June 9th School Board Meeting

00125. Please rise 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. I would like to welcome everyone to our June meeting tonight. Um glad you're all with us. School is officially out. graduation has been completed and we are excited for the future here. So just a few opening remarks. 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 for agenda and non-aggenda items as indicated by agenda item number three. The mission of go The mission of Goan Community Schools is to inspire

002innovations, empowering potential and enriching our world. Our vision, Goan Community Schools, Elcart County School District of Choice. Uh our agenda tonight, uh do we have any revisions to that, Mr. Deo? Yes. Uh we would like to add an action item, uh and that is to hire West Scotian's principal. And that was kind of a late thing and didn't make it to the And I think that's it, right Terry? Yeah. Check with my boss. I think we were going to put it in the consent agenda under the person as an addition to the personnel roster. Okay. So, I'd like to amend that and put it as I I think let's make it an action. Let's make it action item. Okay. Uh so I will be adding uh item 7.8. We will call it approval of West

003Scotian Elementary School principal. Um I would ask for a motion and a second to amend the agenda. As I just said, I'll move to amend the agenda to item 7.8. for the approval of West Ocean Elementary School Principal. I'll second uh by moved by Mr. Glick, seconded by Mr. Goodman. Anything from the board on that hearing? None. All those in favor of the uh amend agenda, please say I. I opposed. That passes 6. All right. And then item 1.5 are approval of our minutes from the May 12th, 2025 regular schoolboard meeting and May 12th, 2025 executive session. Board members, any items to comment or revise from that hearing? None. Uh they are approved as presented. We'll move on to item two, student and staff recognition. Shriner. I'll begin tonight's recognition by calling up David and

004stand here and we are recognizing you for earning fourth atma. Is that right? For the unvoiced men choir which I think And that means that you're singing mostly means all the choirs have the same. So it's either all I'm getting congratulations and you are on I'd like to next recognize Catherine. Come on up. Catherine is being recognized this evening for receiving the Dr. Aurora Dcastro Scholarship. Um, and that is very impressive. And so like you're one of like many high school students in Elkart County. Is that right? And county $40,000 to $10,000 a year. I looked her up and she was quite the entrepreneur. So I don't know what you want to study but whatever whatever Congratulations. So that's a businessriven entrepreneur class. Um and we all it was a group of students who got

005together every morning started at 7:30. So it was a drive. Um and we just um business around the area and got my business. So it was kind of like a closet. So thank you. [Applause] Um, as we continue with student recognition, I'd like to just um honor Christina who isn't here this evening. And so the um she uh is just an incredible runner and she's added again. Um and so she when competing in the NLC championship, she broke her school records in the 100th meter and 200 meter along with making a new record in the 200 meter and the NLC championship. So that's just one accolade. The second one is she um is being recognized for winning and setting a new sectional record in the 200 meter at sectional. And then finally she received uh

006third place on the podium at state in the 400 meter. Um and so she is a talented runner and she's junior senior junior one year. So we are sad that she could not be here. Um but we just wanted to make sure is she running? So um yeah, she is committed and then finally uh voice sectional. If you're in the room and you don't know this boy sectional and regional, I I'm delighted to catch you up. So we are uh sectional champions this year and regional champions. And I wrote this down. We have not been a regional champ since 1981 in baseball. baseball to clarify. I just clarify in baseball. Um but still that's just an incredible feat and we will be playing again this Saturday um at four wins in South Bend and I

007believe the first game's at two and then when we win at exciting I don't know if we have any updates on how to get tickets at this point. It'll be online unless you'll be online through Event Link. Yeah, we'll put it on social media, right, Andrew? He's planning on getting the word out for us. So, if you have a plan, just make a fun baseball. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. And we uh we love to recognize our our students. So, thank you. All right, we will now move forward with uh public comment. We'll start with Mr. Glendel. Glen Goian, I did notice. Well, you added one. I hope the west go gian elementary principal can get used to a gra a crabby old man that lives in the neighborhood we'll tell him how

008to what he thinks about how things are going at that building but I trained the last one so I I probably should be able to train the next one so I'm not too worried about that and I did notice that on 7.4 four talking about closing ad offices to we the people. I don't know what that's about and I have a problem. Anytime you close anything down that we pay for I understand that schools are different but ad buildings are different too. So I don't know how that's on go. I'd love to comment after you guys speak about it. I don't think that's going to happen because that just isn't done anymore. used to be done 30 plus years ago and it worked out fine for everybody in the community. The other thing is still

009going to the harp that some people need to get off the board and I will continue doing that until either you're replaced by the we the people or you leave on your own or the courts take you off. I'm going to continue saying that. If you don't think I will, just keep keep hoping that because that is one thing that that's one hill I'm willing to die on. I think it's teaching students the wrong thing. You teach them, oh yeah, you can cheat. You can do this and that and get away with it. But heaven forbid him students do that in the classroom. You ain't going to allow them to do that. You can't cheat. They'll catch you. He'll come out. No, no, no. I don't care. Time to get off. Thank you, Glenn. And

010that will conclude our items this evening. We will move on to item four in superintendent reports. Mr. Voice, I'd like to start out uh with our financial commitments and um Dr. Evans has a couple things I think to share with you. Yes, we would like to uh moving forward, we'd like to secure a a bond, a geo bond for our 2025 projects or projects would be in 26, but the bond would be uh processed in 25. The goal would then uh to secure a bond that would not increase the tax rate, but it would be to pay for the second project at Gian Junior High, the HVAC project. We had one bond that covered about half of it and the other half of the classrooms would like to get HVAC equipment in that as well.

011Uh second attempt at resurfacing ghs I'm sorry go junior high track roofing projects at goan junior high and other elementaryaries asphalt work at goan junior high and carpet at parkside elementary and go junior high. So most of the bond proceeds would be to direct um work at Gosh Junior. I know the classroom has carpet that's in excess of 20 years old. So it's about time to be replaced. We replaced the hallways a few years ago. Now it's time for the classroom. So with that in mind, uh we would have our first preliminary determination hearing uh on July the 14th, the second one on August the 11th uh with hopes to close it in late October or early November, and that would give us the proceeds to start uh projects in 26. Do you have a

012rough order of magnitude of the size of the geo bond? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't say that. I don't believe you did. Sorry. $ 8.3 million. My bad. I meant to say that. The uh second half of the HVAC project at the junior high was $4.3 million estimated. Resurfacing of the track is estimated at $700,000. Uh resurf redoing the roofs is $1.1 million. Asphalt work at $1.5 million. And carpet at the junior high and park side would be $700,000. That wouldn't be all questions or comments from the board. Am I correct? There was a change in how geob bonds are done in the latest. Yeah, that would be for a control project. So, we're not that that we're not subject to that this year. Okay. We've we've been in conversation with our Ice Miller and

013Stifa. We had the same question making sure any other questions for bring us to our student achievement commitments. Uh and where Shriner Yes. So I'm pleased um to announce that at least preliminary results of I learn indicate that we will have achieved our 1% or better in ELA at least that and then in math at least double what um that performance and so again these are preliminary results but um as the data is coming in it's looking like we're meeting and exceeding our goals. Thank you. questions for worry. So, when I roughly when do you think we're going to get the the results so we can know what the actual gains were? Is it a couple months yet? Um, I would say at least a month. Okay. I don't know. Mr. Snowy, Dr. Metaf, the

014estimate is July one. And we tend to be able to give you all the ABCs and what what our date is at the July 14th, I think, for meeting. Um, you know, I I hate to speculate, so let's not speculate. Let's tell. But couple months, it's significantly better than 1% on English language arts and it's a good news story. I want to make sure we we have the right information so that we can really share the great progress we're making. So, and we will also be able to share the i3 data then as well. So, it should be, you know, day for data on that July meeting. Uh, next next up question just so I understand does that track that's different students year to year, right? It's not the same student got tested two years

015in a row and you had a the data that we're going to be looking at is uh that we'll be sharing with you. We'll share other data with you if you want, but we're one of the things the way we like to look at is what's third grade and fourth grade the same cohort of kids. The same cohort of co cohort of kids. It's not exactly correct because there's some kids that move out and some kids that move in and then what happens is um in that that same cohort you have kids that have moved in that were here and I think it's 120 days that they're here. They count on the day that they don't that's what we're waiting for. We have the data set for everybody. Okay. I'd like to share that because

016we think it's only going to go up from there but it's pretty impressive we think uh for that growth. So that's three through eight. will also tell you English language arts and math passing both uh can we be wanted to be be 1% and that we're pretty confident it's going to be more than that um and but that data again has to get cleaned up and they share it back with us. So they look at the somehow they compare the attendance with the number of days here with the scores and that's what they look at and they hold us accountable for those who could have been here enough days. Uh and then we we could have shared the tenants. We thought well let's do it all together. We have the tenants and even the behavior

017we have the principles are meeting with us on the 16th and they're going to bring their data to us and we're going to have a big sharing data day and looking at data and conversations with them on the 16th but we'll be doing the ABCs with them on their building and different ways they're looking at the data. Good questions. Any others? Okay, next up is operational excellence and we're going to go with Dr. Metaf on a couple of updates. Okay, transportation. I see Don is here along with a couple of our drivers that are retiring. So, we're we'll we'll hear more about them in the personnel roster, but um we are currently in our sign up time for registration for bus riding next year. Remember, everyone grades 7 through 12 needs to reregister every year.

018Um Don, would you um care to just tell us what the timeline is on that? Uh yeah, timeline is uh July 1 deadline and we're sending out weekly information to all parents during that time of registration. After that, we're we're building our routes. We're waiting for our roll over to uh get all our new students into. So, that gives us uh roughly about two and a half weeks to get routes finalized and to our drivers. Hopefully after the 18th, that's when we want to release our routes and pick up times and everything to our to our parents and students. July 18th. July 1st does not mean you cannot get apply for transportation after that. It's just that um it might take a little while to get you into the routes because we'll be building those

019routes. So, you'll be added as those routes get built. How are those communications going out to parents? Uh those go out through our bus app. uh parents have real time notification of that uh changes are made on that. So if we make the change like right now if I make the change on someone's route you would be able to refresh your page and see that change. Maybe I let me ask you how are families being reminded to register right now. Is that through bus quest as well? We are sending notifications out through uh Andrew um about once a week and then uh starting tomorrow we're going to be sending that out through notifications through our bus quest app. Yeah, he does a parent Andrew does the parent square and then we'll we'll share that information

020on our bus app. And those parent squares have begun. What's that? And the parent squares notifications have begun. Yes, they have. I will check because I don't think we've gotten any. You haven't got anything? Yeah. So, I Okay, I'll check with Andrew tomorrow. Yeah. I just I I could be an anomaly, but I want to make sure that our families are getting them. Absolutely. Because Yeah. Yeah. We'll send our bus. Appreciate you checking. Thank you. And then, um before Well, I got you up there. You have quite a few bus drivers retiring. How many bus drivers do you have? We do. We've had uh we had five uh bus drivers retiring this year and we also have one bus a with us for many years too. So we u we have prospects of a couple

021drivers right now but it's uh going to be an interesting year on how we can work around these retirements. And I don't know if I'm correct in what I'm going to say, but we do pay the highest, don't we? Pretty much. We are one of the one of the highest in and you're benefits eligible if you bus drivers. So those are so if you know any help us recruit. We're looking for bus drivers. Thanks, Don. And secondly, there was a change in the legislature um some of the laws that came out. Um in the past we had previously been allowed to assess fees for supplemental materials and um equip some equipment. Um two years ago when the state took over the TBR there was a lot of debate uh between even the state and even

022our attorneys would say one thing and then we talked to another attorney they say you can but the the state did remedy that and and did uh does allow schools to assess fees for some supplemental materials and equipment. Uh one of the things we had been charging supplement um a rental fee for was um band and orchestra instruments at the high school. Um just because those are those are those are expense those are expensive. They're expensive to maintain. Um we will we will be bringing back a fee schedule to you in in July asking that we go ahead and re reinstate the uh rental fees that we had previous for the uh instruments. And and right now that's the only thing we're we're looking at or will be the other things in the future. I

023I think in the future as we as that as more people explore what what makes a supplemental material or equipment. Um we will we will look at that. Um I know we also used to assess fees at one time for technology and some other things. Um uh we had stopped all that. uh and our job we're not looking to just increase and we're looking to very strategically think about what we can what we can offset and that affects uh maybe not everyone but but um certain like not everyone um rents an instrument some still rent their instrument from Quinland and Fabish or wherever so it's students who rent ours instruments um so we'll be looking at situations like that first thank you any more questions for Dr. Okay, last up is our people commitments and

024I think Tracy, you got a couple or you might have something. So, we'll start with Tracy. Yeah, just uh just update on the Gallup survey. That window closed last week and so we're getting the results and it looks like we're trending up. So, that's always a good thing. um principles we will be looking at the results of their buildings and the people assigned to them and be adding that to their school improvement plans and hopefully making some more positive adjustments there. Um we are in the middle of hiring process in the HR office. Um we are really doing a pretty good job of filling slots. As of last week, we had 14 teachers that will be attending the teacher re um teacher new teacher orientation. Um we still have some slots for special education teachers,

025which is a gap across the the state of Indiana. Um but most of our teaching positions are filled. Our biggest gap, you heard, was bus drivers. We're trying to recruit bus drivers left and right. Um, we'll be running a big campaign here in the next couple weeks to try to fill some of those retirement spot spots for those bus drivers, but looking pretty good for hiring right now going into going into June. So, I think that was all you had, Tracy, right? Any questions for Tracy? And then Lori, I think you had something to update on parent engagement stuff. Yes. Um, so we had our last uh parent community staff uh meeting uh Red Hawks Rising meeting uh last week and we had Dr. Medaf and Mr. Sheets at the grill grilling up hamburgers and

026hot dogs to thank all of them for their work this year which was wonderful. Mr. Deo got a chance to say thank you to the group for their work. Um and then our school leaders had a chance to let the the group know what we're doing with their um their feedback that they are giving towards some of our action steps to improve parent engagement. So it was a nice closing to the year. And then finally we had our parent engagement expert uh Patricia Winesful one last time with our building leaders again after her professional development. the principles gave her high marks and they felt like the professional development was um very relevant to their work. Um and so because of that I'll be coming back and talking to you a little bit more about how

027we can use her with our uh certified st classified staff, parent liaison, um administer office staff and possibly school counselors. So you can be looking for that. But um we always want our principles to be lead learners in their buildings because they have to support the work if it transfers. And so it's important to start with them. Um, and so more to come. Thank you, Lori. And that concludes our reports. All right. Unless there's questions from the board. All right. We appreciate those. Thank you. Uh, we will move on to item five, which are our board committee reports. So, I will look around. Maybe I'll look to the go. Sorry. Maybe let you go first. Since May, join us. for your last time here? Um, well, we had the Memorial Day parade last month and

028that went really well because all the advisors came together and we handed out candy to the kids around the area and it was just really nice getting to talk to community members that I hadn't seen before. So, maybe would you like to introduce us to our our new rep? This is Cameron. She'll be taking over the school board position. Hi, I'm Mala. I'm really honored and excited to be here. Well, we are glad to have you join us. We're sorry that we're sad to see you go, but you're moving on to bigger and better things. So, get to enjoy your your summer off now and uh we will see you back here in August. All right. Thank you guys. All right. Board members, uh updates for yourself, for your committees you sit on? I can

029go first. Go ahead. So, I had my first meeting with the foundation u the go community schools foundation. They have $17,000 in their general fund. They raised nearly 17,000 through the major savers program and their spirit cards had an additional 1500 come in. Um they got a trivia night scheduled for October 28th. Scoreke keepers are still needed for that. They're they were planning to pickle ball tournament at the soccer academy that was um previous I'm not sure if that was actually done or not. Um and then they're still doing grant applications. Okay. Thank you. And again uh last year the administrative team did win the contest and beat the board. So there's a traveling trophy in my office. Welcome all challengers get whoever wins gets that one. So between the board anyway and then we

030just travel back and forth. Okay. So good luck next year or this fall. I have a like quick quick question. Can you remind us what the community school foundation can um now that perhaps some of our kids have to pay for rental instrument. Is this something that Foundation help. So I I would say and this is not 100%. So typically um different classroom teachers could apply for a grant for an item within their their classroom. Maybe it was particular materials. I know many many days years ago we did like flexible seating. So it was uh unique things. I wouldn't say it was oneoff items, but that doesn't mean that the music department couldn't put in a broad application for that that would be considered. Um I I don't think anything's not considered. Uh we we

031have gotten away from like teachers asking for equipment um like chair seating and things like that. We have we we have we have um had conversations with um administrators about um and and teachers about if you need that you you know you should go to your administrator. The foundations was created really to provide teachers with the opportunity to um get extra resources for their classes um beyond what beyond what the school uh would offer. And so um I know they've they've kind of done that. They've really been focusing on experiences lately for um for uh different grade levels like the fourth grade outdoor education experience. Um they've been working toward the third grade um aquarium trip um some of that. So it's not to say people can't um apply for for grants like that. Um

032but um I know that they've been really focusing on um things that would benefit everyone um more than just specific groups lately. I just know that a lot of our families are free or reduced lunch and you know they they some of our kids are involved in multiple things. So just the idea or just the thought they would have additional money to and and there are mechanisms for people that qualify to be able to have that those items uh funded through other means. So, but it's a it's a it's a very good point to bring up. I appreciate you saying that. Uh, building trades uh met uh in May and uh with uh the instructor falling ill, they did kind of call things a little bit early uh for the kids. they did finish up

033the project and so uh John Everingham has graciously stepped up to fill in uh until Todd uh gets back. We we do anticipate he will be back uh next year and uh there will be building the 50th house project since since we've had the building trades program at Goan High School. So everyone's kind of excited about that. Uh but we also want uh Todd to be 100% before he comes back. So uh we'll let him heal up over the summer here. Um so that's kind of kind of the big things um as the treasurer uh working with with John to uh wrap up all the billings etc. So that uh because our fiscal year ends at the end of this month so we can keep all the the uh record keeping straight. So But moving

034moving forward, they had a good project and uh it was it was a good thing for us to do. Um I'll just comment briefly on the go redevelopment commission. So uh we meet tomorrow. Um one item on the agenda is something that has been in the works for the greater of a decade now and it's the quiet zone of the railroad as I heard a train here a few minutes ago. Um, one of the biggest holdups of that is the uh crossing actually right over here at Madison Street that currently still does not have any uh gates. Um, the city is now uh redevelopment is now being forced to do a larger property search on that because the railroad does not feel they have significant right away to complete what they need there. So, the

035city and redevelopment will be tasked with doing more due diligence in the efforts to try to get uh an eventual quiet zone here so we don't hear the whistles as often in our city. So, uh I would say we're not close yet. Uh this has been ongoing I think probably at least since 2013, maybe even longer than that. They've been talking about a quiet zone. So, that is the largest crossing that we're still working towards. So, and it's near us here. So it's very impactful. So we meet tomorrow. Anything else? Other committee reports. All right. Seeing none, we will move on to item six, which are our consent agenda items. We'll begin with item 6.1, approval of accounts payable data. May I announce? At least Terry had me announcing at this point. So do you

036want to do it before I read them? Okay. Well, when do you do it? afterwards. You're the president. I will follow you. I will read them and then I will give you the liberty to make some announcements. Is that fair to you? That's fair to me. Okay. Such cooperation. Yep. Sorry. All right. Sorry for interrupt. No problem. So, I'll start again. Uh item 6.1 is approval of accounts payable dated June 9th, 2025 and payroll dated May 16th, 2025. Item 6.2 are gifts and donations. 6.3 approval of obsolete vehicles for auction. 6.4 personnel. Mr. Deoce, would you like to highlight anything from the personnel? I would love to highlight the fact that we have some retirees that I would like to read. Uh Chad Collins, a media teacher at Go uh Goan Intermediate School with 30

037years of service. Uh Linda Dickerson, school counselor at Goan High School after 17 years of service. Tim Bontreger, bus driver with 23 years of service. Janet Davidiser, bus aid with 16 years of service. Rebecca Gutierrez, uh, EL prepare professional with 21 years of service. Rebecca Shrock, school nutrition manager, Chamberlain with 22 years of service. And Linda Wilson, bus driver with 26 years of service. So that's a lot of years of experience. Uh, 155. I added it up. And and yes, we want to get Don. Don, if you want to say just a couple words and have them stand up. Just a few words. It's tough to replace these two individuals. They've done a lot for schools. They've done a lot for our kids. There's there's times where you ask people to do things and they

038might not want you, but these two have always [Applause] I need a hammer. Any good stories from all those years? You know, sometimes uh bus drivers are the forgotten folks, but the very first person a kid sees every day and the last person a kid sees every day as a bus driver. Thanks for your service. I will tell you that we hear that we're seem to seat over the course of year. Well, I had him all through school until he became high school. So I had him on a band one day. There's a word that I hate on the bus and he used to say it all the time. Enhance your vocabulary. Come up with some other way to express yourself. And his seat say, "Oh man." and he said, "Oh, dude, you can't say

039that on this." And he said, "Enhance your vocabulary." So, you do make a difference. Yeah. I know my bus driver's name was Linda, and she meant a lot to me over my 18 years. We thank you both. And with that, our consent agenda items are approved as presented. We will now go to item seven which are our action items and 7.1 is approval of purchase of Saint Main Street property. Dr. Evans, would you present it please? So in your packet is a purchase agreement for 1310 South Main Street which is adjacent to our Parkside Elementary parking lot. We have come to an agreement of $175,000 which is the fair market value for that property. Uh we'd like your consideration to purchase that property and to bring the signed purchase agreement back to the owner. Okay.

040Uh with that presentation, do we have a motion and a second from the board uh to open up for discussion and ultimate voting? I'll move for the passage of item 7.1, approval of purchase of main street property. I'll second. Moved by Mr. Glick, second by Mr. Goodman. Um, questions from the board before I ask any. I've got I think two. Okay. Um, one was the last time we talked about this, I was questioning the ownership of the connection between it's South Cottage Avenue and Main Street that runs between the property and the school because we talked about if this would eventually become parking lot and I wanted to know who owns that particular piece of land. Is that ours? Did we ever find out who owns the I'm not aware of any property that's not

041continuous with Kosha schools. There's the the driveway off of Main Street. That's that's directly our property. Then behind the property would be um the alley and uh that would be I'm sorry South Cottage Avenue is what Google calls it. Okay. Yeah. So that would not be ours. that that would be the city street, but the property itself is adjacent to our parking lot and so we would be able to because the alley currently goes into our parking lot. It does. Yes. And that that would not change. No, that wouldn't change. And Google Maps might have the roads a little bit wrong because they show it going to as far as where stuff is named, they show it going into the actual name street as opposed to the parking lot. That's why I was curious because

042our property line actually is goes south of our driveway. Yes, it does. And and and uh there was houses there that we took down when we expanded, right? The homeowner actually contacted me uh originally uh asking if we would sell him that property. I replied, "No, we are we are looking to expand actually and he was rather enthused by that and offered." Yeah. That's how the situation started. Okay. The other question I had was he's staying in the house after closing. Is that correct? He has the ability to continue to stay in the house until October 31st. Um the purchase agreement was property taxes would be prrated from the date of closing. Um since he would be staying at that point on school property, how does that it's tax exempt once we own it? Am

043I right? Yes. Yes. So how does it work when the He would be um a tenant. You could consider him paying a tenant paying $1 to go to schools for the we could look at it that way as far as he would be leasing the property. Once once we have possession of the property, we would be paying uh the bills for the property and we would charge him for the utilities that he would use. The idea is to make the purchase of the property easier for the homeowner so that they can find another place to live and gives them a little extended time. Okay. Uh other questions from other board members? The one question I have and I know uh he invested or the homeowner investigated it was do we open up the opportunity to

044see if people may have interest in buying to potentially try to relocate the house before we would move forward with maybe an ultimate demolition. I I'm intrigued by that idea. I would love to do that. It would it would that would be a win-win if someone would want to have the house. We would we wouldn't have to pay for eventually a demolition of the house that wasn't there. So, so I because the house is not in a dilapidated state. It's actually in a a fair state, if not a decent state. Yes. I think I think it is a it is a house that's been wellkept, right? So, I think that I think that's something be worth letting people know is is that we'd prefer not to tear the home down. So, if there are people

045indivi interested in potentially trying to just purchase the structure and having it moved, we would entertain those discussions. Uh I I certainly would uh be agreeable to that of the board would be agreable. So I mean there's a cost to doing that and there has to be something within a reasonable distance or proximity to make it probably cost effective but yeah. So okay other questions currently from the board on item 7.1. Okay. Hearing none. We have a motion and a second on the floor. All those in favor, please say I. I I opposed. That passes uh 6 to zero. Thank you. Moving on to item 7.2, waste removal services. Dr. Evans, you might remember a few years ago that we moved from uh our waste removal to waste management because it was a price. It

046was a cost savings. I think uh that Republic Services wants our business back. They came in at at a much lower rate and we're recommending moving back to public services as the lowest cost for waste removal from Ger Community Schools. The current quoted price would be 42,374 um dollars per year versus our current 57589. So it would be $15,000 20 $15,216 that we would save on the contract each year. Okay. Uh, may we have a motion and a second to open up for discussion and voting? I'll move for the passage of item 7.2, waste removal services. Moved by Mr. Glick, seconded by Mr. Garber. And Mr. Garber, if you would turn your microphone on, please mccrindle can hear us. So, questions from the board. I had one question and that was well actually I guess

047it's kind of two parts. Um is this cheaper than it was when we moved away from them or is it the same price or I would have to look that up. I did not uh when we moved away from we were saving a similar amount moving to waste management as we're as we're saving here. I believe this is, if my memory serves me, I believe this is slightly cheaper than their quote when we moved away from Yes. Okay. So, the reason I I was asking that is um if the one we moved to before is now more than they were, how long does the contract last? So, in other words, are they just giving us a good price to get hooked and then they're going to jack the price? Well, you you always have to

048be cognizant of that. that tends to be the case when you're looking at other things in life, right? Um so it the contract is year by year. We can cancel it at any time and and uh that's what we decided to do this year. We decided to shop around because honestly we were we getting good service with Republic and we've had some hiccups with waste management and so we are encouraged to move back to Republic. We think we will get a better service at a lower price. But to your point, if that changes, we'll definitely be good consumers of go to school as well. And the cost really comes in from the tipping fee at the landfill. I mean, that's where the cost comes. It's not really their services. It's what they've negotiated also with

049their contracts with the county landfill. So, I mean, it's it's part and part. I'm I'm curious. The two were not even talking about Heimco and LRS. I mean, did they just completely decide just to say, "Well, we don't want your business, so here's the stupid price if you really want it." It doesn't seem that they were anywhere near as competitive, obviously. Yeah. Okay. I didn't ask my question to make it sound like I was questioning moving necessarily. It was a fair question. I appreciate you looking around to try to make it as cost effective as possible. Yeah, every $15,000 helps. Any other questions from the board? Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Passes 6. Thank you. We'll move on to item

0507.3 which is 2025 26 paid holidays for 52- week employees. Mr. Voice. Yeah. Uh typically in my previous uh district I would bring this once a year to the board to vote on and so I'm kind of doing that. But also uh to be completely transparent, we there was been talk about a 12th holiday. So there used to be 11, now they're 12 this coming year. So, anytime we'd have something different like that, I would want to make sure brought to the board anyway, but you can expect to have this every year. Um, but those are the holidays for the year in that memo. Okay. Uh, thank you for that. Uh, so with that, I will ask for a motion and a second to open the item up for discussion and voting. Move for the

051passage of item 7.3 2025 to 26 paid holidays for 52 week employees. Moved by Mr. Glick, seconded by Mr. Goodman. Uh so the dates are in front of us. Questions? Which one was added? Is it day uh in November around Thanksgiving? It was the Wednesday before. Yeah. Okay. What was the idea behind it? Was there There's no school that day. Okay. And it just made sense. Kind of made sense. We thought we were kind of talking a little bit ahead of it. I mean, if you look at federal holidays, this is this is less than federal holidays that we could think of off the top of our head. Um I think it's less in the state too. Yeah. Just to put that into perspective a little bit. Uh we're still uh in the office some

052days that uh other federal uh organizations may be I think of the post office and most banks. So, other comments, questions on the uh 12 uh paid holidays for 52- week employees. All right, hearing none. We have a motion and a second on the floor. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Passes 6. Thank you. Item 7.4 is approval of administrative offices closed to the public. Mr. voice. There's there's a little bit of a difference because of the way we're doing things. We just wanted to make the board aware and ask for permission to close the offices the week of June 29th through July 4th. We have a lot of people taking vacations and things over that time and the holidays. Also, the 24th of December to the 26th of December. Uh if

053I recall, Thursday is the 25th, Friday is the 2. So instead of coming back just for one day, we thought, well, we can be in the offices, but we're not gonna no one typically comes on those days. So it's not like a hot day on the 26th that people come into the offices to do something. And then the same thing for January 1st and 2nd, it was the same kind of thing. Thursday is the first, so we have that office of holiday. And the second typically people wouldn't know we're open anyway. Uh but we can do things with staff and other things. Uh we had to Okay. Um, so with that, can we have a motion and a second to open the item for discussion and voting? I'll move for the passage of item 7.4,

054approval of administrative offices closed to the public. I'll second. Moved by Mr. Glick, second by Mr. Goodman. So uh just um so the the offices will be staffed u they just we will not you know and we're talking mainly the administrative office that during those periods that that's the only office right this is the only office and it would just be the people like to take vacation time anyway that others that would work up there. So, we've normally taken someone else and moved them to the front and then they sit there and they don't have anybody coming in all day and it's kind of a waste of time. So, they'll still be here doing their work, but we won't have to staff the front uh to allow people to come. Employees still can come in.

055They'll have their FOB and can come in to go to, you know, HR or whatever if they have something to take care of a day that's not a holiday. Would it be considered that even a sign could be posted on the window saying that you know in case of a something you can call absolutely the typical number and then if something would truly need to be someone could come and meet an individual call the number. Yep. We'll let you in. We can do that. We'll make special note of that. people will be in here. It's just right. I I think that's that's the perception. We're not closed. We're still working. It's just, you know, we may be shorter on staff. So, we're trying to utilize our staff efficiently. Other comments, questions from the board. I

056think I mean, if we're paying somebody to sit there and do nothing, it makes physical sense to to do it that way. maybe an on call as opposed to just open. Um I know there was a a public comment about something that the public pays for being closed, but just because we pay for something doesn't mean we have unlimited access to it either. So, I don't think that's a taking away someone's right of access, especially if we're wasting money to do it or to keep it open. And people like to take the vacation days, right? It's a benefit that they don't use it there, then they have to use it somewhere else. We prefer it when the kids aren't here. Correct. We've also had to um not allow to take vacations at the same time

057to staff the front or we have to we've had to pay for a sub to come in and set um during those during those those um those types of like especially the week of the fourth. Gotcha. Okay. Anything else from the board here? No, we have a motion to second on the floor. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed. Passes 6. Okay. Item 7.5 is approval of structure of intellect program. Mr. De Boyce. Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh asking the board, we we have uh I know when I've talked to you when I was interim changing to become the superintendent. I mentioned that there's this program and and this is it. So we're coming to you now. We kind of done our background work with the principles. Uh this is our uh

058cognitive skills training. sensory integration training and vision training for kids that struggle. We have uh in our district 27% of our kindergarteners come in ready for kindergarten and the idea is how can we catch them up? What are they missing? And this is a big piece of it. Uh it's something that I and Dr. Medcaf have had significant experience working with this program in the past and we know what it can do for kids and we're very excited about it. It's an innovation we think that can be a gamecher for our kids and uh that's why we're willing to do what we have to do to make it happen for kids. Love to give the board a longer presentation on it at some point. Um we did do a presentation uh to the community foundation

059of Elkart County uh would pay for all of the or 50% of the total cost. Um in addition to this you might be asking yourself what's the cost for the staffing of this and um one of the areas that our school has been cited district has been cited for is over identification of students uh that are considered emotionally handicapped that uh these are and white students that are emotionally handicapped. And so we're supposed to put interventions in place to and we're supposed to take 13% of our special education budget and set it aside for a program that eliminates or reduces that number. And and we think this is something that works well with that. So we're going to assign six pair professionals to run six labs, one in each elementary school, and it would be

060during the day. They would go twice a week uh to participate in this activity. And um so there's the cost or the staffing. Uh we'll train two people in each two pair of professionals with the idea one will do the sta staff it but we'll have a backup because you have to be specially trained to work in that lab and if there's somebody gone we like to be able to continue the uh work for the kids. Um, so, uh, the cost of the training, the cost of the program is outlined in the two memos. And I thought one of them was wrong, but I had the wrong one on my pack here. The first one is the cost of the program just to set it up. Uh, the licensing fees, the software, the you'll be

061in this room and you see rebounders, walking boards, and and, uh, vision training kinds of things and things hanging from the ceiling balls and different things. Uh we'll have to take a tour of that once we have this up and running. But uh that's part of the cost and the initial cost for the first year which should last us more than that because we have uh a total of 600 students that we're paying for and we're thinking we're going to start out with about 75 or so in each building. Uh so we'll have kids move out or kids graduate. It takes about a year to get through the program. we'd have a good start with kits for the next year or licenses that we would use the next year. So, long story short, that's $136,242

062and then the training is $13,85 for the trainers to come in and train our our folks. In addition, which isn't on here, is we're going to have our preschool. will have uh this this is a very interesting or something of interest to the community foundation to make a difference for what we can do to get the kids ready for kindergarten as well. So that's the other thing we have four classes of prek in the district that are paid for our title one and this would be some additional costs related to the training of that anyway uh for those two teachers to get additional training. So it's the training of the pair professionals and the teachers are combined. That's that piece. So I'm asking for approval to move forward with the SOI systems as a curriculum

063and supplemental material and the cost of the program. Okay. Thank you for that. Uh with that I'll take a motion and a second uh to open up the item for discussion and voting. I move for the passage of item 7.5 approval of structure of program. Second motion by Mr. Glick, second by Mr. Goodman. Board questions, comments. So Jim, this is an annual. The annual parts of the fee would be the student materials um part of it uh and the licensing fee. The kits would be paid for and done and the shipping depending on how many kits we need to buy. It's it's like shipping per kit. So this is back out the $20,220 on the kits. But then it says there's a discount on the licensing fee. So that'll actually that'll actually be 60 in

064the future. In the future. Yeah. So the license fees per year. Well is what you're saying. If we don't get a discount on the licensing fees in the future, that's worst case scenario. Correct. What's your history? Do they continue that or no? Yeah. Speak up to the microphone. People are having problems hearing. So, so the his the history you said you guys has had has had some history with them. So, they historically will discount that annually, but it's not guaranteed. Yes, we believe so. No guarantees, but we we suspect we will get that discount annually. Is our size. Well, you're buying 600 kits right now, so we won't have to pay again until we go through those 600 kits. Ran out of kits. Yeah. So, I had a couple questions there with the kit fees.

065That's You said it's per student. Um, was there a reason why you've got between 75 and 125 student seats, but the kit fees the same? The the kit is the same. Like each lab is set up. So, it's a number of we call they call they're called rebounders. So, things that the kids bounce on while they're doing arm motions and different things to integrate their senses and then wall charts that they have and walking boards and so it's not like a per student cost, it's a per room cost. The kit fee is the room setup basically. It fills out the room. So, then the other question I had was the shipping cost also change. They don't stay the same. So that's is that reflected by the student material because Yes. Okay. Less material or more

066material. And is it a semi low it's a heavy,000 bucks for shipping is really big. Well, it's coming from Eugene, Oregon. Okay. I don't know if that makes a difference. But I would also say the shipping fee would include the kits and things. So I I don't think that's how much they charge per per student seats for the shipping of materials. This is shipping total kits. It's a total. Yeah, I would suspect there's going to be some fee for shipping cost, but maybe that's included in the cost of the student seats as well. Okay. Sorry, I don't know that answer for sure, but I should have that's send all the stuff probably in a truck across to us and for the kits. I don't think the UPS would be that expensive. Might be surprised. I

067mean, this is not understanding what how much materials it is, but this there could be a lot of weight in the student materials. I mean, that's just a pure speculation, but we did, I will tell you, we uh wrote a grant for $187,000 and um the community foundation is considering the grant and we will know on June 19th. Okay. And you said you thought it 50% of that amount. Uh no, I think that's that is 50% of the amount. Okay. Because if you if you factor in what we had to set aside for the staffing, staffing is the most expensive thing to be honest. So are those new hires or is it existing staff? Each principal's responsible for figuring out who that is and then um we think all the principles have identified folks and

068I think correct me if I'm wrong I think most of those are current staff. So some of them will be retoled and some of them will be bring maybe we'll have to hire a new person or two. Okay. Jim, so this is exclusive from sped programs. Staffing is the sped program. So when you're disproportional when they identify an area for and they say you have too many kids for your population in in this this category and they make you set aside this is the second time this our district has had disproportionality and they make a set aside. So there's two things that have uh we're doing we're doing this program uh to the idea is we're supposed to uh not only well we're supposed to eliminate so the idea is how do you eliminate kids

069to be placed in this program is well you provide supports for them before they ever qualify as being emotionally handicapped. And so this sensory integration focusing skills we hope is going to uh the idea would be to eliminate frustration whatever is blocking them from being a struggling learner and learning like everybody else that gets ne sitting next to them. Uh some of the issues are related to ability to focus attend and concentrate. And so we're trying to take that barrier down. We're going to help them learn to focus attend and concentrate. bring in information through their senses, visual, auditory information, connect it, memory, use their memory, things in their memory, bring it back out, and then output it. That's what the classroom is all about is that the output. And so a lot of kids

070everything gets significantly more difficult because they're missing some of that ability to attend, focus and concentrate, bring stuff in efficiently and then do the mental gymnastics to do classification thinking cause you know problem solving and then outputting it. So the idea would be we avoid kids from getting placed in special education by Yes, it is. Uh, and so that money that's for those staffing is what our XC money would be, but we have to set aside 13% spent on something to do this work. So here we go. This is it. And then we wrote a grant for the other basically the other half of it. We think it's about 5050 right now with the cost. So it would more than it's 187,000 50% of the cost of the whole program for the first year and

071then it gets cheaper thereafter. Then it would be just the staffing with student costs to go forward. I give the example of Bago uh they have a blue ribbon school that was not is in the bottom 20%. They started this program K through six and although their demographics and everything in the district didn't change they went from the bottom 20% of performance in the state of Indiana to the top 20% and their scores and they've almost eliminated special education except for students that have severe handicaps and you know, there's been some brain damage, but for kids that just for some reason aren't learning, kind of an LD student, uh, this says, what are those blocks making it difficult for them? Let's take those blocks down so they can and train them early so their brains

072have the capacity to develop and and grow and learn. A great example would be we have the ability uh for folks that have a stroke and part of their brain dies and they can't speak. some folks, but through brain training exercises, that dead part of the brain, they can rewire their brain around it. So there's capacity even in adults to rewire their brain. But children have this great capacity if they're trained and given the right experience and and you approach it from that perspective. 10, concentrate, focus, bring information visually, auditorially, and uh then be able to practice work on your memory skills and bring things back and forth out of and use it. Probably more information you want to know, but that's kind that I'm I'm really excited about this. I totally believe in it.

073I know it's going to make a huge difference for our kids and it could be transformational for kids. I have uh parents that have been in the program, had their children in the program. I mean, and then uh the kids and the parents say that was the game changer. My student couldn't pass the iLearn test or couldn't pass the reading test. They did that for a year and their whole life changed. you know, they're passing. Uh I won't use the name because I didn't ask them recently could I use their name. I did in the past, but uh there's a special forces guy in the US Air Force um that went was in my elementary school that went through this program, couldn't pass anything through fourth grade. The reading, the math part of the English,

074the back then it was IEP test and struggled with everything. uh went through this program, got back on track, passed high school with blind colors, uh got into the military, and has done very well. And he and his parents attributed, he was the athletic director for my school district and said it was that program. And I've had so many people say that um it makes a big difference for their made a huge difference for the kids. So, you weren't here when I interviewed and the board hired me, but I told them this program, this S soi brain training program is something I'm very passionate about and I think it'll make a huge difference for our kids. I don't know why it's not in every single school to be honest. It just blows me away that

075we don't everybody's not doing this. So, and you alluded to like a possible component for blue ribbon pathway. They're still doing it and I'm gone. And so, it wasn't just me pushing it down their throats. It's they if you talk to that school principal, we took our staff uh principles over there to meet and talk to them. Um she said without a doubt it makes a huge difference. So for kids and that's why they keep it going, not for any other reason because why would you spend that much money and allocate someone to do that work when if you're not getting results? I got three more questions. Not because I think bad thing but just because it's due due diligence. Um is the grant yearly? The grant is a onetime grant. It's a onetime grant.

076Um so as far as the budget's concerned like how does it fit into our budget just because it is a substantial sum of money relatively speaking. Um not that I think it's bad just how's it I it will be part of our budget process. I've had conversations with Bob said we're gonna have to fund this when it comes. So, one way or the other, we're going to fund this because it's good for kids. It's not just going to magically appear, but you might remember that each November, December, I ask. So, right now, I just did this fraction of 1% of overall budgets. Very small fraction, right? We're well above that. cash where we should be right now. We should be essentially at 42% 43% of budget spac and then it's for more than just kindergarten,

077right? for multiple grades for K through four and prek and pre I misunderstood one part in there at first I thought you said it was only kindergarten then I knew you were talking about fourth grade so I was I think yeah I can see why you got confused for questions okay other board members ready to vote all right we have a motion a second on the floor on item 7.5 Five. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed. Passes 6. Made my day. Thank you. Make us proud. All right. Uh, item 7.6, approval of seventh and eighth grade math curriculum adoption. Shriner. Tonight we are asking for the your approval to extend the adoption of Eureka Squared Math which is currently in our K6 classrooms um for the first year this past year to

078our seventh and eighth grade. Um, and in your memo, you'll see just a summary of the original reasons that we adopted Eureka Squared, why we thought it would be a good choice for our district, our students, and so far, teacher satisfaction, benchmark data, and preliminary iLearn results would reinforce that this was a good decision for our district. Uh, the junior high has taken time to evaluate the resource. They feel that it is a good fit for them as well, for their seventh and eighth graders. And I think they're just excited about um knowing that students are already exposed to the curriculum and that they can kind of just come in and take off and go um to advance students to that next level of content. Just asking for your approval of that decision. Okay. Uh

079so for item 7.6, may I have a motion and a second to open up for discussion and voting? I'll move for the passage of item 7.6, approval of 7 to 8, math curriculum adoption. Moved by Mr. Glick, second by Mr. Garber. Questions, comments from the board? So this past year, past school year, we did have uh one grade level at our intermediate that used it one year prior to kind of piloted. Believe that's the timeline. Mrs. and this is obviously one of the providers the state correct tells us we need to use because they have their approved vendor list. That's right. So I think that's important to highlight. Um the options are very limited. They are. Anything else from the board on math curriculum seventh and eighth graders? Just for my own clarity since um

080we're voting on the adoption. Is this voting on an expense as well? Since it doesn't have an expense, we'll bring the expense to you next time. Just because of the timeline of the decision to turn around to make sure we're getting materials in the hands of teachers and getting uh training going, we're asking that you move forward with but we'll bring that quote back next time so we can move ahead with training before the quotes signed or purchased or how does that work? We'll bring you back a quote before we move forward with anything, but we just wanted to make sure that we move it along so that we can get materials in the hands of two teachers knowing this is an extension and not like a new right new decision about curriculum. Other questions,

081comments from the board? All right, there's a motion and a second on the floor. All those in favor of item 7.6, please say I. I opposed. Passes 6. All right. Item 7.7, approval of amendment 20 to the 202526 transfers. Dr. Maf. Yes. Thank you. We are looking to extend our transfer window for grades 9, 10, 11, and 12. Um, initially it closed with the other transfer windows on May 31st. However, uh with some changes with between the high school, the IHSAA, and some other factors, um we feel it would be beneficial um to allow uh students to transfer into the high school up until um uh October 6, which actually takes us through the first count day. So that we would they would have to be there. So we would actually receive funding for them

082um if you know um during that count day. And then the second and then that would be first semester and then second semester the window would close um February 9th. Um uh form submitted after that any time after that would we be applicable to the next semester. We would also make sure that they are all external transfers are um subject to the criteria the board has adopted. Um so we do have the right to refuse students for attendance behavior suspension expulsion um and other reasons that the state has outlined. Um but this would allow uh a number of students who have shown interest in transferring to go um the ability to do so. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Metaf. Uh may we have a motion and a second for item 7.7. Motion we vote for the

083approval of item 7.7, the approval amendment to 2526 transfers. Second. Moved by Mr. Goodman, second by Mr. Glick. questions board comments I'm going to assume the windows always open but those are the W so like March 1st to October 6th are for first semester correct if I would apply October 7th I would have to wait wait till next semester correct okay and then but then February 9th it would close again and then if if you would apply February 10th you'd have to wait till the next the next semester Any other comments, questions from the board? I apologize if I missed you comment. There was an exception in there for the Chandler online. Uh yes. So anyone going to the Chandler virtual academy that is currently what we have um I just wanted to make sure

084that all the high school as we uh changed the amendment to the window um was there. So we have always allowed students who are just want to become true virtual students um they can come in they can enroll at any time throughout the course of the year but only those that go to the Chandler virtual academy not not GAP or any of the other programs that we have at Chandler. Right. Okay. Anything else from the board? Right. A vote. All right. We have a motion to second the floor. All in favor please say I. I I opposed 6. All right. And item 7.8, approval of West Gan Elementary School principal, Mr. Boyce. Well, it's just so exciting. You got our mojo back uh here in Gan. Uh we've I can't tell you how excited I

085was when we got to interview and look at look for the best candidate. We we just were blown away. So, I think I'll let Dr. Medaf introduce uh our new principal, West Co. uh having sure known this person quite a bit. Yes. So uh Mrs. Mrs. Garber started in 1997 at Riverdale teaching I think kindergarten at that point point and has been at and spent the next 22 22 or 23 years at West Goan before moving to Prairie View uh to be um a master teacher instructional coach over there. Uh she was there for a year and then went to to Concord to become principal of Oxbow Elementary. Um once um once that job position was opened, um Carrie brings instructional, you know, her her instruction is is is superb. She knows how to coach

086teachers. She knows how to work with parents. Um she's worked with the West Coast community. So, um I think this is just a real natural fit and we're very excited about that. Okay. Carrie, do you want to say something? I'm just really excited to come back. It's my um it's I was 23 when I started working at West Ocean and didn't want to leave. I just went for an opportunity, you know, and I've learned a lot the last four years and I'm really excited to come back and I have families that I still am in contact with that I had their I had them and now I've had their I know Carrie was very well respected in the Concord community where he came from a short period of time, but um everybody I talked to

087before this even happened that knows you professionally really respects you and thinks you're the top candidate. So I I think that's a testament both to go that you're willing to come back here and also to yourself. Uh so your leadership is appreciated. I will say that I learned so much. There was a lot of things I was able to do when I was at the I got through the jobs I was very I felt forunate for that. So it's exciting. Yeah. Thank you. Um can we get a picture though? Oh hold on. Hold up. Oh wait wait wait. Yes. Hold on. We're gonna mute. Just mute me. All right. Now that the my daughter got married this week and I'm pretty emotional. All right. So, uh, with that presentation, can we have a motion and

088a second for item 7.8? I'll move for the passage of item 7.8, the hiring of West Ocean School Principal. Second. Moved by Mr. Glick, seconded by Mr. Goodman. Questions from the board. Okay. Uh, hearing no questions, no comments. I'll just say I did talk to Jim beforehand about a bunch of this. Got really good feedback on that. So, thank you for your choice. So, with that, we will vote. All those in favor, please say I. I opposed. That passes 6. Now you may take your picture. You want to come up here? I can. I've known I remember her from way back when I would be there late at night. You'd always make sure my car [Music] Welcome back. You know, we board I will just tell you we don't I wish we could hire more

089people right now. We have a lot of really uh I feel like we have a lot of our positions are full and we have some people candidates. I think we're becoming a place people want to come to and and this is exact one of the kind of thing I think in the case where Kerry was willing to come back here to be part of our team to serve kids means a lot. So other people that have left, please come back. You know, if you're good, come back because we have the best here and we're just going to keep keep that mojo going. So, thank you. Thanks, Bo. Good job. All right. Well, that does conclude our eight action items tonight, but we do have one discussion item. 8.1 core professionalism. Dr. McAff. So, each year

090I meet with the uh representatives of the the teaching teachers and administration. We talk about the teacher evaluation. Uh over the course of the last year or so, we've been talking about um a core expectation or professionalism that we should have for um our staff such as, you know, consistent attendance on on time on on time arrival policies, making sure they're they're following our policies and procedures, um respect toward their colleagues, toward parents. How do we how do we demonstrate that? And then also our professional de development and collaboration practices making sure that when they are work working together in their PLC's everyone is contributing everyone is is working on that. Um and actually and actually the uh the task force um was very open to this this year. Um I think we've we've um

091seen that um you know as as the need to hire teachers became greater and the supply of teachers um became less um there have been times when um people have probably accepted the job that we're not quite fully aware of all the all that a teaching job entailed. Um, and so how do you how do we hold ourselves and hold that hold teachers accountable for that? And that's where this core professionalism uh rubric kind of comes in. The core professional rubric if if if this which I would hope to bring back to you next um next month as part of the evaluation plan is really about um making sure we're communicating our expectations. No one first of all how it will work is it's not an additional point. So when teachers are evaluated based on

092their instruction um they'll they'll receive a score there um and it that score will put them in either the exceptional um uh proficient needs improvement or um inadequate range um and it's a five-point scale. So if a teacher for some reason is doing following their expectations everything's being met there is no additional plus to it. However, if a teacher for some reason on the on the evaluation rubric um does not meet one or more of these pieces, it's a neg it's a minus one. So, it can take a exceptional teacher down to a um a proficient teacher, a proficient teacher too, and it can rapidly move teachers throughout that. The goal is not to use this as a as a as a hammer or as a as a stick. What it what it does mean

093is that at no time should a teacher come up at the end of the year and say, "Oh, I'm marking you down on the professional rubric without conversations that have happened, documented conversations." And that's really what our evaluation task force talked about is, you know, we our job is not to be out there to catch teachers or get teachers um or you know, our job is to support them and and that support comes through open and honest communication from both sides. Um, and so what we what I basically told them is if a principal comes to us at the end at the end of the year and says I need to I need to use the core professional rubric and make that a minus one. The first thing HHR is going to ask is where's

094your documentation that you have addressed these issues with them. So not only does it hold teachers accountable, it holds us as administrators accountable for having those conversations. And so hope and hopefully by having those conversations we can avoid some of those some of the pieces that um have led to us thinking that this might be necessary. Any feedback from the board or questions? Questions? I'd be happy to. I know Dr. Evans and I hate to pull him in with me on this one, but we've been in districts where we've had this and it's just a valuable tool. Uh you know, because there's some teachers you go do observations and you see them, they teach Well, but they have slips of professionalism that's repeated and ongoing and you deal with it as a principal, but it's

095kind of nagging and isn't helpful uh to the profession and to the to the the mission of the school and then they still get a good score on their rubric. So, this is a way that communicates to them clearly, this is an area you must improve on. Uh and and we never would want to just surprise somebody with this. uh you know, we're here to support teachers and help them improve, but when things do go don't go so well, this this would be uh a tool that we could use to help make that point. So, and a lot of it is based upon patterns of behavior that that develop. Um and so this is not an uncommon uh uncommon um p tool that around the state. um you know a number of our um local

096schools in Elkcart County have something very similar to this uh along with across the state. In fact, this is an amalgamation of probably two or three different policies. Um and the and when the teachers when I presented to the teachers um it was open it was open for feedback. We made it a Google doc so they could come in and tweak it and make some changes. Um one of the things that they really wanted to make sure is that we are stressing the positive pieces. what is what is the positive expected behavior and we should be uh expressing that communicating that from day one. Um so that it's ne nothing is ever a surprise. Um so uh the the task force actually um was very supportive of this. That's a testament to our teachers. We

097have teachers that want to be good and they want their people they're teaching next to want to be good as well. And uh so the reputation of our teaching staff just continues to grow. And so it's just a tool to help everybody. Yeah. I I would say these are things that if our if our individuals are not doing well, we need to hold them accountable because these are things that are impacting our student learning. And at no time does this this replace any kind of um HR or any kind of um consequence that might be assigned if if a incident a incident severe enough happens that would that would require us to bring in in human resources. Any else questions on that from the board? Yeah, when I first looked at it I I didn't

098say any numbers. When you explain it as a pattern, it makes more sense. Yeah. And that's where we and the task force all felt like we need to leave it fairly open-ended because what defines a pattern? Um you know once you say it's five times then at five at five times or whatever you got to use this. Um we want to give the principles and administrators a tool that they can help work with teachers to to avoid this. And so by not putting the actual um numbers that it would take to not be not meet our expectations seemed count seemed counterproductive. One of the concerns that I have always had is a lot of our teachers don't stay too long especially the younger ones the coming from college and they the average they think is

099changing but the average was 10 now it's going down. years and then they leave the profession altogether. So my my question is how is this helping with retention of the teachers? I think what it what it really does is it forces uh administration and principles to be upfront about what is because to be honest with you um we have I would there have been possible instances where we maybe not have addressed things as as severely or We've kind I don't want to say we've let things though we've addressed them. But when when you're out there thinking where am I going to get another teacher? If if something happens, this teacher leaves, where am I going to get get another one to replace them? Has really been um kind of a barrier for administrators to really

100hold people responsible. So I think where this really comes in is teachers will know right from the beginning, hey here are the expectations for for you know for being a quality quality teacher in in in go community schools and it will force those administrators to have those conversations because you know I think like Mr. Deo says I think all of our teachers want to be the best they can be. Um and sometimes when you're teaching and you're doing your best and you see that someone maybe is not doing their best and it's not addressed or or or it's not a or or there's no mechanism for them for them to have a conversation about it because teachers could also have a conversation with each other about hey remember we have this core professional rubric u

101you know you've been I mean you're you're you're late a lot or whatever it might be um it it provides an opening for them also to have a conversation before the before the principal but it also forces like I said forces the principal to have those conversations how do we support you if if if you are if you are late if you are missing missing um a lot of school for whatever reason are we having conversations for how how how do we support you because uh in the end what who pays for the for for that lack of um I don't want to say professional but that lack of for whatever reason they their attendance respect whatever is our students and our goal is to make sure we have the very best um instructors in

102front of those kids and this is just another tool that principles can have to to have those conversations So, um, you know, again, I think clear ex clarity is kindness. Um, not knowing, you know, letting things go um because we're worried is not is not doing anyone any favors. The teacher who's thinking about, okay, is this is this career my career? Is this the career for me or is it not? because we have had a lot of teachers who have come um directly from other industries um right into the classroom and and we have had a number of teachers that have left midyear and I think part of it is is they don't realize sometimes what the expectations are um when it comes to standing in front of a kid on a student on a

103daily basis presenting your best self every day that's hard work u and so how do we how do we support them support them to do that. And again, I think this is just a great conversation starter. This is something that, you know, I would say when talking to um superintendents who have used it, who have something like this, they say we maybe use it once every two years or so in a in a case where the pattern has not changed. Um so I think it's I think it's just I think um it just for those new teachers or those teachers that are thinking about going someplace else or or do I want to stay here? Um, I always want to stay someplace where I know what's expected to of me. And so I I hope

104that would our teachers would feel the same way. Sure. No, I I I kind of agree holding the principles, administrators accountable to not make it into a personality. Yeah. And then you letting go of good teaching because of one particular incident, you know. Um uh and could you speak about to uh in many industries you have improved when when things need to be improved. Is that part of So that would that would be part of the things that come before here when the um we currently have teachers that are on improvement plans for a number of different things and it's usually because a pattern have whether it be something in instruction we've done it because um tardiness we've done we do we do improvement plans on that and like like I said before when a

105principal says hey I want to use this the first thing HR is going to say is what have you done to address this issue and a plan would be a big part of that we use that quite a bit actually improvement plans wanted to hear it. Yep. Thanks for asking. Other things from the board. Is my main question because I I didn't quite catch it. So, it says this is already being used now. Not in goan. It's not not in goan. No. Uh there are other districts around the around the in our county and around the state that are using this. I think Mr. Deo had one in in his previous district also. Um uh some of the things that we're doing we are already doing such as we having we principles should be having

106those conversations putting putting um um uh staff on plan on improvement plans when we see some of these pieces like attendance and things that we've already noticed. We've been doing some of these things but we've never had a at the end this could affect your your your teacher evaluation. Um it's kind of always been a little separate because we've never had that professionalism piece. Um this the the rise rubric which was one created by the state has a professionalism piece in it. Um so a lot of schools have have adapted that. Okay. It was just at the Oh here it says that they undertook the addition of this to the certified evaluation. So it was written like it was a past tense. Oh yeah. We I meant we undertook the create the creation of this

107doc of this document. I wasn't sure if the discussion item meant it was just letting us know this is how it is now going forward or one day we're going to vote on it. It will come to the it will come as part of the teacher evaluation. Every year you have to vote on the teacher evaluation plan. So this will be added on for the July meeting. Just to uh back Dr. Medcast statement up. I did a little bit of research one time and about 2/3 to 70% of the districts in Indiana use a modified rise which has this component in it. So okay so if people have more questions about it please bring them up prior to our next meeting which it will be an action item. Okay that takes us to item nine

108closing items. So, we'll start with 9.1. Any miscellaneous items tonight? Get your list out. Mr. Boys, while you're getting organized, she Mrs. Baker has returned from her, what year is it for the Washington DC trip? I started saying 20 plus. But we're always happy when the children and the adults come home safely. And this trip is life-changing for kids. And um she's exhausted and she here she is at this board meeting because of the What a great bus ride, huh? Kids. Oh, even better. Thanks for your courage. Appreciate you very much, Jan. Um, okay. So, the next board meeting will be here in this room on Monday, July 14th at 6 p.m. Okay. Thank you. Um, and 9.2 items from the board. I just had one thing. Um, I'd seen this morning that we got

109the final report back from our auditors. Yeah. and it's supposed to be posted in two days. So, I was just curious if maybe we could have maybe a general discussion on that at the next board meeting or stating basically what it is they're talking about or what we're going to do to to go forward. I know that this is one of the best we've had, I think, or at least in a long time. So, I think that's something we should celebrate, but definitely celebration. I would think it'd be nice to kind of talk through and say, "Here's here's our action to make it even better next year." It' be helpful to me as a board member. That's we will put that on the agenda for discussion. It's blocked by Dr. Maf and I were talking.

110It'd be nice to get a larger flag that couldn't see it. But I thought it was two hours. Didn't rain. We were out there. I think one comment I have though meetings and sometimes that's unable so much. I noticed there were some during performances. I'm not sure if that's a scheduling issue that could felt like it was like I think that can be done ahead. many of those things are coordination things. We'll we'll make sure that's part of our conversations here at the end of the year for next year. Also, personally, I know I like to see I know there's an effort, but sometimes I feel like I think that's another thing. And I'm not saying beginning to end at all. Just kind of being present, right? I think that means a lot. Just another

111thing. Well, same goes for us as board. It's important that we go to things as well because we represent all these students. Yeah. Yeah. I'm lucky because I get to go to all these things and it has to be it doesn't just happen. We're talking about graduation. I put a bug in. Somebody's here to put earpieces in for the speakers because it it's I don't I mean when you have students who are going to stand up and present at their graduation, I think it's a diservice to them to have to talk through the delay. I know they struggle with it. You could hear it and you know you want you feel bad for them. They want to do really good. They're in front of all their peers graduating and they're having to talk over something

112that they actually make an earpiece for to help you get past that. There's do they practice with microphone? Do the kids practice with I think they do but it's you know the delay. It's so hard. I did it last year and u it was hard. I mean and I was ready for it. Yeah. Yeah, you have to tell yourself to talk through it and that's not something just Yeah, thank you. Well, we have that noted that suggestions we graduated 4760ome students. So, that should be something to be excited about. Another thing I was wondering about was this year was a little frustrating for students we didn't stage and we did try to bring out maybe next year over on the field. Yes, I will say we've never had a stage on the field in the

113last five years. So, not saying we can't. I will just say this was not a first year that was not. That's a good point. I appreciate you saying that. It makes a lot of sense because then people can everybody else. It was the people that were speaking and then if we wanted to like clap for our fellow students, we weren't able to tell it was their name. It was just um anything else? I have one last item. Well, okay. Um, I just I want to give the I guess the community and the board a little update on the alumni plaza. So, we know that has been a this was a an item a few board meetings back that was discussed and ultimately um fell off from it was tabled and because it was not an

114action item so it fell off. Uh so, uh Mr. Glick and myself along with Mr. Deoce and Dr. Evans uh did meet with members of the um foundation board, their officers uh to kind of discuss um some of the items. And uh I will at least start off by saying I think there was a lot of uh misunderstanding of of what was maybe uh presented to us in the initial. Um this the idea of changing the memorandum was not something that they brought forward. It was brought forward by the administration. So I at least want to say that. Um and you know it was good just to have an open dialogue about where this project has started many many many years ago and where it's at today. Uh to date they have been through two

115cycles of their uh payments from donors uh that had pledged money to that. They still have three more years of that. Um and as it stays today uh they will continue to uh receive those funds that will then be uh provided back to go community schools for that. So, um, we do not see a reason to change that at this time unless this board feels differently. Um, uh, so if if you have a different opinion, we can discuss it. We can bring it back up and re-evaluate that. But from my perspective, as it says today, uh, what's in place is going to stay in place. Um, I I've said it publicly most times. These are fantastic people that sit on the our foundation board. These are members of our community. These are people that love

116Gan Community Schools wants Goan to succeed and we need not forget that. So, a lot of negative things were said about some of these people that is uh disappointing because these are people that we want in our corner. So, I felt it was a good meeting. Ryan, I'll let you say if you anything beyond that, you're welcome to. I think the other issues weren't tied really to you, so those would be a separate discussion as far as what discussed. Okay. because I wanted to at least give this board an update on that and and people in the community as well because I think there was definitely some misunderstandings and even some maybe uh mispublications in media outlets. So, okay. Anything else? So, just just to uh clarify the original memo that was created in place.

117It will stay in place. Yep. Okay. So, I will take a motion for German. Motion. I got a motion and a second and a second and a motion. So, uh all those in favor please say I. I. We are journ. Thank you all very much. Wonderful evening. There is a section here. So, this is the GIS is not very I don't know. I don't like the new updated. Yeah, I don't either. So there is a section here in front of Parkside that triangle. The triangle. Yeah. That is actually the cities. Oh, it's the cities. The city still owns this, but we own the