August 11th School Board Meeting

001All right. Well, good evening. It is uh 6 p.m. So, I'd like to call this meeting to order on Monday, August 11th, 2025. Please stand with me and recite the 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. >> Well, I would like to welcome everyone this evening here as uh we have officially kicked off the start of school for teachers uh today. Um we are starting on a bit of a some sombering news here. Um it is with great sadness that go schools has lost two employees in the past week and a half. Kimberly stole passed away on August 1st after a short uh illness. Miss Stole worked in

002the Gan intermediate cafeteria. Also, Kimberly Bliss passed away on August the 5th after an extended illness. Miss Bliss worked in the Goan High School cafeteria. I I ask that we keep the their family and our extended GO community schools family in our thoughts and prayers. um as they go through uh these losses in their lives. I would ask that we just take a small moment of silence for these uh two special women. Thank you. Just a few opening remarks uh this evening. Uh this meeting is a meeting of the school board and public for the purpose of conducting the school corporation's business. It is not to be considered a public community meeting. There is time for public participation as indicated by agenda item two as well as during our public hearing tonight on the specified

003items. The mission of Gen Community Schools is to inspire innovation, empowering potential and enriching our world and our vision, Gan Community Schools, Elcart County School District of Choice. Um, looking ahead here, uh, approval of our agenda tonight. Do we have any adjustments to the agenda? >> We do not, Mr. President. >> All right, hearing none. The agenda is approved as presented. And the next item, approval of the minutes from our July 14th, 2025 regular school board meeting and July 14th, 2025 executive session. Board members, do we have any revisions to those minutes? Hearing none, they are approved as presented. Item two is uh public comment. I'm looking at Terry. Did anyone do we know if anyone signed in? >> I'm so sorry. That's okay. Or officer Pow. >> She was getting stuff for me. >>

004I know. No problem, Gil. >> Thank you. >> All right, Mr. Gold. Glendo, come on down, sir. Uh, Glennol Gan, it's good to see you, Roger. It's been a long time since I seen you here. Brandon, I'm sorry I didn't recognize you on First Friday. I'm sorry. He said he couldn't believe he seen me actually in the wild. >> I put you on the spot. >> Yeah, you did. Anyways, thanks for remembering who I was outside of here. >> Yeah. >> Um, couple different things. In the past, I've I've spoke on things here that I was so far off of because I had no information. And when or discussed it, it was like, wow, that's not the way it came across. 30 some odd years ago I pack it I got board got except personnel

005and I could tell you what certain people's grade average was at Purdue or Arbor because we seen all that which I'm glad you don't do that no more that that just floored me took me of all them booklets because it's all personnel issues. But in that, what I is information that I could read ahead of time and asked and tell about it, not available to the public, not necessarily in print, which would be great for me, but uh online because really need to come to this meeting because you might be And I should have came to him city council or here and because there was a pure nine I missed it. It made me mad. So I I think that information should be out for the public. And so once again on three to resign.

006I'm not going to give up on it. It's my horse. I'll be want to this is the board just like a teacher teaches or an aid or any at the teaches. That's the bottom line. If you want pick out a inconsistency and have favorites that are going to hey wait a minute that's not what the what so once again I'm going to ask you to resign to make it better for all the students so they know that you can't cheat and get away with it. Thank you. Thank you, Glenn. All right, that will conclude our uh public comment section tonight. We'll move on to item three, superintendent reports. Mr. Deo, >> thank you, Mr. President. We're going to start with our financial commitments and ask uh Mr. Ben or excuse me, sorry, Dr. Evans uh

007to uh give us an update. >> Sure. Just a couple of things. We're working on uh the budget right now and so you we'll have a meeting on that at the next time. We we'll present it at the next board meeting as well. Uh we're also working on uh this bond. So we'll have the second preliminary determination hearing today as well. So those are two things that are going on. >> Thank you, Dr. Evans. Uh next up, uh I think Dr. Metaf is going to kick us off on our student achievement commitments. So, uh, our enrollment as right now that we have active in Skyward is 6,01. Um, that being said, uh, 12 of those students are grade 13. Uh, usually a young adult program, they count as half. So, really instead of 2001, we're

008really, uh, for funding we 6,0001. we would count ourselves as 59.95 uh at this time with our smallest grade level surprisingly not being kindergarten but uh second grade. >> That's it. Thank you. Uh next up, uh Lori, uh you have some information for us in regards to attendance and behavior data. >> Yeah. So um I think we've said this but just again we are celebrating the fact that we have increased our attendance rate um that 94% measure uh by 13%. And so this is just an opportunity to celebrate the work of Mr. Sheets who is our attendance officer, our principles, our technology people who help us make sure our data is clean um and telling us the story that we they want that we want to follow. Um and so just a lot of um

009work behind the scenes to do the best job we possibly can communicating with our parents what our expert expectations are for attendance and what they need to do to help us out when their child will not be in school. Um and so a lot to celebrate with our attendance and big thank you to all those people behind the scenes behavior. So we are still um you know solidifying these different metrics that we are presenting to you that Mr. Dr. Deo has brought that um looking at our data continually. Behavior is one of those where we continue to um think about how we will measure how are how are we improving behavior in our district. And so right now you can see our measure is the percentage of students with two or fewer office behavioral referrals.

010So we are happy to say we made an incremental um gain here. Um but the excitement comes more in the processes we have in place with our MTSS processes. Uh and those are just systems where teachers uh come together, school counselors, social workers um to help our students who may be struggling with behavior. And then obviously you've heard us talk a lot about PBIS, positive behavior systems of support um to make sure that we are clear about our expectations for behavior as well, just being proactive. And so again, our principles, this is how they start the year with those expectations uh for student behavior. And then we have teachers who are explaining the why about being a learning community and why um our behaviors and how we learn together are important um and how they

011impact each other. And so that is happening on these first days of school. Um so we'll continue to bring back data on behavior in the district and how we're doing from year to year. >> Next up uh well thank you Lori. Um I I always say that as clear as it is to get data on attendance that's very clear and easy to you know be accurate with the behavior is difficult. It's it's probably apples and oranges what we've decided because two years ago we weren't even capturing some of the data. Now we're capturing data more data. uh in the end uh we we know for a fact that our schools have gotten better in handling difficult students and difficult behaviors that we have in schools. So we're confident in that got better supports and all

012that stuff but so uh but it's still a little apples and oranges on that. So don't hold that data too in too high esteem. We're working on it. So uh but happy with the progress we've made. We'll make more this year and so we don't know where it's going to go. We think it's going to get a little better this year too, we hope. But again, it's the how we collect the data. So, next up though is Javier. We talked to the board on uh the C attendance behavior and course performance. Uh Jav, I'll turn it over to you then. >> Yeah. Uh a couple data points here. Uh first is our I read three scores. Um and after the summer administration, we had one in May and then the summer after summer school. Um

013the results are not official yet. They will become official on Wednesday at the state board of education meeting. Uh but we we per calculations we will be no less than 5% better and up to 10 or 12%. Uh it depends on when they pull the data because it has to do with current enrollment. So like if they pull the data as of July 1, uh however many third graders we had as of July 1 becomes a denominator. We have 300 almost 70 students who pass. We don't know what number they pull for overall enrollment in third grade. So that will be a variable. Um as far as I learn and um passing ELA and math. Uh this is really cool news. Uh at the end of last year, Goan Community Schools was ranked in the

01445th percentile in the state for passing both ELA and math uh at a 24.8%. This year we moved to the 55th percentile in the state um with 27.1% of our kids passing both ELA and math third through 8th grade. So um again like Lori was saying kudos to people in in the buildings the classroom teacher right most important person in the classroom and our principles and everybody who supports the schools uh in the schools doing the work. So >> so one of the things we've we've done uh Mr. um likes the board to see where we are in relation to uh schools around us in the St. Joe and um Elkcart counties. Uh last year we were sixth, we are still sixth this year. Um with our 2.3% increase, uh we move a little closer

015to Fairfield. Fairfield actually had a little bit of a decline and we do put a little distance between ourselves and and Concord. Um so uh with the 2.3, this is the percent of students passing both. Um you can see we are sixth out of the 11. >> Tracy, >> um the next data point you're looking at is our engagement index, which we're trying um really hard to just engage all of our employees in the work at each of our buildings. Um so if you look at the little um circle there, we increase the engagement across the board across our district with 51% of our staff is fully engaged. Um, in the past when we started doing this survey, it was 46%. Um, the percentage not engaged went down. Um, and then we have that 10%

016that's just lingering out there that's actively not dis actively disengaged, which we're going to try to get that even lower this year and and put our principles to the task of um improving both those bottom two categories. But all in all, our our our teachers, our classified staff, all the people in our buildings are working really hard to be engaged in the work that needs to be done for our students. >> So, this is kind of just a real brief snapshot of the data from last year. Um, as we get ready for this year, uh, it's that's a data point which we will use as our benchmark for the coming year to try to beat. Um do you have any questions um about any of the data or any of the things that you saw

017or did not see today? >> I do. I have a question. So you know attendance is very important because if the student is not in the classroom u the students probably not going to improve uh academically and so it's great to see that attendance has improved. Um, I'm I'm assuming we track attendance by grade. Are there specific grades that need extra help or have improved? >> Um, you know, I would say we continually just as the numbers get bigger at school and as students become more independent, it's a little bit harder to uh for parents maybe to influence or control their attendance. But um we just continue to kind of brainstorm and think about ways that we can have our high school kids be more accountable to attendance. Um I'm trying to think of any

018schools that have stood out um overall in terms of one high school we have cleaned up as the reporting um because students have to be in order to um be counted there they have to be present at every period. So, um, making sure that teachers are making sure that they are as if students come in, they're changing that tardy to a to a present. Some of those pieces have helped. Um, I will say kindergarten always seems to be a struggle. Um, as parents kind of adapt to my student needs to be there all day, even when they don't feel well, even when they're, you know, maybe not wanting to go to school. Um, especially our first-time parents. um getting them to uh understand that we care for them um just as much as they do.

019Not not more, but we do care for them just as much as they do. And when they are in and when they are with us, uh we will take we will do everything we can to um be just as responsive to the needs as they are at home. And sometimes that takes a takes a little bit. So kindergarten is always a grade level that we struggle a little bit with attendance. So those opposite ends of the spectrum are kind of where we have to, you know, think a little bit harder and get a little bit more creative. But, um, like Dr. Metaf said, we're really trying to standardize and be on the same page, make sure we've got good data as we're looking at our attendance. Um, and that we have very, you know, consistent

020best practices, but obviously look different from a kindergartener than a high schooler. But, um, does that answer your question? I want to make sure. In terms of >> grade levels with the highest growth or with the highest growth in 10, it seems to be right in that to be honest with you, it's right around the sixth and seventh and seventh grade level. It really seems to be when students become more social and school becomes a outlet for um developing that so those social interactions um that we see uh some some pretty nice as they go up through the elementary it gets higher and higher and then it kind of peaks out. It looks right around seventh grade. Um, and I think then as they get older and, you know, as they, like Lori said, they

021become more int independent, maybe even more responsible for getting themselves up and getting themselves to the bus on time. Uh, we see at the high school, we still are still some areas where we need to work on >> as long as you have a plan. >> And Mr. Sheets has been working with um >> with uh >> behind the scenes working with prosecutor's office with Basher. We are we we might have a partnership that we'll bring to you here in the near future about attendance with Basher. Uh so u we we look forward to sharing that when those are fought and those plans are finalized. >> Yeah. And ju just to add I mean just because that just such a great reminder that no one really has the answers for this problem even in the

022county. But what has been really great is there are people out there willing to try things and wanting and excited about some of the work and things we want we're thinking about because of uh Mr. Sheets's advocacy. Um and so that's um just exciting collaboration going on. >> Takes a village. >> Um go ahead. >> Go ahead. Ask your question. >> So on the I read three scores. So I know the the change in the law was stating that if they were unable to pass they would have to be retained. Where did we find how did that work out? Are we seeing a lot of kids being retained in third grade or is it >> uh in third grade? I can tell you actually right here we actually retained 10 students this year. >> That

023is I mean 10 is a lot. >> Yeah. >> And and that is I mean I know that our teachers and not just the third grade teachers do not take that lightly. I know that our principles do not take that lightly. Um, we will continue to get better as systems are put in place and the state is in great support of this. I mean, they have a 97% literacy goal by 2027 or whatever. But, um, we'll continue to improve. I mean, it is 10 it's 10 kids who are not going to stay with their friends and for whatever reason. uh we have students who did not pass but qualify for good cause exemptions and so they will start the year in fourth grade but um you know in the goal of 1% you know when

024you look at the faces of the 10 kids who are not going it it's it is important that we keep that in mind that what we do this is what we do this is who we serve and we want to make sure that we are not leaving 10 kids behind and it takes a village right like they're coming to school more um and if they give us a chance, we're going to get our kids where they need to be. So, it's hard work, but we're excited and we're ready to continue push. >> Appreciate that. Thank you. So just for future if there's more data that you guys do other questions that you guys have um you mentioned earlier I don't want to get caught in the weeds too much with this but um a qu

025I guess is if a let's take I read for example if a student goes to Fairfield takes I read and then transfers for fourth grade into goan does that data stay with Fairfield or with us for example >> and that's why it's hard to tell what our score is Um I mean I when I first did this right at the end of the school year we were my prediction was and I know that this is not public so it is not official of course was about 78%. So that was a 7.9% 8% increase for us. That was the the kids who took the test with us that were still enrolled with us. Every day if I go a different day and we're upper minus a kid, it it's hard telling. And so if when they

026pull the data, if doesn't matter where they took the test, if they are with our school, they count for us. >> Yeah. >> I will say even last year, if you recall, West Co fell under that umbrella below 70%. Um and so they had to be a part of the literacy cadre but then we chose a lot of our the other buildings chose to be a part of the literacy cadre as well. Um but when we questioned the data because if you if you recall we pull some of those the high kids can choose to go to Chamberlain for high ability and so there were a few students that would have actually taken West Ocean past that 70% mark at the time and so I reached out to the state and questioned like well where

027does that data go and at that time they said well it follows the student not the school yet when I see some of the data when we saw when we did when we seen it come back then at the end of the year it didn't seem like it did follow the student it stayed in the school so I I don't I don't know how they are actually figuring that so that's why it's hard like Jav says it's it's hard to figure out what that final >> where that really hits us is second grade I believe we had 50% >> yeah we're going to have about 52% of our kiddos and and that's a huge celebration right I mean they got to take it twice for the first time ever it was only one time last

028year. But half of them don't have to worry about retention in third grade. They get to be third grade students when you know push for I learn now. >> But if they move and go to another school, wherever they're at in third grade is who gets that passing score. So I mean that is always a that is always a concern for us. >> Well, I realize that uh it wouldn't necessarily be official numbers. Is there some type of tracking you can do internally just for our own numbers and say, "Hey, we know what students we had. We know how they passed. We could say we improved x% even if it's not officially >> yes lined up." >> Yes, we uh 369 of our third graders passed Ivy as of May 31st. Um and at that

029time it would have been like I said like 78.9% compared to 70.7 so 8 plus% increase per little more precise and I am worried about the state saying this because they'd hate to be a percentage off. >> I keep saying internally we're about 78%. >> It looks like it's not fine but it looks >> they don't like to say that. >> They they also look at um I believe it's a student has to be with us 120 days in order for it to count for us. Um, so if we have a student who moves in 120 days really is like September the um I think it's right around September the 20th or something like that. So anybody who moves in after September 20th um or moves out after September 20th um does not does not

030count for us. So um yeah they just have to be with us. So some of our scores travel to other other districts. Can I ask about the survey? What's how do we define actively disengaged versus disengage? >> I believe and I'm pretty new to the Gallup survey so as I'm learning it. Um I believe if they don't answer like or if they take one survey and then don't take the the second one I think that is tracked. Um so not answering um if they there's a scale on some of the questions and if they say I don't care that that's considered actively not engaged with >> was that was I'm sorry was the what's the dis actively disengagement is that the question >> yeah typically every organization has actively disengaged employees and it's just trying

031to make that number as small as possible and you know it can change But honestly those employees they are actively not wanting to do it. That's the way to look at it. But every organization has that at that time people aren't you know there there are always a certain percentage of your employees that are not buying into the mission. Uh there's some that are just like floating there in the middle. That's kind of that middle group that we have. And then the top group is the group that those are the employees that are uh positive. They're uh working hard every day and doing doing the best work they can. So, um that actively disengaged group is a hard one to move. Once they go that go there, it's hard to get them not to be

032actively disengaged because they would just rather see the school district or whatever business they're in not do well. Reminds me of the speaker today mentioned the the teacher that's turning the calendar every day from 180 backwards like trying to just say, "Oh, one more day, one more day. One more day." That's what it reminds me of a actively disengaged teacher. I'm here, but I'm not really here and involved. >> So, that that Gallup poll is important because the idea is we want as many of the middle of the road people to get to the top category. That's the engage category. and leadership can make a huge difference. listening to the staff, learning what what what's important to them and uh having our leaders become better and more effective and and helping the staff understand the

033process as well so they can support each other in doing the work. And I, you know, you saw 4%. That's actually a pretty big movement. Uh, and it was over the year. I think it was 6 months. We do it every six months, but that data was over the year. We went up and all on the six month too as well. But, you know, year over years, we'll really kind of benchmarking off of and then we'll look at trying to do it better by the end of the year again. Um, so I I I really like that that Gallup score. It's it's better than satisfaction scores sometimes that people do, you know, work satisfaction or best places to work surveys and things like that. This is very scientific. G knows how to do surveying and

034to help. And there's 12 questions. It's Q12. So, we could share that with the board. I don't know. I think we've shared it before, but we could share it again. Like, here are the 12 questions. And there's actually science behind some of the questions like do you have a best friend at work? And you know, so the more engaged employees say yes, I have a best friend. Doesn't mean that's your best friend outside. It's kind of a strange question, but it does get to the point where are you engaged with other people doing the kind of work to support the mission of the organization or not. Pretty pretty content with that. So um not to wrap this up, but I'm going to wrap it up. Most board has other questions. Um, uh, please ask questions

035after I say what I'm going to say. Next year we're planning on putting the a plan in front of you to do 1% better in the ABCs, attendance, behavior, course performance, English, language arts, and math. And then also, we we want to add uh Kathy and I have had many conversations about SAT to that. And then although it's a little premature to do diploma type, we're going to start tracking that and sharing it with the board. But we'll want to get, hey, here's a honors diploma. here's how many of these we have and how many seals we have that go along with it etc. So we'll be working on on that and then we'll always be giving you the I read three K through three uh the iLearn 3 through 8 and both English language

036math is our number we're chasing it's the toughest one to get and to move and then the SAT and then like I said the pathway. So those will be our big things. We'll continue to do the Gallop poll. Uh we we think we're finding some value in that. So can't wait till we we get so high in that that you know it's like top quartile would be something that we'd be happy to be in. So we're not quite there yet, but we're making making headway. We'll talk about that more this this fall. Uh let's see. That was a lot, but operational excellence. Uh Dr. Dr. Evans has a few updates and then we'll throw it to Dr. Metaf, please. >> So, before you are the counts for summer foods uh is fairly successful. We served

0376,155 breakfastes and 14,425 lunches. The uh Pringle Park accounted for most for a large percentage of the lunches out of all of the sites. as some of the other sites weren't quite as effective and we'll have to evaluate whether we want to do those sites next year. But overall, like I said, 14,425 people got lunches. So, that's pretty good. And I'll say cuz I heard at Cringle so many people came that they had got had to bring more food multiple times. There was more demand than they had food for, which is incredible. >> Well, to stock it better. >> So, project updates. Uh, sure. There's a list of a lot of projects. I don't want to take the time to read all of them, but you can see that every single school had projects going

038on. Some of them more lenane such as carpet paint. Some of them like the junior high um had HVAC work uh as well as the high school for that matter. You might see that the tuck boarding was still going on today as as they were teachers were coming in. So that's a little behind, but we're trying to get everything ready, including the welding at the Chandler Innovation Academy. So >> Dr. Metaf update. >> So let me just say this, Terry and Allen have been rocking this thing. So go ahead. So we have gone through every policy um that um that we have. We've currently matched it up with the uh we have gone through all all the all nine sections of it. Um thousands of different policies and um made sure that that whatever policies

039they had if there were choices they closely matched or came as close as we could to the policies we currently have. So we have wrapped that up. So our next meeting is really with Jim Germany about um about not about uh how do we wrap this up? how do we get our administrative guidelines and then Niola will take it put it all together clean it up um and then we'll be presented to you and we will be talking with Jim about the best way to present it to you um so that it is um digestible >> it's a lot it's a lot >> yeah so probably three or four times at least we'll bring it to you guys so you can look at the package make comments ask questions uh whatever policy you all do

040when these huge bank of policies come across your desk, we can look at changing those in the future. We'll get updates. We're already the next step for us is there's two updates waiting that since we've a lot of changes over the summer that we have to now go through and get the updates to our updates. So, so once those are done, we'll we'll we'll be bringing that to you after, you know, presentation, first reading, second reading, discussions, all those kind of things. So, All right. Next up is a people commitment. Uh Lori, parent engagement. >> Yeah. So, as you recall, we give um a family parent engagement survey to parents and staff. And that data told us that our staff do not feel as confident as they would like with how to engage families and

041parents. And so we decided to bring uh family engagement, parent engagement expert Patricia Winesaful in to work with our principles and we got great thumbs up with that training. They found that it was very valuable to them. And so now we are uh plan to take that training to our parent leaison, office staff and possibly our school counselors. And so that training the three topics that I can think of are how to make sure that we have a welcoming school environment. um high quality communication and that's two-way communication uh with our families. And then finally um call it this idea of just just one thing. Um and so what's just one thing you could do at home to help support the learning um and so those are kind of those those three things that we

042will be bringing to those next group of stakeholders um so that they feel more confident when they work with their families. >> Thank you. Uh we've already done the Gallup that was on the agenda for this section because technically it's a people thing for employee engagement. Uh but we have HR overview for new teacher orientation. How'd that go, Tracy? >> Uh it was great. Uh we have 32 new teachers that attended. Um spent three days with these individuals. Um some with me and then the rest back in their buildings getting their classrooms ready, spending time with their principles. Um spent a lot of time on just um meeting each other, meeting friends from other buildings. um spent some time with the instructional rubric so they understood that and what the commitment to um teaching well

043and building relationships and teaching well looks like in classrooms and um they're ready to start their beginning day with students excited and losing sleep right now but they'll be all right the times will start. >> Thank you Tracy. Um, next up is a recognition slideshow. And I just want to mention to the board, uh, we're experimenting. So hopefully I have your permission to experiment on, uh, recognition of students, recognition of teams. So we're going to start doing a slideshow. Uh, that's what we're trying right now. Instead of bringing the entire baseball team in and etc. We're bringing groups of people in. We're we're going to, uh, do a slideshow. and you know >> so go ahead. >> So of course boys baseball was one of the standouts from the spring. It was our first sectional

044championship since 2008 first regional since 81. Uh second place at semi state. So very proud of boys baseball team. Um moving into the next one which is actually a member Braxton Klein um was actually selected to the 4A first team all state. So, congratulations to Braxton. >> That's for all the big schools. Um the other the other um team that also received some um notice this spring was girls tennis was academic allstate honors uh as a team. And so congratulations to all our all our female uh tennis players and especially to Landry Shrock uh who was named all district second team. She was named the to the individual all academic all-state team and selected for the annual North South Senior Tennis All-Star Cup. So congratulations to Landry Landry. And that concludes our our um recognition

045for this week. >> So give us a couple times trying this out and then you can give us feedback and we'll see. Uh but we what we one of the reasons we found that some of the it should be a nice uh recognition that someone gets to come here and get recognized but actually a lot of these kids are very busy. They they're doing other things. They just probably prefer getting something uh recognized uh to the school. But yet we want the board to know some of the great things going on. So, we thought we'll try it for a while in our people reports and say these are some great things that our kids are doing that are engaged in curricular and extra and co-curricular activities. So, hopefully that works well. That concludes our reports.

046All right. Thank you, sir. Uh we'll move on to item four, which are board committee reports. Uh board members, anything you would like to highlight from the committees that you represent and sit on all at once? The building the building trades had a meeting uh in July and we are wrapping up last year's project. You might recall that the uh instructor uh Todd Line had a medical emergency late in the year. So we're trying to get that uh work around that. And uh while he gets better and he is returning this fall and they are building a house uh and so I think he is extraordinarily busy getting that prepared. appreciate uh him being able to come back and uh continue his leadership in that program. Okay. I've got a meeting tomorrow so this Okay,

047other updates. All right, perfect. With that, we will then move on to item five, which is our consent agenda items. We'll start with item 5.1, approval of accounts payable dated August 11th, 2025. Payrolls dated July 11th, 2025 and July 25th, 2025. Item 5.2 approval of 202526 Elcart Area Career Center agreement, 5.3 obsolete trailers, and 5.4 personnel. Anything to highlight on the consent agenda items, Mr. Boyce? All right. Nothing to highlight. The consent agenda items are approved as presented. >> I just had to check with Terry, make sure >> making sure. >> All right. Uh, moving on uh is item six, which is our public hearing tonight. So, the next item on the agenda is for the board to hold a project hearing and a second preliminary determination hearing on the proposed construction projects. If you

048are interested in speaking at the hearing, uh we have asked that you please do sign in. Um and if I have the signin sheet, but if there are others, uh we can uh still get you added to the list. We just need your name and your address. After a presentation by the administration and its adviserss, there will be an opportunity for the public to make comments about the project. At this specific hearing, we ask that each person limit their comments to three minutes and that the topic be limited to the proposed construction projects under consideration. The notice of this preliminary determination hearing was previously published as a legal as legally required. The first preliminary determin determination hearing for these projects was held on July 14th, 2025. At this time, I will ask uh the school

049council uh to please uh step forward. Uh pursu pursuant to Indiana law, before a school corporation can spend more than a million dollars to build, repair, or alter a school facility that'll be financed by bonds, it must hold a public hearing at which explations of the potential value of the project to the school corporation and to the community are given. Similarly, another section of the Indiana code uh requires that the school corporation hold two public hearings and adopt a resolution making a preliminary determination to issue bonds for a project that has a total project cost in excess of certain thresholds or if the school corporation has a debt service fund above a certain amount. Um tonight you're doing both the project hearing and the and the second of the uh preliminary determination hearings. These hearings

050and the consideration of the resolutions uh of them represent the beginning of the legal process. As you'll hear from all of these other people, this is not something that's that it's not the start of the process. There's been a lot of work involved in it, but this is the start of the legal process. Uh and the resolutions presented will have will establish maximum financial terms for the proposed projects. Any questions? >> Thank you. We'll now hear from Dr. Dr. Evans about the process of determining and communicating the projects to the community and the need for the projects. Dr. Evans. >> Yeah, excuse me. This project would be the second project at Gian Junior High for the HVAC system. We estimate that to be about $4.3 million. It also be uh attempt and actually we're going

051to re redo this one. So, we'll not be doing the track because we are using funds this year to do the track. Um, but it will be to do asphalt and other projects behind the junior high as well as roofing projects at the junior high school and other elementaryaries. Parkside at Goan Junior High um and I'm sorry, Goan Junior High and Parkside will also be be receiving carpet. The project meets the needs of Goan Community Schools by enhancing the safety and the learning environments for our students and staff. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Evans. Uh we will now hear from our municipal adviser about how the proposed projects will be financed as well as information about the effect on the typical property taxpayer. Mr. Sander, >> good evening members of the board. Um this

052is the second presentation and last month we ran through the same presentation but there may be members of the audience who were not here last month. So we'll quickly go through the slides and also the kind of the financial parameters. This first slide shows um an overview of Goan Community Schools debt for 2025. You'll see at the far uh left hand side we are at about 18.7 million in debt service. In 2026 if we do not issue any additional bonds it drops down to 12 million8 and continues that way to 2027 and then 28 drops even further to just under 10 million and 8 million in 2029. Next slide is your current tax rate. Again, the far left shows that um our total tax rate since 2002 has been $1.56, just a little bit over

053that. And um and if not renewed, the operating referendum that it will retire in 2026, the tax rate would then drop down to around a$140ome. So this just shows what our projections are without again any new debt. Moving on to the third slide, tax rate projections with the proposed 2025 general obligation bonds. As has been noticed, we're proposing to issue up to $8.4 million of general obligation bonds. These bonds are highlighted in the in the bar chart here in the dark red or maroon. And we're proposing while the terms allow up to eight years, I believe, we're proposing that because of way the tax rate is falling that we would repay these in three years. So again, we would try to size this once we get the assessed value numbers coming in later this fall

054um to keep it again at a $156 54. Okay. Legal parameters. So these are the things that we want to cover in the public hearing tonight. The again the par amount of the bonds is 8,400,000. Cost of issuance underwriters discount around 200,000. So that leaves proceeds available for hard and soft project costs 8.2. Estimated interest rates we estimate between 2 and 6%. Maximum term 8 years. Estimated total interest cost very conservatively 988,350. The estimated annual payment at 6.5. Again, that payment will what we're anticipating will be much less since we're paying this off in three years. We're just trying to give us flexibility if we want to pay it off shorter. Um that's the reason for keeping that annual payment a little bit higher. The maximum tax rate impact is 3253 or 32.5 cents. However,

055there will be no tax rate increase over the 2025 rate because we have, as you saw earlier, the debt service falling off. And so that allows us to issue these bonds in a relatively short time without increasing the tax rate. School's maximum annual payments as a percentage of the net assessed value is 94%. Our direct and overlapping debt as a percentage of net assessed value with other applicable taxing units is 6.05%. And I believe that covers everything we need for here. So I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm sure we probably talked about it, but I just don't remember off the top of my head. And our goal is to invest 2% of our net assist value. And I think you said that was about seven and a half million. >> Is that correct? >>

056It's actually gone up I think a little bit but a little or 8 million. >> 7 and a half is kind of what we've been using which is very close to 2% of our total value of all properties. Right. >> So think we've got to continue to put money back in. uh just a rule of thumb that has worked for me previously and also are in white papers and things you can find it uh mostly when universities talk about keeping their facilities up instead of dilapidating uh they talk about 2% uh reinvestment in the capital uh so the way we way we look at that is the total value that's insured in the district and then we go up that number so that's kind of what we're shooting for 7.5 to 8 million a year.

057Uh, >> right. >> And actually, it's creeping up because the everything is worth more. So, >> right. So, with >> with this bond, are we going to pay it all off and we're not going to pay it off in one year? It's going to be over couple years. >> A couple years. >> Potentially three years. >> Three years. >> So, how does um like if we're going to invest that amount, does it end up getting split into thirds? So, this is actually going to be a third of each year's 2%. But all the other projects that we've already done are included in the total 2%. Is that how it's been figured? >> Does that make sense? >> Um I'm not sure you're wrong, but I I think I know what you're getting at. >> I

058I believe what Jim was explaining is that that 2% would be an annual investment. And so, uh it would be what you were saying is that using that formula, it would be about $8 million every year that we would look in for a bond annually. and the payment would be paid such in such a way that it wouldn't raise tax rates. We've always we've always tried for >> I guess what I was asking was is this 8 million here the only investment we're having over the course of the year >> but if if we're not paying it off on a yearly basis at that point you know that 8 million spread over three years >> but we could have a new 8 million next year and year after year of that. So just like last

059year we >> Yeah. I was just trying to figure out how it's being calculated, what the investments are being counted, and with the fact that like I mean, if I said, "Well, I'm going to put, you know, $3,000 into my house this year, >> but I'm paying it off over a couple years, and then 3,000, you know, you start getting them stacked on top of each other, how does that get calculated?" Essentially, is what I'm asking here. >> If you look at the tax rates that we had before, you see that they're coming down so quickly. um and even the debt service, right? >> So, we're just trying to keep that rate stable at this time >> and and there may be even discussion that we try to pay it off in two years because

060we know the year after that we have another big I mean there's options that we can look at. It would be nice if we got in a sit like it would be okay to like maybe our strategy will be we borrow to do that and then we pay it back in two years but then you know you're going to be doing the stackable payback. Uh but it if we manage uh to the the rate it would be you know to get the levy we need that $8 million. It's really the cess valuation of all the properties times the rate. And that's what we've managed to. We didn't want to we don't want to raise taxes, but we also want to make sure we get enough levy to take care of those properties. And within our

061operations bud budget, it's almost impossible to get it's it's so it's such a tight pinch uh to run uh transportation, to run the operations, to clean our buildings, to you know, our maintenance guys fixing stuff instead of putting it in a bond. You can't put everything in a bond. So, there's some things we pay out of there, but we try to get as much of the bigger projects moved over to to that uh to our geo bond strategy. Uh so, there's some changes that's coming in the future. uh there's going to be some more taxpayer relief which is going to impact uh how we manage to it's going to be harder to manage to the not raising taxes and given you know what we need to take care of facilities. So but I think we're

062going to we got a executive session to learn more about some of the >> we're going to come back later and talk more about the new changes of Senate Bill one >> but for us it's just one way that we can service the kids as best we can with the budget that we have, take care of our buildings as best we can, with the people that we have to take care of them, with just ongoing, you know, we fix the door. Well, we wouldn't do a geobond to fix the door. Uh we have a repair to an HVAC in this building. Well, our guys can do a lot of that work. So, that's all out of operations as well. Um, but when we get to the bigger projects, when we need a new roof, when

063we need to take care of paving, when we need to just do a renovation with carpeting and wall covering and uh that kind of work, that's probably going to be more of a geo bond or short-term borrowing for us. And, you know, the idea is we keep that short-term borrowing going. uh never raise taxes on the taxpayer, but get to a point in 20 240 where we really have a lot of ability to then and we'll keep lowering taxes as we can, but we have to make sure we're taking care of the facilities that we do have and it's it's a it's a balance that the board we can't predict where we're going to be in three years, but we can, you know, plan as if we're going to be somewhere and make sure we're

064well suited to to do that kind of work. And the longest term here for us is we thought well 2040 we'll have no debt. So if we don't take long-term debt it's only short-term debt that we're doing. Uh but that's a future board decision, a future superintendent decision and not one that you all are making now. But right now it's just this geo bond. Is this does this fit in the strategy? Is this logical? It's not just us trying to get as much money as we can to blow on stuff here. It's really targeted at taking care of facility so we don't have to do this. uh over and over and over. You just take care of it, keep it. My dad always told me, >> we drive by and see a barn that had

065had a caving in on itself. You always if they just took care of the roof on that thing, it wouldn't be like that. That that barn lasts forever, but if you don't take care of the roof, it won't last. And I feel like that's kind of our school system. We need to make sure we take care of our facilities. Uh that's an obligation I think uh whenever we build something new we have to think of we're going to have to take care of that and you figure well 2% every year got to go back into that thing. So >> on once more of that debt falls off, will there be a point where we could have those geo bonds if they're issued, they're actually paid off in a single year because we have so much

066more capacity to pay it because I know that even on those we have interest, you know, there's always a loss, >> right? >> Um I'd love to see it where we don't have as much. >> It would be nice if we could do pay it back in the year. I I think it's within striking distance. you know, you start looking at that those years and where could we get to do one geo bond pay back in a year, the interest rate would be less. There's still always going to be this estimated cost of uh that line up there, the second one, estimated cost of insurance, underwriting, discounts. There's there's just fees related to borrowing money all the time. It's not going to go away. Uh but yes the interest u would be less if only

067a >> lot of it will depend what is our future assessed value going to be down the road and there's going to be changes and we'll be probably talking about that later this fall any other questions thank you sir All right. Uh so with that we will now open the public hearing. Uh remember if you would like to speak please uh we ask you to sign in. Um as I mentioned earlier uh we ask that you state your name and address limit your comments in the proposed projects uh comments to about the proposed projects and financing and please keep your comments to three minutes. Um I have the signin sheet here. Uh so uh we will begin with Mr. Glenn Null. [Applause] Glenn, I know it's a state rig, so I'm going to go with

068I'll give you the address, but I really shouldn't have to. 319 Dewey Kosan. Not that any of you guys don't know where I live. Couple of questions real quick. You know, you keep statements. You you can't tax rate the same. Well, that's fine. I you know tax rate's fine except the count. Oh my god. That you the value on my property if I was to try to sell crazy. Nobody's going to pay that price for that. So how do you get that assessment? So you don't every year out of the taxpayers's money uh because you know there so problem with that the eight paying it back if you and you're telling us the interest amount paid will be a million dollars. from rounding which if we put that slide up I'd appreciate that and you

069know is that pretty a uh is is we playing uh Monte Carlo where you you find the queen you know they keep moving the cards around you can't figure out where the p is or what Let's see. I had a couple other things. Couple of in-house for you guys. When somebody come me to give my name. The last two gentlemen did not give their names or what their titles were. That's not fair. Know who they are. just housekeeping for you. the um stuff need but in the past we good bad information's been put out um and then when it was found out afterwards it was toughish and if you need that I will translate that it was too anything about it blah blah blah. There's a couple of superintendent back in general if if we

070get or the other it's like my credit how many money charge the guy I used a credit card for because I pay that off every month. You won't pay interest if you you you don't have a balance. But I But always here if you went to a credit go to a credit thing they would say get that credit card paid down sniff I'll shut up now but I still minute limit when it comes to my money. >> Thank you Mr. Do and uh so I'll I'll tell you so Mr. Hesser is our legal counsel from Warick and Boone. So he is here this evening and Mr. Sender is our financial adviser with uh sender and associates. So share that with you. Um anyone else? Uh we didn't have anyone sign in but I will give

071opportunities for anyone else. I see one shaking of a head and two shakings ahead. So everyone else is staff I believe. So okay. Um so with that I would like to thank everyone that participated in the hearing. Uh we appreciate your time and interest in on projects and the future of the community. Um you know this is this is the next step in the legal process. The board will continue to work with administration um and look for efficiencies to conserve tax dollars while meeting our educational needs. All right. So now moving forward I would say Mr. Sender could you please step forward and summarize uh the project resolution number 829. >> Sure. The project resolution is required when a school corporation is planning to spend more than a million dollars on any given facility or

072type of work which will be financed by bonds. Contains estimated hard and soft construction costs and the cost of issuance and establishes the total project costs. It also contains estimated tax rate impact and we just went through those items earlier. >> Thank you. Uh, so with that, uh, could I have a motion and a second to adopt project resolution 829? >> I'll move to adopt project resolution number 829. >> Second. Uh, moved by Mr. Glick, seconded by uh, Mr. Goodman. Uh, with that, board members, do we have any discussion regarding what we have heard uh, regarding uh, resolution 829? looking. All right. Um, no discussion. So, we have a motion and a second on the floor. All in favor, please say yay. >> A opposed. Passes uh 70. Thank you. All right. Mr. Senator, could

073you please summarize the preliminary determin determination resolution number 830? >> Yes. The preliminary determination resolution is required when a school corporation's planning to finance more than a certain threshold amount for school construction and improvements and contains the total project costs, estimated annual payment and lease term and other financial terms such as estimated principal amount and tax impact. >> Thank you. Could I have a motion and a second to adopt the preliminary determination resolution number 830? Move for the passage of item 6.3, resolution 8:30. >> Moved by Mr. Glick, seconded by Mr. Garber. Uh, comments or discussion and questions on item 8:30. >> I don't know if I was trying to make sure I hit the right one here since it does talk about what the uh interest rates potentially range. Um, Mr. Null asked, "Is

074the $1 million the maximum interest over eight years or is it if it's paid off in three?" Could that get answered? >> It's over three years and it's still at a very conservative rate. I would anticipate that amount being less >> less than 1 million. >> Yes. >> But that's on a threeyear not >> threeyear and that's our plan at this time. Your slide was that it was that was the cost was 8 million. >> Yep. Or excuse me >> to be find. So the 988,000 was the cost over three years and over that three years we will be paying down the principal. So it's principal and interest over those three years. The 988,000 is estimated cost. that was based on facts as we know it today. Um, you know, we're going to wait to

075issue the bonds till later this fall once we have a good read on what our net assessed value is so we can gauge what the tax rate will be. So the actual that $8 million total the interest is coming out of that total to pay it back. Is that correct? >> No, it is on top of the 8.4. The 8.4 4 million is the principal amount. >> So we'll pay it out of our operations. >> No, it's out of our debt service levy. >> Oh, debt debt service levy. Okay. That pays for that interest, >> right? >> And again, there will be no tax rate increase uh because of other debt falling off. >> Questions? Anything else? All right, we have a motion and a second on the floor for resolution 8:30. All those f

076favor, please say yay. >> Yay. >> Opposed. Passes 70. Thank you. >> All right, moving on. Mr. Senator, could you please summarize the preliminary bond resolution number 831? >> Yes. The preliminary bond resolution contains the project costs for the project as maximum interest rate and other financial terms such as the first interest payment date and maturity dates of the bonds. All with respect to the issuance of general obligation bonds. >> All right. Thank you. I have a motion and a second to adopt the preliminary bond resolution number 831. >> I move for the passage of resolution number 831. Moved by Mr. Glick, seconded by Mr. Goodman. Questions, discussions about resolution 831. Okay. Hearing none, we have a motion and a second on the floor. All those in favor, please say. I oppose. Same. Passes 70.

077And finally, Mr. Mr. Could you please summarize uh reimbursement resolution number 832? >> The reimbursement resolution permits a school corporation to reimburse itself from bond proceeds for any cash which it might spend on the project prior to closing on the bonds. It is required by federal tax law in order to preserve the school corporation's ability to reimburse itself. So, if a project needed for timing purposes to be awarded prior to the issuance of bonds and we had a payment, this would allow us to use bond proceeds to reimburse funds that we would use to pay that vendor. >> Thank you, sir. And with that, could I have a motion and a second to adopt the reimbursement resolution number 832? >> I move for the passage of item 6.5, resolution 832. Moved by Mr. Clicks, seconded

078by Mr. Goodman. Same thing. Any discussion, questions on resolution 832. Okay, we have a motion to second the floor. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Oppose. Same. Second zero. >> All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. All right. So with that now uh we will now move on to item seven which are our action items tonight and we will start with item 7.1 resolution authorizing uh litigation against social media companies. Mr. Deoce. So thank you board. We're asking for uh the board to give me authorization to sign to join a lawsuit against social media companies uh for harm to students and disruption of educational uh processes that are going on at the school level. Uh I think I read one little section here and then one of the whereases in our

079resolution is one of the last ones. says whereas Goan Community Schools Corporation is a leader in educational excellence whose faculty and administration care deeply about the educational well-being of its students and which is committed to leading and not following. And then we're asking for uh the ability to join this lawsuit uh with many many many many others. So, we don't anticipate there's going to be like a windfall coming to the school district, but we do uh recognize that there are many negative impacts uh that are felt by our students and by the school district as a whole trying to do our work as educators and also dealing with social media uh bullying etc etc etc that are going on for kids. and ask the board to u look into and give me the authority to

080sign off so the school corporation can join that lawsuit. >> All right. Thank you, Bob. Is there something to it? >> Yeah. Currently, there's over a third of the districts in Indiana joined the suit and that was as of last month, so there may be more. >> Good update. Thank you. Anything else to add to that, Bob? Uh the deadline to turn in our participation is quickly approaching. >> Okay, thank you for that. So with that, can we have a motion and a second for item 7.1 for discussion and voting? >> I'll move for the item or the passage of item 7.1, resolution authorizing litigation against social media companies. >> Moved by Mr. Glick, seconded by Mr. Goodman. Questions on item 7.1. What specifically is the end goal that they're trying to achieve? Are they

081trying to change how the companies are operating? Is it changing how the apps are or trying to just get money out of it? What's a successful lawsuit? I guess >> I think I don't know all the motivations behind it, but I would would say that for us here what we're hoping happens is there is some it's very addictive, >> right? Social media hits the parts of the brain that you know they when they do the imaging that lights up uh the same part of the brain that other addictions uh come in to do that and know that children are that addicted to it and then and use that for purposes that are just not good for kids. For me, it's about uh hopefully we'll have some constraints put on that how social media uh there

082has to be more controls on that. So, >> I'm not an expert on social media, but I would say >> that's our hope. >> I don't think we're going to there be that much money that would ever come to us if the lawsuit was won. Uh but it does help at least bring attention to it >> and the fact that it is there are dilitterious effects on children that we're not happy about. >> Does it cost us to join or is it just >> we just sign up? >> There's no cost. >> It's it's uh on a contingency basis from the people that are managing it. >> Okay. >> So it would be no cost. >> Okay. Other questions? comments. Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor. All those in favor

083of item 7.1, please say yay. >> Yay. >> Opposed. Passes 70. Thank you. All right, moving on to item 7.2. Approval of Gan Junior High School track top coat. Dr. Evans. So, we uh initially had this on the project uh for the bond, but we had an opportunity to jump on and get the asphalt completed and it has been completed and now we have 30 days. We need to wait when they ask for the asphalt to cure and we can put on the top coat. So, we're we have the ability to have the track finished uh in September if we can uh get approval to put the top coat on. If not, then then we'll have to wait till May to get it done. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, may I have a motion and

084a second for item 7.2? >> I move the approval of JHS track. >> Second move by Mr. Garver, seconded by Mr. Blick. Comments, questions on item 7.2. >> I think it's great that we got it ahead of schedule. Uh, does that mean the track isn't usable if the >> No, you could actually use it right now with the asphalt, but it would be preferable to put the rubberized top coating on it. >> Yeah. And I I appreciate figuring this out. >> Yeah, >> we talked about it for a while and I think Dr. Baker is appreciative of us getting down to her school. Anything else? All right, we have a motion and a second on the floor. All those in favor of item 7.2, please say yay. >> Yay. Oppos. Passes 70. Item 7.3, approval

085for adoption of Aadian reading program. >> Yes. Uh Aadian reading program is the state preferred dyslexia screener. Uh and we have to make the switch to Aadians because at the conclusion of the 24 school year, we had schools under the 7% as in high threshold. So, uh this replaces having five dibbles for kindergarten second grade as our screener. So, um just to implement that. >> Okay. And we have a motion for item 7.3 and a second. >> I move for the passage of item 7.3, approval for adoption of a cadence reading program. >> Moved by Mr. Glick second in by Mr. Goodman. So just maybe tying from our earlier discussions about I read with that 70% threshold is this after we've looked at everything about people moving around and this is you know just this

086>> they use uh 2023 2024 I read data. So uh nothing we could have done this year to change that decision. So uh because of that all the schools that had less than 70% of their students passing. We really have to use this screen here for the SLA. >> I'm a little curious what what uh maybe what's the difference between what we were using and what the the state's wanting us to use and what do they think will be the benefit. >> Uh this is what they selected as the preferred screener. So we really have no choice. Uh it's it the assessment is essentially the same. It measures the same things. the program, the software where the data goes is a little bit different. Questions are maybe a little bit different, but it it covers

087the same um factors that they were, you know, characteristics characteristics of dyslexia. So >> So they're trying to see if basically you got 70% or less because he had dyslexic students. That's >> I I I don't not necessarily this it's just this is what they selected. I mean amplified dibbles is I mean it's like a powerhouse out there and they did not choose them and so I don't know if they were looking for something different just uh but this is the screener they selected uh for us. Other questions, comments? >> Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor for item 7.3. All those in favor, please say a. Oppose. A >> 70. Item 7.4, approval of start. you both your names. >> Il uh we are um starting in third grade uh

088I learn checkpoints um as you know we updated into that last year. Uh so Il is also a preferred partner of Indiana uh when it comes to checkpoints uh for remediation and extra practice around that. And so uh we we are asking for your support in implementing uh grades 3 through 10 um in ELA and math. And so again 3 through 8 will be with uh ELA and math for I learn and checkpoints in the summit by the end of the year and then in the high school it will be for the PSAT. Uh this allows uh students to work uh on a computer uh building skills that may be deficits. uh we see a great opportunity for students who are performing at or above grade level because sky's is the limit. It's a K12

089uh program with curriculum from Indiana and so really sky is the limit for kids who can work at at their own pace and advancing you know skills that um may not be able to get in class. Um it is a cloud-based platform and so they will be able to do this at home if they choose and so um it is uh supplement to what we're doing in class um just through you know what last year we talked about three by three these three priority standards so also allows us to provide our students with diagn diagnostic assessment uh like an NWA type thing where we know where they compare to grade level a norm diagnostic assessment. So, it gives us a picture of where kids are three times a year. Plus, it allows the opportunity to

090work on areas where there may be deficits or where teachers teachers select what some extra help is needed. >> Yeah, I mean, I definitely would just add it's a complement to the the primary curriculum. Um, but we know that we have just a lot of variability within our classrooms that teachers are trying to meet the needs of those different levels. Um and we don't want kids who could move on to be sitting and feeling like they're waiting and so just really we'll meet the needs of all of our learners. We're excited about the possibility and teachers are too. >> Yeah. And so um last year we used a software called Cambium uh to measure 3x3s and um would do that for us. And so this will replace the cost that we're paying for Cambium. And

091again it's it goes beyond the assessment. and it gives our students an opportunity to work on paths um on their own uh where Cambium did not have any of the instructional pieces. It's just a tool for the assessment. >> Okay. Thank you. And with that, may I have a motion and a second for item 7.4? >> I move in approval by myself. >> Second move by Mr. Garber, second by Mr. Glick. Um questions, comments on item 7.4. >> You were mentioning, and it says in here too, that they can do it at home or at school. What is our goal? Like, is this actually going to be implemented during school time or is it mostly just we want to have something you could take home and do if you >> It's a yes and uh

092ideally we would have this be part of small group instruction. So uh in in elementary and in classrooms in general there are opportunities for teachers to work in small groups. You know teacher with three or four students and then there's certain areas in the classroom where kids are doing other things that allow for that opportunity for the teacher to work with kids. So this will be a great tool for that where it is not uh it takes very little planning uh for the teacher and it's geared towards the needs of that specific student. So that will be how we would use it in in in the classroom. Uh and because it's web web based and it can be do at not at home, it could be a homework piece. Uh if if a teacher or

093a school chose to do that, we would have um opportunities for weather days uh where kids would still have to practice tailored to their needs um just in front of the screen. >> And also just add there are parameters of time, right? We don't want just kids sitting in front of a computer, right? So whether it's in school or at home, we're going to be giving good guidance to that. >> That's good. >> Yeah. Okay. Other questions or comments on item 7.4. All right. Hearing none. We have a motion to second on the floor. All in favor, please say yay. >> Oppos. Same. >> 70. Thank you. And finally, item 7.5, uh, Indiana State University of Memorandum of Understanding. >> Yeah. And it's me again. Uh so with with your approval uh we will become

094a preferred partner of Indiana State University which means that anyone who is employed by Goian Community Schools would receive a tuition discount above uh 15%. And this is for anyone who works for Goan in any program at Indiana State. So uh they would uh during the application process as as someone enrolls with um Indiana state once we get okay they will add to that list of partners and so it automatically discounts their tuition by 50%. >> Okay in return they want to uh us to promote programming. So uh the vice president of student advancement or something would select a certain program uh that they want us to you know hand out flyers or something like that. Okay, thank you. And may I have a motion and a second for item 7.5? >> I move for

095the passage of item 7.5 Indiana State University Memorandum of Understanding. >> Moved by Mr. Glick, seconded by Mr. Goodman. Questions, items, discussions for 7.5. >> It does apply to part- timerrs as well. >> I I believe so. Yeah. uh when in the conversation and so this came out of we have uh five principles who are participating in uh Indiana principal leadership institute which is in partnership the Indiana principles association and Indiana State University and so as they were you know talking about this partnership um yeah they said that it's for anyone who works for those community schools uh for any of their programming so there's no stipulations about full-time uh I think the termination would happen if they once someone separates themselves from Goan then the discount goes up. >> Do you know how many

096school districts are required? >> I I don't but they are um I mean I imagine there it's a free opportunity so there's probably >> we know there are a lot of districts taking advantage of IPLI through them. They would have their people there. So I can't imagine they wouldn't also be pursuing this. Okay. Any other questions? All right. We have a motion in a second floor for item 7.5. All in favor, please say yay. >> Opposed. 70. Thank you all very much. That takes us through our action items. And now we'll move on to discussion items. And we'll go with 8.1 district marketing. Dr. Metaf. Uh so at the last meeting I talked to you that now that we have a PR specialist or a communication specialist we'd be looking to um craft our own

097marketing strategy. One of the things that uh he has been in touch with he has been in touch with like wdu to produce a 30 secondond commercial that will really I think it talked about in the powerpoint uh highlight GCS is a high standard of academic excellence that encourages their students to be involved in athletics performing arts co-curricular and clubs throughout their educational experience. basically a 30 secondond commercial about telling our story, telling the great things that are going on. It's it's not necessarily saying enroll now. It's just getting the word out there um that go is a great place to be. Why wouldn't you want to enroll? Um so the um WNDU would produce a 30 secondond commercial which would then run uh we uh for four different months and I think the months

098uh are listed there are November. We we would like to run it in November. We we thought about trying to get it in October, but we weren't sure there would be enough time if this was approved late August in order for them to um have it ready. So, it would run in November, December, and then February and April next year. Um mainly through um YouTube uh YouTube TV, YouTube video, and also streaming services that that uh do long form entertainment such as movies and and things like that. uh you know some of those some of those services have a commercial and a commercial free option. So these would run on those that um have the commercial option. Um and so uh the price um includes not only the the four months of um getting it

099running but also the production of the video. Uh so we're bringing this to you tonight for just discussion hope and hope to bring it back in action on the next board meeting. So, thank you for that. Um, so I want to make sure I'm just looking at the costs accurately. >> So, I see a total cost of of $8,700. And then what is different about the monthly marketing strategy for $2,175, >> which is on the second last page. So, I'm not necessarily sure to be honest with you um that there that the total cost is 80 is um $8,700. So, um it does not add up necessarily to uh I think the the remainder of the cost is the produ production of the video. Um we would also we are going to be saving money

100because we will be doing our own narration. Vince Turner has been great about um offering his services at any time. Um so I believe the difference is the in the production if I if I if I understood your correction um your question correctly. Um Andrew would um know more and I can find I can also find those questions out and >> isn't it because it's four months. >> So four months times 2,175 is the 87. >> Oh there you go. >> Well there you go. >> There you go. I just Yeah. Yeah, one of the questions I had, so a previous company I worked for did use some commercials provided through companies like WNDU. I don't know what the quality of the commercial at WNDU would produce. We always felt like when they were produced

101by them, it wasn't as high quality and maybe as we would have liked. Okay. >> What type of control would we have over the actual quality of the output? >> Um, that is actually a good question. So, Andrew as our communication specialist, we I mean he will be working with them to um and they would bring um from what I understand as the as the video is produced, once it's produced, it would be brought back to this office to review to um help determine are there changes that need to be made at one point or another. So I'm we would have final say it also has ownership of the video for use in in in the future. So um that includes so this cost also includes just um the video is ours to use even

102after in other mediums after this um after this uh um strategy is done completed. >> Right. I think one of the the things I would probably said about the ads we had produced they were generic. So in other words, you could identify the ones that that particular news group had or not news group but a advertising group had produced because it looked like theirs. >> So it didn't make you unique, >> right? >> As opposed to that's one of the reasons I you know Andrew will be working closely with them. This is our first to be honest with you. This is one of our first one this is our first um for um um excursion into creating and working our own marketing strategy. Could we produce this in-house? Maybe. Um but uh you know I

103don't think we could do it in the time we needed in order to get it to the quality we want in order to get to market. So um you know we've seen some we've we've seen some examples of their work in the past that are that are good. I've seen one from um I believe Mberry Schools has has done one also uh through them. But um so we feel like with with with uh with our input with Andrew's input specifically um we can get what we want out of this video, >> right? Who made the video this morning? >> Actually, that was Andrew. >> That was Andrew. >> Andrew, I thought it was pretty high. >> Andrew wrote it. He did all the video, videography, and then of course Vince. >> Well, I'll say this

104is a far cry from what we spent almost 10 years ago, I guess nine years ago for >> a very expensive forte into advertisement that I don't think really resulted in much of anything. >> Yeah. So yeah, I I I think Andrew and I, you know, as we as we reviewed this and as we looked at at at this and what they could and what they could offer and what maybe he could learn by watching them do this. Um so there are some pieces there. Um I think we felt like that it was worth it was it was worth um it was worth the the pursuing this opportunity. Um uh especially as as Mr. Riddle had said considering you know we've got I think we got one commercial out of the last one and I

105I do know what the annual cost was and um so I think we feel like this is a much more economic way economical way of of dipping our toe into that marketing. If this does not pan out, if it does not, we do not feel like the investment is has been overwhelming that it would that would it would really um I don't want to say bankrupt this, but it it would we what we would learn might outweigh the the cost of the video even if it's not successful. Um but um at worst, our goal is to hope our goal is to get our name and our narrative out there. Um so hopefully we'll be able to do that. other questions currently. >> So, one of one of the reasons probably the most important reason we

106had that campaign um before it was to increase enrollment for the fear that we're going to lose enrollment. >> So, we get our uh name out and what we have accomplished. What is the goal though? So in addition to getting our name out there and um you know we do accept transfers in kindergarten um kindergarten, fifth, 7th and at the high school levels um some of the some of the things to be identified in there is some of the academic pieces maybe some of the CTE pieces. So we might it might in it might encourage people to inquire more about go community schools. But one of the other things we want to do is we want to we want to make sure that everyone in the community knows including our parents of our current students.

107the opportunities that their kids have here in order to hopefully make sure that they our our goal is also to keep kids. Um so our goal would be not only not only possibly to attract although we're not specifically doing a hey enroll now or anything like that. Um our goal would be to attract but also to m to keep our current enrollment. Um so you know those are those are those are numbers we can monitor. Um, so can we trace it directly back to the production of this video? And they think probably not, but um, you know, our goal would be to, you know, we could start we could start asking people when they come and transfer, how did you hear about Ocean Community Schools? I mean, that's that's a question we see on a

108lot of surveys when you when you go to apply for something. How did you hear about us? Um, so we might be able to gather some information about that. But it really is about that making sure and also our just the community our taxpayers know beyond you know if they're not watching our board meetings they're not coming to our sporting events they probably don't know what's going on inside go community school on a daily basis or a yearly basis this again gives us that opportunity to get that out there because they're the ones that are really funding our schools. So I think they deserve to know how what a great place this is. So with that in mind, you know, you do you pay for advertising especially online uh and you can really target your

109audience um you know doesn't make sense >> right >> to create this commercial and be seen in Michigan. Right. >> Right. >> So is there a way to really target our audience target Elkart Ocean County? >> This will be specifically targeted in the St. Joe Elkart County area. We'll probably go into We'll probably also go into Marshall Marshall and Kaziasco and then maybe southern Michigan, but really yes, they can target those who gets it. So, yes, they will be doing that. >> I think a lot of it's like zip code based. >> I think it is. >> Which is just amazing how they can really know where you're watching your stuff. >> Yeah. So >> just to add on what he was saying, do we have a mechanism to measure success? Like I'd like to

110see >> right >> what what does it mean to be successful? Whether you're >> you're saying it's a number you're saying it's not >> right. Well, >> yeah. I I think we you know I think we can we can try to determine you know how much influences. Now we can we will get we will get I I believe we will get metrics back on how many times it is viewed. Now, does viewed mean they hit the skip button once the three or four probably 90 seconds are up or do they watch the entire thing? I I do not know necessarily the the details of that and I can I would be more than happy to have Andrew at the next meeting if you so choose to just kind of see if he can answer some

111of those questions for us. >> Would they would they be able to to um share it? For example, if I see it on on Facebook and that pops up, >> will I be able to share that commercial with my groups? >> I believe we I believe we can do that once the conclusion and I I don't want to um Andrew did the negotiations with them. Um I don't want to speak for him necessarily in case I'm incorrect, but once it is done, it is our video to do whatever we want. So, we could go to Facebook during the media during the media process. I would I would imagine they probably are not wanting us to, but maybe they maybe they will allow us. But that is also a question that I can have Andrew answer.

112>> That would be great because then our parents would be sharing to other parents. >> Yeah. Nowhere in here does it talk about it being an exclusive piece, but we can double check on that. >> Yeah. For me, it's about our brand to a certain degree. >> And then the other part of it is we want to market to the community to this goan community that we serve. A lot of other districts are trying to steal kids from other districts. We just want our kids to stay here with us. We're not so interested in educating you know kids that live in other districts. Um but you know we we'll do that if in certain cases where it makes sense for us to do that. But we want our kids that live in Goan to stay

113in Goan to be educated here at Goan Community Schools. And that's the most that's our biggest push. >> So a metric, right, would be to see if it reduces transfers, right? >> Could do what? >> If it if the campaign reduces transfers or our kids transferring outside to other districts. >> That would be a big one >> for me. >> I think you'll probably find that four months isn't necessarily long enough in the long term to have an >> right. you won't be able to look at the data. I mean, you'll you'll have enough fluctuations in just normal life that four months you won't be able to pick to it, but it will put your brand out there. >> Well, and that's one of the reasons we chose the months we we did. We chose

114we tried to get two two this two in the fall uh and then two in the spring uh and spread it out so that we don't just do a four month saturation and then we're done. How do we how do we make this go throughout this course of the school year so that just as you know I haven't seen it in a while it pops back up so maybe we can we can get them back like back back in that in that that manner. Okay. Well, good questions discussion. Uh this will be an agenda item at our next meeting uh to take action on. So over the next couple weeks, if more questions come up, let's definitely try to reach out so we can uh get those uh responded to or the right people in

115the room uh to respond to them in the moment. That mean All right. Well, that does take us to the conclusion of our discussion items and we will move on to closing items. We'll start with item 9.1, any miscellaneous uh administrative items. just to say that this was our, you know, first day back for our staff. Fantastic morning. I think I know William was able to make it and and Jose was able to make it. Uh, so nice positive message. I think uh just real excited about the school year. I think we're going to have a great great start. Energy seems to be very good out there. So hopefully keep keep that going throughout the year. Um we also want to announce that uh Wednesday is our first day of school stagger start day um

116which means our kindergarten, fifth grade, 7th grade, 9th grade will be here and the whole staff can pay attention to those kids and help take care of them. And then the rest of the school district uh in full starts on Thursday and uh so we'll cross our fingers and hope everything starts smooth. And uh I know people are ready, so everybody's chomping at the bit to get started. So that'll be exciting. And our next board meeting will be August 25th here at 6 p.m. >> All right. Uh 9.2 miscellaneous board items. I just wanted to say, excuse me, thank you. Well, if I could talk for this morning, I thought it was it was a great way to start. Um, I've been impressed ever since you've came on and the way you started our school

117years and I really appreciated it. >> It's all about the 1% so you can read the book and kind of get a gist of what it was about. So, >> I guess this a quick question for you, Dr. M. I guess transportation is going to be a fun week. >> I was hoping that was a lot. Yes. You know, we we we have encouraged people throughout the summer. We've had more people sign up earlier than we ever have. Um however we are still short of where we were last last uh when we ended the year of numbers of people that are registered. We have people coming in and registering um now but as they register now we we let them know that transportation might not be available the first couple days. Um but we had

118our parent leaison calling especially all freshman and seventh graders. Um freshman because they're transferring over to the to a new school and they might not think about oh I got to call and get transportation and seventh graders also because that's the first grade level where we require them to register for transportation. I think we were a little over like right around 500 at the middle school and just a little bit more than that at the high school. So, um, we're going to things things are moving for forward. Um, road construction around the area is not exactly going to help us out, though. >> I know Plymouth Avenue closed yesterday or today. >> Yes, I know they were putting the barricades up. That is one of the main arteries we use. So, >> Oh, that's a

119heavily used road. >> It's a very heavily used and Lincoln or four up is still closed. There's and there's a number of other places uh out by the roundabout by the courthouse uh hopefully will open but then they're going to work on Peddler's Village Road. So, um it's going to be um >> yeah, it's going to be it's going to be interesting and um I encourage parents to please use the use the app. You can track the buses during that during that during that time. You can know when where your bus is in relation to your bus stop. So, >> it works. >> It does work. >> Tell you it works. So, please do that if you're if you're unsure. >> Sorry, I had to ask. >> No, I was going I meant to bring

120it bring it up during the first one. I didn't want to go back to it. >> That's all right. >> Anything else for the board tonight? All right. With that, I'll have a motion and a second for adjournment. Second. No. >> All in favor? Please say I. I. >> I. We are adjourned. Have a wonderful evening.