001okay let's see um thank you excellent fasting sounds like people are ready to start at 5 59 minutes um we'll wait one more minute see if we get another board member too Let's uh stand and open with the Pledge of Allegiance Justice having a little trouble with my voice I'll try to speak up um there was a time when I was a decent singer and I really learned all about rejection and I can't exactly reject tonight so I apologize for them okay come on computer here we go all right this is a meeting um this meeting is a meeting of the ocean School Board you mean in public for the purpose of conducting the school corporations meeting it's not to be considered a public community meeting but there will be time for public participation as
002indicated on the agenda our mission inspiring Innovation empowering potential enriching our world and our vision is to be Indiana's Premier Global school district of choice all right we have an agenda that is presented to us tonight are there any changes or modifications needed we have two changes tonight one we would like to delete superintendent's report 4.3 we'll bring that back at another night and add a consent agenda item 6.9 which is a fourth grade field trip to slaughter Village okay with those two changes um any other questions comments about the agenda I got two questions okay um first question is in reference to the public comment period that's not really a question it's just for the community's knowledge um it has ours will board policy listed under that um and that policy is currently out
003of date as it says that people may comment at these board meetings and set the discretion of the presiding officer whereas current law and advice here in the states that it required yes so I just want to make a comment about that and the second item um I had a question about the consent agenda according to our policy number 6602 it says the school board should consent agenda to keep routine matters within a reasonable time frame routine business items such as the following may be included in a single resolution consideration by the board and it has four items minutes of Prior meetings bills for in payment our bills for payments hiring a personnel and resignation he leaves so in reference to that I'm curious as to why the mlu's the Riverdale property alonas policy or
004consent agenda items because I wouldn't call those routine business items that we typically have no discussion about I would classify those routines yeah we um at least my experience on the board has been something like like if you mentioned the Riverdale property there's been a lot of discussion about that working with the city on that I think everyone's in agreement on that so we've we consider that when a team um was that discussion before I got on the board yes yes yes and that was all worked out with the city over the last year a year and a half I don't know when it started two years started quite a while ago a while now was there originally I vote taken on which isn't that project yes this is just a memo this is just
005the the um the approval of the of the transfer of the deed to the city which had already been decided same is true with the other items on the consent agenda all right with those um thoughts we will have the agenda approved as amended and next we have approval of the minutes from our April 10 regular school board meeting any uh changes or Corrections needed to those minutes okay and that is um it did not reference under let me pull up here so I can make sure everybody um and reference to the executive session minutes it said that they were brought back because they've been Tangled previously um and Miss world's motion and second environmental consolidate the minutes were approved in the book of five to one but it doesn't reference that I've brought up
006again that I was opposed to it to the fact that I didn't believe it was a school board member training I think I would like that included in a minute I mean the minutes are not a Verbatim example of what is takes place in the whole thing I mean that is part of the transcript that is a recorded document um we have not been in a place where we record these verbatim so I'm not sure if we're going to change it out yeah um actually this is what we're just voting on no he's referencing the minutes in the executive session my comment about that two or seven minutes my experience here typically an executive session there's not a lot of detail in the minutes this is the public minutes so this is the vote that
007was taken to approve the negative session minutes I made my comments where I understood that okay all right I just simply wanted to amended saying that I was opposed to it because I did not believe that the executive session was supporting over training all right with that one um we can we can add that with that one alteration then and the minutes will stand approved uh student and staff recognition we have several um recognitions tonight we first would like to recognize the ghs engineering and Technology teachers they earned an international Technology and Engineering Education Association award an international program of excellence and so I'd like to call them up now so you can get them Joel you can go stand right boxes um part of the program's excellence awards we had to submit syllabus for
008informative classes and some of the projects that we've done there were 28 programs of excellent Awards in the world awarded so this would be a pretty big deal for social media it does a lot for how this entire group is growing our program in the last couple years congratulations Soul we want to honor our Varsity Winter Guard State finalists and I'm going to execution come up and talk a little bit about their program and then she I'm going to give her all the certificates I think we do have a few students that we will call up as well not only in all of these videos he's just gonna just tell you a little bit about about winter garden and their State final list performance so I have with me today Alexis Alexander crosses Garcia and
009Melissa Ortega they are both Juniors and members of the Goshen Varsity winter guys ocean Varsity Winter Guard competed in the State uh in regular competition season six times and we were able to actually compete regionally and internationally as well which is super exciting um we were able to get into state finals and we didn't love our finish necessarily but we're really proud We got to be there um the really fun part that we like to add is that when we went to World Championships suddenly a bunch of groups that um judges that officially originally thought were ahead of us we pulled ahead of all of them and so uh we ended up in the international setting we were able to be the second highest Guard from Indiana in our class and so [Music] Winter Garden
010we had two represent and takisha will take this guy to the whole Winter Garden foreign state finals and then he's going to also talk to you about the concert band who made it to State finals and you can see he's got a lot of food so um he's going to hold on to those and make sure all the students get it back at the school so I'll let him talk a little bit about their state finalist performance I'll introduce Matt James he's the director of our profession this also last week named the Michigan outstanding future award so um so winter percussion uh this season we started off in a class and actually uh received the beauty promotion from our circuit one from data Open Glass uh and this season it was all about growth we
011had a known group ranging from seventh grade all the way to seniors in high school and the fact that we're able to be top 10 of the state and top 40 National games to go to a new group with such a young group as well as extremely exciting so we're really proud of the working okay thank you I have a seniors Luciano Ronaldo and a leadership CEO as well from high school and brought with us our Cube great seniors Maria and Cody first chair trumpet and first chair Cuba and they've been great leaders for us um in in concert in in Indiana there's no Constitution so all 682 high schools in Indiana compete against each other there's no classification so we're proud to say we were once again in the top 16 and uh it's
012been I guess 16 times the last 17 years then we've made State finals and you guys are a good part of it so Mr Kaufman great time uh if you think of marching band and concert band there's only like us Carmel Avon Brownsburg excuse cool maybe are not quite like thoseians that are able to have confidence in March advances really proud of the kids and their hard work and then all right if you continue for student staff recognition you may say for the rest of the meeting or you can I don't know thank you all right we have now come to the public input portion um we've got quite a few speakers tonight but we will ask that you hold it to three minutes um Mr Whittle will be the our esteem time keeper um
013so I would ask that you respect that um so we can keep the meeting moving along first one is uh Mr Terry Hartman nearly two years ago on June 28 2001 Linda and I met with Dr hope and Laurie Schreiner about some concerns we had with Goshen Community Schools during that conversation we confronted them about the webpage for the equity and inclusion Council which included political and CRT driven agenda here are some of the words and phrases that were used the council Works to eliminate the systems and sustain bias and discrimination sexual orientation Goshen Community Schools must eliminate the systems in our dominant culture to sustain the bias and oppression other phrases such as restorative justice and historic traumas and the word systemic were also used if you're familiar with any of those phrases these
014are simply code words from CRT at the conclusion of our meeting Dr hope agreed that some of the language was loaded about a month later on July 21st 2021 we noticed that the school website page for the equity inclusion Council had changed to every student succeeds counseling and nearly all the CRT grading was removed we thought this was a great Improvement after a few months the web page for the council completely vanished from the school website fast forward April 12th of this year while watching TV we saw Goshen School administrator chuckling about their concealment of this committee say we did tweak the name of our Equity inclusion committee and we called it a work group two days later I filed a Freedom of Information Act request and asked for the minutes members and attendees of
015any work group about three weeks later on May 5th I received a response from Dr hope saying the school does not possess any records responsive to your request why did they rename the equity inclusion Council three times and change the website content and there's no record of this existence what conclusion can I infer from these endless Shell Games Hopkins school have a committed meeting for over two years and have no written records if the school is having committed meetings and not recording amendments the attendees or the members why not what are they hiding after I filed a complaint last year with the State against Scotia Community Schools last year on June 21st 2022 the schools found in violation of the open door law by the Indiana's Public Access counselor there are reasons why schools hide
016information what's yours next uh Robert good evening Rob Raider 908 South Penn Street for over 30 years so uh we're talking about referendum superintendent hope a few months ago said there was zero percent chance of that now it appears that uh we're gonna go through forward for the referendum so I wanted to comment on the uh on the past to see how how good stewards or not we have been here at Goshen Community Schools uh last meeting in the self-promotion video I was so glad uh superintendent hope mentioned that you're compelled morally and ethically to teach our students I I hope I'm paraphrasing that correctly and Lord he's 100 right so how have we done as a board well you know the big news we recently had five or six subpoenas people coming for campaign
017violations we had one incumbent who says that he could make good decisions but yet cannot decide whether his uh Other Board member Capital I'm not sure it says Treasurer or his campaign manager we had another board members a couple of months ago said well I may have crossed a line or two that's this many ten violations that he was accused of and that's after three of them were dismissed uh we talked about that at the Elkhart County uh election board meeting they had another incumbent who's who with his uh daughter who was a professional uh certified public accountant I'm pretty sure uh had no idea that they were making any violations uh and and yet received so many fines that was a common denominator with all of the incumbents who who were subpoenaed I didn't
018know lastly we had another comment arguably the nicest guy on the board who presented a paper in April of 2023 backdated for November of 2022 this was just a paper this is the legal document I find if this is the representation that this community the community that I've lived in for 30 years plus Justin Street I've been at 30. I've been here longer than that this is this is a failing grade this I cannot think of a time that we had a board that was more bro more unethical more than Morrow to use the phrase so on that point do you deserve a referendum of our tax dollars of my tax dollars that's F maybe an F minus that's a an abysmal failure now I'd like to talk about some other things but we'll we'll
019do that next month on on the validity of referendum Miss Maria it's nice to see you again all Myers hello I'm Paula Myers I am a retired School employee serving Goshen schools for 27 years I'm also a mother of a former ghs softball player and Nana to a current ghs softball senior I also served on the board of directors for little league for over 30 or several years over 30 years ago when my daughter was small and loved to play softball there were no Fields available in Goshen for girls we had to travel to neighboring towns to play all of our games from the time my daughter left little eight and joined ocean high school team there was no field other than the park department for girls to play on let's fast forward to the
020present day there is still the same sad reality 30 years later while we have appreciated the cooperation of the park department and Goshen schools in softball the conditions are not ideal the fields are not playable a good percentage of the time visiting teams reference our Fields as playing in the swamp and it's quite embarrassing we currently have the worst fields in our conference and I might say for softball and baseball March 6 was the opening day for ihsaa softball season to begin for girls our girls did not step foot or to play or practice on a legitimate field until March 28th that's 22 days after season yeah and that was during their fourth game of the season so they never practiced on a field prior to playing any games two of their games had to
021be rescheduled for visitors field as our field is unplayable this is unacceptable baseball was able to practice and play on their school field this is just another example of opportunities that are not equal for girls teams that Goshen schools coaches cannot be expected to build a quality team and provide a positive experience for our girls when they do not even have a bill to play on or practice on this situation is unacceptable after 30 years of talk about playing facilities for our girls the time has gone beyond cost to action to stop all of this discrimination I strongly ask that if you consider providing the girls with their first ghs facility and a side note the baseball facilities are usable but definitely need upgrades Northridge Fairfield Northwood are great examples of proper facilities for student
022athletes this would upgrade both Sports comparable to what other Goshen athletic teams example football swimming tennis soccer have experience over the past 10 years I thank you for your consideration thank you Mrs Myers appreciate your advocacy uh next uh John rains I got nothing I misunderstood the purpose okay all right thank you you have anything to say on my list Mr Knoll is going to take History Month no what you're going to take your three minutes are you I don't know usually try to keep it short and sweet I get the determine sport short and sweet and all let's go to um a couple of things one I'd like to sit out front but I couldn't do that tonight bottom line is we need Mike you guys need mice it's it's it's even if you
023have to put one here okay clip it to your shirt because in the back it's hard to hear and if if you're Whispering up there we don't know what you're saying and if the minutes don't reflect every word you say then someplace in here would got lost probably gotten tattooed um Riverdale um I'm I'm glad to see the school system's getting rid of it what's that bird that hangs around your neck anyways um thank you um that thing is riddled with uh asbestos acceptance now it's going to a smaller tax base City so you know hopefully the city was aware that you uh there wasn't specialists in there it's been in there since um they've built the building so um referendum taxes in general yeah my taxes are due in two days it went up
024more than it should have put my little Hubble he still comes down to if you ask the county where it's coming why the taxes went up and only going to one place here in the past referendums this is the number you'll see when it comes to your taxes it won't go up more than this and then when oh we might have miscalculated that after a passed and do we get to go down to the county and go no no no this is what they said it would be not what it ended up being no we can't do that so in the past citizens have been lying to over and over and over to the point where we don't trust what's coming out of mouths not just here I was not aware that the softball girls
025softball um don't have proper facilities it is called Title Nine don't know what it is look it up it's a big thing federal government loves coming down hard on violations of Title IX so I suggest that to keep the federal government out of my wallet because what you guys manage is my money and a lot of people's out here is money let's let's make sure that Title IX is being followed because I can remember in the 90s when 9009 was not being followed for the girls okay um I I'll just respond to one thing and that is we've known for decades that our softball facilities are not adequate and when I joined this board um many years ago over 10 now there was active discussion about using the property that was Johnson Controls and actually
026that that was the plan way back 15 15 years ago would be to use that facility for softball and that ended up just not being workable that we needed to to walk away from that but we are well aware of the need to for softball and and to upgrade baseball and we certainly are working on it uh next uh Linda Hartman I haven't even spoken in 2023 so I get 15 minutes correct I always try all right I'm going to talk about money tonight or lack thereof so that we've been talking about and I've heard at several meetings that people like me just don't understand because I don't have kids in the school and I look around at the board and I know we have a lot of you know most of you on this
027board don't have kids in school so I guess my opinions is valid is yours and I am a primary stakeholder I've got two kids in the district second and fourth grade parents don't send a devotion because we're academically deficient and I can prove that to the test scores over and over across the street there's another family they have four kids a block down is another tree that's a total of nine if you're counting Bob I think he's gonna over 13 years a lot of money we're wasting secondly Terry and I have lived in the corporation since 2009 and we have paid well over 30 or 40 000 in taxes a huge Lion Share of that going to the school we're assured investors and we don't mind paying for the kids if we're going to get
028a positive rate of return but we're paying into a system that's failing year after year in 2015 we created a strategic planning committee that was determined that we now have a school or we had to have a new school because of the big broken population now we discover we have a shrinking population so I guess that's a huge 65 million moves on our court so three of our current board members sat on the board that made that financial decision again if we know that money went to teachers and the kids would not be hesitant to help but we know that the money does not toward the teacher from the kids so then our property taxes came last week and this was a peaceful resistance so here we got we ended up paying 608 dollars this
029year 383 dollars in class order and what was the reason referendum so before the ink was dry on that here we are quoting another referendum so I say Let's do an experiment let's hand out the budget proposal to Citizens and who really live within their budget let them cut out things that they look see that are unnecessary your paper will come back to you looking like a piece of Swiss cheese live within your budget if you don't have the money you can't get it simple economics get your uh self out of your Bubbles and listen to the ground people are complaining they're griping they're pulling their kids for homeschool I have calls every day I have messages every day God is the excuse that kids will be socialized there's so many co-ops in our area
030now and they're discovering that we don't they don't need you anymore so you can keep buying into the light that we don't have enough housing if you want well we don't have is a good educational system we want to major in sports and music and how different is that from a charter school a final statement closing my business allows me to make statement shirts and someone approached me about making a shirt that says and this this hurt me guys GCS good enough for our demographic I thought about that for a long time we have 57 Hispanic population that logic says you're not smart enough let's lower the bar for you that is totally racist and I don't ever want to hear that coming out of the sport again we're doing good enough for our demographic
031lift the bar so often Excel not dumb it down your job is to make sure kids have the best education they can have and the rest is just extra current thank you thank you I didn't get my whole 15 minutes [Music] all right next on the list uh Mr Ben Bowman hi I'm Ben Bauman I'm a local pastor and parent of a child at Waterford and the spouse of a teacher at Ocean high school first of all I want to say thank you for what many of you do you put in a lot of time and hours and effort for our community and I want to appreciate that um I may not and we may not always agree with what you do but I do believe that you all have good intentions and appreciate what
032what you do um I want to offer my voice for support of diversion diversity and inclusion perhaps you see a number of signs around the room um where do we even start I I don't know I haven't been to many board meetings any board meetings I don't know what's said about critical race Theory and social emotional learning either the board or from the group um and I don't even know if we have shared definitions on what all of that is and until we have that we can't really have a conversation um but if critical race theory is giving an honest history of our country then I'm a whole believer and supporter of critical race Theory and I hope that we are teaching history accurately in our classrooms yeah social emotional learning is teaching our kids
033how to handle their own emotions and how to interact with and relate to each other then I am a full supporter of Social and emotional learning so um again you hear from a number of voices in the community that I just want to offer my support uh for that that work of diversity and inclusion that is very important work for our community uh and then as the spouse of a teacher I just want to encourage you I don't know what a Power Authority you do or do not have but to continue to find ways to support our teachers uh and not only support them but to find ways that they are respected um as you all feel and our teachers feel and our staff uh getting attacked from numerous places uh in our communities um
034that affects our teachers that affects our students uh and I know you all feel what it's like to be in this polarized world uh and getting uh where you just yeah can't please everyone you can't do it all right but I just want to encourage you to find ways to expect our teachers and staff and their voices um because they matter and they're a crucial asset we need good teachers in our system so thank you thanks apologize for mispronouncing your name that's all right next Paul Stern well hello good evening so because I'm uh politically active person I'm a I have a thick skin but I do take offense to the fact that people are being incredibly critical of public schools especially since I'm a proud educator I'm helping educate students about the importance of
035being a good citizen my goal as a teacher is to lead enhance develop Inspire motivate and Mentor students to become responsible and literate stewards of where they live and I really see Goshen schools doing that just to let you know I have two sons one who graduated from Goshen in 2020 and is now at University of California Berkeley studying bioengineering thanks to the science teachers my youngest son is currently a junior currently at Goshen High School with interest in Theater Arts environmental justice as well as being an excellent swimmer and an academic academically sound student thanks to all of his teachers my boys are incredibly successful because of their schooling and our involvement as parents here at Goshen my wife Michelle Van peristuri and my family both believe and know that diversity and banned inclusive
036education is so very important for growth I went to Milford Elementary School where in fifth grade Nancy Lopez became a very good friend I thought she was grooving she shared in social studies class that her family were migrant workers and I was okay with that because she was my friend I respected her and she respected me in 1976 my family moved to the big sea of Goshen where I went to Whiteman junior high school for my seventh grade seventh and eighth grade years I became the bodyguard for those who were being bullied since I've been basically this size since sixth grade while never being in a fight I was always taught to help those who could not help themselves I decided to go to Bethany Christian high school because of my upbringing and Bethany's desire
037to be welcoming to all ethnicities and diverse backgrounds all four years of high school I had a black student slash brother from Chicago living with us because my parents wanted to us to do unto others and love their neighbor as themselves I was brought up constantly thinking about how to respect everyone I've been an educator most of my life and I currently work at an environmental as an environmental science teacher at an at-risk youth High School where because of my family's circumstances most are because of their family circumstances most of the students face challenges that we cannot imagine must us live with many students want to attend college thank you foreign for providing a great education to help my sons and students as students to think clinically understand about their actions everyone's gone over a
038little bit uh Julia Smith hi I'm Julia Schmitz and I am a pastor at Beef Mennonite church here in Goshen and I want to come to express my gratitude to Goshen Community Schools especially Administration for committing to the work of equity and inclusion as a member of the community here in Goshen and a faith leader who looks Works closely with Children and Youth and parents I highly value this work being done I also worked the last several years as the Immigrant resource coordinator at the Center for Healing and Hope and so I know just how that nurse the Goshen Community Schools are becoming in that role I often met with immigrant parents who are adjusting to life here in Goshen and how they expressed how difficult it is to adjust to a whole new environment
039new culture new language new ways of doing things the families I met with who are often doing the best were the ones who received a lot support for their children from teachers apparently is on school administrators who worked hard to make sure that their children were being cared for and so the extra extra Intercultural steps be able to cross the different cultural and language barriers to help each child to learn in their own way I know it's not easy being a teacher who has to help these very diverse populations and this is why equity and inclusion work is just so important in the administration all the way down and Beyond and it's so necessary at this time when our schools continue to become more diverse we need teachers who can help all students feel accepted
040have critical thinking skills people contribute to their community our classroom our churches and our entire Community is stronger when everyone has a chance to contribute so I just hope that the school board can continue to support Goshen Administration and teachers that can continue this important work s I get close in your last name Tony it's just hobby please yeah I did put your last name on it I know anyway first of all my name is where are you going good to see you and you're needless to say I don't have a topic tonight what's going on here but all I know is that the fact that I'd be in here almost first of all my family left Laos not by Design I could also come here because 43 years ago my Mom and Dad decided
041we're gonna leave it was a hundreds involved not that alive guys education it's been a year refugee camp yeah I am I'm thankful for that the reason I'm here that I want to thank you what you did for my son I'm not a sugar quarter diet we'll be listening here is a first world problem I want to thank you the fact that my son is doing great in school for the last 10 years please pass on to your teacher then they can do an awesome job I just don't know that I mean I could just you know I can pick a ball game in about 15 minutes and I said you know what I need to show up at least one just to tell everybody that I'm not gonna lie that we have a good
042system here we really do I have a black kid I'm Asian my mom is my wife is white imagine you say you know what you look Asian we don't want you here we will not win the same champ I wouldn't be there to have today without all you got it I'll give this to them goodbye to you but it was coming like I get to write a yellow limousine to go to school free food and number two and so which is number one Prince I got three books you know I went on to go to college level I remind my guys yes thankful I just I just want to tell you that that again I I look at I'm gonna be able to see me saying this again never gonna happen I have my own
043life but understand I want to be my yeah it's not easy job again at least in one kid I'm drinking and smoking imagine what you do for 1500 kids you know what they say they think of a little basic yet no take a mom and dad and a teacher okay I'm not gonna lie to you guys being there done that my father sacrify their life so I can have a good education it's not about Good Life yeah a lot of Liberty I bet I want to adore America and have a good life not my mom and dad I want to go here you have a good education again thank you so much next uh Mr Miller is it Bruce Bruce yeah sorry thank you 11 11th Street just four blocks south of here and my
044wife Sue Rob and I are parents of two DCS students one is the uh here at the high school in 10th Grade and another in junior high in eighth grade we're very grateful to Goshen Community Schools for the solid education that they've received so far and we're also grateful that they've been provided an environment that has made them feel welcome accepted and valued our wish is that all students have this same experience no matter their gender their ethnicity race religion or abilities we value our children being challenged in school with truce from history that they be encouraged to think for themselves while also considering delivering viewpoints we are not afraid of them being exposed information that seeks to Balance common representations of history from various things of you we believe that understanding the facts of
045our history and the states that have been made are ways to ensure a stronger future we are however a parade that public schools will begin to fail caring teachers are not trusted to teach our children and if they become villainized for truthful interpretation of curriculum or for supporting their students social and emotional needs we frankly regret even further Voucher Program expansion if it undermines the quality of public education as our boys and all the students at GCS grow and figure out who they are what's important to them who they love what they believe in how they want to contribute to our world our deep hope is that they all feel seen accepted and affirmed by those who education thank you to the teachers Maria Tice thank you my name is Maureen ice and um this
046is my first opportunity to speak to you as a school board I was really moved to be here tonight because of um some of the statements that I've heard really over the last couple of years where teachers have been undermined and attacked and it makes me deeply sad and it also makes me really frustrated as a parent of a student who goes to go to Community Schools because the times I have interacted with my child's teachers over the years these have been primarily positive interactions where I feel like my concerns were really heard and that my teachers really cared about my child's success but more than that they cared about my child as a whole human being not just his educational um success but his success as a citizen one day of Goshen um my
047choice to live in Goshen was in no small part because I thought the schools were really good and while I don't necessarily agree with everything that I've heard from um the school board and even some community members I still believe that ocean Community Schools are really um excellent and I'm proud to have a student in this um School District I could have made other choices um but I choose to send my child to public school I want to just take a moment to note that um today's May 8th today's actually the first day of national teacher appreciation week and I find it kind of a little sad that um again there's been this atmosphere of its trust um toward our teachers and so I want to take a moment to say thank you as again
048parents thank you as a community member and thank you as someone who has chosen to live in Goshen and buy a house in the ocean um so I am investing in our schools and I believe that's really important um I'm here also in support of equity and inclusion and those things to me mean that every student no matter their background no matter their gender no matter their ethnicity no matter where they were born if they are now part of this ocean community and eligible for ocean Community Schools that they should be really receiving the same kind of Education and the same access to education I don't think it should matter where a child started out like if they're here and part of our community now they should be receiving the same Services of all children
049and so I want to commend our teachers for working so hard um over the last three years even in really trying circumstances during the pandemic to support our students and be committed to their Excellence so thank you teachers staff administrators thanks the last one we have signed in is Richard hearing my name is Richard Yuri and it wasn't important here's about 33 minutes to get what he decided to come and I didn't even know what I encounter when I when I came here um that was a little case at the beginning that there would be a continuation of bracing suspicion about the kind of education that Goshen Community Schools is providing and I'm disappointed to hear that the Supreme employee of the year accusations that the district is not doing a good job and that
050you're not conscientious and trying to do what's best for children and negotiation I worked in the city of ocean but also I have some other community connections on the board the center for human info which helps provide medical care for those who are insurance and health and advocacy for immigrants immigrants who are in many cases risking their lives to try to create a better life in this country I'm also an executive board member of Mennonite Church USA which is the governing board of this denomination and I'm advisor for the Latino Student Union at Goshen college and that's either three line of all of those activities is taking people as they are serving the best interests of them and our community telling the truth embracing values that have made this country great and among those values
051that I think are very important increasing the diversity equity and inclusion those are important Concepts because this is not the same country it was when it was first carved out of a nation of other peoples were not reminded often enough that Indiana was called the land of Indians it was called that because they were diverse people who lived here before this country was became a nation that it is today so I think it's an important that even though it may be natural to be suspicious of people who look different who speak differently who have different customs and cultures that difference is what's made this country what it is a Beacon of Hope for the world and that difference makes us a country of Rich diversity and cultures that benefit all of us so it is
052a string so I'm hoping that even though you are continuing to hear criticism about what schools are doing or not doing that you would stay the course that you would continue to speak on those values and recognize it as our school intervening different as our community is getting different it is changing because it has to change because it's taking on different people with different Customs different cultures so I hope you will take heart from the fact that there are more of us I believe in this city who support what you are doing and those who are criticizing you for what you're being accused of doing language thank you um we're going to move on to superintendent's reports and then the rest of the agenda so um if you want to um take off um you're
053welcome to do so or you're welcome to stay um next on our agenda are superintendent's reports um first is rising Red Hawk Awards yes thank you we have a video to show you of our Rising Red Hot Box um if you remember we used to have the turnaround we have changed that to Rising Redbox award and so we have a great video from all of our schools who are going to show you their students that are receiving this and we will have special plaques delivered to their schools for them and we all have special delivery here at Chamberlain Elementary and this is Brandon Ward um he is my current fourth grader however I have known Brandon been using kindergarten so I've known him for five years um and what is what is winning this award
054this Rising red hot award meeting you exciting in I mean so does this make you want to keep doing what you're doing for the future right because you love playing soccer right and you know that your academics are going to lead you to play that factor right awesome congratulations this is Xander Xander Holly he's a first grader I can always depend on him to give you a really good idea um so if our class is struggling to think of something or come up with an answer this guy right here is going to have the answer for you and he's going to be able to explain his thinking so he's a really good leader and a great thing what is your favorite thing to learn in first grade math math why because I like uh so
055yeah Ashton and I are kind of in a unique situation where this is actually our third year together years ago for the first and second grade and now fourth grade and it's been pretty incredible lasting to see just how much you've grown things aren't always easy at school and um we've worked really hard at it and we've grown so much and you've turned into a leader in our classroom teachers I have used uh that's what I have seen implications [Music] especially everyone thank you um I nominated pots for the rising Red Hawk award because she found so much growth this year she has come in and she was very shy she didn't really want to ask for help when needed she was very compliant did her work very well um but now what I'm noticing
056she's asking for help she's not only asking for help but around his wings but she's also asking for other teachers he keeps helping other people ask them what's your favorite subject so Chandler but I kindergartner last year and um he had a bit harder time adjusting to the classroom setting and so this year though we've made a lot of improvements he has had a behavior plan put in placement checks in every morning into the office and if this vehicle will help you every morning yeah that goal does and so what's been the result of new being out of the classrooms learning um who's learning the whole class the whole class and that includes this is Diego Martinez and Waterford has chosen him and our Rising Red Hawk fourth grader so Diego what are some things
057that you have liked about water the people that teach me how to like read and do that and actually right now [Music] um [Music] uh-huh teacher at West Goshen I'm Maggie bronkoma and I teach third grade here at West Ocean hi my name is Jordan Jordan and when you learn something new you have to be expressing it do not mean to let correctly once we're really accurate then we have to be automatic and that means quick and once we're accurate automatic then we have to be consistent and what means all the time and then finally the big goal is to be independent what does that mean on my own words Warren can you tell us what the turnaround award means for you um the IFH yeah you have improved from fifth to sixth grade and
058can you tell us specific ways you think you have improved um my actions okay [Music] um emotions and whatever he's talking about making progress so I was talking about his his team you know people working with him and for him and um I think that's true for any student that goes in schools like there is a team of teachers that are working with them and for them and people that don't know you really don't know you have a special family you have an ability to Zone in on one of the people are thinking it's a true gentlemen I would specialize to thank Miss shorts she has helped me through a lot of tough times and I know I can always depend on her for my needs in school are you would also like to thank
059Mr arson writer for always being there for me and allowing me to do things that most teachers wouldn't allow me to do and I want to specialize and thank Mr love for always being there to support his class everyone else in his life he's an awesome guy we as we consider candidates that could be students congratulations to fast forward to now he is um Contracting very good for 40. so McGowan just curious what um who are some people maybe that have impacted you especially like since you've been in high school especially maybe and maybe even help to motivate you to turn things around and make sure you're ready you know the teachers haven't um um my mom has been a cell phone and my aunts so um awesome we chose uh him as one of
060the recipients because of the three major turnaround that he made especially after his freshman sophomore years here uh was his shortened year because he finished in December I finished all his graduation requirements which I would not have guessed starting when he started his junior year also completed uh two College two classes with theater in college all of your plans um high school well because I would like to like work for a bit and then go back to school and [Music] and since then maybe you can imagine um see all the letters of that that's wonderful uh next um summer Foods [Music] good evening everyone president director of nutrition our summer food program will start June 5th and run through July 21st for open sites for me operating in Shanklin Pringle in Hay Park along with
061Roxbury apartment and we'll also be supporting the um yeah Coda and discover um over in the nearby park our program will also be supported this year and collaboration and partnership with the cultivate food rescue program we offer frozen meals for our children we've actually utilized that through our school we are to supplement meals on the weekend so those will be offered in the Parks Fridays and we'll be utilizing our social media and other avenues to communicate that to the community now the program is open to all [Music] children 18 and younger for males in the Parks and again those are absolutely free and funded through the USDA and again we'll operate from June 5th to July 21st to concludes any other questions any questions I guess my only question we used to go to a
062lot more locations are we trying to concentrate it just because that's where we've always found the largest need those are the largest involvement and largest sites that that children using congregate tours again even when we partnership with cultivate if we find where there's needs we can set up where the failures can come pick up meals at the junior high we'll put that set up as well so for some reason they can't get you those parts and and new meals over the weekends we can certainly coordinate those more I will say we're trying fewer sites this year because that's where most of the food is dispersed but we buy it afterwards so you can increase this number of cents well I think your staff should be commended you serve thousands of meals every summer and this
063is a huge need for a lot of families that depend on this nutrition so I think this is a wonderful thing we continue to do and thank you thank you reporters [Music] yeah what is 3D yeah so the 3E Grant uh what it stands for basically there there are different Pathways that we have created in one of the advanced manufacturing pathway and then work with other districts in Elkhart County we are working with guanine Concord gym town yes yes uh so with the word for those uh different full corporations and Goshen we are working together to come up with different Pathways that are supported for our students either throughout high school and after high school so that's starting uh through the work of these different work groups for elementary and then Junior and I in
064the high school and so you can see right now just like what the whole process or the purpose of the 3E Grant is just there on the board but really it's about making sure that our students can engage exploring experience different Pathways and this first one that we're focused on is the advanced manufacturing so if you go to that next slide they'll purpose though is for everyone to understand that this is not just for recreational vehicle working we are not just looking at factory work like the whole focus of our work together with these corporations is to make sure that our students understand that advanced manufacturing is part of all of these careers and that comes through getting our teachers to expose them to those opportunities from an early age and that's if you go
065to the next slide that's what we are working on throughout and so I am the word group leaders were the primary age uh Jen is working the high school in Hanukkah is working with uh intermediate so and I think I'd be able to introduce myself I'm Andrew Kaufman I'm a master's teacher at GIS hi Nick Miller I'm the eighth grade stem teacher at the New York the generator Master future and so these are our working definitions for what Advanced manufacturing is just so that everyone understands like we wanted to make sure that our students had access to this definition at all ages and then it kind of builds from the Elementary on you know so our whole purpose is to Showcase these are the the careers that are possible and if you go to the
066next one in elementary our focus is on self-awareness financial literacy trigger explanation worked ready skills which a lot of our work that we're already doing in what the curricular resources that we have are already getting our students to do some of this um one of the big things that we are working on with our students is listening and speaking in the elementary that's a work-ready skill that equipment to be able to do and so just kind of exposing them as you go to the next one to these in the elementary is going to help us to set that pretty strong foundation so that when they do get to the Junior High in the high school they do have those different opportunities um so at the intermediate level uh starting to think about preventive career introduction
067for students we're going to use the Indiana Career Explorer they have three different assessments that anyone can access on there um but we're going to focus in on the two one in the career interest assessment and that actually gives them their top three uh areas of interest that like that include a bunch of different um careers that they could do and the agile work profiler which just helps them understand their own current skills that they have and these are actually both two assessments that they can retake every year if they want as they continue to grow and experience new things um then from there Focus has also been on creating lessons that would be available to introduce students more manufacturing or to the whole students who show an interest in advanced manufacturing um so they
068can learn more about it and those have been focusing on uh robotics manufacturing to have changes throughout the years and then you can see like the extensions that are available to schools but that so then the experience excuse me experience level is once they get to the high school though and really focusing in on those previous apprenticeship programs and internships um we look at expanding career center offerings and all the other school-based work-based learning programs that are out there one thing I want to really stress with the 3E Grant is that it has allowed the entire County to come together so we're sharing resources we're sharing ideas and we're sharing contacts which will help improve Community involvement as well um so I said you know we've been sharing some resources already with our business contacts
069I know there are looking at doing some Mentor training now at our monthly meetings we've kind of rotated around to the different schools that are involved so that we can see the facilities and the types of classes that each school is offering and then we've started having some guest speakers come in so we've heard from the career center we've heard from The Crossing and career lives as well then um in the future so this kind of gives you this year of what all of the groups were working at what our goals were for this year we still have a full work day in June where we'll really dig deep into actually implementing some things then for next year and be able to start launching things as part of the 3D Grant um right now there's
070just been a lot of learning from all of these meetings there's no sense in Reinventing the wheel so it's been nice to collaborate with other schools so we're ensuring that the students in Elkhart County are giving a good understanding of what Advanced manufacturing is we'll say Goshen High School with this Advanced Manufacturing Academy is ahead of the game on that so we appreciate the support that we've had and getting that going anybody have any questions for us no questions I will add the negotion along with the other schools here in Elkhart County entered into a partnership with the rise of Education Alliance wrote this grant together to get this money from the state and we hope that this halfway or manufacturing serves them as a guide as a model for all of the other pathways
071yeah thank you thank you other things so I am thrilled this evening to announce that Mrs Krista Troyer will be the new principal at Model Elementary School s in January and just done an outstanding job of that to the veteran educator with 28 years of experience she earned her Bachelor of Arts in elementary education from going to college in elementary education from Nova Southeastern University and then completed the principal licensure program through Indiana Wesleyan University for professional experience includes teaching fourth and fifth grade supervising student teachers being a leadership team member a mentor teacher sixth grade English language arts teacher a social studies teacher and working as a teacher at special assignment assignment or what we call tosa here in the ocean that model and then of course certain ads intern support and now principal
072of Model Elementary School congratulations um and I have my model very support um it's been really great during the interim and giving me a lot of Grace since I was going to enroll and I'm excited to be able to step in and just continue the great work that our staff and our staff says we have a very supportive Community a model um parents morning I just want to thank everybody for the opportunity to step into this role thank you staff thanks for coming you are welcome to stay over the whole meeting because it's a lot of an opportunity for you to leave all right turned item five is board committee reports all the school board members sit on various committees and awards um I will just start I sit on the grocery Park recreation board
073um not much report there other than to say discussion started with what the city will do with the green space Riverdale um and which the city will be receiving through our actions this evening and the park department is is doing a lot of work to figure out what it will not serve the neighborhood there other reports just a friendly reminder Building Trades open house is Saturday May the 20th so it's a good opportunity uh to be able to go out and see the fine work that our students did this last year in building a house so may the 20th now I don't remember what time it's in the afternoon I think it's uh real quick okay we'll post that along with the address great fun great talk thank you um anything else better Council uh
074this week very soon they'll see in conference here 's neighbors for the sports sectional starting very soon everything's kind of winding down kudos to Brad we're working the motion relays the miserable Dave otherwise yeah and I I went out all right um anything else legislation is all wrapped up yeah let's see what happens yeah probably give a summary of that at our next quarter yeah and the um the uh regional meeting for Indiana School Board Association is tomorrow evening in Plymouth so some of us are going to that and the main point of that meeting will be um what happened to the general assembly of the session all right um other committee reports on the award reports anything else all right uh item six in our agenda is consent agenda items um 6.1 is the
075approval of accounts payable April 11 2023 through May 8th 23 and payrolls dated April 14 and April 28 2023. um 6.2 is a nutrition and wellness policy 6.3 Food Service Co-op annual commitment uh 6.4 is hea on the horizon education Alliance memo of understanding 6.5 head start preschool memorandum of understanding um 6.6 disposal of obsolete technology and we have equipment that we can no longer use we actually have to take board action to get rid of it 6.7 is the Riverdale property and resolution number 804 which is transferring uh it's a very descriptive in transferring um real estate um from Goshen Community Schools to the city of motion and of course we will and and included in that is an easement and a right of Entry because we still use that building and need to
076be able to access it obviously um I will add to that one that the city of Goshen is probably our greatest partner here at the Goshen Community Schools City of Burlington will be actually updating putting quite a bit of money into that no cost negotiating schools just to improve the Ingress and egress from that property all right uh 6.8 uh personnel and then 6.9 what was added tonight is a fourth grade field trip to souter Village which is in my hometown of Archbold Ohio so um I know Sauder Village well excellent my great-grandfather's things are there for the kids to look at so how about we have one retirement uh it's another night Kelly this is your teacher at Merritt Learning Center will be retiring after 22 years of service division thank you other questions
077items comments on the consent agenda you're not the consent agenda is approved as presented next moving on to item seven which is action items um 7.1 student handbooks so this will be the third time that the handbooks have come before you um some changes that were happening that you might not have really noticed uh in the update but this latest one is the School boundaries have been corrected in the back in the description and in the maps uh we will also now that the model principle has been named we will now then after this meeting put her down has to be printable so um other than that there have been no real changes um are there any questions and the lunch stuff will be added once it's approved yes and curricular materials TBR and figure
078out the legislation means right correct the entertain a motion for the approval of the student handbooks passage divided 7.1 of student handbooks and seconded any other discussion on famous AI all right all right past the animals uh 7.2 thanks all my help thank you uh so this is also the third time that the Stagger to the proposal of the staggered start in order to help uh those students transitioning in kindergarten fifth grade seventh grade and ninth grade um get a better better start to the year without everyone without being overwhelmed by everyone being there allowing us to uh pay more attention to their needs and work with their parents um nothing has really nothing has changed in this proposal the 16th would be um kindergarten except fifth seventh and Ninth Grade would attend everyone else
079would start on the Sunday all right I went for the passage of item 7.2 styron openings okay all right it's been moved and seconded um yeah I think it's it's going to be exciting to see how it works well and we will keep we'll keep track of how this works and see if this is something that we would like to make ongoing yeah this year having two children one's excited for the other one's number one's not very happy about the other one can't wait for an extra days you can't win with everybody yeah and and of course I'm sure it will be well publicized for that um families know when their kids wants to show up some approval uh started we'll start getting communication out there and put it on our calendars all right it's
080been moved and seconded um all in favor say aye aye aye that's unanimously thanks um next item 7.3 Dr Evans your turn uh exciting things boilers Junior High where we've advertised and receive bids for Goshen Junior High of Hamilton project which includes boilers and pumps uh this equipment that they currently have is original to the building so it's well past its life expectancy we're happy to say that we have four bids and um the poor mechanical for 667 800 from h g for 740 000 from acms or nine hundred and twenty thousand dollars from ideal for 700 585 dollars uh we asked the board consideration to accept the lowest bid of four Mechanical Services for 667 thousand eight hundred dollars and this bill this uh project will be financed through the refinancing of the 2013
081in the 2014 bonds that we had in our last board meeting any questions have we used for have we used car mechanically before have they done work for us before uh I haven't I used some people that I've only been here for a year as well sure but I mean they come highly recommended they they I'm sorry yes they did pass the the test of being having good recommendations yeah I was sure they did but I wanted to just make sure people knew that yes get our due diligence on that and I guess who who built the spec out for us yeah and uh with some of those specs are attached to this well we will understand a motion before the approval of the big I move for the passenger bottom of sub Queen three
082Goshen Junior High School boiler um biz how second that group and seconded other questions on favor say aye aye um thank you mm-hmm moving on to item eight in our agenda which is discussion items we have one item uh tonight that's parent teacher conference and Dr Metcalf so this will be the same thing comes before you it's on the it's attached again if you look at the memo it should be a new memo after some feedback and some talking to your principles and and teachers um we are proposing that October 17th you know um part of the part of this we're doing we're doing this in order to give more time for us to meet with parents um if we're going to you're going to do that by on October 17th um have 7 30
083to 7 30 basically parent-teacher conferences with no school no students attending on the Tuesday on the Thursday at the Elementary's we would have the other half of their parent-teacher conferences in the evening from 3 30 to 7 30 uh totaling this and so that actually gives us about eight more hours of conference time than we normally would have had in a in a more traditional parent-teacher conference schedule um but we're asking you to consider that um and then um in October 12th the secondary school Foods still have the other half of their of their parents spring current teacher conferences again this would be what we would be doing this week through the Innovative schools Network we'll be looking at a resolution to use time instead of days um because of the amount of time we
084we attend school above the state minimums uh that should allow us to to do some of that bank time I mean is there any questions I notice you flipped around obviously the full day which I think is probably makes more sense so yeah we once we we had really thought about it but then once we had when we met with the principal when we met with some teachers and said because I kind of posed the question do you think there might be parents who would and the aunt would yeah probably yeah we had a full day on Thursday just started that uh fall break because it is the next week on Thursday instead of uh and this two more days another day of school so everyone was like you know what that's that's a good
085um that's a good move to move to Tuesday yeah we just know how people could be these days yep all right no question all right thank you uh next items closing items um first is miscellaneous board items um I when I drove in I saw a Russian college man out here there must be some Goshen college students here and I hope I hope you all come and teach for us and congratulations and we didn't scare you away tonight I hope so well welcome and I should have done that at the beginning of apologize um other board items no some a couple of things actually okay first of all I do want to reply to some of the things that were stated here because um it was implied that if you are opposed to an equity
086inclusion agenda that you must be opposed to people from other countries people who look different than I look like um I think everybody here on this board already knows due to the campaign that my family doesn't look like everybody here in this room and I want to represent those people from Goshen who are not racist who do not look at the equity and inclusion agenda as something that is good for people from other countries or from other um ethnic backgrounds in my personal family was born in three different countries when held nationalities in all three of those countries and my extended family we've had two more countries to that so I want that to be out there to say I'm not coming here opposed to people because they look brown or because they look yellow
087or any other color or because of what nationality they came from um I think you could be opposed to an equity and inclusion agenda because you support people from those countries and we want the absolute best for them so I would like to to have that out there less people come away from the meeting tonight thinking that my opposition to it meantime erases uh I'm the only white member of my family and I think that speaks for itself so in reference to that since we did not have it coordinating and it's my attempt to have meetings with you know Roger and Mr hope did not result in a meeting I've got some questions uh that I would like to ask about the video that was applied in Fox News I think it's pertinent for the
088community to know the answers to those questions um there was a reference to the fact that a public records request was made concerning that Equity inclusion group and it was stated that there was no records as minutes about any such group and my take is basically it doesn't matter if you are liberal conservative middle of the road transparency is something that benefits everybody and if something's good it should be public you know we're a public entity we're a public board we represent a public school corporation uh we shouldn't be hiding things so my question first is was there an equity and inclusion group that was changed in its name so people did not know it that it was an equity and inclusion again I'm not saying even at this point that that group is wrong
089I'm asking what they're covered deposit would be changed by negotiate Community Schools we'll get you answers to any questions I would like to know it's probably that was fun on Fox News I think people have a right to know publicly we'll get you answers and questions asking these I like it to be recorded that that was not provided as an answer to me so and the question is can I ask a question for them I think maybe about history how is this going to help education if we are based in a news I mean anything too I don't practice that but how they're going to help communication education I am also done from different backgrounds I represent the majority of the 57 percent that we were talking about hispanic here too so let's not point
090to that someone seems I feel like talking about news is really broad to me I want to continue asking questions um it was stated that the person involved in that interview misrepresented Goshen schools but in the press release it did not stay why it was a misrepresentation so again for the sake of the community I'd like to know and for my own self as a board member um since I have been told that nobody in the school has any agenda other than the Teaching Standards what was misrepresented about Goshen Community Schools understand she lied that there is no renaming of a group was there a group that was renamed but it wasn't to cover it up which I wouldn't find odd I'd like to know why it was renamed at that point um yeah so
091why why did it get stated publicly that she misrepresented the schools Elkhart Community Schools held immediate board meetings after that I don't know about military schools why was there no coordinating call to discuss it I mean it's a big deal to be brought up on national news and to have literally no Public Communication about it other than a single press release I find it on so I'd like to know why was there no discussion about it um again why didn't you tell me that there was no agenda you said there's no hidden agendas and our teachers and our administrative staff we don't have time to have the hidden agenda at least one person seemed to say that there was a hidden gender so I'm curious as to why I was told that and told that
092my statement that there could be agendas we need to look at all agendas and funds whether they're good or bad is offensive Roger you told me that um I don't think it's offensive to anybody here whether they are liberals or conservatives or in between say if there's agendas they need to be public we're a public school if teachers are going to teach something if it's truly good it shouldn't be hidden so why was I told that I was a Benson and that there was no agenda um some of these I'm not gonna I will skip over because I think I've asked it already um as Goshen committee schools been above board open and transparent with the community of Goshen concerning the issue that happened and the reason I ask that is our ethnic statement and
093our board policy does require that Goshen Community Schools have two-way communication with the community be open and transparent in every matter and conduct a business in an open and transparent way so again my issue here is transparency if this is a good thing it's a good thing but we should be open and transparent about it so have we been open and transparent with the community um going from those list of questions A continuing with the idea of transparency on the referendum in March our March 14th Mr weather you said that it was ironic that the community was discussing a referendum since we were a couple years away from having to deal with it but then you asked Mr hope to present last month on the referendum um I would like to know on the issue
094of transparency no schools are allowed to call referendum it's a legal thing there the implication of that statement is that there was not an ongoing discussion about a referendum I talked to multiple people who came away from that statement thinking that that's what was being communicated so my question is if it had already been concluded in January that we pretty much had consensus as it were even though some might have disagree with Daddy of a referendum why was it being presented to the public as though it had not been discussed there as well yes yeah I'll respond because I think my question was completely taken out of context that was the case the intent was that we needed to have a review of where our financial stats were and that there could be multiple options
095that exist in that an option is always going to be a referendum and I think no one would disagree that has to be an option um I think no decision has been made whatsoever about the future we know that the current operator reference that does exist is still on the books for an additional two and a half years um but we would be being irresponsible of the tax dollars if we do not continually have Financial Health updates of our districts um I don't think there has been one decision made whatsoever about what that future is but we need to be presented to facts and the meeting in March was the first presentation of some of that information um I mean I have made zero decisions whatsoever about what the future could be this is still
096a very much a listening face I talked to many community members about their feelings of that I will openly say I did not feel that the press that we got on that in the ocean news accurately even shared what the context of that meeting was that night it was definitely part of the presentation I'm never going to say it was not but it was not the intent of my ask whatsoever that a referendum was the foregone conclusion um I'll be the first to admit I want to avoid a referendum at all costs and I have no problem saying that but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be something to be discussed yeah I agree that it should be discussed my questions merely again because I feel like we've had a crisis of transparency that's being portrayed
097yes even in the news and publicly um why was it implied that the discussion had not already occurred I mean we have an email study and consensus was pretty much reached to move forward on a referendum in January all right now I would like to know why is it being applied that this is this and why are we hydrated I don't think we're hiding a single thing here and I'm kind of curious why you can't just ask a question of a board member if you haven't once reached out to ask a single question to me directly yes or no no because you've avoided other question elasticity since I do not believe that is true I think I was the first one that reached out to you and tried to set things up with you I'm
098asking these questions because I believe we have a crisis of transparency and we must be transparent you have not asked the question and I did not ask you that particular question since that email came from me I think I should jump in here the consensus to move forward is just to move forward with looking at a referendum as one possibility not the only possibility not being one answer that we're all going to shoot for but so just move forward but we've had some discussion about it let's move forward some more discussion about it foreign transparent up to this point that's my question I'd like to know that because I think it's beneficial for the food I'm going to add this for the whole Community as anybody might imagine it's not easy to have seven bosses
099um although I will say the board has been told his board has been great to work with but having seven bosses requires a lot of communication a lot of discussion a lot of time gather and see what direction do we want to go that information needs to be shared amongst ourselves first so we decide a Direction so we decided a plan of action for what happens I can't have that discussion with every single person in Goshen before I have it with the school board that's the way every superintendent in Indiana play every superintendent in America works and until recently about the way I work that's your answer do you agree though that um according to Indiana state employees that the school board is supposed to conduct this business in public and that those discussions should
100have been done publicly because it affects every person over here every person has a right to know that what I mean our policy states that there could be continual updates on the state of the finances of the school corporation to the public and then you have those discussions and options because when it was presented last column it was presented as this is the recommendation and again the issue here I'm just trying to deal with the transparency because I feel like we've had a crisis over there as we go forward as a board member I would like to see transparency in our Communications with the public if we have nothing to hide these are the good decisions to make that let's make them publicly let's talk about them publicly that's my request well and that was
101step one was to have that initial presentation so that we could hear feedback from the community that has started the conversation that has started a lot of conversation many of the people in this room are here because of that first part that is the intention of that again you can continue to believe that there's already some preconceived decision as the furthest from the truth all right well those are my statements and the reason behind them all right anything else um I guess before I get into anything that I have said I would just like to say it has been an absolute pleasure working with this board until recently we have six members who have done nothing but with their heart and soul into making sure Goshen Community Schools is a better place thank you Mr
102services it is teacher and staff Appreciation Week I want to thank all the teachers and staff of Goshen Community Schools for the instructional work thank you with their students and Families Goshen does really have the best trained teachers in America they do absolutely amazing work with our students and families every day four teacher and staff appreciation week I would ask anybody who's hearing this to just take a moment over the next week and write your favorite teacher that teacher that made a difference with you and them if you don't know where they are now or maybe they've passed please take a minute and write your child's teacher stating your appreciation for the work that they do kindergarten registration began in February and we have kindergarten blast off at the elementary schools in April and kindergarten
103registration continues bring those kindergartners in might need some powerful board members many of you have recently received your property tax bills please know that Goshen Community Schools tax rate remains unchanged and it is likely that your tax bill has gone up due to an increase in Assassin's evaluated all right graduation for the class of 2023 will be Sunday June 4th at 6 and the football field the rain date for that is Monday of June 5th the next regular school board meeting will be Monday June 12th right here Goshen college students thank you very much for being here we always appreciate you coming and lastly A lot's been says here tonight about diversity equity and inclusion so I'll leave with these remarkness since becoming superintendent I've tried politics out of Goshen Community Schools I did this
104along with school board and the administration team at the central office and building principles in an effort to keep our focus on what matters our students we need to insulate the good work everyone in Goshen Community School does with our students every day on protecting this good work and that vital teacher student relationship that is at the center of that word in spite of our efforts politics keeps rearing and totally dead we do our best to maneuver around this keep going and focus on our students there has been a recent attempt to vilify Mrs Noe which is just plainly more politics the only thing Mrs Milly is guilty of is making sure every student has quality resources a guaranteed literacy curriculum and outstanding teaching few have done more to ensure that every third grader in
105Goshen is reading on grade level than this is knowing missing from that video clip was an emphatic statement from Mrs Noe that we do not teach CRT and that we only concentrate on the Indiana standards of course including those statements would have not been true or transparent and not beating the Flames of divisive politics diversity Equity inclusion are part of any organization's success these elements are Central to any good school some in an effort to undermine public education and try to assign new meanings to these words or even weaponize diversity is simply a fact we serve a diverse community we want to celebrate and honor this diversity whereas diversity is a fact inclusion is an act we want every student in Goshen Community Schools to go welcome feel safe feel supported and grow and thrive
106in our schools we want every student to have both a classroom connection and an extracurricular or co-curricular connection because we know that students who are connected to school will be veterans Equity is our goal we want every student to have the support needed to succeed these supports will vary from student to student from grade to grade again I want to I want to say this with them it says there is no agenda within Goshen Community Schools other than an unwavering commitment to helping all of our students I'm often asked why I stay in education within the current current political climate the constant barrage of negativity death threats the question is certainly understandable and the answer is simple I say this to you Goshen college students for entering our profession these are the most exciting times
107to be in education we know more about how students learn you know more about how brains grow how brains learn and I'm thrilled to be with the team of Educators here in Goshen to understand this in the research-based best practices that go along so please hit the pause button on politics let's all come together together to give the best to our students thank you any other items the country for us tonight [Music] again