001getting to order with the pleasure to lose thank you America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right well we can tell you guys have done this before yeah all right welcome to the regular November meeting of the Greencastle School Board first item on the agenda is adjustments to the agenda we do not have any adjustments to the agenda for this month okay easy enough next item public comments regarding agenda items is there anyone in the audience that has any comments concerning our agenda tonight okay hearing that next item is recognitions Mr gibbity yep let's go ahead and begin with TZ this month and Mrs Rhodes if you'd like to introduce yep so it's my honor to introduce our fabulous TV choir made
002up of fourth and fifth graders led by Mrs Hamilton around here [Music] foreign [Music] before you are all foreign [Music] his grace [Music] would you sing with us forever [Music] same way [Music] America God shared his grace [Music] thank you for having us tonight it used to be I worked for this Corporation for 17 years now and at the beginning of my career we used to have this big holiday gathering back at central office and each of the choirs from every single building would come and we'd have lunch and teachers would take breaks throughout their day do you remember that and they would come and have and the buses it was a nightmare to bus everybody and get everybody in their car their outfits and it was just but it was such a wonderful time
003dedicated and so I'm just thankful to come tonight um and share the group that I have um they are small but we mighty Mighty and we perform these songs and we have five that we performed we're only doing one more tonight for you um for Veterans Day and we invited veterans to come to our school and we honored them and TC choir is such a great time for kids to come after school um they come twice a week for one hour after school and they get to learn how to raise their voice but specifically the Veterans Day Choir they're raising their voice to honor others and so it's not like they're competing um they're just unifying their voices together to give gifts give a gift back so we hope you're blessed tonight and again thank
004you for this time time and share thank you [Music] it's time to see [Music] your pleasure religious singers [Music] all of the grace [Music] [Applause] for the land of God friends [Music] brother ly love me [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] to follow hot dogs thank you over your nose is it just one magicians I'm pretty sure it is good yeah too hard okay we'll see you on yeah see I'm recognition yep continue on with recognitions I guess start with rib path all right I have the honor of having Miss Harper Ford ice with me tonight she's a second grader at redpath and she was nominated by her teacher Mrs Hayes and I'll read a few words that Mrs Hayes shared Harper is a great all-around student she works hard she's kind to others she's always listening
005and following directions her smile is infectious and her overall positivity brightens up our school we are so thankful for Harper so join me in recognizing this heart before yes foreign I'd like to introduce you to Eve Miller Eve is a kindergartner and Mrs Burnham's class and she is our October student of the month and Mrs Burnham writes I love having even class she follows the rules and listens the first time I ask she was kind to others she's always being friendly to kids in the playground lets them join in on the fun she wants to learn and grow I can't wait to see the progress she'll make this school year keep up the great work Eve Eve Miller [Applause] Mrs Rose so I am proud to introduce Miss Lucy Greenwell she is a third grader
006in Mrs inlow's class and Mrs inlow wrote Lucy has one of the best worth of work ethics of any student I have ever had in 18 years of teaching Lucy works hard she is one of the most outgoing and friendly students in my room and one of her favorite hobbies is telling jokes in front of the class Lucy leaves a room two or three times per week for a pull-out program yet she manages to complete all work that she has missed efficiently accurately and without complaint she is a joy to have in class Miss Lucy Greenwell [Applause] this cup for the Middle School good evening we are proud to introduce you to Levi Hostetler stetter sorry eighth grade team nominated him which is a huge thing for all his eighth grade teachers say Levi works
007so hard he's helpful to his peers around him and extremely kind and thoughtful he's an independent creative thinker he works hard to achieve his goals and is able to arrive at solutions that are both unique and appropriate he's very considerate of both other students and his teachers he's polite friendly and always has a smile on his face we are so lucky to have Levi as a student and his other teacher says Levi's such a kind and caring student he's always willing to work with others and very Cooperative he's always has a smile on his face he's extremely polite and considerate he's a joy to have in class congratulations [Applause] [Music] Mrs good pastor we have a photo display set up for the backdrop set up in the other room for photos it doesn't appear that
008our street is here um for the month of October it was respect and our student was Emma Smiley um teacher said Emma is a great leader in many respects she has been a member of the Key Club for the past two years and has impressed the teachers with her ability to follow through on everything she gets involved with she has so much respect for the students that she works with on any project and make sure to include everyone so we have Emma smiley [Applause] foreign okay thank you everyone next item on the agenda is approval of the consent agenda which consists of meeting minutes from a special meeting from October 19th executive session meetings from October 19th and regular meeting minutes from October 24th the allowance of claims the financial board and Personnel reports part
009one and two which are posted on the door and on the website this is Roman yes um this month you'll see that all your reports are with our new software so hopefully you had a little time to acclimate yourself with them so I'll briefly just kind of go over what we've got in our packet tonight we had two regular payrolls in the month of October 2022 our first payroll was October 14th for a total payroll of 474 000 223.50 and as usual we've got some retirement and payroll taxes these reports look a little bit different and hopefully I'm going to get these a little bit more curtailed for the for the future but it's all kind of tell you how I went about doing things you'll see some highlights there for the payroll taxes and
010then you'll see highlights for the turf that's for the teachers retirement and then for public retirement funds so I've just highlighted those for you the total on those for the October 14th payroll was 846.37 in the second regular payroll was dated October 28th total payroll of 385 471.66 and that was a little less than normal because that fell during fall break period and again we have the payroll taxes and we've got retirement so total for the October 28th payroll for uh payroll and retirement 109 892.48 and then next in your package you're going to see a list of prepays the only thing that would be unusual on this this list would the would be the corporation third quarter contribution for valik we do that every quarter and that would have been on this October prepaid
011list was there any other prepaid that is on the list that anyone had a question about nope nope okay so total for pre-face for the month of October 2022 873.67. and then we've got a list of claims that are dated today October 28th again there's really nothing unusual on this list other than the fact that it's a very long list which is not unusual because we try to finish up any expenditures for the year and um in November as much as we can we'll have a few residual things in December but total dated today um uh October 28 2022 440 701 21. and then if you're ready we can move on to the finance report okay all right um you've got a fund report there uh education fund the end of October 2022 3 million
012127 173.50 and then operations and again these should be highlighted in your packet in green or maybe yellow I don't remember what color I used it would be fun to 300 the balance at the end of October is one million 155 965.54 one thing I did want to bring to your attention on fund 41.25 I don't know if anybody has noticed this but it's exceptionally in the negative and that is for Title One all the title grants we're still still waiting on approvals and that has never happened and as anyone that works with the state knows they're kind of struggling with help so that's why that is in the negative it's not that we're not trying to be reimbursed we just cannot be reimbursed yet so that's why that's a bit of a negative on
013that Title One Fund and if you've ever had a question about any other is please don't hesitate to ask and I probably explain why they're in the negative so total for all funds the end of October 2022 is 8 million seventy three thousand six ninety three fourteen so we'll go ahead and we'll keep that that there and then the next report that you're going to see kind of takes the place of what we used to call our depository statement this is a report that's run out of our new software which basically out of the software will run what is our total fund balance and what is our total bank balance okay but there's a little niche just like there was last year with our migration there is still an issue with two of the banks
014they do not have them balanced to their Penny but our overall Bank balances do balance that's good but they're still working on what is the actual bank balance for Bank two what is the actual bank balance for bank 10. but you'll see on here we want to be looking at our grand total for all funds and our grand total for all banks and you'll see and they should be highlighted at the end of October 2022 those both matched to the penny and if you actually go back to the last line of your fund report you'll see that the fund the bank balance report and the fund report all match they're all the same number and that's exactly what we want and then we have the fund transfer report this is a little bit different this
015month normally I don't have these show up but the way we have this set up in the new software anytime I do a transfer from one bank to another normally you don't see that you've given me authorization authorization to do that through resolutions that we run every year but for some reason these are showing up on reports which is absolutely fine with me but it's basically me transferring money from one One bank to another bank to say to cover um not necessarily payroll but the claims checks does that make sense okay so I just want to kind of give you an idea what you're looking at and signing off on here and then we have our usual education Ops transfer and then we have our school lunch 8400 which is the prepaid account um but
016moving that to the school lunch account so the total on those transfers is 703 excuse me 708 394.85 and then lastly we have the bond expenditures first we have Bond expenditures for um 2021 running from July 2021 through October 2022 our balance forward you'll see there at the top and then you've got the expenditures for Bond 2021 through like the second half of October so our total through the end of October expenditures for Bond 2021 is 10 million 759 855.40 and then we've kind of jumped down there to the bottom you'll see expenditures for Bond 2022 and we just started that Bond so our balance forward from September 1st 2022 through the beginning beginning of October 2022 with sixty thousand nine seventy two sixty three and then through the remain October we just had a
017small expenditure for legal fees so our total balance for expenditures from Bond 2022 is 61 254.89 and that's all I have okay thank you you're welcome so can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda okay a motion of the second all in favor aye full opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is reports and first from assistant superintendent Dr French good evening good evening so we're in the middle fade on that so we're working on reading for kindergarten through sixth grade and math for sixth through eighth grade um so we have the principles involved in the part of the committee and what at least one teacher from each grade level so right now with reading we've got that narrowed down to four and by the end of the week we should have
018that narrowed down to two curriculum with math they've got that narrowed down to two and so then the next step in the process is to do what we call field testing which is basically like test driving the car so it's not just like looking at the pamphlet we're actually going to try it and so the teachers will each select a few different lessons from both of the curriculum to implement with their classes so that's really how they get a good feeling for what it's like to teach it what information is there and the teacher friendliness of it um so they'll work on the field testing part through January and February and then we'll reconvene and they'll give all their feedback and their input we'll make a final decision from there and then we hope to
019bring that to you for approval in March so that we can start the purchase just and the training before teachers leave for the summer so that's that's the goal when the timeline for both the feeding and the map so any questions no no okay yeah it was good thanks next item is superintendent report Mr Gibney yeah so I just have a couple of items first wish most people in this room probably received a phone call from me this evening and that's just the reminder with winter weather upcoming and to make sure we have good information but also wanted to communicate with parents with the uh the general assembly general assembly in the legislature and the doe essentially adding additional restrictions and limiting the amount of traditional e-learning days or virtual learning days that schools can
020use limiting us to three unless we provide live instruction 50 of the day for all of our students so we've talked and we are just going to stick with our three what I would call more traditional e-learning days and anything after that we would have to add on to the end of the school year and um as you'll see tonight in next year's school calendar and then moving forwards unless things change adding back in some built-in snow day so that way we don't have to tack on to the end of the school year so that was shared with families building projects moving along we had a few noisy days at the middle school but overall I think the staff and the students have done a tremendous job and things haven't been too difficult to navigate
021there they're making some making some good Headway in some of those spaces and actually all the most the demo if not all the demo in the first area is so the office the media center um and the newly refreshed classrooms are going into the former office they're starting to put things back and starting to put in back in mechanical we're kind of earmarking or looking at right around March so right around spring break to occupy those new spaces at the middle school and hand over the science lab so things are moving along really well there at the high school I think the same thing same thing can be said we've had some bumps in the road with a big hole in the ground you know trying to get up out of the ground but but
022that uh that's moving along well the first uh kind of the the front of the school kind of that back hallway in the media center those spaces are moved along too they're starting to actually put in some of the finishes so some of the casework flooring final paint so we're expecting turnover of those areas right around Christmas break or shortly thereafter so we're going to be working with teachers on the next phase of of movement of classroom so everyone's been doing really well and definitely appreciate everyone being flexible with that because it's it's not it hasn't been easy just to be completely honest but everyone's been tremendous and then the final thing that I have for you tonight um we received our 1782 notice from the Department of local government finance and it's probably the
023most exciting thing I love the budget um but we received it and probably earlier than I could ever remember and um so what we received back um we actually sent back to them and made cuts on our proposed rate so this top sheet here has our historical tax rate comparisons advertised on the left hand side right hand certified and so we know that we always advertise higher and when it comes back certified in our av is higher and so you can see our rate for 2023 1.32.36 and then you can see the two different funds that we do have a have a rate for Debt Service want service fund 0.6199 that's actually the same as our 2021 certified rate because when we move forwards with issuing Bonds in the building projects we promised our taxpayers
024that we would not rate our debt service tax raise our debt service tax rate and so actually the first 1782 notice that came back from the dlgf the rate was listed at like 0.67 and some change and so we instructed them to make cuts to that rate and that'll bring the levy down obviously also but we plan for that in working with our financial advisors and cutting into some of the operating balance and Debt Service and so yeah total rate dollar 32 36. and uh we've taken care of that getting things signed off with the dlgf so I wanted to share that with you for your reference thank you all right thanks no dude yep okay next item on the agenda is old business there is no old business so we come to new business
025excuse me first item on the agenda or new business under new business is an approval request for 2023 overnight out of state ghs band in choir field trip to Florida yep so as this customer anything overnight or out of state requires school board approval sponsors have submitted the necessary information in the itinerary guidelines chaperones all of that which is in your board packet and so my recommendation the board would be to approve this good opportunity for our kids [Music] I make a motion to approve it okay we have a motion in a second any questions hearing nut all in favor aye all opposed motion password next item is an approval request for the 2024 overnight out of state GMS trip to Washington DC yeah so kind of similarly uh uh it was discovered that there's
026a an overnight or excuse me overnight an out-of-state trip being proposed for Greencastle Middle School and again I just think it'll be a a good opportunity for our middle school students they've submitted all of the necessary information itinerary chaperones this trip doesn't take place during the school year either so it's not going to impact instruction but just think it'd be a good opportunity for those that would like to go to Washington DC to have the chance to do that with our middle school so I would recommend that the board approve this opportunity making motion will be approved so what are the dates on that truth question June 24th yeah I think it's just right after school lets out all right so the cost of the trip is a shy two grand so I'm just but
027it doesn't look like but some of the others that there's fundraising excuse me fundraising or anything like that available so is that something that is possible or that I think it's one of those things where they work with the families to to make the payments um and you know it's two years and well all right yeah it's two years in advance so there's a long time to kind of chip away at that but it's an external excuse me it's an external travel travel agency okay um but yeah they work with the families to make payments okay looks like it'd be a good trip it's a good opportunity thank you yeah it's nice to be able to go back you know move forward and have this kind of opportunities again for sure foreign I believe we
028have a motion in a second so all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is an approval request for bus trade in for a part service labor Credit of two thousand dollars to curling Bus Sales yeah so we have a bus that is no longer pass safety inspections it's older it's not worth preparing essentially we'd like to to trade it we have a partner willing to take it and give us some some credit towards Parts service and labor which we always always need so I would make the recommendation allow us to do this can I make a motion we accept second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor aye aye opposed motion passes next is an approval request for the 2023-24 corporation calendar yeah so
029um in your packet excuse me actually I printed a new one for you because in your packet summer school it said June 3 through 8th obviously that's incorrect it's June 3 through 28 but I've spent some time working with um the superintendents in the neighboring school districts that we share area 30 career center with um having discussions with g a and our ministers on a suitable calendar the best we can for 23 24 and essentially you have that proposal in front of you it was a kind of a there's some minor adjustments through our conversation highlights the kids would begin on August 4th which is a Friday um we tried to push kind of push that push back the starter school um but rather you know there's a lot of not wanting to start with
030a have the first uh week of school be a five day week so liking starting liking that we started on a Friday um and then we have a day off and then and then and then continue um fall break is back in alignment with the county schools and also Covered Bridge the coverage bridge festival Christmas break is you know very similar to what we have currently you can see on there there are three those three green little boxes that's the return of the built-in snow days to allow for you know in addition to the used to be learning to allow some flexibility should we have some not some nice weather and then um spring break is the the week of the 18th through the 22nd which aligns with the other three three County school districts
031and then we still end the week before Memorial Day so end on a Tuesday have graduation on that Friday so there's some flexibility there as well so um yeah so I would recommend um that the board approved the 2324 school calendar so that we we can post on our website and share it with families because this is probably one of the most frequently asked for documents so just to verify commissioner with our spring break and our fall break we're going to fall back in line with the other schools correct because that is the most thing I've got in my backside shoot on this year for yeah I'd like to eliminate that if we can yes all right fantastic I like it someone so I I guess I have a more of a question I appreciate
032the brakes lining up but it didn't so it looks like other County Schools the only ones I can verify is North Putt in Cloverdale are both starting on the ninth um I don't understand why we're maybe starting on the fourth going for a day and then I don't know we we've done that before and I've always question why go starts go on a Friday tip like this year yeah so this year I think we started on Thursdays on Thursday so getting a couple days in getting everybody a break is the start of the year is taxing rather than hitting the ground running with a with a full week um that was the feedback that I got from our staff because I had shared a proposal of where we started on the seventh but the feedback
033was not as positive and receptive to so so what is the process you you come up with the Quasi thought process and you send it over to the teacher and Associate Teachers Association yeah so typically there aren't too many really major changes it's pretty much corresponding dates so come up with a couple of um a couple of calendars and then we meet with gcta we talk as an admin team we have we have discussion on what the calendar looks like like we know there have has to be 180 days we know there are only so many ways to get that with the start date and an end date and having you know having a week at the fall having a couple of weeks that you know at Christmas and having a weekend week in the
034spring um so and we know there's multiple different obviously viewpoints too and so there's not exact science to do it um um just do our best to put together a complete calendar that kind of satisfies all those things like you know for instance from the first draft of this draft um rather an ending on December 19th we're ending on December 20th because High School wanted to have three full days in the same week for final exams um yeah okay okay so so I'm sorry I was just gonna say I'd like the the snow day built back again I appreciate that I just I don't understand why we're starting from my perspective and I may be the only one on the board but from my perspective I don't know why we're starting five days before the
035other schools I guess yeah because I mean because we have the we have the built-in we have more days we have more teacher days and um we have extra time at winter break right a winter break seems to be a little bit longer than some of the other schools yeah yeah so I just don't like the Friday start date I mean I think it's just screws a whole family out of the week for the summer because if you know if that's the only week let's say a family could take a vacation and get back right before school starts while they can yeah you know it's it's it it kills one kills the final week of summer for families all right thank you if I if I'm understanding that Friday students in um get our little
036office to school thing and then um okay and then give everybody a couple days to breathe and then come back exactly the ground running right right yes oh I get it I just don't think it's fair to families to well we're starting later than we did this year and if we start if we start later excuse me if we start earlier we're going to finish earlier too and so I mean I don't know how late we want to finish it at the end of the year I mean it's it's you know it's 50 this it's 50 50 that it is it is so this is the one at the teachers and administration won okay all right can I get a motion to approve I make a motion that we approve okay I have a motion
037second all in favor aye all opposed you're opposed Dale so very none motion potion passes okay next thing on the agenda is an approval request for the teacher appreciation Grant yeah um so we were just notified by the state I believe sometime next week we're going to receive our teacher appreciation Grant um stipend funds for our teachers and so I've been working on those amounts to distribute those to teachers on our December night payroll but while it's on the why it's on the agenda is as is customary in the past the doe specifically excludes administrators from receiving any of the stipends from the state so the recommendation in your packet is to provide um the stipends uh the same stipends provided in the same month to the administrators as the teachers and um the revised
038version was printed and left because we mistakenly included one teacher that left on uh on the spreadsheet and so by adjusting that it adjusted those by a few dollars as well I make emotionally approve the teacher appreciation Grant as presented okay Motion in a second all in favor all right well opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is an approval request for permission to advertise and RFP for food for a food service management company yeah um so Mrs carrico is going to be retiring in February and we just uh kind of took a deep dive into current structure our food service program and made the decision that is best at this time to look at Contracting with the food service management company and Mrs scarecrow and I met with the entire Food Service staff
039today to share that with them that we would be releasing an RFP but also to assure them that it's our goal and that we are sharing as part of our it will have to be part of the proposal that we expect on the Food Service management company to take on our staff because they're Greencastle people we want them to continue to to work in our cafeterias but they would do so um as as an employee of the Food Service management company so I've been working with the Department of Education so we have an RFP um that we have an average we're going to advertise an RFP on December 2nd or second not and Ninth or potentially the outside chance if the fifth or the 12th I'm waiting for final approval from the doe on that
040but having a proposal due date of December 19th um at 10 A.M to have the open the bids and review them and analyze them through a small committee and then work to award a contract the first week of January so we have time to to review those reboot those proposals so um for seeking permission to advertise the RFP for Food Service management company just to clarify you have maybe not everyone knows what RFP means yes request for proposals good so move second okay we have a motion and a second any questions or discussion it's a well-deserved retirement looking forward to seeing what we come up foreign all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next item is an approval request for furniture for Greencastle Middle School so built into the building uh project itself
041and that the budget was some updated furniture for the classrooms the media center the updated office spaces and the science labs and so we are ready to order um phase one and phase two so phase one and phase two that's uh the uh the office the media center the updated classrooms and so we have quotes from Ki that's the furniture provider for phase one 214 760.45 phase two fifty one thousand three twenty eight thirty eight from hail manufacturing which is primarily for the shelving in the media center in the amount of eighty three thousand four sixty six sixty four for a total cost of 349 555.47 so we're bringing that to the board for approval so we can get those items ordered so that they can arrive in time and also avoid any price increases
042I make emotionally buy the furniture second okay I have a motion in a second all in favor opposed motion passes next item is an approval request for some donations first being McDonald's to Greencastle High School's inkpot newspaper in the amount of five hundred dollars into the Putnam County Community Foundation to the Sonic is intermediate in the amount of two thousand seven hundred eighty six dollars and Thirteen Cents Putnam County Community Foundation to Deer Meadow Primary in the amount of three thousand two hundred and fifty dollars Putnam County Community Foundation of ritpath primary no matter three thousand seven hundred and twenty dollars RSQ fire protection LLC to Greencastle High School wrestling team in the amount of one thousand five hundred dollars as always very nice yes yes thank you very much I make a motion that
043we accept all donations as presented gladly okay motion is second all in favor all right well opposed motion passes can I interrupt for a minute do we have our student of the month in the back recognition come on up Emma's a great leader in many respects she has been a member of the Key Club for the past two years and has impressed the teachers with her follow through on everything she gets involved with she has so much respect for the students that she works with on any project and she makes sure to include everyone this is Emma smiley [Applause] I thought maybe they didn't want to listen to New Orleans join the club all right next item on the agenda is everyone's favorite part of the meeting Jeff's going to read all these as being
044all apostles I don't know about that um this is this is the second reading of the of the Neola policies that are listed that are shared with you last month they were shared for discussion as well but really most of them are resulting changes of state or federal law so unless requested I'm not going to speak specifically about each of them but they have been have been shared with you and it would be my recommendation that the board approved them on second reading so that we can be current estate in federal law and I will also have some additional ones in the future I did not have any questions I didn't either most of them just look like change of verbiage here and there yeah a lot of technical Corrections and cleanup this and and
045again for uh for the law they're really weren't major that was adjusted or recommended to be adjusted I make a motion we adopt the changes to the Neola policies listed below second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor aye all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is other business do you want to have any other business to discuss I was just going to ask Jeff how he thought the concession stands for going with the new yeah um why because I was stuffing my face with nachos the other day how was everyone else like that well the stain on my shirt from the barbecue no um I think for the most part I think they you know they're they're learning they've only have a couple of games that are under
046their belt but I think they've done a good job I think they're all I think as the season goes along a little they'll get better and get quicker but I think the food I mean they think it's tasted good I see people buying it um and uh so I think it's working out well for them and working out well for for us and then obviously you know we're continuing to operate I think it's what the Key Club there's the junior class or maybe it's both at the high school they operate the other concession stands so I think overall it's gone really really well something else okay next item on the agenda is adjournment make the motion uh second then give a motion in a second all in favor aye all opposed motion passes and our
047next meeting is December 12th 12th yes December 12th at 6.