Um, some of our self our self-contained programs, both life skills and our strive, our ED program have always been held at Curry since it was built in 2007 or so. Um, partially because of the space that was available. Um, as we have looked at the spaces and as we have looked at some of the issues with special ed, um, we'd really like to have each school have a program that would that would allow them to take ownership of of those students instead of them
045just being sent to um, Prairie View all the time. And Prairie View being almost um, by default a school where it's a special ed school. um even though it's got great general ed programs um special with having all the special ed programs there that sometimes can be a little distracting and so uh we are looking at moving the life skills program to model the ED drive program to waterford um with the closure of XC the death heart of hearing we will have our death heart of hearing program at west go um chamber chamberlain has our high ability program Um, Prairie View has our pres our special education preschool programs. The only school that doesn't really have it one of our programs right now, and that's really because of spaces, is Parkside. They are just pretty
046much out of space. Um, also to address some of these issues to keep kids from going to these self-contained classrooms. Uh, we are setting up a tier three um resource room in every elementary so that instead of going to a self-contained class such as the life skills of the classroom. We're going to give um staffing and support to the building so those students can stay with the those students and families can stay with the school, with the teacher, with their friends that they know um and receive the services that they need. So, um those are our proposals. Those are what we're looking at. We've been working on for the past probably six months or so. Um moving moving those forward. So we're bringing that forward to tonight just as a discussion. If you have any
047questions, we'd be happy to have answer to >> anticipated financial. >> We are it will uh right now we have three life skills classrooms at Prairie View. Um when we really look at um the criteria for what really makes a life skills student not not just a student who has who has ASD or something like that that uh looks like or feels like um a life skill student. Uh we feel we only really need one life skills classroom in the district for for true students who meet that criteria eligibility. Um so those two other teachers will be moved out and be staffing some of those classrooms that we're creating those resource rooms that we're creating. So we we will probably two teachers, two special education teachers to this program. Uh, but some of the savings
048also comes in when we look at our classified staff and the number of aids that we have that are out there supporting these students who are who are in the buildings currently in their home schools that don't have a room or they don't have that support to really meet their needs within the home school, but are not severe enough to be to um for inclusion into a self-contained program. And so um between um by centralizing and bringing that certified staff and and a and a pair of professional to each classroom each building we feel in the long run we'll probably break even with because we will not hopefully need as many one to one or pair of students because they'll have options to help them deal and get what they need. >> Does itffectffect In
049any ways, >> it will affect the busing a little bit because right now we have two special ed buses and Don, you're still here. Um, we that was one of the first things we did was talk to Don a little bit about how that will affect the busing. Don, do you have anything? >> We're currently looking at possibly our different schools that we transport to special program. We're getting those students. We're doing something special. I guess my my question about the needing to hire potentially two additional teachers, do we see that as being an obstacle knowing that is a maybe less teachers are are going to that field currently special ed? >> The state CIA is still the state. Yes, the state has um come up with the it's the asset program, correct Cindia? Uh
050where any teacher can add a special education um endorsement to their license and do that. And so we feel we might have some teachers within the district who might feel like that could be a calling for them. Uh with the changes that we've made in our pay scale and our benefits, um this last year we actually had um to tell special ed teachers, we had special ed teachers calling us asking if we had positions and we were able to tell them we are fully staffed in our special ed certified certified programs. So um we do not anticipate Just real quick, would you say that decision to this kind of decision this is this is what's best for the student? >> We think so. Instead of you know a lot of the a lot of the
051students just need especially that are going to the self-contained programs now um need need support that they can't or quite get at the their home school right now. And so um you know it takes Cindy if you want to Also, you can, but it takes away a little bit from from when all of a sudden you've been to you've been at the same school. You know, you know the teachers, you know the kids, and all of a sudden you're not getting you don't feel you're getting what you need. You have to go to a new school and and then it takes some time to really adapt and to to become comfortable with that and then all of a sudden you're going to the intermediate school. And so there's there's possibility for some quick transitions there
052that we would rather our neighborhood schools. Our schools uh stay local and we've had parents that have um declined services at Prairie View. Um we've had parents that have wanted those services because that's what they feel their student needs. And it's our job to kind of make sure that we're getting every student what they need at their home school before looking at those special uh self-contained programs. And that's what we feel we need to do better at. This will allow us to do that. >> Good. Yeah. I know when we make decisions like this, we often ask those other questions about the financial piece or transportation, but if the underlying if the underlying issue is it's best for what students, it's a it's I think it's a lot easier to talk about. >> I I
053think we truly believe it is. And to be honest, there are a lot of teachers who uh feel a little bit of regret when students have to their classroom to go to some place else. Um, and so we want to make sure that we give those teachers the support they need to feel successful with those students. >> I think I can add to that. Having been principal at Prairie View, anytime we would have a student that would transition from another building to Prairie View, um it was probably a good two months before we were feeling like that student was settled and that student was at a place of peace in their new setting, in their new place to do business of school. And it that those two months were often very difficult months for the
054student just in that new environment in that new expectations of how we needed them to behave and how we expected them to interact with that new building. And so I I think I can address that having experienced that setting before with those students. Other comments, questions? So, is this something we'll see at our next meeting or is it just more of this? >> This is just more of a discussion, more of aformational piece. >> So, there's no need to vote. >> There's no need to need to vote on it. None of our programming have changed, just the locations. Correct. >> All right. All right. With that, we'll go to our last discussion item, 7.2, preschool discussion. We have the special education preschools at Prairie View. Um our title one preschool was at Prairie View until
055about three years ago when Chandler when Chandler was repurposed. Um and it has been there since. As Chandler has grown um the need for space there has started to encroach on some things. But some other things have happened too. As finances have become difficult. We have we eliminated transportation this year to our preschool to our title one preschools which means that um parents from all over the district have to come to um Chandler deliver their kids to Chandler and they're doing it and we appreciate that. When we look when we think about not only a need for space but a need to help parents and also um help parents better service their kids. Uh we have two we have two preschool programs. We are looking at putting one at model, one at Prairie View. So,
056one on the northwest, one on the south so that we can as students enroll um we can enroll them in the preschool that is closest to them to hopefully also help out those parents that are that are transporting. Um so, it serves two purposes, two two purposes. And um we feel that it also then, you know, gives those preschool students an opportunity to really in a school environment, go to the cafeteria with other kids, you know, go to go out to recess on a on a school playground. Kind of also get them used to the actual school environment that they're going to be in instead of instead of Chandler, which while a great environment, um, they are pretty isolated there. >> I'm assuming there's room for them. Javier has done a really great job of
057working with principles and mapping out um what their spaces are going to be because they're adding not some of them are not only adding the resource room that we talked about they're also adding like heart of hearing they're adding the life skills they're adding a preschool and we feel that I think we feel we have space >> so my kids went to Mon so back then they didn't have space What's going to happen if enrollment hopefully increases? >> Hopefully enrollment will increase there. Um luckily when we look at model there is still enough um there are some opp there is an opportunity for some classrooms such as you know right now our um special ed teachers even we have two special ed teachers they both have fullsize classrooms. We have EL teachers that both all
058all of those teachers three of those teachers classroom even though they might not be pulling students. Um and so it might be um going back a little bit possibly hopefully as we large um to maybe two teachers share a classroom um that right now model as of today was a little less than 450 kids and your students went there and when my students when my kids went there model was 600 600 600 or so. Well, since we built the intermediate school, we at least pulled a full grade out of school. So, that gave us a little flexibility. >> Yeah. >> Preschool numbers over the last three years, are they trending kind of static? Are they up, going up, down? Where we >> Ours are pretty stable because we can only take we only take 17
059in a in a a section. And so uh we we service um 68 students because we have two two sections half day sections in the morning and the afternoon. And so uh they are usually full and have a waiting list. >> What's the time frame you guys are looking at with both of those changes? Is this something for next school year? >> Next school year. Yes. Nothing nothing will happen. None of these will happen this year. It'll all be done over the summer. We'll be talking to Cindy and special the special ed department will be talking to parents um that are in those programs. Um and so we've had some preliminary discussions with with the classified staff. They're starting to start to think about okay do I if I'm in this program do I want
060to follow the program in another building or do I want to look at is there another special ed opportunity in the district. Okay. Any other questions currently? All right, perfect. Thank you, Dr. M. All right, we will now move to item eight, which is our closing items, and we'll start with 8.1. Do we have any miscellaneous administrative items tonight, sir? >> We do. Uh, there will be no school on Friday, April 3rd, due to Good Friday. Um, and that also then leads right into spring break the next week starting April 6th through the 10th. And then beyond that, the next meeting is Monday, April 13th. The next school board meeting of April. >> Okay. And uh 8.2 miscellaneous board items. I will publicly note that there is a public meeting next Thursday, April 2nd at
0618:30 a.m. to review the uh superintendent's uh new contract. So uh it has been published online as well as in the local newspaper. So, that is the public's opportunity to comment on the proposed contract for the superintendent. Um, that is next Thursday, April 2nd, 8:30 a.m. in here. So, anything else from the board? All right. With that, item 8.3, adjournment. Do we have a motion in a second? >> Second. >> Move to second. All those in favor of journ please say