001Motion passes 70. The revision the agenda has been revised. Moving on to B1 items from visitors public comment. I don't have anyone signed up uh for to speak to the board. Uh but if you'd like to uh just come up to the podium and give us your name and we'll give you some time. and no one coming forward. We'll move on to item C1, impact of Senate Bill One on HCCS. >> Um, we're fortunate this evening uh to have uh Tyler Leer Holtz. I hope I always hope I say your last name correctly, Tyler. Did I say it correctly? That's close enough, which means the answer is no. Okay. Um Tyler is going to from Baker Tilly is going to present to you um this evening uh the impact of Senate Bill 1 on us
002as a school district. There has been much talk uh throughout the state. Uh you've possibly have seen recently these presentations being done at several school boards across our state. And so, um, we have had these discussions about what has what is the impact of the latest decisions legislative on our school district. So, Tyler, thank you. Um, this is not an quote unquote action item, but this is question and answer. So, once Tyler completes his um, presentation, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let him know. So, Tyler, thank you for coming. You got to lean into the mic, Tyler. Sorry. So, >> yeah. I don't know if you can raise it or not, but yeah. >> Can we raise the the stand itself even? >> That's Yeah, you just have to pick it
003up. I um Good evening. As Mr. Trout said, I'm Tyler Loltz with Baker Tilly Municipal Adviserss and I'm going to be giving a summary of some of the legislative changes that that happened this spring. Um, there was a busy legislative session and here is just a summary. I know that might be kind of hard to read, but uh a summary of all the changes that are going to be affecting schools. Um, starting with uh with HA 1001, there's a changes to the state funding formula. The I think for Huntington County schools, you will see an increase uh per pupil for state funding of about 1.7% this year. And then for next school year about 1.4% and then um that happens every two years and then next the next legislative session the long session in 2027
004they will set the the changes for the following two years. Um beginning teacher Petri teacher pay has increased to $45,000. Uh teacher compensation as percent of education fund total expenses has increased from 62% to 65%. Uh there have been changes to the controlled project thresholds. Uh how it was before was anybody who has a debt service tax rate over 80 cents. Any bond you issued would be subject to referendum. What they did this spring was they lowered that to 70 cents. Um you're currently just under 40. So I I don't think we need to worry about you getting over that 70 quite yet. But I think you you may want to pay attention as we go forward um with some of these other changes I'll go through. uh we may see some decreases to net
005assessed value. So we may have to worry about that rate creeping up a little, but it's something that we can look at every year when you do your budget. Uh timing of referendums has changed to where they can only be take place during the November general elections on evenumbered years. There is a new general obligation bond cooling off period. So any bonds that you have issued in the past that were non-controlled GEO bonds that mature in a period of less than two years. After those bonds mature, you'll need to wait one year to issue another GEO bond that is non-controlled that's paid back in less than five years. You do have one bond outstanding that falls into this category. It's the 2024 bonds will be paid off in January of 26. So after those are
006paid off, you will have that one-year cooling off period. Um, but again, that's just for GEO bonds that are non-controlled that are paid back in less than five years. So, if you issue something longer than that, you'd be okay. There are changes to the property tax deductions um for all types of property owners and I'll go into more detail about that on a later slide. Um, but they are going to be increasing starting next year um through 2031 where they'll level off after that. uh excess levy appeals have been eliminated. Uh schools beginning in 2028 will no longer be able to receive local income taxes. Uh there's a there's charter school revenue sharing now that any school that has at least 100 kids or 2% of their population that attends a brickandmortar school will need
007to share uh property taxes with that school. But you currently do not fall into this category. So you don't need to worry about that yet at this point. And then there will be an additional step in the budget process beginning in 2029. Um for anytime you raise a tax rate or a levy, there'll just be an extra step in the budget process. But again, that doesn't start until 2029. So our our first task that you would want to look at is quantifying your potential losses. There's a firm called legislative services agency that has worked with the state legislature as they were going through all their amendments and they came out with a report of estimated uh net levies for all municipalities throughout the state and their estimates only go out to 2028. Uh and these
008changes don't all come into effect fully until 2031. So as more information becomes available, may want to consider obtaining and analyzing maybe partial by parcel analysis. And um that is something that we are currently working on being able to put together um just so you can have a better estimate of how these losses could affect you just based on all the parcels rather than looking at the the aggregate. um the estimates that they gave for the next few years are slightly higher each year that you would be receiving, but not as much as you would be receiving had these changes not occurred. So in 2025, your net levy was 17,640,000. You can see they're estimating next year to be just slightly higher at 17,660,000. And that is about $954,000 less than you probably would have
009received otherwise. In 2027, they're estimating 18.2 million, which is about 1,77 less than you would have received otherwise. And in 2028, 18.84 million, which is about 1,84 less than you would have received it otherwise. So definitely something to to consider with actions moving forward. um that we are expecting you to not receive as much as you would have. Uh task two would be to look at medium and long-term planning. Uh you could we would recommend that you develop a multi-year financial plan. I know that a couple years ago we were up here and had a comprehensive financial report for you. Um with all these changes that have have occurred, it might be worth looking at updating some of that information. And then we're also encouraging any cost savings that anybody can find. uh maybe working
010with with the city on anything that you can combine something just like snow removal, something like that that maybe if you're splitting those costs, maybe maybe combining just little things that you can find here and there. And then we'd want to identify options for replacement of revenues. As you look at these numbers going forward the next couple of years, are your losses going to be so high that you might need to look at a referendum? Um, you can always issue general obligation bonds to to make up for some losses. And if you come to a situation where you think you might have delayed um tax payments from property taxes, you could look at some tax anticipation warrants. Uh, here's a summary of the new homestead deductions and credits. So currently someone's gross assessed value, which
011is what you could sell it on the market for approximately, um there's a deduction of 48,000 and then another deduction of 37.5%. So that new lower number is what a homeowner actually pays taxes on. And you can see from now through 2031, the standard deduction will be phased out down to zero. And then that supplemental homestead deduction will be raised up to 66.7%. So someone with who lives in a homestead um would only be paying taxes on onethird of what their property is worth. Um there are also new homestead credits. So for every homestead they will take off the lesser of $300 or onetenth of your property tax bill. for 65 and over homeowners, uh, $150 will come off the the end of the tax bill, and then disabled homeowners will get a $125 credit.
012Now, with Huntington having approximately 11,600 homeowners, we have a broad range estimate that that might mean about 800 to 1.6 million that you'd be losing every year from those credits, which comes closely in line with those LSA estimates from from their report. There's a 2% property class that includes agricultural land, non-homestead residential, and long-term facilities. There currently is no deduction from the gross assessed value, and between now and 2031, that will be raised to 33.4%. So, their net assessed values will be coming down as well. >> Tyler, Tyler, >> yes. at up here if um sorry just the board if you have questions as he's going through this I'm looking at you Mr. Wall um don't hold back and we get eight pages into this then have to go backwards 10 pages so thanks uh
013business personal property will also see an increase in um exemptions that they will be able to to implement um currently the floor is 30% property for a cost of new equipment and that will be raised to $2 million that they will be able to deduct starting in 2027. Now I think we will want to look at tax rates here because I unless you receive enough gross assessed value growth where home property home values and other properties are going up in value enough to make up for these new deductions. We would anticipate net assessed value overall will be going down. which means if you want to still receive the same amount of levy that you've been getting in the past to operate your schools, um that would mean tax rates will likely have to come up.
014Um I I have a summary of the last five years of your tax rates here. Um you were a little higher five years ago, a little over a dollar. You're down under 90 now, but I do want to point out that the debt service rate is currently just under 40 cents. and anything if you if that rate gets to over 40 cents then anything issue would be subject to p petition remmonstrance race. Um so that's something to keep an eye on going forward. We have started to see some counties release AV for next year. Um as as I looked earlier today, Huntington County hadn't released yet, but we're seeing a range in in growth. I think the worst school I saw dropped by about a half percent. Which wasn't terrible considering the new deductions. I
015did see one that went up 12%. So hopefully we fall somewhere in there. So So Tyler, what's important here is on this on this uh slide is that 40 cents. And so board as we are looking out into the future with that that that is a number that you're going to hear from Baker Tilly Ice Miller myself a lot and we are there we are right there we have been doing some remarkable work without impacting that that uh figure and so uh please know that one of the reasons that we had him come this evening was to let you know we're in fine. We're okay, but we've got to keep in mind these new rules and where we're at moving forward, too. And so, Tyler, thank you. That was helpful. So, I didn't mean to
016interrupt you. So, >> Sure. Yeah. And we have been encouraging I I know some schools have been focused on keeping their rate level. I think this is going to shift things toward maybe keeping a level levy rather than than a rate, right? So hopefully we do see enough gross assessed value growth that um we can continue with the same levy and hopefully not raise the rate by too much. >> And then one other thing with the legislative impact I wanted to point out I had I had mentioned that local income tax beginning in 2028 will not be available for schools. And just to give you an idea of how much that is um this year in 2025 you're receiving about $67,000. So beginning in 2028 that will be going away as well, >> right? U
017the rest of my presentation is about potential bond issues. So I wanted to take a break here if anybody has any questions about anything I've gone over. >> So I guess my question is related when we've talked in the past we had kind of come up going into this in a minute but I just how does the geo bond thing truly affect how we're going to do things? are if one goes off, are we still going to be able to kind of do what we've done in the past or are they really kind of restricting that? And that's where we now need to go back to looking at maybe keeping our rate the same and not so much the rate. I'm looking for some clarity. uh what what they have done is the way it's
018written now and Lauren correct me if I'm wrong but that cooling off period applies to bonds that rescued in the past that were geo bonds non-controlled under two years. You do have that one from last year, but that cooling off period doesn't start until those are paid off in January of 26. So you could issue something before then but then after that you wouldn't be able to issue something less than five years geo not geo bonds non-controlled. So looking back it's two years looking forward it's five. >> And also again the way it's currently written could change between now and then. Um if you just issue something that's five years or longer you'd be okay as well >> and that that wouldn't be subject to that cooling off period. >> Okay. that that I think
019clarifies it, but I may have a question as we get into it a little bit. >> No. >> Oh, please help. >> You mind? I'm um Lauren Syler. I'm here um from Ice Miller, Bond Council for the School Corporation. Um I just wanted to illustrate that a little more. I apologize, too. We have a slide. I did not include it in our presentation, but I'm happy to pass that along just so it's a a reference guide to explain because it is convoluted um additional language they threw into Senate Bill one at the end. Looking back, Tyler's absolutely right. the the GEO cooling off only comes into play when you've issued non-controlled general obligation bonds for a term of two years or less. In both 2023 and 2024, Huntington County Schools issued GEO bonds for non-controlled
020projects. I believe it was the 2023 bonds that were for less than two years. The 24s were for longer. So the 24 bonds because the maturity was longer than the statute kind of called kind of calls the trigger into play is irrelevant for purposes of that analysis. But the 2023 bonds do create a new cooling off period is how the legislators refer to it. Tyler's absolutely right. That cooling off period starts January of 2026 and that's a cooling off period for one year. you are restricted during that year from only doing one specific thing, issuing new general obligation bonds for a non-controlled project with a term of 5 years or less. So if you were to issue, as to Tyler's point, if you were to issue bonds sometime next year for longer than five years
021maturity, it would not fall into that restriction. if you were to authorize a controlled project, which I'll speak about in a minute, what that uh what what that would look like, that would take you out of the restriction, or um we've done this in the past in Huntington County Schools, using a lease financing structure instead of general obligation bonds. But I take your point is having the geo bonds available is important. Um, one thing I want to be mindful of that the general obligation bonds we're going to be discussing in a moment, um, the potential issuance for this year, um, the options we'll be looking at do call into question this restriction and the the terms of, uh, what brings up a cooling off period is a little bit different when you're forward looking. >>
022So now, anything we issue after July 1st of 2025, so now going forward, that there's a slightly different test than what I outlined before. Going forward, any GEO bonds issued for a non-controlled project for a term of five years or less will trigger a one-year cooling off period upon maturity of those bonds for the same restricted from issuing similar short-term non-controlled general obligation bonds. Um so it won't just be um looking at two years or less period. Actually going forward, we're looking at anything we issue for five years um of a maturity of five years or greater. And that'll come into play in the scenarios that Tyler speaks to in a second. But I just wanted to reiterate there's a slight difference between the look back trigger for the cooling off period and then what
023we're doing now going forward. >> Lauren, we're we're uh flipping around a lot of terms here that probably people in our community do not know what they mean. >> So when you say non-controlled, what what does that mean? >> Thank you for the question. Appreciate that. Um actually Cindy, if you wouldn't mind, do you mind if we throw up my slide? The the presentation I have will speak to this. So this might be a good point if you don't mind me jumping ahead of the illustrations um will illustrate what we're talking about. So the legal process process that's required to authorize a project that will be financed by bonds now involves um two-step analysis. The first thing we do is look at the school corporation's debt service tax rate. The second thing we look at
024is the total cost of the project that we're looking to authorize. So here in Huntington County Schools, we look at the debt service tax rate first. As Tyler mentioned, it's just below 40 cents. So we're in that top row highlighted there where you have the opportunity to issue a non-controlled bonds for a non-controlled project. Essentially, if you are in that top row of step one, all the rows of step two there below are available to you. um what we call a non-controlled project would be a uh we'd look to step two that first row of step two is a non-controlled project. So any project in 2025 would be a value of 600 $6,600,000 or less would um leave open the possibility of authorizing a non-controlled project. There would still be public hearings as I I'll
025speak about in a in a few minutes. There would still be the board's consideration of the the financial parameters that that we're discussing. the board's vote to authorize um to move forward with the project and the bonds. Um but there would be no no formal um opportunity for uh registered voters or taxpayers to um stop or put a stop to the project against the board's um board's wishes. If you go through a controlled project process, however, um there additional process would be available um to anyone looking to oppose the project um or the bond issuance. So, that's where we get into some of kind of these other um levels that we've talked about before. In 23, in 2024, and this year, what we're looking at for Huntington County Schools is a non-controlled general obligation bond.
026So, we would fall into those highlighted categories. Um, the really important thing to keep in mind, especially for step one, is since we are really hugging right up against that 40 cents right now, um, keep in mind there is a a possibility that we would fall into that second that middle row of step one in the future. Essentially, what would happen if the debt service fund tax rate was between 40 cents and 70 cents, you would no longer have the opportunity to issue non-controlled bonds for a non-controlled project. um that would introduce um additional process I will show you on the next slide in a second to illustrate more but just wanted to point out that essentially if the tax rate were above 40 cents the uh quicker frankly less expensive options that we have
027available to us today would no longer be available just given um how the statutes are written and then that 70 threshold is really the one to keep an eye on. Every school district around the state is being very mindful of that. any non-emergency projects. If your debt service fund tax rate is above.7 cents, any non-emergency projects have to be approved on a ballot by referendum regardless of dollar costs. Um, no matter how small, how large, every project would need to be approved on that ballot. So, essentially, none of the step two options are available to you once you hit 70 cents or higher in your debt service tax rate. And then I've just got in the lefth hand corner there um just to illustrate too when we're looking at total project cost. There's a couple
028things that go into that. Um you have hard cost, soft cost of construction. So those are brick and mortar costs, design fees, things that um might be uh more familiar to to the process we've gone through so far, buying the actual equipment or technology involved in the project, but it also is inclusive of cost of actually issuing the bonds. So we work very closely with the Baker Tilly team to to estimate those costs. We work closely with your design um and construction professionals to estimate those costs. Um and then we use those to kind of gear towards the the total project cost that will be before the board for authorization. That number that we reach and that we come to um in consultation with those uh professionals and your administration team is is what leads
029us to that step two analysis. In this case, the project we've discussed um can be done within the scope of that $6,600,000 or less. But in the future, if you were looking to approve a larger project, even if your rate is below 40 cents, um you may be uh looking at additional process than what we've done the past two years and then what we're looking at this year. So, I just wanted to quickly touch upon um what that could potentially look like. Again, this is not what we've done the last two years. It is not what we are proposing to do this year. Um but this would potentially be something that we'd have to look to in the future. Um this controlled project process. So again, this would come into play if the debt service
030tax rate is above 40 cents. Um or if you're issuing bonds for a project that would exceed that non-controlled threshold. This year that threshold is 6,600,000. That number goes up a little bit every year. So depending on the year we'd be before you look at a project, we'd we'd let you know what that that uh value actually is. Um but in excess of that threshold, we'd be looking at this this additional process that again is different than what we will be talking about specifically for the 25 bonds. We do publish a notice in the local papers um advertising to the public that you are all considering this this process, these projects and these bonds. And then there are two separate um series of public hearings um where the administration presents about the the need for
031the projects, what the actual projects, the scope of those projects would look like, as well as the maximum financial parameters for those projects. The public would have an opportunity at both of those hearings to speak and let let you know their thoughts. Um but at that second preliminary determination hearing, we would put before the board a series of resolutions um asking the board to authorize certain maximum financial parameters. If the board uh voted to move forward with the project at that point, we would then publish another notice in the local papers um notifying everyone that the board has taken that action. Um and that kickstarts a 30-day process during which there would be an opportunity for the lesser of 5% or 500 registered voters in your community um to sign a petition um opposing the
032project the project. If no such petition is filed, the board there, the the board and the school corporation um are able to move forward if they so wish with the project with the bonds. If a petition is filed, um that's where we'd be looking at running either a ref a petition remmonstrance race or a referendum. What which one we run is completely dependent on the total project cost. Um but the process itself is somewhat similar. Um it's essentially a vote to the mo a race to the most u votes in favor or opposed to the project. Um if the board elected not to run that race or not to put the project on the referendum, we would treat the project as defeated for one year. Um however, if the if the race was run or
033if we did put the project on the ballot and it was defeated there, the project would be essentially on hold for two years. um the petition remmonstance race. If the the school corporation were successful, you would then just move forward with the project as is, the actual uh debt service that would be levied for that project would still be within the tax caps. Um, but I want to be mindful if we do um get a petition for a referendum and the board choose chose to move forward and actually have that project on the ballot, if the school corporation were successful in that case, the debt service payments on those bonds would be outside of the debt service tax caps or outside of the uh property tax caps. Um, so we will talk about all of
034those implications if and when we get to the point of the board um needing to consider a controlled project. I just wanted to illustrate that those are different processes than what we've done the past couple of years and especially with that that debt service tax rate nearing 40 cents there's a chance that we do um face this additional process in coming years. So we will most certainly come back and explain that hopefully in better and more detail for you all. Um but I am happy to answer any questions about that process at this point. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Thank you and thanks Tyler. Sorry for derailing that for a moment. >> All right. So, any other questions about the legislative changes or should we get into the proposed bonds? >> Um, we're we're kind of
035bridging two agenda items here in into one there, but that's okay. I mean, because those are the questions that we had. So, that's that's fantastic. So my recommendation Tim would be before we move on fully to number two if anybody has any questions about um if anybody would have any questions about C1. So I I thought you heard I heard you say that the the the estimates that we had from LSA were just estimates, but the best way to get an idea of the losses that we may anticipate from Senate enrolled act one would be to do a parcel by parcel review. >> That'll get you the most accurate information. Yeah. Uh and board, I believe the information I sent out to you from the city has that information in it, but it may be
036worthwhile for us to review that and and talk about that. And John may want to chat with the mayor to see if we can get a little bit more information on that. So, yes, those conversations have started. um we're nowhere near um decisions or whatever else, but it that is cause it is forcing those conversations to happen. So his comments about working together I think is a great comment and I think it there's no reason for each of us to do it together. So if we can pull our resources to maybe do that because when they run the numbers for the city or you know or the county or whatever I think it would be good to do that. So I think that's a great opportunity to continue to work together. >> Y Anything else?
037Go ahead, Tyler. >> Okay. Do Do you have more? Do you have more for us? >> Not on the legislative impact, but on potential bond issue. I do. >> We will move on then to C2. 2025 general obligation bond and future bond capacities. So before Terry comes up here and Tyler is speaking, what we're trying to do is set up the conversation with you about what do we do in 26. And so the next part in C2 with the general obligation bond future bond capacities. Tyler's going to start sharing with you the details of what Lauren so accurately described to you so you understand before a board vote on the 25th of August. um there'll be a quiz at the end that that um what we're going to have available to us and what the
038possibilities would be before we have Mr. Thornsberry come up here. So, at this point um Terry's going to or Tyler is going to describe to us a little bit about the 2025 GEO bond and then and future bond capacities because these are questions all of you are asking. So, thank you. >> Sure. Um first I'll start off by just showing you what your outstanding debt currently looks like. um you do have a pretty big drop coming next year. You're currently your 2025 payments are a little over 10 million and um next year it'll be a little under six. So you do have an opportunity to fill in that gap uh with a new issue um that could get you funding without increasing your your levy. Um or we we'd be issuing these after you get
039your 2026 net assessed value. So um the numbers that you see here, we could make that first payment higher or lower based on on what happens with your assessed value. Uh this is just the detail behind that slide and all the bonds you have outstanding. And then this is a calculation of your general obligation bonding capacity. Now you can issue up to onethird of 2% of your net assessed value and then after subtracting out what you have outstanding um you've got geo capacity of a little over 12 a.5 million. So anything you issue under that could be issued as geo bonds. So we put two different scenarios together. Uh the first scenario is just the quickest you could pay back the bonds without increasing your levy. Now again the issue with that option would be
040that that is under five years. It would be a non-controlled go. So, you could potentially be facing that one-year uh period where you wouldn't be able to issue another similar bond, but the way the wording is is written now, you would be able to come back and do a lease rental bond or something more than five years in the future. So, something to consider with these two options. And then the other option we just did a little over five years, so you wouldn't have to have to worry about that. Um, using conservative interest rates, we are estimating that first option. you'd have total interest expense over the life of the bonds of about $450,000 and with that scenario B about $660,000 over the life of the bonds. And then since we don't know what your
041assessed value will be yet, we assumed no change to your AV for this information and we would estimate that it would not increase your debt service tax rate. But again, hopefully in the next week or so, we will know what that will will be next year. Here's that first option. It's paying them back as quickly as possible. You can see that black dotted line there is your estimated levy. So, we would keep it level for one year and then we'd have the rest of the bonds paid off in 2027. And um then you'd have the option with either of these. And and just so you can see a visual of that second option here, just keeping your level levy the same in 2026 and then paying off the remainder of the bonds over the next
042several years. So, you're outside of that fiveyear window. uh you would have the option to issue something you can issue something up to 20 years. So if you had another big project coming on, we would estimate that keeping your levy the same from 2027 and beyond for a 20-year period, we'd estimate that you could do about 56 million in in bonds next year. Or you could split that up over a number of years. But that would be our estimate. And that's all I have on that part, but happy to answer any questions. >> Questions from the board. I have one. Um, while we have you both here, what would be your recommendation, Tyler? Um, if the board were to vote on August the 25th, and you gave us a couple options there. Which one would
043you re what would you be Baker Tilly's recommendation to us? Um, you know, he's gonna put you on the spot, but what would your recommendation be? I think with the way the law is currently written and again a lot could change in the next five years. Correct. Who knows? >> Your options would be better in the future if you went with that longer repayment. >> Okay. >> Because we wouldn't have that one-year gap, right? Again, the law could change between now and then. But um obviously the drawback on that is there's a higher interest over the life of the bonds, but I think it would give you more flexibility in the future. >> I agree. So, in that one-year gap, how much does your tax rate change? And I know that's probably a hard question
044to answer because I'm trying to wrap my head around it, but I mean, we've tried to stay level >> and keep from that whoopde-hoops. So, would would it be a huge whoopde-hoop or a little one? >> Well, you you would still be able to issue bonds. you're just limited on what type of bonds. So, you could avoid having a big drop if you issue lease rental bonds, >> okay? >> Or do a controlled project or do something that's paid back over more than five years. So, but if you were to have a year where you did have that drop, I think we were showing you went from about 10 million to a little under six million in in your bond payments. So, probably it'd be about 60% of what it is now for that year.
045I agree with you, Matt, that it would be important to me and to and to most of us up here that as we're planning moving forward, we rem we maintain as about as flat as we can. Uh that's not always possible. Uh we do our best, but I wanted you to see all the thresholds and understand um the the rules and how they've changed. Um I'm encouraged by where we sit. Uh quite frankly, we have a lot of options. a lot of our colleagues across the state do not. Um, and so I would much rather be in the position that we are because now we have we have some choices to make where um I'm sure many of the districts that you work with don't have uh so many of those choices. And so, um,
046that's why I'm giving you two weeks before the vote to think this through, to call me, to discuss this, to go through all of this because um, it is a it is a decision because the rules have changed. But I think it's a pretty easy one. You know, I'm not I'm going to give that. That's why I want you to hear from Tyler, who we have so much respect and trust with, is about which one of those avenues would he choose. doesn't mean that's going to be the one you choose, but it's at least it helps us um be inside the rules and to maximize what we need to. So to if I understand and looking at the numbers, if we want to stay under that 40 cents, which is where we're we're kind of
047hovering on and we want to kind of keep that rate somewhat set up, we have more of an option based on the five-year plan because we can adjust that repayment year one based on your graph on that particular graph. We could kind once we know the net assessed value. Correct. >> Right. So let's say your net assessed value for 2026 goes down between now and when we sell the bonds. We could just decrease that that 2026. >> So we can kind of ju by having that 5-year repayment. We we just have a little bit more leeway and flexibility. Is is that >> I mean with with this option you have a little bit of that but there isn't as much of a drop there in 27. So >> yeah, >> it might might be might
048give you more flexibility going with the second option, >> right? But then that also gives us another year to look at projects and see what needs to happen. So then we can have that conversation for 27 if we want to do something. And yeah, so we can we just basically have to modify our old plan to basically instead of having short geo bonds basically kind of looking at long geo bonds >> or some other concept as she gets up and I think she's about ready to correct me. >> Oh, okay. Go ahead. Okay. Yeah, I this helps a lot by the way. Thank you Tyler for this. Um, sorry, I just wanted to clarify one thing when we're specifically looking at that change from or what we might do in 2026 any again the the
049geo cooling off period is going to start January of next year. So we won't have a non-controlled geo option available to issue in 2026 regardless. So, we will be looking at if if we were to issue something next year, we would be looking at a lease financing um or a controlled project, which would be assuming the debt assuming the debt service rate doesn't go above 40 cents, it'd be looking at a project in excess of $6.8 million to meet actual needs of the district. >> Or do one that's longer than five years. Um but in in those cases what we'd be what we'd be looking at um I think would be outside the scope of creating a new general obligation moratorum anyway. Um and so I just want to be mindful that I think the
050board does have the option to go with the shorter term if the interest cost savings were of more importance. Um because no matter what there will be as Tyler pointed out an option to issue bonds um in some form. it will not be the most efficient option. Unfortunately, the how the legislators have have structured it. They've kind of made it difficult to go with the most efficient option of a short-term non-controlled geo bond specifically targeted your needs. Um, but you will have options regardless. And so, it's really weighing, I think, the board and the administration's goals of those interest cost savings um versus your flexibility to issue additional short-term GEO bonds. But in any case where we would be considering those, you'd run the risk of another moratorum. Um, and so in some sense that
051tradeoff, it is somewhat worth considering to do a a shorter term geo bond if uh the savings of going with other options in the future is is also worthwhile. I know that's convoluting the process. I just wanted to reiterate that no matter what we do next year, we'll be looking at a a series of options. um we will be able to offer those to you for consideration to meet the needs of the district. Um but it's really weighing which sa which cost savings are are more important um when you're making this decision. Those interest cost savings or the savings of having a short-term geo bond available in the future. But at that point you'd again have to weigh the potential moratorium implications. >> And to throw one more monkey wrench in it. Who knows what
052the legislature is going to do in January? and everything we've been hearing, including during the 25 session, says they are going to clean things up. We do not know the scope of what that is or how the cleanup process of any measures will take place. Um, but yeah, legislative uncertainty is going to loom over all these future decisions no matter what. >> So, thanks you for the clarification and making sure that we still have options even we do the shorter route. So, I appreciate that, too. Yeah, apologies for muddling it, but just wanted to reiterate that the it's it's really a trade-off and comes down to just the board's um priorities at this stage of the game. >> So, board um these two agenda items um have been quite lengthy and I understand that and
053I appreciate your hanging in there with us. Um but I wanted to make sure before we voted on August the 25th that you had an understanding of what options are before us. Tyler, Lauren, thank you. you did a great job of explaining both of these pieces. And so, um, when we've put some things together here for you on the 25th for consideration, for approval, I hope, um, this this these presentations have helped you have a better understanding of moving forward. So, thank you. I appreciate the two of you. Thanks for coming up. >> Thanks for having us. >> Yep. >> Thank you both. >> Cindy, is her presentation somewhere? I know you pulled it up. Is it in or can you add it to Tyler's in board docs for later? Okay. Thank you. >> We'll
054move on to item C3. >> Okay. Terry, you have a you have a tough act to follow. >> I do. >> Okay. Um now that we understand that we have 6.6 six available to us uh for consideration. Um Terry now comes um with the details of possible and I want to use the word possible next projects. We are not going to get this decided this evening. This is why we're having a work session on the 21st of this month is to uh work through this collectively as a board. But Terry, thank you. This work comes directly from the feasibilities I mean from the the facility audit that you did. Correct. >> It does. It does. Um thank you Mr. Trout. I appreciate it. And um again this is just potential projects that we pulled together
055uh with some help from different um from different folks within the team. So this is pulled from the facility assessment the update that we did um earlier this year and we focused on projects that we think would fit within this $6.6 six uh million dollar number u with a hard cost of construction around 6 million. So um so with that I'm going to present and this is going to be the abbreviated version of this presentation. There's 52 slides. So I'm not we're going to get into this in more detail on the 21st in our work session but tonight I'm going to give you the abbreviated uh or cliffnotes version. So, um I'm going to present option A, which would be a new maintenance IT or transportation building. That is where the uh former RMC building
056that's used now, um out by the reservoir. Option B will be a high school library renovation into a learning commons, as well as a high school, uh window replacement project. Option C will be the library renovation into a learning commons in combination with secure entry vestibules for four buildings and then Salomony school pull demolition. And then alternates are the four listed there for the high school arena ceiling repaint horseman HVAC replacement receal windows doors at the triplets and clean the masonry and seal the masonry and caulk joints at the triplets crest view and riverview. So those those alternate options can fit in in different places depending on cost for uh option A, B or C above. So, >> so Terry, is it safe? You're going to get into this, but it's safe to say that
057when we get together on the 21st um they can do there's a lot of picking and choosing and moving around. Correct. >> There there is this is going to be a quick overview um tonight just so we're not here till midnight. So, um because I can talk about this all day. So, but we're going to just hit the highlights of this to give you an idea of what's in these options and then we'll dig into the nuts and bolts of this on the 21st. So, option A would be a new maintenance IT transportation building like I said and that that ballpark cost would be the entire $6 million uh roughly. Um that building, the former RMC building was built in 1965. You can see the square footage there. You can see the acreage. Um, an
058idea would be to um build a new building adjacent to the existing so the existing can be used while construction's going on and then you demo the existing and turn that into parking lot space instead. So there's two parcels there. That's what's showing up. I just want to give you a heads up. If this is a project that we pursue, it's going to take some extra effort because we're dealing with the county for approval because this building was never um officially approved for the use that it's being used today. Um there's no record of that ever happening. So, we have to go through BZA completely and we also have to get the airport authority to approve the project as well. So, and that bus parking lot area that's to the south is directly in line
059with the the um runway. So, we just have to go through those process. So, it would take some extra effort on our part, on the design team's part to get all this stuff approved. I already talked to the county about it. They're aware of it. Um, and they don't see it being an issue. It's just going to take some extra time and effort. So, um, these are just some quick snapshots. And my pictures do not do this building justice. My pictures make this building look way too nice. So, uh, um, it's it is in in in pretty rough shape because it was not built to be what it is. Um, you can see buildings there. There are lifts in the buildings, but they can only lift those uh buses up a few feet and it's
060really difficult to get under there and do much maintenance because the buildings just not tall enough to accommodate getting them very high off the ground. When I was there that day, most of things were being done with creepers and they were rolling in and under the buses. So, um, restroom facility. This is one that was mentioned to me to make sure I got a picture of. You have to kind of straddle the urinal and like sit on the heater or something. I don't know. It's kind of weird uh what goes on there, but um the restrooms are not ADA by any means whatsoever. The doors aren't even close to 36 inches wide. So, um these are some pictures of upstairs. There's storage everywhere. There's stuff just stuck everywhere. Um nothing is code compliant. It's extremely
061unsafe um because railing isn't up to the height that it needs to be. A railing is wide open, so it would be really easy for objects to fall off onto somebody or someone to fall over the railing. So that that's throughout the building um in a lot of occasions. And there's also a lot of hazardous material storage that's just out in the open. So it's not controlled. Um but they're doing the best they can with what they have. And it's been that way for years. So a new building would accommodate all these needs and remedy a lot of issues um at the same time. So these are just pictures of different spaces within the building. And then there also have the shops, wood shop, and they have different electricians. Everybody's kind of housed out here.
062Um, and some areas are better than others. The outside of the building, um, there's a lot of rust, a lot of dents, lots of just wear and tear from 1965 and the different uses of the building. Um, inside the building, you can see the air quality in there. Everything is really dirty because of how the building's used. And then you have people in the office and the IT spaces, um, just not in a very clean environment. And that's probably not the best um, place for those people to be. So, we would give them much better facilities. um the fuel storage tanks outside to have no containment at all. So if there's ever a spill, they can go everywhere it wants. So um so a lot of things just need to be done. And what was
063interesting me is the gas meter that's right there in that picture on the right. There's absolutely zero protection for somebody to be able to run into that. Uh so there's no ballers, there's nothing. So there's a lot of little things that need to be remedied in a new design um for this building. And then there's a additional poleb barn building that's adjacent to the main building that again is just storage of stuff and there's no climate control. There's nothing out there at all. So um and again there's no there's no railing on those stairs either. So I thought that was fun. So I'm glad I'm not going up and down those too often. So that's option A. Um uh again big picture um that's what is included in that in that project um al together.
064So, any questions on that one real quick? Like I said, we're going to get into more detail on that um at a later time. So, my next part of this, which we're not going to get into tonight, these are pictures of newer facilities for the same thing for other school corporations to give you an idea of what things can look like and what can be done. And if we decide to go down this road for this project, we'll most likely go visit some of those school corporations and look at their buildings and talk to their people and understand how they did it. and um talk to them about costs and everything else associated with that. So option B would be high school library renovation into a learning uh commons. And so that ballpark cost is
065around 4 million is what we're estimating right now. And that would also then include the high school uh window replacement with the ballpark of about 2 million existing conditions. Uh you can see there that space is actually larger than the science block for those of you who were here for that project. So it's um a little over 12,000 square feet. Um, but for those of us, which is most of us who have been attended school here, the walls didn't go to the ceiling. It was open so you could see through the space and over the space. And then the four courtyards allowed that natural daylight to spill into that space. And now it's it's not it's a big box that's closed off and you can't see through it. Um, so that renovation would allow every
066department within the building to utilize a new updated modern space that I think we can make uh a lot of fun and exciting. Um, so that's the the good part about that project. It affects everything uh every department in the entire building. Existing conditions, we've all been in there. Like I said, it's all closed off. Um, things have actually been moved around over the years and they're not in the positions they were before. So, it's kind of awkward how some of the spaces and the lighting works in the HVAC is really weird. If you're ever in a meeting in that room, it sounds like a jet engine most of the time. It's pretty loud. So, um, the check-in checkout counter is just old, outdated. Um, so over the years, uh, because this building was originally
067built, we didn't have the internet and we didn't have it and we didn't have all that stuff. it was all coax and now it's that which is a crazy spaghetti mess that uh it has to manage and there's an IT room with those racks in there but there's that room's not isolated it's not controlled so they're dumping a bunch of cold air in there and it all just goes through the ceiling because it's all open plenum so it can just escape um so we need to make that room better that that room should be like a meat locker with a controlled environment is how we want it to be um set up and it's not So, and on the right you have the telephone systems kind. So, it's just kind of jammed in there. They
068found a place for it. We'd have to accommodate and work around that. What's interesting is the original uh space also had restrooms that aren't there anymore, and we'll be able to bring those back and accommodate uh needs for plumbing, water, and other things in that space as well. So again, quick overview of these are some concepts for furniture that we've already been um working with um the librarian on some ideas about furniture and different things we can do as we're putting together ballpark costs for these um soft cost items. So it just gives you some idea of some furniture and some different things that can be done. We would have lab spaces and workspaces, um, individual rooms, meeting rooms like these where they could be glass wall where you could still see students and, um,
069students could be allowed some small breakout spaces and meeting rooms with technology. Um, this is another concept. We had a lunch and learn in our office for these for these pods where these can be moved around. So, if you want to move them around, you could accommodate that as well. Um, so I think this would really uh interest students and get them excited because this is what they're going to have the opportunity to do in college. So when they leave here and move on, this is what I designed one of these 20 some years ago and this is what we did 20ome years ago. So to bring your library up to a modern more higher ed level uh of space. Um, and again, we're still going to maintain some books. Um, but we would go
070with a consolidated stack option like this to where they're not necessarily scattered throughout the whole space. They can be consolidated and you can still access all of them, just be able to save some square footage at the same time. Some just views of options inside different spaces like this. Soft seating furniture, bright colors, lots of light, a lot of glass walls would be the intent. So like something similar that we did in the murals on the wall around the science block, we would do it on the glass. So but that's way we can still get light through the space but create some privacy at the same time. So that was um the library renovation part, the high school window part is much simpler. It's these windows that are on the front of the building back
071here and down the athletic hallway and then at two of the doors. Um, and we were joking up here as um, uh, Chuck was up here sweating earlier because it's like 90 degrees against that uh, single pane glass. It's really hot. So all that heat's just permeating into the building. And the same thing in the winter time is the opposite. So we would want to upgrade to some insulated glass um, and basically put everything back so it looks the same but just modernize it at the same time. So the also the athletic hallway has wire glass in it which isn't allowed by code anymore. uh because you can't break it out and you can't escape out it if you needed to. So, and these are the two door locations at 10 and 35. Um same
072thing. >> So, you you wouldn't do any of the courtyards then? >> No, not at this time to try to stay within that six million. That could be an alternate project, but I think we're going to spend probably another million to do the four courtyards easily. There's a lot of glass if not more. Yeah. So, we did not include that in this as of right now. Um, so like I talked about, we'd go to one insulated glass and we would update everything uh in that process. And in the same time, we would add a ballistic film to the glass. Um, and uh, Mr. Hurdle is not here tonight, but he's been to a demonstration for this, and he said they took baseball bats to the the glass and they could not get through it. So,
073we' add a level of security to the building by doing this at the same time for all of those window systems. And that's where the courtyard's not as important, but it is important. But um at least this front, the sides, the big areas uh would be protected with ballistic film. I've installed this for uh federal installations for years and years and years and and they do use the same thing. It's a 3M product. So um option C now includes the library again, but now we're going to work on look at security for uh the triplets and salmon. Um because if you go into the triplets, you can walk in the front door and have access to the entire building. So we want to eliminate that. Um salamony is a little different, but we want to
074add a little bit more security there as well. Um and then the pool demolition, we actually bid as part of the HVAC and pool demo project. So we know what that number is to take the pool off and the drawings are already done. We would just have to modify it into its own project. um if we wanted to go ahead and and eliminate that part off the building. So, um we already talked about the library. So, this is a picture of um one of the triplets. So, there's the doors that you come into and then you like I said, you're you're full access. The the office is adjacent to those those primary doors, but you can just still go anywhere you want. So the idea would be we would add a wall at this location
075um add a door into the office off of that vestibule and then that way most people will go into the office and either go back out of the building or be then allowed with escort or not into the rest of the building through the office rather than just being able to get through. So um that's the idea. Plus we also help control heating and cooling better that way because we're not letting all the cold or hot air um through the building. And then for salamon, it's just adding uh access controls so that the vestibules that are there would be on card readers um to have a little bit better control. Um and then obviously getting rid of this uh which isn't used anymore. Um it had storage in it and these pictures are older that
076had a bunch of stuff in there. Most of that stuff's gone. There's a little bit out there but not nearly what there used to be. But that also includes this is a image from our drawings. So the pool as well as the original locker rooms which are also used for storage. So that whole area with the red line around it would come off of the building um if we demoed that that portion. So, um, alternate options are high school, arena, ceiling, repaint, horseman, uh, HVAC, and then reseal the windows and work on the masonry at, um, the buildings listed there, the triplets, and then Crest View and Riverview. Um, most people when you go in the arena, you don't notice some of the paint issues in there unless you're really staring at it because it's
077so big and everything else catches your eye. But Rich stands and stares at the paint coming loose. So he he really wants to repaint that ceiling because he they you guys do a phenomenal job maintaining your floor unlike anybody else I know. Um as far as reconditioning your floor every year. Um so if you look up, this is what you're going to see. Paint's peeling off things. Um and it's a it's a large space, so it's going to take quite a bit of work to get all that paint off. The original paints up there probably and some other paint. So we've got oilbased and latex paint. they don't work well together and they peel off and cause this problem. So, we'd have to media blast all the paint off and then repaint it um and
078clean everything up. So, it's it's not just on the steel, it's on the duct work, it's everywhere. It's on the pipe insulation, it's on everything in there. Um and then the horseman HVAC horseman is set up with VAV boxes. So, there's uh variable air volume boxes in each of the rooms and that's how you control temperature in there. And this this has kind of been just hacked up a little bit and made to work over the years, but it's way beyond its life and it needs replaced with a modern version of it with better controls. Um, and then the biggest thing with the masonry and the ceiling and the caulking, this is an easy picture you to see that that's a window seal and you can see that caul joints completely open. So that allows
079water into that wall. We do not want water in that wall because water and moisture leads to bad things in the wall. We want to eliminate that so or minimize it. So we want to to clean all this up and uh and take care of it. Um at the triplets the way that they designed it, there's no gutters on those buildings. So the water just comes off of the building, hits the ground, and then you can see in on the in the northern face, northing north face walls of the building, you'll see the mold and mildew show up, and it just looks bad and it it deteriorates the building over time and and shortens its life. Um, this is some atom at the triplets. You can see how just how those walls get. And then
080some of this is at Salammon um or at Riverview, sorry. It's not nearly as bad. A lot of the exterior of of Riverview is in pretty good shape, so it's not bad. It's just a masonry needs to redone, but there are some caul joints that are missing caul completely. There's expansion joints in there, but there's no caul. So, at some point that was replaced and wasn't caugh. So, um just things like that need to be done. So, again, that was the really fast version of this and I'll get into detail on it uh and on the 21st, but any questions at all? >> Any any questions for Terry? >> So, we've already >> we're looking forward to the 21st. Okay. Me, too. >> So, you and I have already chatted about this, but I I
081I >> I would love to see an option, and I know it may not be feasible, but I would love to see an option of doing a regular block of classrooms up here at the high school, too, just for just for a ballpark number to know what that would be. So, >> yeah, we um and we can look at different options. We So, with the ceilings and lights um project, we left some spaces out intentionally, the library, the art the art area. Um, and so spaces like that, we did not leave whole classroom blocks out. Um, so we'd have to look at that and the feasibility of that. Um, and options of how we deal with the wall system with these modular walls that were put in here that were never modular because they were
082never moved. But, but yeah, we can look at anything you want. Um, but this was just a start of trying to stay within that 6.6 number with a few options along the way. So, >> nice list for us to talk through on the 21st. >> Right. Thank you. So, on August the 21st, come prepared because we're going to try to narrow this down or add to it. Okay. In the meantime, if you have comments or questions, don't hesitate to reach out to Chuck or Terry or myself um because we're going to have some interesting dialogue on the 21st as we try to uh chart a direction. We can't vote on it that night, but um I just want to have a much clearer understanding of where you're at and what you would like to see
083uh when we leave that evening. So Terry, thank you. Appreciate your time. Thank you. It's good to see you. >> Thanks, everybody. >> All right, we'll move on to C4 financial reports. Mr. Mclofflin, >> thank you, Mr. Allen. Uh in your packet, uh there were the June financials. So, uh just making sure that you realize these are June, not July. We typically run a month behind, but uh with some uh budget stuff, we're looking at June right now. We'll look at July um at the August 25th meeting. Um the first one there is the education fund, and you can see that the total budget order for the year was around $40 million. Uh we're about halfway through the year in June, and you can see that we've received uh just about half of that money
084or a little over half of it with the 20 million and some change there. So uh again just highlighting that the amount that we spend for uh salaries and benefits for our our teaching staff as it is the education fund. Uh but well over uh 90% of that budget goes towards uh teacher salaries and benefits. So, um, just again, um, down at the right hand side there, the percent, uh, we're about just under halfway through the year and, uh, spent about 43% uh, of the 49% of the budget that we've received. So, you'll see that increase then when I do the uh, year-to- date comparisons for the education fund and how that balance is continuing to grow. Moving to the debt service fund. As you'll remember, this is when the revenue comes in for debt
085service and for operations from our property taxes. And you'll see that we've finally received about half of that $9 million in the month of June for our debt service fund to pay down our debt service that we just talked about with Baker Tilly and Ice Miller. And the rest of those funds then come in December. And you can see the revis revised fund balance of just over $1.6 million thereafter uh our debts for uh the bonds have been paid. Moving to operations again, same thing. We just received that big payment there of 5.2 million of an 11.6 million order uh for the budget and we have about 6.3 left. Um, again, that was due to the property taxes coming in, and we'll receive the rest of that money in, uh, December. And as you'll remember,
086uh, those monies came a little bit later than we're used to in June this year. Uh, but we did get them before the month end and were able to, uh, take care of those obligations for not only debt service, but the operations fund as well. And then the last fund there is the rainy day fund. And just a reminder, we did not uh have any projects coming out of rainy day. So that balance does not change. The board did not choose to do any uh projects utilizing rainy day funds. So the 3.9 is in there. Um and you won't see much change in that because we haven't made any resolutions to do anything with those funds at this point. Uh moving to the historical comparison for the education fund. And if you look at June
087from 2019 to June of 2025, you can see our cash balance was just under 6 million in 2019. It's worked its way up to almost $16 million uh cash balance as of June of 2025. And again, that goes back to receiving about 49% of our money, only expending about 43% of it helps continue to grow our cash balance as we are uh trying to be good stewards of those funds as they come in. Uh similar situation to the operations fund. Um and again, these numbers fluctuate a little bit more based on time of year just because of when the bonds, I'm sorry, when the u property taxes come in. So, uh, right now at the end of June, we were at 5.25 million for the balance there. That will get, uh, expended a little bit
088quicker than what we see in the education fund just because we don't receive any more money in there until December. So, that will start to trickle down as you can see, uh, on that sheet just moving through July and August and so forth. U, but then we'll get those expected funds in December. So, those are the financial reports for June. If anyone has any questions, I'll entertain those at this point. >> Thank you, Mr. Mclofflin. Uh, I'll entertain a motion regarding the financials. >> Make a motion that we approve the financials as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Wall. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Meltchure. Any questions or comments for Mr. Mclofflin before we vote? hearing. None. We'll vote on the motion. motion passes 70. Moving on to item D, students
089in item D1, secondary 2024 2025 I learn SAT academic data presentation. Mr. Brimberry and >> thank you Mr. Allen. Um, I would tell you, Mr. Allen, this is uh Christmas in August for Chuck Brimberry. Uh, we can uh talk about our students and achievement, things that are going well in our school system with our teachers and uh, a lot of hard work that's been done. And so, I want to thank the secondary team uh, tonight uh, for being here tonight. Uh, we have uh, Dr. Digits of course is here, Jamie Wapis from Riverview, Rachel Jarger uh, from Crest View, and Tiffany Drummond from the Learning Center. Also want to thank a couple of our outstanding teachers uh Sam and Stacia for being here and most importantly board uh the young lady that's standing there uh
090Lynn Brown has done an amazing job in my portion to uh remind you friendly reminder what process have we used in our secondary schools um to maybe uh to get us to the point we are tonight. So I want to review a little bit. Uh we have some core beliefs in the Huntington secondary academic method. One is that we passionately believe that all children will and can show growth and achieve. And we operate with this system based on the premise that all of our kids can learn at a high rate and we can remediate for those who are struggling at a different rate to show and close the gap. And so three years ago, we talked about we're going to close the gap here uh in some of our school systems. And I think you're
091going to like some of the data you see tonight. We also uh Lynn and her teachers um did amazing job a year ago with a well-mapped standard-based curriculum that's followed by all and is um done with um the idea that if one of us does it well, we share with the other. We're collaborative in nature. We meet often and we talk about kids achievement and our teaching methodology. Those things are in place at a very high level uh in our staff and I I credit our teachers um in our middle schools and high school. But Lynn Brown has done a wonderful job of that. Also, I would tell you that their best practice is system uh systemic assessment formative and Len made me say common uh when I first got here. So now we're there.
092we say common assessments and you'll see about checkpoints today for the board. I'll let you know the iLearn checkpoint that Mr. Peters and I uh went into this year about 84% of the school district chose that and what they are is about each term uh give or take. uh they give you an assessment and those assessments are based on backward mapping and the backward mapping means these are the standards you should have um taught and we should have mastered by this level uh of time and if you didn't do that they give us information back um and that allows us for systemic reteing it can also be systemic enhancing so if um 25% really did well and 25% % were in the middle and maybe 50% were right near the bubble of hey, we've about
093got it. You can differentiate instruction systemically in our classrooms to make sure that all kids are either being enhanced or remediated at a systemic rate. Those things are in place within our secondary schools. Um I would also tell you that based on that we have learned a lot. Number one, we knew going in that the checkpoint one and you'll hear you'll see slides, but one is the first one. OneB is the retest of kids who didn't do as well. Then you have two and 2B, three and 3B, and then there's thing at the end called the summitive. The summit is the final exam from iLearn. That's the one everybody knows about. We chose going in, the state was very open with us that the iLearn final assessment would not be as highly correlated with standardsbased
094checkpoints in year one. We knew that we wanted to be standardsbased. We want the kids to master standards. It's in our strategic plan. So, we assumed that Checkpoint after reteing would continue to climb at Huntington. But we also understood that their final exam might be slightly different than the first three checkpoints systemically. That was the case, but you're going to see some really, really good numbers. Mr. Trout always challenges this district. The key is growth. So, we talk about growth. You're going to see a slide near the end that talks about uh a systemic growth rate from when Jay and his teachers and principles had them all the way through what you'll see on the end of the slide, which is a five-year trend data. And so there's some outstanding teaching going on. There's some
095great collaboration. And I assure you what you're about to see is year it's although year three of the system we are ready for final exam which is the summit of this year that is tied to the checkpoints and you will see tremendous growth and achievement. Those are two different answers for us. So you'll see both today. Len Brown's going to take you through a few slides and we have some teachers here to talk about the process. So thank you for being here. Len, I'm going to say this publicly because you um don't get it as often as you should. Lynn is one of the best professional I have ever worked with in four corporations. She is a uh kid advocate, but also very very talented. So, thanks for being here tonight. >> I I have
096the best job in Huntington County because I get to work with our kids. I get to work with our teachers. They told me we had a hard stop at 20 minutes, so I got a timer running. So, I'm I'm doing my best. Oftentimes I talk about what the teachers are doing and what they're thinking. So I thought I would just take the opportunity to invite two teachers here tonight. Stacia Hurdle really wanted to come and talk. She begged and pleaded with me to talk tonight. Um she's she did not want to, but I twisted her arm a little bit. She has been in a long process and seen a lot in her career. I I have her by a few years, but she's been here for a hot minute. So, I'm gonna ask Staca to
097just talk a little bit about ELA in our middle schools. >> All right. So, um, good evening. I My name is Staca Hurdle. You probably deal with my husband a lot more than you've seen me, and that's okay. I like to stay, uh, in my in my lane, so to speak. Um, I I have been teaching here for 20 years, and um, absolutely love my job. I love being with kids. And um during this time I have had some really unique opportunities to collaborate with peers and do some team teaching um on some units. I've learned a lot alongside my students. Um sometimes I feel like they teach me more than I teach them. Um and I've had a really cool opportunity um to work with my colleagues um to create this living docu document.
098And that's what um we've we've done, Mr. Brimberry and and um the rest of the ELA teachers and and Miss Brown, thank you so much. Um we we are vertically aligned and we've never been I mean we talk about it, but we really are. Um and we're seeing huge gains. Um it's a pacing guide, too. So, um it's a map that gives new teachers and veteran teachers um a direction Um, it really helps us stay focused and stay on the same page so that we are all pulling the cart in the same direction and we have that goal and we know where we're going and um we're ready to get there. So essentially the maps break down those standards like Mr. Brimberry was saying um they correlate those learning objectives to the quarterlies and um
099we're able to help students review uh when they need review. Uh we're help we help guide them to get exactly where they need to be for those quarterlys and exactly where they need to be to pass that summitive exam. And we know that those type of questions are the same exact type of questions that they are going to see on that SAT. So in essence, we're preparing them in seventh grade to take that SAT. So by the time they get to that SAT, they're confident. They're ready to go. They feel good about the answers that they're giving because they've practiced. They've practiced on quarterlies. They've practiced on the summitive for the last five, six years. So, we are super proud of our kids that we share. And I just want to thank you guys for
100all of your support. >> Outstanding job, Staca. And Staca is a very humble but an outstanding teacher and leader in our district. >> Thank you. Thank you. And coach Sam Ryan is pitch hitting tonight. Um, our original teacher got called away and at the last minute he said he would come and pitch. Sam was teaching uh, math for quite a while for us and then started to teach PE in the elementary and has just come back to teach math last year and he's done a brilliant job. Sam. >> Um, yes. As uh Lynon mentioned, I was uh I taught math when I first came into Huntington and then I was in the elementary PE and I was there for six years and then I came back just last year and before we'd always had a
101a a really nice curriculum map that we would follow and at that time I learn was uh late February and now it's been helpful these checkpoints. Uh I came in and it was new for all of us. Um but really a shout out to the teachers who have been doing it. Uh Miss Brown like our our curriculum map is fantastic and it puts us in position to know what we are doing uh with these checkpoints. Then when we do take our opportunity so it's opportunity one, opportunity two. So we do our checkpoint, we take our opportunity one and then we get our data back and we can see okay um we have essential standards that are listed and um sometimes the essential standards are there maybe they'll have three or four essential standards and we
102see maybe two or three of those and we're like okay well we want to do this. Uh, another thing that is new that has been a fantastic help to us and I kind of approach it from a coaching mentality like if we see something like as a coach if I see something we need to get better at it, we we work on it. It's kind of the same idea here. Um, we have a program that is the Delta program and their questions that they give us on that are completely state standardbased and they are identical in format to what we see with the actual checkpoints and the iLearn exam. So, our kids have been uh really blessed with these with the work that's been put in, but also the programs that we've been able to
103provide for them um to help them be as successful as possible. and coming back into math um and seeing the numbers and like people were getting emotional about it and I'm sitting there like wasn't this kind of what we always do like no actually this is what we've done is is really awesome but what it is is the work that's been put in beforehand that sets us up to be successful. Um and then we get to take that information and try to help continue push the kids in the direction to make them as as successful as possible. So, I feel really uh blessed with my opportunity to teach with the team, to be able to communicate with Riverview teachers, to continue to collaborate with those uh in my opinion, excellent teachers. I think Huntington has
104some of the best teachers in the area. And I guess our numbers also can display that as well. So, um that's all I got. Again, it's one of those where Lynn kind of called me and was like, "Would you be willing to talk?" Absolutely. like I would love to brag on on the math department that we have at both of our middle schools. So that's what I got >> and board I will tell you um we have been in Sam's class and Stacia's class and many of the other teachers doesn't matter it's Riverview Crest View wherever um it is high level teaching it is um you could put a recorder on it and show it on a PD day. They're really really good at their craft and they're really passionate about Huntington kids. So it's
105inspiring. All right. So, I need to to scoot just a little bit here. I got 12 minutes. So, uh we just passed a slide that had the board's uh goals for this year. So, you're aware of your own goals. So, we can skip through that one really quickly. Cindy, would you advance one slide? So, we're going to look at tonight uh review the changes the states made. We're going to look at a little bit of strategies that we've put in. We're going to look at some data and then we're going to look at what our what we're going to attempt to do this year. So this is a screenshot of what the Department of Education gives us. It's a little bit difficult to read and um I'm old and so my eyes don't work so
106well. So if you will advance to slide one. So I turn it into these slides so that it's a little easier to see. So at checkpoint one you can see that we are in the 30s. The blue is the state level that we're always trying to be better than and we are really close almost to or just above for ELA and our checkpoint one. But as Mr. Brimberry said then we took the opportunity to retach those kids who were not successful in that first checkpoint. So Cindy for you to advance the slide. So then you can see that our seventh sixth seventh and eighth grade students made some growth. So about 17% of the kids who didn't pass the first time in sixth grade up to 28% of the kids who didn't pass the first
107time in eighth grade passed the test at that point. This is when we started to see some excitement amongst the kids and the teachers because they felt like they could actually control the situation for the first time. Cindy, would you show us the next slide which has math. You'll notice that we did some pretty cool things in some spots in that very first checkpoint for math. up to 40% um at Riverview at one point. We are really right in there in almost every place. And then if we'd advance one more time, Cindy, we can see our growth was very similar in math and English in the first one. So now we had a moment where we kind of knew what was happening. The kids took the first checkpoints, the teachers took the took the first
108checkpoints. We believe that we could make some growth. So if you would advance the slide one more time, you'll see a continued growth in the second checkpoint. And we are at or close to everywhere but seventh grade just really close to state averages and or above for the first time. Teachers are starting to catch fire at this point. Cindy, one more advance. So then we again had growth a little less in eighth grade this time, but that's still more kids who have passed it and are beginning to have faith in themselves. if you'd advance to math for us, Cindy. >> I think we skipped over the There we go. So, you'll see like we're starting to pass the state and sixth grade fairly regularly. Can I tell you why I'm so excited about that specific
109number? At the beginning of the year, we had sixth graders who were in the advanced math classes that were not passing the test. That doesn't seem right, does it? So, we sat down and we looked at why were the sixth graders not passing it if they're advanced. Then we realized, oh, because we're teaching them seventh grade math and we've never taught them sixth grade math. So, they're seeing questions that even though they should be a year easier, they just never seen them before. And as soon as we started to teach the sixth and the seventh grade math, look what happened. They all started to pass the test. This seems like a really simple thing, but we were missing it before we started looking at this data. Mr. Brimberry wants to say something so bad. One
110of the things board I need you to keep in mind when you see this data these data the data and the percentages are children. We all know that but we we need to say that aloud sometimes and if you have approximately 200 kids in a class and 10% is 20 and you're talking two to four kids. And so when we were about seven points below state average kind of across the board not so long ago, um the the children that are on that bubble as as John and I or Jay talk about sometimes they just needed a systemic approach to the retaching, but I really believe the education the teaching part in Huntington is at a very high level. I think the system needed just a little bit of a push to say what do
111we all agree to teach and pull on the rope together. And so when you see and you will in the future here 10% gains across the board, you know, that's just 20 more kids or at Jaime's school maybe 16 more kids that really got some extra attention, but also kids that barely passed didn't slide backwards. And so I say that because I always want you when you see these charts and you say, "Oh boy, one grade was a couple percentage below." Um, we are intensely focused to make sure all children achieve at a high rate and grow. And you're going to see a chart here in a minute that exemplifies what's going on here. So keep in mind the percentages that I've talked about as you look at the chart. >> So Cindy, if you'd
112flip one more time. So there again, we have between 14 and 23% of our kids that got growth in checkpoint B. Now Ken, before we go to checkpoint three, I just want to tell you a story because I'm a teacher and I know if I tell you stories, you'll remember them more than you will numbers. And checkpoint three is when we began to have teachers tell me about and kids hug me in the hallway because they were saying they passed their first ever I learn anything, right? I want you to think about the confidence of a kid who has never passed one of these tests and now are beginning to pass them. And then not only are is that kid excited, but their peers are beginning to say, "This is a possibility. This is not
113a small thing." I had teachers crying in the hallway because kids were coming to them and were passing the test for the first time when we got to checkpoint three. So, if you will please flip the slide for me, you'll see that we started in the 30s and now we're bumping at the 40s and into the 40s. So, that's a 10% uh growth rate. Now, I want to be clear, these are not the exact same standards in each quarter, right? We're looking at different content for each quarter, but our confidence level is clearly growing as we're going through this year. All right, Cindy, would you flip one more time for me, please? And the reason I don't have uh checkpoint two for three is the state never released that information. The math scores are actually
114higher than the English scores at this point. Mr. Brimberry and Mr. Trout would tell you that that doesn't happen anywhere on the planet except for Huntington County school system right now. 6th through 12th grade for some reason. Um our math scores are higher slightly than our English scores. That's not a real thing. So we're living in a fancy promised land right now. And now Cindy, drum roll please. So then this shows you our test scores this year. At the end of the year, as Chuck said, um we were used to being about seven points down from the state on a fairly regular basis everywhere in middle school. And in English, we were able to come close to or above the state average for the first time in in my memory. And I've been here for
115a really really long time. When Chuck called me a young lady at the beginning, it's just because I'm older than him and it makes him feel young. Um, this was not a small thing. Now remember, Chuck started out with telling you that we worked really hard on the checkpoints and we're making growth and then when we got to the summitive, they changed it up and they gave us the old test which we knew was going to happen and yet we still had growth. So what will happen next year is what we're excited about. Now will you show them math please? So, in math, we were at or above basically like where we're below, we're one or two kids below. We caught fire in math this year, and we're super excited for what that means for
116us next year. Cindy, if you will flip the slide. So, what you're looking at now is literally screenshots. And I just used eighth grade because I have 20 minutes. Um, so we have had what you're looking at is a cohort group going through grade level by grade level. If you just look at the chart on the left hand side, you will see continuous growth. Can you flip the slide again for me, Cindy? So now we're looking at 8th grade ELA at Riverview. Continuous growth. Can you flip the slide again for me? Now we're looking at Crestview's math. Look at that growth in this last year. And then can you flip one more time? All right. So, I want to talk about SAT really quickly because I'm super proud of SAT as well. And it's a
117direct correlation to the work we've done when we're drilling down to look at um what's on a test and then how do we get the kids ready for that test? I heard Dr. Russ Dagget say today that a few years ago when I said, "Hey, SAT is our graduating exam. We need to get ready for it." That he got sick to his stomach. Russ does not get sick to his stomach over news very often. Um, and so it's a big deal. But I said to people, we have a target. At least this target doesn't move. We know what's on the SAT. For the first time ever, we know what we're looking at. So Cindy, if you'd be kind enough to flip the slide for me, please. So what we're looking at are just screenshots straight
118from the department of or from the college board for total for the combined score. Huntington County, Huntington North got 947. Now remember that most states in the union do not make all of their students take this test, right? There's a little bit of argument whether it's two or it's five. Um, but not very many places in the state actually make all of the students take the test. So if you look at all schools in the state, which would be the public schools, the score is 939. So we beat all public schools in the state of Indiana. If you include then the state schools that are also private schools, they're at 947. So we tied with private schools. I like to like say, "Oh, we're tied up a buff." Which is not exactly true, but it
119makes me feel good to say it. If you just look at the statistics that way, we are 17 points away from the global score, and our teachers are super excited about breaking that this next year. If you would flip one more slide, you will look at the English scores. We got a 483 as a school. The state has a 483 for all schools that are public and a 487. So, we barely missed the private schools in writing. And we are only 11 points off of the global score, which our English teachers are a little bit upset that this the math teachers beat him by just a fraction this year. So, they're kind of fired up right now. If we would flip to math, which again is never supposed to be higher than English except in
120Huntington County, our score was 464. The pro the public schools was 456. The state private schools was 460 because I'm a Huntington North student graduate. I know that we are higher than the private schools in Hunting in the state of Indiana. And we are six points off of the global average. I predict that next year I can stand here and tell you we've beat the global average because we've started to figure out how to teach towards this thing. All right. So, what are we doing this year specifically? We have added the program that Mr. Ryan talked about that we used for math last year for English for our middle school teachers. So, they're going to have uh sample test questions that look exactly like the iLearn test questions to practice with their kids all year
121long. We have added Khan Academy and Kamigo. So, if you don't know, that company is owned by the college board. So, it's a very um close circle. If we use Khan Academy, they predict that if we can use it for a certain number of hours, we can get at least 120 points on the average kids test. If we actually did that, we would be above the the global average this next year. We are spending more time with individual teachers and groups of teachers, looking at individual students and figuring out how to serve those kids. And then we are looking at best practice uh and working with closely with the DOE to know what they're asking for for us next. All right, I just need to give you my elevator speech before I go that I've
122been telling everybody. I want these test scores to go up because I want to be the best within northeast Indiana for sure. I'd like to be the best in Indiana. I'm a graduate from here. I have some pride. But here's why it really matters. The kids that graduate from Huntington North High School are smart and they're kind and they're hardworking. And when they leave here, their employers very quickly say to them, "Hey, I have an opportunity for you. If you do, if you take this test or you take this class or if you go through this training, we have the next step opportunity. I don't want any of our kids to ever say, I don't think I can walk through that door because when they were in sixth grade, they didn't pass I learn test.
123I don't want our kids to leave here feeling like we haven't served them. So, they can walk through any door and not be afraid to take any test in their future. And that's why this all matters in reality. I went over four minutes. I'm sorry, Mr. Trout. >> You know what, Lynn, you can take all your time because this is the most important agenda item of the evening. Um, I just want to say thank you. I mean, I mean that in all sincerity. Um, we started this journey four years ago together. Um, I would have uh I would have been elated if you promised me that this is where we would be from where we started. Um, I have no doubt um where this group is going. And I and I'll say to you why
124good teachers matter a lot. And those two sitting right over there, I hear about them a lot uh from our community and as as well as many of the secondary um students. Um, I had a had a a patron that lives in the area that came up to me and said to me that his granddaughter was not going to this school last year, but they chose to come here. And so many of the things that you guys just described is what he why he told me. He says, "I felt like my" He said, "I felt like my granddaughter was missing it." I said, "Could I get my phone out and record you so that we can do that?" And that's true. And that's so true. The adults matter a lot. We love our kids. We're
125trying to do the best we can with them. And I'm so proud of all of you. And I I literally cannot wait uh to see what's next because I I know there's just great things coming. Thank you. >> It was so Oh, thank you. It was so exciting to have people, students and teachers excited to take iLearn for the first time that I've ever seen that. Like normally it's kind of like um when the doctor calls you with the news and you don't want to listen to the news, right? You kind of do this and this year they were super excited up and down the hallways and so that brought great joy to me. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. >> Thank you. Next time we get together, Mr. Peters will be doing the elementary portion
126of the test scores. So, you know, but Chuck, thank you. Team, thank you. Proud of all your work. >> All right, we'll move on to item D3. D2, Flint Springs walking track proposal. >> Justin and Brie, thank you for your patience, uh, here this evening. And I saw Reeves and Wells out there. Thank you so as as well. So, um, Justin Schaefer is our assistant principal at Flint Springs Elementary School, and he is here to get approval for a request for a walking track on the campus of Flint Springs. Justin, thank you. Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Peters, Mr. Trout, Mr. Allen, members of the board. Uh, I'm excited to be here, excited to present this proposal and seek approval uh to install an 8 footwide walking path uh around our existing soccer field at Flint
127Springs. Uh this is a complimentary extension uh to a grant that we received in our 2425 school year for our pavilion. Uh this offers both additional and continued programming for our students uh promoting increased movement, increased wellness uh and relationship building with our students and staff uh at a variety of times and contexts throughout the school day. Uh this also opens the door for future endeavors that enrich the lives of all of our students. uh we have the possibility of launching a mileage club where all of our students could be involved in tracking laps, tracking their distance, uh and working towards schoolwide goals or grade level goals. And so we're excited at this possibility of moving forward with your approval. Uh and I'm happy to entertain any questions you may have. >> Track going to
128also be used by the public, correct? >> Yes, it it could be for our school community. Thank you. Um, I'll entertain a motion reference this item. >> I'll make a motion to approve the Flint Springs walking track proposal as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Melture. Can I have a second? >> Thank you, Mr. Mlullen. Any further questions or comments for Mr. Schaer? That sounds fantastic. Um, hearing nothing else, let's vote. Motion passes 70. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Moving on to D3. Bya home healthcare incorporated service agreement 202526. Mr. Trout. >> Yes. Uh this is a um a common contract and agreement that we have uh again this year. Um this uh organization will provide one-on-one for services for students within uh our school district for the 2526 school year. Uh BA
129will provide an RN or an LPN to care for the student every day that the student attends school. Um, the services, just so our public is aware, is paid through Medicaid funds and to be provided may include escorting to and from the school on the bus and providing them medical care during the school day. So, I'm just uh recommending your approval um of this agreement. >> Thank you, Mr. Trout. I'll entertain a motion reference this item. Make a motion to approve the Blay Health uh care incorporated service agreement for 2526 as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Wall. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Mrs. Miller. Any questions or comments before we move vote on the motion hearing? None. Let's vote. Motion passes 70. I know that this next uh group would like to wait
130until the end to do theirs, but we'll go ahead and move on to D4, impact investment agreement between Huntington County Community Foundation and HCCSC. >> Thank you, Mr. Allen. We're fortunate to have Tiffany Drummond, the principal of our learning center, along with our construction uh trades teacher, Dave Harvey, and Matt Ditsler from the community foundation to uh announce an exciting partnership opportunity for our building trades program. Good evening. I'm here to present and provide context for the impact investment agreement between the Huntington County Community Foundation and Huntington Schools. The Huntington Learning Center construction trades program is starting its third year. We are proud of the work we've done in the past. In partnership with Pathfinder Services, we've renovated homes in both the Huntington and Andrews community, providing hands-on experience for our students to learn construction
131trades. This year, Mr. Harvey and I had the exciting opportunity to apply for a community impact investment grant through the Huntington County Community Foundation. With the support of our partners at Pathfinders, we are embarking on this opportunity to plan for the long-term sustainability for a constru construction trades program. The agreement in front of you outlines the scope of this grant. The community foundation is willing to invest $150,000 towards the purchase and renovation of a property with the work then to be performed by our students. Once the project is complete, all profit over the initial $150,000 investment will be held to put towards additional projects in the future. An additional goal of this grant is to give us up to five years to create a housing corporation for the construction program while allowing us to continue
132with hands-on projects for our students. We want to be mindful as we set the structure and this grant gives us time to work with both our attorney and key community stakeholders. We are working with the city of Huntington as well as other not for-profit groups to identify properties and neighborhoods that are in need of repair within our community. This will continue to strengthen workforce readiness skills for our students while cultivating civic-minded community oriented graduates. I'd like to thank the Huntington County Community Foundation for their support and ask if there are any questions at this time. Um, how many how many kids, Mr. Harvey, do we have in the program? >> So, we have 25 first year and 11 students. >> That's that's a bunch actually. It's more than I thought there would be. That's that's
133great. >> And we have three sections of intro to construction at the high school. >> Um, I've spoken with Mr. Ditler before, but could he explain a little bit about um the plans over the next, you know, three to five, 10 years? >> Yeah. So, as Tiffany alluded to, um the community foundation has an impact investment program. So, really that's um we're taking a portion of our assets, which we have about 29 million in investable assets at the foundation. We're taking a portion of that for local projects that have an investment return. And so, um this is a kind of a a perfect win-win for us. Um the community foundation will make an investment in this uh gain some interest from that investment that will go back to the funds that we have whether those
134are scholarships or unrestricted or restricted funds um that go back into the community and um hopefully um after we rinse and repeat this a few times. uh the the construction program will have a nice balance at the end of this in which we at the community foundation will be paid off and the construction program will be sustainable going forward and not have to have a benefactor every year um to to do those um home purchases for them. >> Matt, I just Matt, I just want to tell you how grateful we are and I mean that uh when Tiffany told me this, I I was absolutely elated. Um it's it's incredible. I mean, I don't think our community fully comprehends or understands at this point till they see it in action, but for you and and
135the foundation to come forward and make this kind of um I don't know what to say agreement with us and donation is just blows me away. And so, you know, when I watch Mr. Harvey and what he does with his kids, >> um this this is going to be unbelievable experience for them. And so >> board, what you see right here are three outstanding individuals who really truly impact students lives. >> And Matt, it's a joy to work with you and Mr. Harvey and and Tiffany. Thank you. And I mean that this is incredible. This is absolutely incredible for you all three of you to be to join together and do this for our kids. It just blows me away. Thank you. And hopefully if we are able to get approval, I know we've talked
136to Kenny already about some some media releases and things to be able to share these stories because we're really excited about that too. >> Kenny can't wait >> good >> to help you out. >> He's a carpenter in the offse. >> Yeah, we're very excited. So, >> thank you, Mr. Ditler. >> Any questions or comments further? I was just going to thank you as well just because I I know you're setting up that program for long-term sustainability and you're just it's just a nice thing the foundation is doing to be able to set that up. Um so I I truly appreciate it. >> Yep. Welcome Ryan. >> I'll entertain a motion in reference to this item. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the impact investment agreement as as presented. >> Thank you,
137Mr. Carl. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, Mr. Wall. Any further comments before we vote hearing? None. We'll vote on the motion. Motion passes 70. Thank you so much. >> Move on to D5 2025 2026 professional development agreements with Smeckkins Education Solutions. >> Uh this evening we're asking for your approval to continue our K12 writing initiative with the Smeckkins Education Group. uh this would be year two. Uh we had a successful year one with him last year with a lot of collaboration and and modeling in classrooms and so we're excited about year two and we're asking for your permission permission this evening to continue our K12 writing initiative. >> Thank you. Mr. Peters would I will entertain a motion reference this >> motion to approve the 2526 professional development agreement with Smeckkins Educational
138Solutions as presented. >> Thank you Mr. Meltchure. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I'm sorry Gary beat you that time. We have to pick up the pace. Mrs. Miller >> fine. We have a second. So, uh, any questions or comments before we vote >> hearing? None. Let's vote on the motion. Motion passes 70. Moving on to item E, consent agenda 1 through 14, 15. Mr. Trout. >> Thank you, Mr. Allen. Um, this evening we'll start off with agenda item number four with personnel report. I just want to publicly take this opportunity to personally thank Mr. Mclofflin for his years of service with us um here within our school district. Pat will be sorely missed. Um he is an incredible he's an incredible person, an incredible educator. And Pat, I just want to say thank
139you uh for the impact that you've had in our district. Um I wish you and your family nothing but the best uh moving forward and please know if we can ever help in any way. um we are here and um I'm grateful for you. Um I'm a better uh superintendent because of Pat. I'm a better person because of Pat. And uh you don't you don't say that about a lot of people, Pat, but you're you're in that category and I and seriously sincerely I wish you nothing uh but the best uh moving forward for you and your family. Um, there is a variety of other items there under the personnel report that I'm seeking your recommendation for. And Jay is going to talk to you about number five, six, and seven. On number five, the
140adjunct teacher agreement. Nathan Bolenbacher is the new applied skills teacher at Salomony Elementary School. And we'd like to enter into a an employment recommendation for uh Nathan. He is going to be a part of the Indiana Wesley and Stepup program. Currently, we have four other teachers uh that have completed their first year successfully. And so, Nathan will be a part of that program. Uh will here he will complete his degree work. And so, tonight we're asking for uh your approval of that agreement. Uh I can move on down to the mentor teacher. His mentor is going to be Crystal uh Streer. She is our assistant director of special education. She will mentor uh Nathan. Um has been out in his classroom every day so far uh for the first part of the day. And so,
141uh, that'll be a teacher mentor agreement with Crystal. Uh, she'll receive a stipen of $2,000 for her mentor work. And then number seven, um, Kinder Camp, we realized that, uh, we had some special needs students there that needed some extra support. And so, uh, in the last hour, we hired, um, a staff member that would come alongside uh, a couple of our special needs kids so that they could participate in kinder camp. And so this is a late addition to our kinder camp which has already passed. Uh but wanted to bring that to your attention so that we could have your approval this evening >> as we can do in the consent agenda. Um we can uh do many routine uh contract renewals and tonight's no exception. Um if you look at agenda items 10
142through 13 which consists of 2526 contract agreement between deaf link and HCCS and then the 2526 contract for deaf and or heart of hearing teacher and then we also have the contract agreement for deaf and heart of hearing teacher again and then a 202526 uh contract agreement for a signed language language interpreter um for our students. And so I'm also uh asking for your permission to um approve the request to accept donations as well as the last one here is accounts payable and payroll voucher registers for your consideration. >> Thank you, Mr. Trout. Would anyone like to remove any of the items and vote on it separately? I will entertain a motion for the consent agenda. >> Make a motion that we approve the uh consent agenda as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Wall. Again,
143we have a second. Thank you, Mr. Mlullen. Any questions or comments before we vote? >> Hearing none, we'll vote on the consent agenda. Motion passes 70. Move on to item F1, employee handbooks, HCCS, classified employee handbook updates. Mr. Mclofflin. >> Thank you, Mr. Allen. Uh at the previous board meeting, I presented the uh summary of changes for the classified employee handbook. We formed a committee. There were 15 uh of us on the committee including members of my office along with every uh area represented in the district in the classified employees uh from food service to maintenance and so on. uh we met went through it and then uh the business office took those recommendations and put them into this format uh to update the classified handbook. So one addition um or actually removal from one
144of the changes on page three item number four which is the parapro requirements uh if you don't take the parapro exam and pass it uh we had added a thousand hours of documented work with children in an educational setting that is not a federal guideline. Uh the first the other three are that if you don't pass the parapro exam, those meet the federal requirements. So we would have had to applied for a waiver uh with the federal government to add those 1,000 hours and at this time we didn't feel that it was feasible with the timeline to do that. So we're removing that. It was an addition that was not previously in the classified handbook. So all of their things are the same that was presented at the last meeting. So, I'll entertain any questions
145on the classified employee handbook. >> Thank you, Mr. Mclofflin. I'd entertain a motion references item. >> So, I make a motion that we approve classified handbook as amended with the addition that Mr. Mclofflin just mentioned, but I'd ask uh that we remove or we keep in the bridging uh for employees uh for right now. Uh, thank you, Mr. Wall. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Mr. Mlullen. Further discussion or comments? I'll start. >> Yeah. No, and I'll explain why. Um, I just think that's a uh I I like the idea of the bridging pool, and this is the second year I've kind of talked about it. Instead of removing it, I actually like to see it expanded. I think it's a great ret. a a great way to continue to keep good employees and
146or get additional employees um to get that and I'd like to actually see that expanded to all any perf eligible employee at some point. Uh but I think if we remove it, I think that's just not good for possibly getting employees. So I'd like to keep that in there uh for right now and continue to have conversations about it in the future. Um I would also mention that um I have been approached by some staff about the overtime rules uh that are in this. Um, I understand them, but I think there is still some clarity that could be related to staff related around the overtime rules and holiday pay. Um, that's just things that I've heard. I understand where we're coming from as a as a corporation, but I think it just needs to be
147additional clarification to the staff because I think there's some people that are unhappy with that. So, >> just to be clear, bridging is included in it now. Yeah, right. It's there now. I was just making sure that you weren't It wasn't being added at this moment. Yeah. Okay. That's what I thought. >> It would have been removed and I'm I'm saying we'll just keep it. >> So, you're expecting the same language then? Yeah. I I basically just not have it removed. Keep it in there as it is right now. Okay. >> Any further comments or questions? Then let's vote on the motion. Motion passes 61. Moving on to F2. HCCS transportation handbook update. Mr. Mclofflin. >> Yes. Again, this was presented at the last board meeting. There are very few changes to the transportation handbook.
148I'll highlight three of them really quickly. There was a new law put in place on the uh personal information collected and maintained through uh the drug and alcohol policy and and drug testing that bus drivers need to uh are randomly submitted to. That just had to be added as a part of the new legislation. and then uh clarifying the rate for sub bus aids and also clarifying the rate uh of drivers who sub for a special needs route and the pay that they would receive for that um versus the regular route pay if they were needed to do that. So those are the three changes with the exception of changing every SECSC to HCCS. Uh that was the hardest part of changing both of the handbooks was finding all of those uh abbreviations, acronyms, whatever
149you want to call them. So, thank you, Mr. Mclofflin. I'll entertain a motion reference uh this item. >> This still on motion to approve the HCCS transportation handbook is presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Meltchure. Could I get a second? Thank you, Mrs. Miller. Any questions or comments prior to voting hearing? None. Let's vote on the motion. Motion passes 70. Moving on to where am I at? F I'm sorry, G1. Property and casualty insurance RFP update. Mr. Mclofflin. >> Thank you, Mr. Allen. Just giving you a brief update on the property and casualty insurance uh RFP process. So we had five companies that um requested uh to bid our property and casualty insurance including our current incumbent. Uh we have submitted uh agent of record letters to those companies based on their selections of markets that
150they were hoping to get. Uh just for the board's record, the incumbent, our current uh broker has first choice of using uh the company that we are currently using before anybody else. If they would choose to uh select a different market, they certainly could, but uh he has the option as the incumbent to continue to solicit uh from our current insurance company. So, uh, the record of letter, uh, agent of record letters were sent to all five companies letting them know of the markets that they can bid. Uh, they won't be able to get bids from markets unless they have that agent of record letter from the school. So, we sent those to them and they are soliciting uh, for those quotes for property and casualty insurance. The proposals are due to us and to
151Indiana insurance audit uh, the firm that we've hired to help us through this process on October the 9th. uh they will review it, put together a spreadsheet that they will send to us with their recommendation based off of all of the information that's submitted uh along with cost and uh policies and so on. Uh we will have that for the uh board packet by October the 17th for the October 27th board meeting for the board to review and select uh a market for our property and casualty insurance. So, just an update on that process and if anybody has any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer those. Thank you, Mr. Mclofflin. Any questions reference the RFP hearing? None. Let's move on. Uh, item H, policies number one is special update policies, July 2025. Mr.
152Trout. >> Yes. Um what we have here on this agenda item is your first reading of several um schoolboard policy updates. Um there's also attached with this and public in the public content a descriptor listing not only the policies but the administrative guidelines. As with all of our past board meetings, um you can see uh at your uh discretion what the public can see with regards to each one of these recommended schoolboard policies along with each one of these administrative guidelines. Uh, as always, if you have any questions or comments about any of these at any point in time before voting on them in two weeks, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I do appreciate the dialogue. Uh, I do appreciate the opportunity to um explain these and and and have some
153dialogue with you. Uh, that matters to me. That's a significant conversation we need to have. But these are just um the first readings and we'll be voting for asking for your approval um at the next school board meeting. This does not take any action. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Trout. >> Uh any questions for Mr. Trout? >> Are these special because they're updating based on new laws that the >> Yes, that's what I assumed. I saw something. These are if you would take uh our first presentation and do the same thing as what we're doing now with all the new rules and regulations. Cindy and I are playing double time on trying to get us caught up with all the new rules. So these are in statute all the new laws and rules. Um
154and then uh Neiola has been helping us significantly with their attorneys making sure that what we have here matches what the new rules and regulations are. So that's as of this just this last legislative session. You may say to me and one of you did, I've already seen this one before. Well, you've seen a version of that one before, but not this one that truly matches the expectations um of of the new laws. So, thank you, Ryan. I should have I should have said that. >> Nope. I appreciate that. And just uh thank you to both you and Cindy for getting these updated because I know there were a lot of law law changes. So, thanks. >> Yep. You'll notice that the one in there there's been a lot of discussion around attendance. That's 5200.
155Um Chuck has done just a great job of of explaining that uh to our public and regionally uh here too. Um, his title might have been wrong, but the the message was great, Chuck. So, thank you. Yes. You're welcome, Mr. Are you sure that they messed up the title? >> Well, I don't know. I I >> don't know what they gave what he gave them. >> That's true. I didn't think about that. So, um, but anyway, um, there's just a myriad of things in there um that I just want to make sure that you all see. Uh, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. >> Thank you, Mr. Trout. and I'll let you go ahead and take number two. >> Yes, this is um the accounting um system for
156capital assets. Uh the major significant change in this just so you know is the third from the bottom paragraph is what we do is that the corporation will capitalize items with an individual value equal to or greater than $10,000. that used to be five. By law, this is we're allowed to do that. That helps us tremendously in all of our accounting. Uh it's a it's a timesaver quite frankly in many aspects. And so that is that is the significant change uh in this one and I'll be recommending your approval for that at um the next school board meeting also. >> And on number three. >> All right. Um this is a voluntary uh student transfer uh policy. Um you'll notice uh this is this is uh in district. Okay, this is in district and um
157there is a hearing process in there that I'm recommending that we remove. You can still see all the steps there that uh need to be taken. Um but to protect class size and and and such and you you can see the descriptors in there. Um we're just that's the that's the change that we're making also uh to empower the directors of education uh in the decision making process in here too. We'll streamline that because we need quick decisions. These are usually occurring right at the start of school. And so that's that recommendation there. again. Um, this is the first reading. Um, and we need to do that. I I do want to back up because I'm looking at my notes here. I forgot to say something about the first one about the special updates with
158this legislative session. We could have had one board meeting uh by law and just approved them without having the second, but I just was not comfortable with that. And so that's why we're keeping it at the same process as the rest of the schoolboard policies. Then >> thank you, Mr. Trout. Any questions at all of the policies that we're going to talk about in a couple weeks? We'll vote on those in two weeks. Moving on to I1 appointments by the board. Warren public library board trustee. Uh HCCS has a library board position opening this fall. term ends on September 30th. Lisa Palabinsky would like to stay on. Um she's provided a letter of her interest to stay on as the on the board. Uh the requirements it's a four-year term um that she lives in
159the district and has lived in the district for two years previously. I would entertain a motion uh for her. I make a motion to approve Lisa Pal Savinski as the Warren Public Library board trustee. >> Thank you, Mr. Time. Second, >> Mr. Mlullen. Any questions or comments? Do you know Lisa? >> Has there been any any other interest by anybody else that would want to do this? I don't know, Lisa. I don't I'm just asking. >> Go ahead. No, not usually. This is the only person that's shown interest. Um, it's not uncommon for these library board positions, Aaron, that one name is submitted uh to us. Um, I'm sure they wish they had a selection of people to choose from, but that's that's rarely um the case in these situations, but thank you for asking.
160>> Did I get a second? I think I did, didn't I? >> Oh, that's right. Okay. Any further questions or comments? It's getting late. If anybody says yes, might have some problem with that. Hearing nothing, we're going to vote. Motion passes 70. Moving on to items of discussion by board members. J1. >> That's where I'm going. J1. School board meeting calendar. That's where That's what J1 is. >> Takes both of us. Mr. Allen. Yeah, >> it does. >> I was ready for it. I don't know what you were going. >> All right. Hey, um Whatward was seeking your approval. This was the second reading of this of our calendar year 26. Can you believe it? Uh, school board meeting calendars. The significant change in here is we're going to meet at six o'clock instead of
161seven and then if we're in need of an executive session, we do it afterwards. Okay. Um, secondly, we have checked against the ISBA conference for next year. It is later. It's in October. Uh, and so we're aware of that. Uh what we do not know at this point in time is exactly where the 4H fair is. We we thought it was out there, but it's not out there unless it's out there and we don't know it's out there. Um but we looked we looked today. Um and um it was just not there. But if we need to adjust it at that time, we certainly will. We're we're doing our best to stay away from it, but for something reason if we're not, we'll adjust it accordingly. But I'm seeking uh your approval on this uh
162school board meeting calendar >> and I'll entertain a motion reference that request. >> Make a motion to present uh to approve the school board calendar as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Wall. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Carl. Any questions or comments before we vote? >> Hearing none. Let's vote on the motion. motion passes 70. Moving on to J2. Items of discussion by board members. I'd just like to say congratulations to all the teachers, administrators, staff, personnel for a great start to school. Um, I have a couple of grandkids in school. They had a great time, so it must be fantastic. Um, so thank you guys so much. >> I've been told I have to be short. So my only update is, uh, I sent out to everyone today, uh,
163just the ISBA comments that we shared with Dr. Jenner about the ADF thing. I just want to keep you guys in the loop of it. Uh, that's all I have. >> I'll take a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> A second. >> Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. We're done. We're journed.