001six o'clock like to call the meeting order with the pledge of allegiance please [Music] i pledge allegiance okay all right well thank you for coming and welcome to the regular meeting of the green castle school board september meeting that is um first item on the agenda is adjustments to the agenda mr gibney yes i don't i don't have any adjustments per se to the agenda at this time but i'd like to ask if it would be okay when we get to uh personnel report part two if we just post that list on our door central office and on the website there's roughly 150 uh names names and positions to to read through yeah is that something you just plan on doing every month instead of reading through them or yeah i'd like to uh i
002think it would be uh help us be more transparent if we posted personnel report part one and part two ahead of the board meeting that way the public can can see the positions and and seeing what is being voted on for approval i think that's a good idea that works it works for me okay no real adjustments to the agenda so next on the agenda is recognitions mr gibney yep so at this time if we could start with the high school but we're starting something excuse me next on these end is public comments regarding agenda items do we have any public comments regarding the agenda items tonight okay hearing none now next is recognitions yep my apologies so we want to we want to do a better job of sharing the good things and and
003celebrating the accomplishments of students and staff so this is the first month we'll be honoring a student of the month from each of our each of our buildings um so shortly here we'll begin with we'll begin with the high school and work our way down but i do want to to say to our families in attendance after we recognize all students of the month there'll be an opportunity for pictures in the lobby of mcinally and then by all means you're well more than welcome to stay but i also know that with some of the little ones uh in attendance and it being a school night certainly you're welcome to leave as well i don't feel like you're obligated to stay but you're more than welcome if you would like so at this time if we
004could begin with mr rogers in the high school good evening everybody um our student to be honor and is maddie burge and mr hudson was the one that nominated her mr hudson says he's had the pleasure of having maddie in his alternative program for the last three years uh he says the previous two years weren't the best um attendance focus and sometimes even progress we're not always not always great but fast forward to this year and he's seen a totally different child her attendance is stellar her attitude is great she comes in smiling every day work ethic and focus is off the chart and the result is that she's completed already five courses so she's already achieved five credits in the first 27 days of the 2021 2020 2021 academic year she's improved so much
005she works a full-time job and the transition has been amazing and a joy to behold and he congratulates maddie on this award and it's very deserving and i really think that this is an example of students progress and students careers are like a work of art don't judge them until they're done and she's on track to actually graduate early so congratulations maddie and we'll go out and get a picture okay all right great job yeah congratulations good evening for green castle middle school we would like to recognize for the august student of the month andy abel he is nominated by mrs howard and he is a hard worker and always has a smile on his face parenthesis under the mask he gets along with everyone and includes everyone on a daily basis andy is helpful
006to others who are in need and is a great team player i don't believe i see andy in the audience so i'll make sure that we deliver his plaque to him tomorrow at school good evening so tz's student of the month uh is mr corbin hayden corbin is a fourth grader in mrs jennifer mann's classroom and mrs mann said about corbin when she come on over here corbin when she nominated him she said that corbin is nominated because he is an extraordinary student and very proactive in his learning he understands that he sometimes has trouble paying attention i don't have my mask on so come stand right here um that he he sometimes has trouble paying attention but he is very aware of that and he will ask to have directions repeated and ask for
007help when he needs it he always does his best work in class and many times has one of the highest scores he is kind to everyone in the class and is always helping out he doesn't concern himself with being the first one done on an assignment but instead he worries about the quality of the work that he turns in so corbin is representing tz all right um we always do things just a little different primary world for redpath we have miss deborah tomlinson deborah was nominated by her classroom teacher mrs abraham and she says that deborah is an excellent role model for all students she can always count on her to follow directions follow classroom rules complete assignments on time and always do what is right she is a sweet girl and always sees her
008treating her peers and adults with respect including her manners when speaking with others she always participates in class asks questions if she doesn't know something and she's the type of girl to overcome any obstacle that comes in her way even though she is so young and has not had some of the advantages of other students i admire how hard she works to be a successful student and she is so proud of her and so am i congratulations it's my pleasure to introduce to you gabriel johnson gabriel is a second grader in mrs allen miss timberman's class miss timmerman writes gabriel should be nominated because every time i look at him he is always doing the right thing he's a fantastic listener he's a great friend to everyone in his class if one of his classmates
009are in need gabriel is the first one there to help so we're proud that gabriel hears and listens to the right things and is such a good friend and we're proud that he is our student of the month [Music] [Laughter] okay congratulations to uh all of our students of the month uh well earned and and well deserved so congratulations to all of you uh do we have any other uh items to share under there excuse me any other items to share under recognitions okay thank you so much thank you very much here first yeah don't run off it's good it's gonna get exciting okay next item on the agenda is the approval of the consent agenda mr gibboni yep so first first two items we have meeting minutes from august 13 2020 special school board
010meeting meeting minutes from august 24 2020 regular school board meeting and now with the allowance of claims and financial report mrs romer could you address those items for us please i'm not going to be nearly as much fun as the kids probably not [Laughter] they were awesome the reason why we're all here doing what we're doing okay this month in your packet you'll see that we had um two regular payrolls and then we had one mini payroll again this month the first payroll was excuse me august 14th 2020 with a total payroll of 377 854.79 along with that payroll came the accounts payable for fica taxes and retirement etc the total for that payroll was three 111 four o three the mini payroll was held on august seventeenth for one employee total payroll of two
011hundred and fifty dollars along with that payroll came the accounts payable for payroll taxes and perf their retirement for a whole total accounts payable of 105.66 the second full payroll in august was on august 28th for a total payroll of four hundred and twenty thousand nine seventeen sixty four along with that payroll came the accounts payable for fica taxes retirement and you'll see a couple of additionals this is the time of year where we've got some new teachers or transfer teachers that are still electing um their retirement packages so we have to make some adjustments the same thing happened last year with new um options for our new teachers so you'll see the total accounts payable um 121 thousand 71.93 did anyone have any questions about the payrolls for august next in your packet you
012should see a list of prepays again there's nothing unusual this month and of course you know you the ma the biggest payment for prepays was for the insurance trust as it usually is total accounts payable for pre-pays 372 000 770 14. we had an additional prepay to balance out our month that had to do with mr gibbons um retirement we had to make an adjustment on there for 70 and 65 cents it was not caught until the payrolls had been posted next in your packet you're going to see claims dated today september 28th for regular payment for the month of september i don't normally go through and pull single single claims but as you probably noticed there's substantial payments this month a total payment of six hundred thirty five thousand seven fifty six seventy that's
013substantial so i want to go ahead and point out what a few of those big ticket items were you'll see on the first page of regular claims voucher 835 to cincinnati floor that was a final payment for the gym floor at the middle school again that was paid with bond money if you want to go ahead and scroll down to a voucher number 849 you'll see a payment to dell financial this would be for the new lease for the high school and middle school laptops this is the first year for those that was a substantial payment of 166 963 81 and that payment would be paid out of tbr fees a couple more i'd like to point out on page two voucher number 872 to high com this would be the final payment for the
014corporation phone system as you all know our phone system was almost 13 years old and that was replaced this year again that phone new phone system for the corporation was paid for from bond money and just a couple of uh spots down from there you'll see voucher number 878 to imagine learning the last couple months you approved for us to go ahead and get that online software to help support virtual students and regular students in the classroom this is the second full payment for the three year obligation of sixty thousand dollars again for total claims of six thirty five seven fifty six seventy are we ready to go on to the fun report okay all right next in your packet you'll see the fund report the balance the end of august 2020 in education 858
015thousand 46 dollars and two cents if you'd like to couple go a couple rows down to the operations fund 300 balance the end of august 2020 1 million 333 783 dollars and 52 cents total balance in fund for all funds at the end of august 2020 5 million 746 348 23. last in your packet for finances you'll see the depository statement and bank balances you'll see all the balances for all banks at the end of august 2020 minus any outstanding checks and you'll see that the ending fund balance is five million seven forty six three forty eight twenty two that is exactly one cent off from the fund report and you'll see on your depository statement i've noted once again that we're still having a discrepancy with the 21st century after school program we'll get
016it figured out one of these days pending any questions and submit for approval great thank you very much you're welcome i make a motion to approve it's all part of it we're not there and so the next item we have personnel report part one and also personnel report part two and we'll post those items and so that is all we have for the consent agenda it's my recommendation that the board approved consent agenda as presented i'll make my motion i'll second that okay we have a motion and a second any discussion about the consent agenda hearing none all in favor all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is reports first being a technology report mr shields well thank you for letting me be here tonight i think corey has my presentation ready to
017go uh so i'm just going to give a brief report on some of the things we've done technology integration wise uh over the last few months and i appreciate everyone letting me do that tonight uh before i start i would like cory and stacy who have spent so many hours getting the new devices ready um without them doing that none of this would be possible for teachers or for students so thank you for doing that okay thank you come on cory go ahead there we go so this summer we spent a lot of time on professional growth we knew that obviously last spring with covid that we sent everyone home and some of our teachers were really prepared and others were on the learning curve and we wanted to really make sure that if something
018happens this year that we are more prepared so we focus our professional growth on two and two products uh google and g suite for education in particular and that offers collaborative tools for any grade level and also for canvas which we've been using at grades 3 through 12 for the last five years but we now implement k through 12 and that is our learning management system or the way that teachers deliver content to their students so we honed in on those two thinking they were going to be the products that paid the most dividends in terms of student use at home and teachers being able to use those tools with students for canvas i ran 17 30 minute sessions across nine weeks and we had 50 of the teachers in the district attend at least
019one of those sessions there were 18 teachers who attended every single session and all five buildings were represented all those sessions were recorded and posted on canvas uh for in our professional development in-house professional development so that any teacher can access them later or teachers who didn't attend live can watch them later on we also focused on trying to have teachers attain google certification so google certifies educators level one and level two each certification requires 15 hours of coursework and you have to pass a three hour exam that includes multiple choice exams along with applied problems in order to become a level two certified teacher you have passed the level one exam and the certification is good for three years so we had a number of teachers attempt that this summer and i'd also like
020to thank dr french for uh allowing that to happen we've been trying to work toward that for a couple of years and she really got behind that this summer so i appreciate that as well so i'm not going to read the names of all the teachers but i just want to take a moment to recognize them i know their principles are here tonight and they've recognized them in the building but i wanted the board to see the names as well so there's the teachers at dear meadow uh who achieved both level one and level two status rid path uh special shout out to red path had over fifty percent of the teachers in the building achieve level one so that was very impressive tz also had a high number but all the buildings across the
021across the board had a large number of teachers participate as i said all five buildings were represented every building had at least one teacher who attained level two and the exam is not easy it is a especially the level two exam is a fairly tough exam and these teachers put in a minimum of 18 hours each for each certification so a lot of work there that we really appreciate the teachers pouring in over the summer on their own time to try to become more prepared for this year so moving forward we really want to increase our utilization of google and canvas both tools are useful in and out of school we have a work with dr gibney or mr gibney to and dr french to develop a teacher innovator and leader program that we're implementing
022this year to try to create opportunities for those teachers who showed leadership over the summer to share some of the lessons that they have created and encourage other teachers to follow that model and we're going to work to support those teachers and meet them where they are both physically and technologically so i'm going to try to meet with the teacher leaders along with the teachers who may request some coaching to build up their technology skills so that even if we're sent home we are prepared but even if we're not sent home we also have boosted our technology knowledge across the district so i think that's kind of where we stand i just want to give everyone a very brief update on where we are i appreciate you letting me do that and i'll be happy
023to answer any questions all right thank you thank you thank you very much next item on the agenda would be the superintendent report so my report this month will be brief but i did want to provide the public preliminary update on our adm count which took place on september 18th our preliminar preliminary number we're still obviously fine-tuning and working through making sure that we have we didn't miss anyone working through some students that might be claimed by other school districts but preliminarily we have 1710 students last spring it was 1757 last fall it was 1790 so you can see kind of the adjustment there or a small decline of those 1710 students 1430 are in person and 273 students are virtual the good news is is virtual and in person will be funded both at
024100 this fall but that's something to monitor uh moving forwards um past january so if you speak to any legislators we'll have to continue to push for full funding for our virtual students due to covet second item is we made an announcement that school lunch and school breakfast will be free of charge for regular school lunch and breakfast will be free of charge for all families at greencastle schools through the end of this school year not excuse me through the end of december through the end of the calendar year we're still waiting for an update from the federal government to see if that will carry forward throughout the remainder of the school year we are mrs carrico is offering uh virtual families um families of virtual students the option of making arrangements to uh to
025pick up meals as well so just another great service that we're providing for students and for families and then just the final update as you do navigate through our out our buildings the water bottle filling water fountain stations 20 of which which the city of greencastle donated through their cares money just like to thank troy and the maintenance department for getting those installed for our students and staff those are a nice nice bonus addition in our schools so that's all those are all the updates that i have for this month okay thank you very much next item on the agenda is old business and there is no old business so moving on to new business the first item is an approval request for the 2021 capital projects planned and bus replacement plan hearing basically what
026we do is we open up a public hearing take public comments on the capital project and bus replacement plans and then close the hearing so that being said we will open the hearing to public comments okay hearing none we will close the hearing on the capital projects plan and the bus replacement plan next item on the agenda is an approval request for in addition to the 20 20 20 20 21 student fees at the greencastle for the green council high school dual credit english course yep so this was a last minute addition to the student fees it was it was overlooked in regards to that dual credit course and so we just want approval to add that to the student fees and we'll make sure that moving forward into next school year that we have
027all those items for approval at once okay if i get a motion to approve second okay i have a motion and a second um discussion hearing none all in favor aye all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is an approval request for a memorandum of understanding for dual credit with ivy tech yep so as is customary at the start of each school year we just formalize an agreement with ivy tech with regards to our dual credit courses that we offer so it's my recommended recommendation the board approve the mou for dual credit with ivy tech don't make that motion second here we have a motion in a second to approve the dual credit with ivy tech um all in favor aye all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is an approval
028request for a memorandum of understanding with cummins behavior health yep so during the last legislative session the legislature took action to where school districts needed to formalize with a mental health provider formally or excuse me formally an mou with a mental health provider greencast schools has a has long had a relationship with cummins behavioral health so this just formalizes our work together they're already working with our teachers and our students it doesn't necessarily change anything it just puts into writing what we already do thank you i get a motion to approve i'll make that motion second we have a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is an approval request for the 2020 2021 cares act after school tutoring stipend
029yup so one of the challenges that we've been faced with just with the kova 19 pandemic is making sure that students are caught up stay on track and so in order to help with that we built in some funds for after school tutoring for students in need and we're just seeking approval to to pay our teachers 25 an hour to offer that service outside of contract hours to be paid for from the cares grant this is paid for through the cares act right yes yeah 100 i'd make a motion to approve i'll second that okay we have a motion and a second any further questions or discussion well i i did want to ask it so are we seeing um so with the participation in that um this is mainly for students that are out
030right it's for it's for uh virtual students it's for in-person students it's for any green castle okay okay all right has the program started yet or is it waiting for approval yeah it started being pretty successful uh yes dr french would you like to share a few words she spearheaded the tutoring oh great thank you thanks okay i have a motion and a second um any further questions hearing none all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next item is an approval request for a wireless access point project proposal yep so we have uh a little bit uh or some dollars left in our category two uh e-rate funds and um uh corey corey hill um has been working uh to present this uh proposal um this project would update access point our access
031points in all of our buildings they're out of warranty they're no longer supported they're either seven or eight years old so they're definitely in need of replacement and so by using our category 2 e-rate dollars we'll be reimbursed at all at 70 for almost the full amount of the project so we are not being charged for the excuse me our cost will be roughly not excuse me our cost will not exceed 000 the project is much more costly than that but however due to category 2 e-rate funding um it offsets that by almost 70 percent so it's my recommendation that the board approve moving forward with this project and this project will also be paid for from bond money i'll make a motion to approve yeah i'll second that okay we have a motion in
032a second any discussion when will i know this is just kind of a plan but um when would you start updating all these things i'm sorry update our access points it would have to be worked out during a period of time when school was not in session because we wouldn't want to interrupt connectivity i'm not sure at this point if we'll be ready for fall break but for instance looking at like winter break spring break and summer perfect thanks okay we have a motion in a second any further questions hearing none all in favor aye all opposed motion passes next on the agenda is an approval request for krm proposal for programming and feasibility study yep so if you remember um i don't know if it was last month or the month before we we
033need to begin the process of developing a long-range capital projects plan or building plan um to look at addressing building building needs um for necessity you know things there may be items that are end of life there may be buildings and classrooms that are no longer best suitable or are best designed for the type of learning to take place for instance an example might be like our science classrooms at the high school in the middle school have been discussed and talked about before but we want to develop a long-range uh multi-building plan throughout the the course of the district so that we can be more efficient with our borrowing practices and having to pay professional service fees so i would like to use krm architecture group to help us put together and help to identify
034what those needs might be engage our educators and have conversations with teachers regarding improvements things that they would like to see be different you know what are those struggles and challenges also to help us to project into the future and look at what our specific needs might be and ultimately at the end of the project they'll give us a plan they'll give us some recommended priorities or recommendations but also estimates of cost so that we can work towards a building project in 2021 when our debt capacity will allow for that to take place so kevin montgomery for krm arc debt group is here if the board has any questions so when will the the audit i guess or the study begin hi guys hey how are you good um we proposed that it would start
035pretty much immediately we'd have a kickoff meeting to um define the goals a little bit better we met with jeff about some of those but essentially october and we've already to be able to put the proposal together accurately we've you know toured the buildings and documented existing conditions what we could so um it would take roughly four months starting in october oh okay so so is this uh so not just for um like maintenance type things but but really even in the classrooms to get the most bang for your buck out of your classroom right yep so we'll be looking at like you said end of life maintenance you know scheduling that out as accurate as possible five ten years um and then you know simultaneously listening to the community the staff leadership and sifting
036through all the different ideas and opinions and arranging them prioritized so then it's like if this classroom over here you know really needs a mechanical system in five to ten years and they're also requesting a larger science lab well we don't want to do that in two years and then go have to replace the hvc so you know you want to layer those things on top of itself so like jeff said you can really plan these things out and be really efficient with improvements sounds like something we've needed yeah anybody else have any questions do you meet with the teachers or do you send out a survey how does that work um a little bit of both it'll depend on how you guys want to do it but um usually a survey is always a
037part of it it stays online um and then right now we'd probably do it virtually but we'll do a zoom forum and do breakout rooms and then they you know gather in small groups to bring back a summary of ideas and then the topics that are pulled out of there there's a follow-up opportunity if anyone wants to log back on thank you and you mentioned community so so parents will also kind of yeah we encourage that as well kind of do the similar type thing where there's kind of a wide easy you know five minute input outreach and then a larger more intensive if you want to dedicate an evening or something to an input session all right yeah thank you yeah thank you very much i'll make a motion a second okay we have
038a motion in a second to uh prove the proposal for the feasibility study any other questions comments okay hearing none all in all opposed motion passes thank you for coming in next item on the agenda is an approval request for some donations which i think we can all lump together and prove them all at the same time first we have a united way of putnam county donation for two hundred or two thousand five hundred dollars barry allison children's trust to to sonicus intermediate for one thousand dollars buyers market to greencastle high school athletics for 1 250 and the hendrix regional health the green castle high school athletics for ten thousand dollars can i get a motion to accept these donations like a motion to accept the donations i'll second that we have a motion in
039a second any discussion hearing none all in favor you everybody giving the money yes yes yes thank you okay all opposed motion passes next on the agenda is well it says approval request but it's really not it's just it's just first reading so there's no board board actions just a first reading we'll bring them for uh adoption um and second reading next month um neola policies is what we're talking about here yep so these are our board policies so i'm just i'm gonna i'm just gonna kind of hit the real high points um because there are uh many on here um or policy 4162 drug and alcohol testing of cdl holders and other employees who perform safety sensitive functions periodically state law and federal law changes and so this policy was just updated to meet
040state law and federal regulations 23705 virtual education program this is a new policy just design defines virtual ed and this was out of design or because of state board of accounts um for in particular when they're doing an adm adm audit um 8450.01 we we are not actually choosing to adopt that policy because we've covered that in our in our reopening plan so we don't need a board policy for that 0164.4 016.4165.016 8415 8416 and 0167.1 um these are all just um revisions modifications for board functions and operations during the covet 19 pandemic so just to help us assist with that bear with me there are a few here oh 151 organizational meeting of the board just being updated to correct outdated site citations in the law oh 1552 officers again just to correct outdated
041citations provide uniformity used with to refer to school board and corporation um oh 154 motions revision just to more accurately reflect the required board actions at organizational meetings versus recommended but optional board actions and to update citations in the law so many times these revisions are just due to law o155 same thing made it correct outdated citations provide uniformity revised due to law addresses allowable purposes for an executive session um 0171.4 treasure treasure revised just to reflect options provided in a different board policy bylaw 0154 motions just again for consistency 3120 it's a new policy and that's just simply to put into words um requirements of sea uh senate bill 390. so that's the requirements to hold a public hearing before the beginning formal collective bargaining 511 determination of legal settlement revised just an option
042just some additional kind of options for the board to delegate authority to superintendent 5460 graduation requirements revised it was only updated due to a new requirement for the 2020 21 school year in the law um specifically with regards to the fafsa 6105 authorization to accept distribute electronic records and use electronic signatures this is uh specifically when dealing with medicaid assistance for iep services policy 6250 required abm counts for the purpose of state funding it's a new policy just meant to help implement state board of accounts requirements with regard to funding adm count and auditing 7540.0202 web accessibility content apps and services just again updated to to clarify content that applies to those items and best practices due to uh recent cases with the office of civil rights policy 8330 student records revised just due to
043changes with ferpa policy 84.20.01 panda pandemics and epidemics obviously this is new and this is meant to help us with during covet 19. policy 8450 control of casual contact communicable diseases has just been updated to add covet 19 and then policy 2266 which is a big one that's title ix nondiscrimination on the basis of sex and education programs or activities that's due to changes in in federal law more specifically we designate both a male one of the changes we designate both a male compliance officer and also a female compliance officer to to help with with any complaints or any items during that process so these are all just for first reading and we'll bring these for second reading and adoption next month okay thank you next item on the agenda is an approval request for
044a teacher appreciation grant um is that yeah so three thousand two hundred twenty dollars no 3220.01 policy number 32.20.01 so just to be clear we're not making any changes or updates to that policy but in order to be eligible for a teacher appreciation grant money from the state we have to annually approve a policy and so i'm recommended obviously that we don't update it but we just have to annually approve it do i get a motion to approve yeah i'll make a motion okay we have a motion in a second any questions or discussion hearing none all in favor all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is an approval request for an e-learning day to conduct parent-teacher conferences yeah so obviously in order to uh to help our teachers and help our families
045and to still be able to conduct our parent-teacher conferences because i think you know teachers do a great job and have an ongoing dialogue but we have to think outside of the box and do things a little bit different this year we can't bring family or parents in during the school day and we also don't want teachers to have to work a lot of hours outside of their contract time so in order to for us to to be able to hold parent-teacher conferences we want to be able to conduct an e-learning day on october 22nd after fall break we discussed this with the teachers at the gcta and we feel like this will best allow those meetings to uh to take place and teachers will plan e-learning activities for the students to complete while at
046home and then they will be teachers will be meeting with parents throughout the day virtually so we'll we'll work with the teachers to kind of flex their schedule because we also recognize that not every parent is available during the school day so we want to be able to flex that so where there's some evening where there are some evening hours available also so if there's uh so if there are parents that aren't able to do it virtually then um do we have a what are we gonna do about that yeah by phone okay so if they can't meet on computer face-to-face we'll just go to the old school route okay all right through phone calls yeah it works too yep sometimes i forget that myself okay can i get a motion to we'll approve okay
047okay motion and a second hole in favor aye aye all opposed motion passes next item on these using on the agenda is other business does anyone have any other business to discuss or questions comments i guess i just want to say jeff um and the administration he did the student of the month i think that's great it's really fun to see the little people and uh it was very fun i like to continue guys thank you yes indeed yeah we have a lot of good things that take place here and so we're going to do a better job of sharing them sounds like a good idea anyone else okay last item on the agenda is adjournment go get a motion to adjourn [Laughter] thank you for coming and be careful going home you