001to 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 [Applause] all i' like to welcome everyone this evening uh just a couple opening remarks it with a heavy heart that I share the passing of one of our own Corey Miller a beloved fifth grade teacher at Gan Intermediate School Corey dedicated over 20 years to education shaping the lives of countless students with her passion kindness and unwavering commitment to their success prior her time at GIS she also taught at West oan where she formed lasting friendships and made profound impact on school on the school Community Cory's Journey was marked by resilience and deep love for teaching even in the face of adversity she continued to think of her
002students and longed to be back in the classroom sharing her level of learning she had a remarkable ability to connect with students making even the most challenging subjects engaging and meaningful her enthusiasm for teaching especially social studies was unmatched and she had a gift for bringing history to life in a way that inspired her students to think critically and deeply about the world around them her Love extended far beyond the classroom she was a devoted wife to her husband rod and a loving mother to her true children Wyatt and Ivy family was at the center of everything she did and her pride in them was evident to all who worked with her Cory's passing is an incredible loss to our Goan Community while we grieve we also celebrate the Legacy she leaves behind the lessons
003she taught the joy she spread and the life she touched we recognize that this is a difficult time for many and we want to ensure the students and staff have the support they need many counselors and districts are at GIS today and will be available this week for anyone who would like to talk or process their grief please don't hesitate to reach shout to our school counselors if you need your sport I would ask that we just take a few moments of Silence in memory of Cory Miller thank you just a few other uh opening comments this is a mediate in the school board in public for the purpose of conducting the school's corporation's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting there is TI for public participation as IND IND ated
004by agenda item number two our mission we promise to inspire Innovation empowering potential enriching our world and our vision go k school's elart County School District of choice item 1.4 is approval of tonight's agenda do we have any revisions to the agenda no Mr President all right the agenda is approved as presented and item 1.5 approval of the minutes from our February 10th 20 25 regular meeting board members do we have any revisions to those minutes right heing none the minutes are approved as presented item two is public comment we' ask that people please sign in if they had wanted to speak I'm guessing by Terry's inaction of coming up here no one has signed in so I will just make sure no one has anything to like to speak about all right we will
005close public comment so we will next go superintendent's reports Mr Deo yeah I'd like to start out uh tonight and our superintendent reports uh and turn over uh to Dr Evans for a couple updates yes I wanted to let you know that we have uh scheduled the HVAC Replacements at the junior high and those should be finished we've uh finished before school starts in the fall uh now that we've done the first project we will need to start thinking about the second project at the junior high and that will like U necessitate a a bond later on this year I'd like to add to the board too uh want to get your feedback we'd like to do an education session uh with steel uh they're kind of our Consultants that help us figure out bonding
006and bonding capacity and uh so uh give me some feedback and we'd like to do an executive session that would be training for the board in regards to bonds bonding capacity how it all works and uh particularly in light of how what's going on right now with some of the legislation around this very thing it' be nice to just you know bring in the experts and let us talk to us a little bit so and are you thinking sometime in March before the session ends probably or Bob you talked to them what what did they say did they think they might have some time in March yeah he he was bringing up some some dates in March that we could possibly do it I didn't know if you wanted wanted to do it uh on
007the same night as a board meeting or a similar night before a board meeting so those that's the kind of feedback we would would appreciate so I guess board look at your calendars you know if we want to look at maybe the next board meeting if we want to stay late later one evening we could do that or if there's a better date so just let's make some feedback this week here so we can lock that in is that fair sure is okay I'll text the board members you guys can respond and text we can work it out through texting okay um do we anticip ipate the meetings being as short as they have been in March um or is it going to start to ramp up a little bit this is probably going to
008ramp up hopefully less our goal is less than an hour okay cuz that makes it easier if we have to stay longer than if it's a two-hour meeting yeah well we have two meetings in March and if we do both of those uh meetings and that'll help spread some things out maybe we can make one a little longer one a little shorter and do the shorter one we can back that up for the board so uh next up uh on our reports we'd like to uh do a student achievement kind of update uh and talk a little bit about 3x3 is and hobby I think you have some for the board yep uh our 3x3 we completed our third session with that and uh we are looking at uh again low stakes uh assessment you
009know we want to have we want to have these three standards that our students are from familiar with come I learn time so we just finished our third one we are seeing improvements uh in our results uh average of questions answer correctly from the beginning to this last uh third one uh fourth uh assessment for session starts this week uh we wanted to get one more in there before I learn so this will be that one and then uh bigger stake assessment starts next week we have I read for third graders uh and second graders second and third grade I read starts uh on Monday that goes for two weeks so and those ABC's attendance behavior and and this third one's course performance and that's our CABC uh one of the things we're using is
010a 3X3 I don't know Brandon we talked about that but uh three standards in English language arts at every grade level and three standards uh in math so we're kind of trying to work through we have uh the same company that does the State I learn test we are using their software for generating our assessments so they look and feel a little more like what the state does so okay uh next up if it's okay we'll go on to uh operations and uh I think alen's got a quick summer school update and then Bob has uh some safety stuff the summer school window for declaring uh what courses will be um given or offered has open it ends right around the 1st of April end of March um we are currently working planning on working
011with the boys and girls club um through the summer learning lab grant that they had received I got an update from Miss Hicks the the other uh last week last Wednesday um they are kind of still anticipating it but they're still waiting to see what this legislative session comes out with the budgets what what stays and what gets cut so even though she is we're anticipating doing that with her we're going to plan all also as though we're not so that we will still then offer Summer School uh for second and third graders uh who take who do not pass the I read and then um of course the high school for um Credit Recovery um will be the majority of our courses Dr Evans you had a safety updates yes with an eye towards
012safety we I just want to let you know or be aware that we do have annual inspections in service agreements uh for fire alarms fire extinguishers fire doors um athletic goals basketball goals and soccer Golds bleachers all the kitchen equipment especially the grease straps asbest we had service agreements for HVAC systems and boilers for our elevators and for all of our pool equipment and annually that's somewhere between 350 and $373,000 each year uh for inspections and for these service agreements and so that list is is is uh in front of you if you wanted to ask any questions I'd be happy to answer them either tonight or any other time I have one general question two of them say monthly so is that like say say the pool is it 13,000 a month or is
013it no so that that's the annual cost and the two exceptions of that would be there also two say every two or every three years and so that those would be just for those years that we do the inspection so if you take away that uh $23,000 that's why I got the 350 that I talked about because if it's an off year it won't be the 373 gotcha thank you sure any more questions for Bob um very quickly I just want to update the board before we get to um people in hob I was going to give us an update on our Maisy report uh was able to go over to Notre Dame and visit the Innovation lab with uh our new entrepreneur and Resident uh uh gel Monti and John evingham and uh Mr
014de boys at the high school and got to tour their uh maker space and how they support entrepreneurs and looking at very interesting uh very excited um can't wait to get back and we're trying to find Space here that's why I thought it might fit under operations to update you so we're looking at space right now uh and we're see what we can come up with so it was a very interesting visit so wanted to update the board on that and then next up is uh our people commitments and jav uh Maisy report just I know we sent it to the board if you had questions and ob's going to give you a quick overview yeah so just uh I mean this was something that we uh took part in in the fall uh and
015through several conversations with uh Mr uh Williamson uh who work for the Department of Education so uh we we are taking a continuous Improvement approach through this uh we are going to work uh with them and with uh Dolores and Cindy our directors special ed and E to uh increase our collaboration between those two areas and our general education teachers uh that that would be the priority and then there is also an an emphasis on uh Pathways for our students who come to us with interrupted schooling and few or no credits at the high school so that we can prepare them as well so um we had some questions about about that so that's where we are our next step is we have a a working meeting with uh Maisy at the beginning of March
016uh kind of like strategic big idea thinking and uh we'll start implementing as uh as we go any questions perfect okay U last but certainly not least um maybe I could have given this an announcements but uh March 4th and March 6 we are having our uh recruitment day for teachers and uh really excited about I guess first annual ever event trying this kind of event so we're going to do it right here in this building so if you know any teachers other districts or here or people thinking about coming to a great place to work tell them to come on those days and if not we'll schedule something in another time so that that concludes my reports Mr President all right thank you very much uh we'll go on it four which is committee
017reports board members student ambassador um on February 14 um the you caucus Club hosted a hot chocolate event for the students and all donations went to the Valentine's Day project which was a nonprofit for children with chronic diseases and illnesses so we made a good amount of money for them and then also NHS hosted this um Valentine card making thing for green cop members and we've sent out more than 80 letters to them so wonderful thank you board members uh Monday Brad and I Monday Tuesday Brad and I went down to State House on isba day and uh um really informational interesting um time to state house and got to listen to some of these bills um in the house and the Senate so um yeah I thought it was outstanding as far as getting
018a feel for what legislation's out there um um just a quick update uh SB 287 that's the partisan bill it's still that's passed by one vote and the Senate that's going to be still alive in the house that makees school board's partisan so that's still alive and then another one that kind of I missed is s SP 518 among all the s sp1 and property tax reform s SP s SP 518 is would require traditional public schools to share property taxes with Charters so that passed the Senate and that's in the house as a of uh yesterday so just a couple bills to keep an eye on so and I would say this is considered we learned the halftime of the long session so they're actually not in session this entire week they go back
019in session next week and then they will have I think five weeks five or six weeks to move through the legislative process so it was still a lot of time ahead of us um I think we talked about you know all the funding that's kind of really the big thing that we need to all be aware of how that impacts Us in different ways and how we can try to be proactive and try to support us as much as we can and I don't know if if I might add throw this in if some of you have seen different runs they give us on what the projected increases to the school budget would be um they give that by District so it's kind of interesting to look at but one thing I would recommend is
020people look at that in terms of uh whether they have included the curriculum uh monies for us so we get $150 per student right now right Bob yes correct me if I'm saying in appropriate but uh $150 per student right now it's outside of the formula and what they've done is they put it inside the formula and the runs that I've seen they're including that as a as an increase and it's not an increase that was outside the formula so it's not an increase in funding but they're trying to count that as a increase in funding so when you look at that just try to determine is the curriculum materials included and if it is then that's not a true percentage if it's not included then it would be the true increase and so uh
021most of the runs are looking like around 2% for the first year real increase and 6 for the second year so not quite keeping up with inflation so but again it's halftime so if you have a legislator just give them a call suggest what your opinion might be about you know some of these bills going through so thank you other updates from our committees music Council uh meets tomorrow night we had um this mon the state vocal was last Saturday um and then this coming Saturday is the instrumental is it this Saturday or next month I it's this coming Saturday who's on the council that's that guy right there I think it's March 1st I think is the day so yeah and then Bon March 6 through the 9th and the 13th through the 16th
022plenty of seats available so get some seats that's it okay all right anything other committee reports the athletics department committee met I'll give you the minutes when I have them um basketball boys basketball playoffs are coming up um they're pretty excited about the baseball and softball fields and it looks like it's going to be done on time so we're looking forward to the party invite so first games in 32 days if I get my dates right yeah it's going to be exciting who's counting right yes who's counting yeah that that it should be a fun opening day there's a couple folks who working I don't know if they've identified who throwing the first pitch but it might be come be fun to find out who's throwing the first pitch uh Rumor Has It Ken Meer
023might throw one out and Paul what's her Myers Paul Myers throw other we'll see how that works out maybe there you go all right anything out there from committees all right thank you move on to item number five which is our consent agent yes sorry were you going to give an update on your uh the foundation because I don't think anybody would yeah so foundation's still open for a board member to participate so um I have not heard from them personally so you know we're just still hanging out there right now I'm I'm mid rep for the foundation so they're waiting to see I always report I know you guys no yeah yeah so I mean it just we we to be fair to them we just need to try to see if we can
024find a representative that's willing to to sit on it um I kind of like we've shared it's at a challenging time in the morning they still meet at 7:30 the third second Tuesday of the month so I know it's impactful so okay thanks ran for bringing that up sure no uh okay we will move on to item five which is our consent agenda items 5.1 approval of accounts payable dated February 24th 2025 and payrolls dated February 6th and February 7th 2025 5.2 2025 Colorado trip 5.3 2025 Jag State development conference overnight field trip 5.4 2025 fuel price lockin and 5.5 Personnel anything to highlight any retirements oh yes we do we have one retirement Marjorie Gingrich school counselor prayview uh has been with us for 25 years and she's going to retire uh and so
025with that consent agenda items are approved as presented we'll move on to item six action items and 6.1 Neola Mr Deo you want to set us up yes uh had a conversation with Jim dermy again today and uh our team has met much talk and we're we're really hopeful that the board uh considers our recommendation to approve Neola as our uh uh School Board policy and uh support uh for school board policy and administrative guidelines um in the board packet you saw the quote and so we're asking the board uh uh to U confirm our recommendation thank you uh we will have a motion in a second to begin discussion on item 6.1 I'll move for the passage of item 6.1 for NE second move by Mr Glick seconded by Mr Goodman uh so obviously
026this was presented to us um was that the first meeting in January I'm trying to recall now or was it the end of I think it was the end of January it may have been yes so and we've obviously had some time to to review it or was it December December it was December yeah yeah it was the last meeting in December yeah so it's I've been out there for a couple months I guess additional thoughts from the board opinions before we move forward with a vote um just to make sure I remember correctly from when he presented once they give us recommendations we still end up voting on any policy change yeah so we have a chance to make sure that we agree with how they're pled for our school and if there are
027options uh we can bring those options to the board or if the board doesn't like the options we recommend uh they'll give it to our team typically what would happen is I would gather our leadership team at the office we would go through the packet of options we' select the options and bring those recommendations to the board the board would have a chance to look at them and and then they have to be voted on by the board before they become Poli our policy yeah and I think we have to verbally communicate them to the public what they are so typically and I what I would recommend is we do a first reading second reading and both um so I see two price tiers MH um there's the bylaws policy and administrative guidelines and then
028there's a lower price tier with just bylaws and policies are we going with the whole the whole okay and that's for what long how long is that period of time so the initial year the setup and then it's like 30 I don't have mine open right now I think it's 3,000 and some change every year the big cost is The Upfront cost to get a set up just the 28,000 yes 28,000 yeah that's the number back to that page that's because they're going through all of our policies currently and seeing if there's any discrepancies that's what part of the setup is we will work with them and then bring those to to the board members to approve them as we go so uh they're stepping us through the process that's why the 28,000 right then
029for the 30 I forget was it $3,600 the annual fee what they do is they'll give us uh the recommendations and those come twice a year here and then we'll bring those to the board and you know depending on what's going on case law and state Indiana code as those change uh those will be updated those policies that are pertain to those would be their recommendation for how we change our policies as long as we do one of the recommendations then they will support us uh should we have a lawsuit as well if we decide Midway through it's not working we want to pull out from the contract or do we get to keep the the provisions yeah those are all ours okay yeah so it's just an annual after we get it set up
030it would be the annual fee and then if we decide to par ways we just par ways and they they could do the same thing it's just a one year uh relationship after that you think it would affect this is getting detailed would it affect our insurance like improved insurance if we have a program like this our insurance rates would be like hey you like this program I don't think so no not really it would give me uh it it gives me uh a little more confidence that we're up to speed and and most of the our colleagues around us are using niola and so typically when we read our policy we'll go check what Neola is given to the other school districts because their policies are up there and that's not good that I
031mean well it's it's a double check it's a digging and it's research but it'd be better if we could go to our own NE policy and look at it because sometimes we question you know is that up to date you know and and this gives us the assurance that it's up to date and I think uh if I were to we got a great team right now but if there there's turn over how do we want to lead the district for future Administration uh I feel would feel better if it was kind of a Neola policy to be honest then rather than us keeping it up working with the Indian School Board Association yeah so I mean we've never been able to go back to the source so we used to be with Neola the
032decision was made at some time before anyone sitting here to move away from um and and work with isba now it was interesting just before the meeting Dr mcaf and I was chatting uh a past board member Jane trout was very involved in isba so we wonder if maybe because of that she felt we could get the service really it's for free isba gives it to us for free I mean we pay a fee to isba just for our Board Association but you know was there is the decision to try to be more fiscally responsible there I mean no one really knows I mean it predates all of us um but I mean we were with Neola at least maybe 11 12 years ago so it's it's interesting we moved away and now we're looking
033to go back so um and I've I've spoken openly you know how we went through it as a board and really spent significant time going through every policy and that's even what I was reminiscing on the volume of language that we had to pull out because it didn't meet code anymore and that's the only thing that draws a concern to me is if we were working off of the policies that were originally established by Neola and we found that there was so much verbage in there that no longer is pertain to the law are they going to try to put that back in and it's all interpretation of what lawyer looks at it so you know we had isba's attorneys give us opinions now we're going to have neol as attorneys give us an opinion
034I would be really intrigued if all of a sudden our policies go from being too in thick to being 4 in thick you know that just can you I mean if you've got another school that has noo policies can you kind of compare how much of a difference there is between the two and say Hey you know I mean if they already have the policy it's not going to be like dramatically different you know just something that's been in my mind right you know because that was one thing we we tried to do we really cleaned it up got rid of the unnecessary language so yeah an example is you know you you might have uh a policy that has to do with your classified employees but then we had a comparable almost exact same
035verbiage would be over in our certified employees so it is ends up almost looking like it's in there twice because a lot of the language is the same to me that's not a bad thing uh since you do the searching you know and sometimes the language is different for a certified employee versus a classified employee so um but if you're looking at the book when they're thick you know the books get thicker but uh but we don't ours are all electronic now so yeah we really don't print them out yeah it was more of just a mental image yeah but I mean I think that's CU I I kid you not it when we started the process it was a 4in thick binder mhm and we cut hundreds upon hundreds of pages out of it
036so how much that might have been from isba or was the isba say you could cut it out they were the ones that telling us we needed to cut it out because it no longer pertain to to the current laws and how long was it from when we had discontinued so I that would have been I believe in 2017 we went through that process now we've not been able to figure out when we moved away so I mean I was it 5 years it's hard to say some years like there's lots of dramatic changes tremendous and other years there's not much change at all so it could be in the in between time there was lots of cutting and changing of some of those codes are all our policies now online or they hard yeah
037they're on board docs so you can access them at the same time as the it's solid reading you should get to that I mean I'm little thisa Point you're not through it already how it works for us when we have a question something comes up to our administrative team we go to the board policy we read the policy and um so and then we make sure that because that's the policy you all vote on and that's what you tell us uh to do and then the administrative guidelines are really myself and my team saying okay this is our policy what are our steps how do we handle this so we put procedures in place we can share those procedures with their principles so they know how to operate so they're following the policy as planned
038and that's how it should work and it and then we when you all approve employee handbooks or you approve uh student handbooks those become uh also board policy just like the board policy the board policy the administrative guidelines that's what we are how we're operationalizing that and you don't necessarily approve those that's just what we use and there would be forms that come along with that recommended forms that we could use to like fill out a form for a leave day or bement day that should be a form that's in the board or in our administrative guidelines so so one thing I want to make sure everyone is clear so what has been presented to us tonight is to move forward with the preferred option which is the board policies and administrative guidelines which is
039the cost of 28,250 we also have the option if we want to amend it to just move forward with board Poli policies and that's at a cost of 17,120 so I mean those are both in here in the document I just want to make sure people know what we were potentially voting on as been moved in seconded right now um there's also different payment options is that is there a recommendation that's tied to this I think we just pay it when the comes okay I just want to make sure because of how they I'll say how they assembled this probably was not preferred they should have broken it up in different options but they just kind of lumped it together so as it's been moved and seconded right now would' be option of the board
040policy and administrative guidelines as recommended so just for clarity other questions or thoughts from the board there there's a it says if they screw up with verbage it's a $2 million they're liable for it so which is nice yeah and I'm going to assume our attorneys are comfortable with the language that is in here so worko has reviewed this most people use right so probably everybody they're working with besides us yeah okay I I would recommend just past experiences that should include administrative guidelines because we get to the principles that's what they really use they use a lot y other thoughts I guess in looking at it you know I I realize you again put in a lot of time but you won't be here forever and you know the plan a future board you
041know setting it up this way potenti it's going to make it so it's a little more secured oh yeah I'm not advocating one way I I'm stting the facts that's all I'm try to do and I acknowledge that yeah so and you should as a board expect those updates two times a year yeah so if if they're not then we should you should say Hey when's our updates coming because after like this legislative session if things change there will should be some tweaks to our board policies that you guys would consider and vote in our policy I know that sometimes when they pass those laws it's like you know July 1st the law goes into effect when you have updates twice a year I assume the second update would be sometime after July 1st how
042does that work if the law goes into effect but they don't send the update right away or do they when the law goes in effect the law goes in effect because Indiana code actually uh any policy that we have that is contrary to Indiana code is an issue right and it depends on what is I think probably the example I would give what I would think is there have been a few laws that take effect immediately so one of them for example was when they redid the residential Tiff it went into effect the day the governor had signed it so I think that would maybe open up the opportunity for the multiple updates in a year generally you're right July 1st is when they go into effect but there is the rare occurrence they happen
043sooner that would at least cover us they would just make sure that we have the policy updated when it needs to be not sitting there with oh we got to wait two more or three more months to get a recommended policy yeah you had something say yeah I was just going to State the obvious right we have the funds right now to begin this process and then future years is going to be less 3,000 so so if we're going to do this might as well do it now when we have funds and then we don't have know Financial CR issues yeah anything else from the board before we vote we're ready to vote okay um all those in favor uh please say I and raise your hand I I opposed same passes 60 thank you
044all right 636 we're getting there Terry all right we are now moving to item seven which is closing items uh 7.1 any miscellaneous items tonight uh just announce that the next board meeting will be Monday March 10th at 6 pm and please everybody recruit teachers for us we we got some retirees and we've got some folks that are moving out of the state and we've got a few openings so help us recruit uh 7.2 any miscellaneous board items and all I'll say is with legislation let's just work together let's you know find ways to communicate with our legislators or however we need to we got six good weeks ahead of us yet so let's figure it out there's a lot of things that impact public education we're not going to win on all of them
045but we got to figure out how we can maintain the the positive traction we've got in our district right now so just be aware I'm excited for maybe a session that we can have to learn about more so I'll just put that plug into everyone so anything else the best way to communicate with your elected officials phone calls yes very much so uh first house was in March 7th or was the third I think it's March 7th yeah Thursday is at 8 in the morning good timing do you know where that's at Chamber of Commerce Chamber of Commerce March 7th yeah make that one there's a they'll be talking about at the third house in Elkart too which is later that day typically all right I'll take a motion for adjournment mov moved have a
046second all in favor please say I I we are ajour thank you very