001thank you okay can we call the meeting to order with the pledge of allegations good evening and welcome to the August meeting of the Greek castle School Board first item on the agenda is adjustments to the agenda Mr Giver I actually do not have any adjustments to the agenda okay hearing none next item on the agenda is public comments regarding agenda items does anyone have any comments regarding the agenda items okay very nice next item recognitions Mr Gibney so next month we'll begin recognizing our students of the month um during our board meeting so we'll be recognizing August students in September so we don't have any of the students uh months down or this month but I'd just like to give my thanks to all of our staff members for a great start to the
002year um certainly many different uh changes with just people moving into our new newly constructed spaces and adjusting to some new staff and new staff members adjusting I just feel like the start of the year has been very smooth and I appreciate everyone's help with that and then Becky has so I have some recognition specific recognitions um so as Mr giveny said we've implemented a lot of new programs and one of those is our Dibbles assessment in our K-5 they use our Dibbles to inform their reading instruction and to assess the students reading skills this is a daunting task for our teachers so this year our title teachers and our special education teachers took on task for them so I'd really just like to publicly thank Jill Gooch Shawna Worman Kara hayslip Heather Miller Meredith
003B Kate chassis and Don Batten for taking that on it really helped the teachers so much and we really appreciate it so I appreciate them and then our second recognition is I'm excited to announce that one of our Middle School Math teachers Whitney reader was accepted into the state of Indiana's level up leadership program this is a competitive program in which Educators across the state had to apply to join and it's an opportunity for emerging leaders to engage in Innovative professional development in order to level up the leadership capacity of all the Educators across the state so we are excited for her to learn from this new experience and use it to positively impact Greencastle Community Schools so and Whitney is here [Applause] and Mrs reader and we can go this way and get you
004a picture so there you go congratulations yes congratulations next item on the agenda is the approval of the consent agenda which consists of special meeting minutes from July 17 2023 executive meeting minutes from July 24th 2023 and regular meeting minutes from July 24 2023. the house of claims the financial report and the Personnel reports Parts one and two which are posted on the door and listed on the website Mrs well hello in first year uh Finance packet you're going to have the two regular payrolls that we had in July one was dated July 7th for a total payroll of 373 445.06 along with that became uh came the uh excuse me the accounts payable for taxes and retirement total for the July 7th payroll 111 000 499 DT then the second regular payroll for July
005was dated the 21st for a total payroll of 363 350 86 retirement and taxes on that payroll 108 426.42 next in your package you're going to have a list of prepays for July 2023rd there were a couple of unusual ones um we twice a year as you know do have pension payments um and Debt Service payments you'll see that um on the first page third one down and then about halfway down you'll see the 1.3 and that's for our debt service payment so we meet in July and then of course we always have a quarterly contribution to the corporation for a valid you'll see that on page two for the sixty seven thousand three thirty six sixty four and then there was a couple loose prepaids that we had here just helping the corporation out
006um we had some on page um I guess it's probably page four on this one total 47 87.96 these were some payments that we had made for TZ um Old National wealth management and Abby Cole um just they've had some trouble making making some payments so we went ahead and got that done by trouble I mean they didn't have a Treasurer at their building to sign any check so we just bailed them out so just to kind of give you an idea why we were paying some stuff for TZ that was why and they reimbursed the corporation that's very unusual we just kind of made some things happen for them and then um the final big um purchase in July prepay was for on school buses you saw the 261 thousand eight ten 89 and
007that would be for the school buses total prepaid dated July um 2023 2 million 102 108.94 did anyone have any questions about any of the prepaids for July okay then next in your package you've got a list of claims that are dated today and pending any questions we've got total claims dated today August 28 471 730 809. did anyone have any questions about any of those yeah quite the washing machines yes and that was an unusual one thank you for picking that up we did buy a big washing machine for the middle school and that was an over 17 000 those are not cheap but they do last a long time so the next in your pocket you're going to see the fund report to balance the end of July 2023 was uh three million
008505 484.23 operations balance was one one million 563 196.38 if you head to the last page of the fund report page 506 total on all funds is uh eight million five Seventeen three eighty six forty three next in your packet you're going to see the depository statement you'll see that we are balanced out Bank to fund that's a good thing we want to be there and then on the fund transfer report per usual we you know we have some transfers from One bank to another that's where you'll see uh the bank two to bank 10. we had a pay run old payroll account that had been open for quite some time and the balance was very low in it our payrolls are actually processed very differently now and have been for quite some time so
009I went ahead and made the decision to go ahead and close that account we weren't you know we weren't paying any fees or anything like that but we also weren't making any money on it so there was really no point in maintaining it so I went ahead and transferred that balance of 2753.89 to bank ten you'll see that there so total uh fund transfers for the month of July was 941 928 39. and then finally in your Finance packet you're going to have the bond expenditures at the top expenditures her bond 2021 balance forward was 22 million 138 or 74.27 the new expenditures for July 2023 you'll see there so our total expense expenditures as of the end of July is 24 million 164 339.42 and then a bond 2022 we are balanced forward was
010three million 55 179 our July expenditures took us to three million 652 126.97 depending any questions I'd like to submit are approval those numbers just mean we're getting closer to being done we really are yeah yeah that's good and it's a little scary too I'll make a motion to accept the cassette okay the motion is second we need further questions you're not all in favor all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is reports of the first from the gcta yeah so something uh new that we're going to be doing throughout our district or excuse me throughout through our throughout the year excuse me is having a GCT report just to highlight some of the great things uh taking place in our buildings and that could be people that could be programs um or
011students so it's an opportunity to try that out for those that don't know my name is currently sitting on the CPA as well I've been teaching here in Greencastle for five going on to six years and a couple things I did want to say regarding the union and our business here with central office I am happy to represent our gcta talk here with the Greencastle School Board I'm here today partially speaking on some remarks that have been made about our school our teachers our district as a whole and I haven't been here for the time I have been in Greencastle I can say it very confidently that a lot of what may have been talked about online or through other social media Outlets a lot of it I would say is more unfounding I don't
012see a lot of contentiousness and negativity that might have been spoken on you know part of the reason that I'm here is yes to recognize those people that have done it through our teachers and our Union but I also just want to recognize the work that all of us to better than our students and our community um I'd like to focus on what we do as opposed to what may be said uh kind of sticking to that you know one of the things that has been going very well and has gone well in the past is our negotiations between the gcpa and our administrators and School Board I've always felt that they've been very healthy very productive that they've always been something in the mutual interest of both parties at all I've never really felt
013that anything was unfair or unspoken in those needs and that's always been greatly appreciative of that Direct business that we're able to do another thing to point out would be the bargaining that's always gone well in both ways favor I've been very happy with that and a little bit rambled let's see that is that you have all the professionals that we have in gcta and our district that we are here to better the children of our community through their education monthly discussions happened between union officials and administrators for any official business or issues can be discussed and worked out on a more personal level level before anything else escalated and that's one thing I can speak to as having participated in those with Lisa and some of our other officials that they're very usable and
014the relationship that we're able to build as a union with our administrators it's always for the better of our students that's at least how our voice felt the last thing that I wanted to say along the lines of our gcta as of right now is we hold our administrators and board in high respect and that we are in support of the missions that they set out for us Union would like to thank the board and our admins for their continued support through these years of service and for their continued support in the future as well I think the only thing I'd like to add at the end of that is that as far as the beginning of this school year is gone and the feel that I would say I get from a lot of
015our teachers at least it's easy is an aura of positive we see a lot of good that can come from the changes that are being paid in from the Traditions that we're upholding and we hope that that will continue here through the future as well and hopefully when I come next month or when Aaron is speaking for us next month that we can continue to have good decision thank you next is the assistant superintendent report we have a lot of new programs happening so we've been really intentional this year with our professional development plans so earlier this month our Middle School English teachers met with Harry rosebrock she is a consultant has worked with Brownsburg and some of the education service centers on understanding and diving into their iLearn data and then also on how
016to intentionally plan writing to their lessons and so um she'll be meeting with them again in September to go over some of those assessments that they've already given the students to help drive that instruction to better meet our kids needs and then also our math teams I know we've talked a lot about reading um I don't want to forget about math so our math teams in grades 3 through 12 so this is going all the way up to high school we'll be partnering with Bill Reed who is part of the encompassing education group um our high school teachers are actually meeting with him I think on Wednesday and um they're going to learn more about the digital PSAT and the s.a.t and that's open to not only the Math teachers but all of the high
017school teachers to learn more about those and then bill will also be working with our third through eighth grade math teams to understand our new standards that are getting implemented and then how they relate to not only the lessons that we teach every day but how to better prepare them for our estate testings in the spring bill focuses a lot on developing higher order thinking questions and problem solving skills and how to incorporate these into their daily teachings so I'm excited for the teachers to have this opportunity to learn and grow in their professions and how it will positively impact our students thank you thank you next is the superintendent report Mr Gibney yeah so I'll be briefings actually have a couple of lengthier items a little bit later on in the agenda but just
018again we had a great overall start to the year on a more separate matter um we are working on getting the pool back up and running if you remember we had the leak and uh that leak has been fixed and so we're working on getting the pool filled back up and chemicals back in it so we can open up the pool again and then uh a couple weeks ago the wind storms severe weather we've had to navigate a little bit of a challenge with our tennis courts um because the wind has blown some of our fence posts over and so we're working on a potential fix for those posts as well as making some repairs to the surface of our tennis court so we're meeting with uh five years later yeah yep some of the
019playing circuits itself is peeling up and when we make those adjustments those posts we're going to have to uh to make some improvements I see that so um working through that and then um uh the final thing is working through to identify what our ADM ADM account is and so um I've shared with the board previously that our budget was built on the ADM of 1720 students and we were sitting at roughly 1740 students at the start of the start of the school year so let's up a little bit from last year that we'll work to kind of see where that is because we've had some ins and outs since the start of the school year so enrollment has been in a good place as well okay thank you next item on the agenda is
020old business and we have no old business so next is new business and the first thing under new business is a public hearing for the or 2023 collective bargaining yeah so before we can begin um official collective bargaining with the gcta after September 15th we actually have to hold a public hearing to allow the public to make any comments um related to that process so next slide Corey essentially uh next slide um so essentially the subject's a bargaining salary wages and fringe benefits next slide prohibited subjects of collective bargaining those are all items that were formerly discussable those are the same items that we continue to discuss with the gcta on a monthly basis next slide continue so there's the timeline for bargaining so we can have this or excuse me we can bargain informally
021prior to September 15th and we're hosting our our hearing tonight and then after September 15th that's when we begin again formal bargaining and then uh once we do reach incentive agreement with the gcta we have to hold another hearing to discuss the terms of the tentative agreement to discuss the terms of the uh the collective or the agreed upon collective bargaining agreement and then at least 72 hours after that is the earliest that the board could take action to ratify and take Collective partnership um all collective bargaining Agreements are due um by November November 15th next slide and there's just some additional other parameters that are kind of a part of the process next slide and so now would be the time to allow the public to provide any testimony but limiting it to collective
022bargaining so yes I guess that now we will open the public hearing part of this and anyone who wants to comment again no one okay and we will close the public carry the next item on the agenda is an approval request permission to advertise the 2024 budget the cpf plan and the bus replacement plan yep so I'm going to run through uh a few more slides I'll be I'll be brief because this is a similar presentation that we've shared in the past next slide for you if you recall these are our primary budgeted funds uh within the school district the education fund the operations fund that service fund and the pension bond fund next slide then each of those funds has specific uses for example the education fund is used to pay for instructional related
023expenses and that's funded from our state tuition support we received from the doe each month um and then we have the operations fund so that's like our Capital Improvements our building repairs maintenance and that's funded through a portion of a transfer from the education fund to the operations Fund in addition to our local property taxes uh The Debt Service fund is obviously used to strictly do just that we pay outstanding debts such as our current Bond issues that we have and that's funded through local property taxes and then pension bond fund the buyout for many years ago the unfunded obligations the retirement buyout um I think we pay off in 2024 but again that's funded primarily through local property taxes and specifically Greencastle these are local income tax to to pay that off next slide
024please and then um yeah so in education so our state tuition support we received from the doe is based on 33 different variables that are attributed to several different accountant days throughout the year so these next three slides so part of our it is our ADM count um you know count of uh students and categories with disabilities um kind of students in different CTE programs uh next slide please um all of those different factors help determine um the funding that we received from the doe each month and so when it comes to building the budget we have to make educated guess or make our best guess and use use estimates throughout the year and that's also something we have to continue to pay attention as we navigate through here is if we have a decrease
025in students then we potentially need to look at making some adjustments with our spending habits next slide please so FY 24 state tuition support so we Budget on a calendar year but we receive our funding based on a fiscal year from July 1 through June 30th and so this is our projected State and tuition support this has nothing to do with our local property tax dollars or anything like that this is just what we receive from the doe and this is based on an estimated ADM count of 1720 students so we received the basic Grant the academic performance Grant special education grant CTE Grant and then they've added an item the non-english speaking grants there still be pushing out funds in a different manner for that throughout the year so you can see roughly 14.4
026to 1 million dollars for this next fiscal year so we know that the Indiana General Assembly gave a significant uh I think a significant increase for this first budget year and then it tapers off a little bit in year two next slide please and so just for comparison's sake FY 23 versus fy24 you can kind of see at the bottom so it's between 700 and 750 000 increase over the fiscal year 24. next slide please um so also going along with building building the budget um we also we have well we have to think of the immediate we also have to think of the big picture right and uh we have to look at enrollment Trends um we have to look at Staffing levels class sizes we have to look at all those different things
027because the decisions we make today can have a long time negative impact on the overall fiscal health of the district and just a few years ago we had under a million dollars in our general fund before it was called the education fund and now we've been able to give staff nice increases but also build back up to a nice amount of cash cash reserves uh to where we're never in a position to where we might have to potentially borrow to make payroll so you don't want to take uh two you know two steps or one step forward and then two steps back so next slide so there's our budget uh preparation calendar so actually Kelly and I uh met with the County Council last week I think it was last week um tonight is our
028budget workshop and board approval to advertise the budget and then you can see uh the upcoming um important dates and deadlines as we continue to move forwards with the budget adoption process and the County Council essentially the uh the agency that approves our approves our budget next slide uh just again showing uh ADM and how it has adjusted over time um just kidding historical information you can see that built this budget with the same ADM account as spring of uh last year next slide again just uh since our budget is an 18-month spending plan an 18-month Revenue plan and have to build it with several different assumptions because that is a long period of time where things can change for the better and sometimes for the worse next slide and so moving on to the
029budget itself you can see projected revenues for the next 18 months as well as expenditures for the next 18 months of the last six months of this year and the full 2024 calendar year we don't advertise a levy or a rate in education fund because we I'll receive those dollars directly from the DOE next slide our debt service fund again same thing um you can see the living to be advertised the rate to be advertised next slide pension debt we don't advertise a levy or a rate because we use our local income tax dollars to pay our pension debt uh fund liabilities next slide the operations fund again 18 month Revenue plan 18 month expenditure plan and you can see the levy and the rate to be advertised next slide the rainy day fund um
030again we've been able to build up a cushion there we will appropriate some funds out a rainy day but hopefully we won't have to suspend them we don't receive any uh property tax dollars and so we don't advertise a levier rate for rainy day next slide and again these are just a bunch of different budget considerations as we as we work we work through this um process I won't read all those items to you next slide there's our rate and Levy history um so one thing I would like to to point out is on the left hand side you can see the advertised uh levies and and rates and on the far right hand side you can see what has been certified by the dlgf after our budget has been finalized so our budget is
031built on roughly 85 percent of our assessed valuation so therefore um the rates are advertised higher then they come back certified because when the AV goes up your rate goes down to generate levies and we also know that we have Max lettings for operations fund and so we know that the dlgf is going to make some adjustments uh to that so if you go to the next slide there's what we're seeking uh permission to to advertise for the 2024 budget in addition to capital projects fund planned and the bus replacement plans which are posted on our website so unless anybody has any questions that I would like to uh recommend the board of provide approval to advertising 24 budget cpf plan and bus replacement plan I will make a motion to do so okay um
032we have a motion in a second any questions comments okay here you go and all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next item is an approval request for the 20 or 2023 2024 save School plan yeah so as it's customary with another I started the school year our building administrators and uh your Landon is our safety Guru at GCSE we've reviewed all of our safe school plans within the first 60 days we have to certify that we've reviewed them modified them if needed and so we're just essentially taking board action to show that we have done just that and I will certify to the idea after that takes place come on foreign Motion in a second to approve the safe School plan all in favor all opposed motion passives next item is an
033approval equipment with an approval request the 2023-24 occupational therapist contract the Salient health yep so in order to uh to continue to provide services to some of our students with special needs um Mr Sullivan has worked um to uh to identify a therapist to contract with and essentially in order to move forward with them it requires a board approval and this is similar to what we've done in years past um with some of those Specialties got specialty type positions well I will trust Miss Sullivan's recommendation and make a motion okay we have a motion in a second any questions discussion hearing none whatsoever all opposed motion passes next is an approval request for the teacher appreciation grants yeah so as is customary again at the start of the start of the school year by I
034think the deadlines by September 15th um we have to send in um our teacher appreciation Grant uh policy and our evaluation plan um we have not made any adjustments or any changes to that policy but we have to annually approve this policy and so it would be my recommendation that the board approved our teacher appreciation grants policy so that I can submit it second okay we have a motion in a second any questions discussion can't hear any none all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is a revision to the 2023-24 academic calendar yeah so if you've been following the news media or reading the newspaper of some school districts that have done this already we chose to kind of wait and see a little bit um but with
035what uh the public um is projecting with what's going to take place on solar eclipse day essentially uh the timing of the eclipse being during dismissal and the extra amount of visitors that we expect in town we just have a lot of safety concerns um with holding school on that day and dismissing you know dismissing on time and so I have a modification here in the calendar as it stands right now we had a built-in snow makeup day on April 19th and essentially what I would like to do is drop that off and make April 8th a solar eclipse day to where it is a day out of school and we've been talking it as an administrative team where we still feel like the meet could work with our staff members to share activities for
036families to do on that day and to safely view the eclipse and we've also looked into purchasing Glass glasses so that students can do on the eclipse safely from home so this is a where I think is in the best interest of our our school district and kids just to keep everyone safe makes sense to me but um luckily we have the police officer here on our board what do you see coming um I can tell you that we've already had uh meetings with the sheriff and some representatives from out of state who have seen this type of event in their state before and they brought a lot of wisdom to us to plan for this I've never seen this kind of thing before so I can see it maybe it's kind of a mess
037here and especially at the time we're going to prepare and be ready for it so it's just one of those things that we've never seen is I don't know it may be a good idea that to plan ahead and look for this kind of thing I from a safety standpoint so like a perfect world I wish we could just sit back and say you know what let's keep our kids for an extra hour let's invite the community out let's really enjoy this let's make us a learning opportunity but I also know that no it's not just kids getting on buses and getting them home it's the high school kids trying to get home during the middle of all this my fear is that the kids are going to be sitting at home on their phones
038and they're not going to see a thing of it and we're going to miss a great learning opportunity um but I understand there's a safety side of it too I guess that's my two cents on yeah well I think it's probably the best to prepare for and take the day out and say well maybe we didn't need to do that after all it's been opposed to knots and where we should so it might be a cloudy day it is Indiana okay well can I get a motion to approve d oh second yeah the motion in a second any further discussion questions okay next item on the agenda is the 2023 appointment to the Putnam County Library board for a four-year term that term expired I heard in January or excuse me July yeah so we
039need to do a point so far yeah and it'd be my recommendation that we reappoint uh Mrs Green Shannon greens in that position okay makes good sense I will make a motion that she is a representative okay motion and a second any discussion okay hurry none all a favor all right follow votes motion passes next is an approval request for some athletic corporate sponsors that I'm going to read all of once or will approve all at once and each of these is for fifteen hundred dollars sponsorship one from York Chevrolet Buick GMC Greencastle Pediatric Dentistry McDonald's Dave's Heating and Cooling Hassler Trucking epic Insurance in excuse me epic Insurance Midwest Putnam County Health Department and Edwards Royal Comfort Heating and Air again each of those sponsors ships is where or four one thousand five hundred
040dollars so taking a motion to approve I make a motion second okay Motion in a second any discussion other than thank you yeah thank you everybody okay um all in favor aye all opposed motion passes next item is an approval request for two donations one from the Indiana Association school principals Incorporated the Green Castle High School in the amount of six hundred dollars a second from the American Legion Post 58 the Greencastle High School softball in the amount of five hundred dollars second emotional approve the two donations yes um all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next is the first reading of the gcxc foundational statements 2023 through 2026. yeah so just to kind of highlight my work and chime in where I'm missing um we spent we've been spending about the last
041year um working with Dr Walsh um from ISU on just revisiting um our mission uh Vision core beliefs um our values essentially to work on developing our strategic plan uh for Greencastle school districts um and so we've had five or six meetings over the past past year to where we've really talked about and had a lot of good discussions on what it means to be a Greencastle tiger um because we believe that we need to essentially kind of set the foundation or set the direction for the future of our school district um to help Drive our priorities and our strategic plan and so now we've reached um the moment in time uh to where uh it's it's needed for the burn board excuse me to have first reading um on these foundational statements um to
042eventually to where we adopt them and then we move into our priorities and our goal setting uh with staff so a couple of our buildings have already had some conversations with their teachers um already to help us identify potentially what some of those goals might be so that way we I guess do student the students are at the core of what we do each and every day um but it can include things such as you know supporting teacher growth and retention um yeah they were looking at how we're supporting like student mental health we know that that's been an issue for the last couple of years especially since covid so that's becoming a priority for us um fiscal responsibility um not only for our facilities but also instructionally and for our teachers and students um
043yeah I know the Coco and extracurricular programming that we have in Greencastle because that's a strength but working through all those things and identifying um some goals that we can work to kind of stretch ourselves and help grow the district and help us move forward so essentially there's no action this month but those are forced or streaming thank you yeah thanks for working on that yeah next item this is a first reading of a bunch of Neola policies yeah so all those different policies are listed for first reading so again no action um being taken tonight but those will be on the agenda for our second reading and adoption anybody have any questions or comments on any of them you know all right that's good enough um next item on the agenda is other business
044does anyone have any other businesses I was going to ask Mr Rogers I know he's working on trying to get more of a fan base at our games and I just want to know how is this going well um [Music] all the way up um so they're just trying to generate deciding inside the bank let's open our first game I counted 107. um in Athens that are inside stadium that was over 240 512. so over 50 percent of our students this class yeah um get free to impact um thank you so pretty fast I think we're sending the fan bus today [Music] thank you thanks thank you anybody else any other business okay Nick got him on the agenda is adjournment I make a motion okay I have a motion to the second all in
045favor all right all opposed motion passes oh thank you all for coming and we will see you next month sure