001We don't have it on the agenda, but we're going to go ahead and stand up and do the pledge really quick to the flag. Thanks. Uh Cindy, roll call, please. Is absent, Mrs. Miller. Thank you. Moving on to B1. Uh public comments. We had no one signed up, but this is your opportunity to come up to the microphone if you're interested. If you do come up, we just ask that you state your name. Seeing no one, we'll move on to C1 personnel board. Um thrilled tonight, honored uh for the next part of our board meeting. uh tell you a little bit about the process. Um I'll tell you in terms of the committee work that was done, the applicant pool and so on in terms of numbers. I'll have Dr. Deets come up and talk
002a little bit about uh Coach Andrews. And then after the board vote, we'll ask Coach to come up and and talk a little bit about himself, his family, and his program. But we are thrilled uh tonight u to uh hopefully uh introduce after your board vote head coach Gary Andrews. Uh he comes from a very strong applicant pool with 17 candidates applied for Huntington North basketball job. Uh a strong committee uh based uh with community members, administrators, head coaches, had very difficult decisions, but it became very very clear once we met Coach Andrews that um we had uh an opportunity to bring one of the state's best coaches to Huntington. And so tonight I am thrilled uh as this process has played out. Uh, Coach Andrews um has been um wellreceived in all positions. Uh
003has been highly successful among the state's elite in terms of his coaching background. Is uh the the reference checks that I'm sure that we hear from all of our candidates were truly outstanding for coach Andrews. A man of character, a man of integrity, hard work, humble, and highly successful kids that love playing for coach. Uh there those were just a few of the attributes that came through. And so I would ask uh at this time for coach Degas to come up talk a little bit about uh coach Andrews background and his accomplishments and then I'll turn it back to the board Ryan for the vote tonight. Coach Andrews was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022. Simply stated, Coach Andrews is a winner. He cares about his players, the school, and the
004community he represents. We're th thrilled at the prospect of having Coach Andrews lead our program and appreciate your consideration of his approval process this evening. So, I think at this time the board will take its vote and pending that, Coach Andrews will be invited to be able to share some comments this evening. Thank you, Dr. Doug. Uh, floor is open for a motion. Motion to approve Gary Andrews is the head varsity girls basketball coaches presented. Thank you, Mr. Melture. Second. Thank you, Mrs. Any further comments? Hearing none, we'll go for a vote. Is he going to be here? Motion carries 40. Coach, how about nice? [Applause] I just want to let everybody know I'm really excited to be here. Want to thank the committee. Um, you guys should all be proud of the administration you
005have here. I mean, they really helped sell the program and the community. from somebody from afar. I remember remember coaching at Lures, you know, at North Side, you know, Huntington always had was really a big, you could just tell it was a big big basketball city, you know, and I grew up in Decar and played on some really good teams at Belmont. And Huntington kind of reminds me, you know, about basketball being big in the community. And one thing I'm hoping for, and I'm really, you know, whenever I went to Huntington, it always seemed like you had the hometown officials. I'm hoping we can keep those. So, we're gonna really work on the officials, make sure we got that home court advantage, but I'm excited to get started. Want to thank the board for approving
006me. I know tomorrow morning I'm I'm going to start meeting with the feeder schools. And, you know, the next week or so, I'm going to try to get all the not try, but I'll get all of the the middle schools and the elementaryaries because I think that's where you build your program is with the younger kids. And I'm excited to meet the team tonight. And I'm ready to get going. So, thank you again. [Applause] Uh, coach, I just want to personally say thank you. Um, um, we are all up here at the front tables very excited about the direction of our girls program and having you at the helm um, is a no-brainer for us and we are incredibly grateful for you. Uh, we got great kids, wonderful families, and we're all hungry and um,
007we appreciate you and your and your background and and all that you've done. What you didn't know is is you get you get your picture taken this evening. Okay. So, board, if you would want to meet Coach Andrews here at the front, we will get our picture taken with him. Uh Jay, you want to join us or no? Sure. Chuck. Okay. Pat, you're good. Okay. I wonder. Um, I've asked Dr. Dots to uh come back up at the front. Russ, we didn't hear the first part of that. That was not on you. That's on me. And so I wanted to make sure that those in the audience and our community could hear that. So if you want to go ahead and reread the at least the beginning portion of that, I'd appreciate it. So thank
008you. Yep. Absolutely. not knowing exactly where it it turned on. I'll just read it in its entirety. It's not super long. So, uh, this evening, I have the privilege of recommending for schoolboard consideration the next head coach to lead our proud and storied Lady Viking basketball program. Members of the board, I ask that you please consider the recommendation of coach Gary Andrews for this head coaching position, as well as his service as a teacher at Huntington North. This recommendation is a result of a thorough and extensive process including application submission, vetting of credentials, interview with a committee composed of Huntington North administrators, district district administrators, community member representation, and parent representation. Coach Andrews rose to the top throughout this process, and his references were impeccable. Coach Andrews comes to the Vikings after spending seven seasons
009as the head coach at Fort Wayne Northside High School as the boys program coach in which he won sectional titles in 2023 and 2024. Coach Andrews won three consecutive IHSAA state titles at Fort Wayne Bishop Lewes and his nine years at the helm there as head coach of their girls program. Coach Andrews won an NIA national championship as the head coach at the at the University of St. Francis as their women's coach in 2014. In addition, he took the St. Francis women's program to two Final Fours, six Elite Eights, and seven Sweet 16s. He was also named the National Coach of the Year in 2014 while at St. Francis. Coach Andrews also has experience coaching on the AAOU basketball circuit. As an AAOU coach, Andrews teams won three national championships and six state championships. Coach
010Andrews has accumulated an impressive 630 career wins over his 33 years as head basketball coach at both the high school and collegiate levels. Coach Andrews was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022. Simply stated, Coach Andrews is a winner. He cares about his players, the school, and the community he represents, and we are thrilled that you approved him as our head coach this evening. Thank you, Dr. Digits. Moving on to D1 facilities. Mr. Mclofflin, something not near as exciting as hiring a new coach as you'll soon see. But um board, I have before me uh and before you the request to uh recommend the design and terms and conditions for the flooring restoration project uh here at the high school. uh as a part of the grant or the lease uh that
011was set aside for the high school, uh some additional funds remained based on uh pricing of some other projects that came in and and we are looking at uh one of the additional projects and that is the restoration of the Terzo floor uh throughout the high school. Um and that would include two parts. one, actually restoring uh the Terzo in the areas that uh need some work as well as uh stripping all of the wax and then doing what they call diamond grinding on the Terzo so that we no longer need to wax uh the Terzo floors. And u it is quite a process. And the first before we get into the presentation, I would uh recommend uh approving Vidian Architecture Design Firm for the design work and the terms and conditions for the project.
012Floor is open for a motion. Motion to approve the HCCS and Vidian architectural and design proposal terms and conditions for Huntington North High School flooring restoration project. Thank you, Mr. Meltchure. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Questions and clarify. I think you said this, but I just want to make sure and call it out. This is remainder of the money from the pro the main project that's doing the HVAC work here at the high school. Correct. That is correct. I forget what bond that is, but I think it's 22. There you go. I Very good. You're on it, man. Look at that. Anyone else have any other questions? Hearing none. Uh, Miss Grave, ready for a vote? Motion carries 40 zero. Moving on to D2. Uh award for the bids for Huntington
013North High School floor renovation project. Mr. Thank you, Mr. Wall. Uh so we had uh three contractors pick up drawings for the flooring project. uh only one of them ended up submitting a bid and that was ACB contractors. Um the firm that is another firm that picked up drawings uh Dancer Concrete who did the work in here and other places throughout the high school um actually are working as a sub for ACB. So we only actually had one bid turned in. The other company was out of town that picked up drawings off of the website but never submitted anything. Um, so I will kind of talk through the process if uh Mrs. Gray would put that back up. Thank you. So the process includes not only the Terzo in the building but also Oh, not
014that one. There we go. Uh, the tile work that leads from door 28 to the arena, um, that tile work is cracking and broken in several places. And so we're actually going to tear up that tile and do stained concrete much like is in the cafeteria area you see here along with some logos in certain areas in the uh hallway and in the arena. So if you look at the drawing the first H that you see there right by the cursor that would be the floor as soon as you enter door 28. um that leads to the arena and then if you take a right that goes down in front of the trophy cases in the wait room and then the HNS and the Ike the Vike logos that are in the four corners would
015be in the stairwells um and leading up to the stairwells in the arena. And uh there is also the three Vikings logos uh in the corners which would be the area in front of the locker rooms in each of the three corners of the arena. Uh so that would be part of that project after we would dispose of the tile, stain the concrete, add some uh logos and designs to that would also be a part of the project. And that project uh is slated to be uh done hopefully uh by November and at the end of the year at the latest. Um and even with using remaining monies from that 22 lease, uh there still remains a substantial amount of um money in that budget uh for other projects as needed or to help uh
016any unforeseen overages of other projects that are currently ongoing. And I would request that uh the board approve the bid and award it to ACB for the flooring project. I'll make a motion to approve HCV ACB uh for the Huntington North High School flooring restoration project. Thank you, Mr. Meltchure. Uh, is there a second? Second. Question, comments. I have one. Oh, and she took it down already. Could you bring that back up really quick? Question. So, the hallway that is in front of the I would call trophy cases in front of the wait room. Yes. I understand the logic behind why they have that facing that door. But if we think of flow in that area, that to me just doesn't look right. And I was hoping that he would be here, Terry would be
017here tonight so we could chat about it. But is it too late to see about flipping a couple of those areas? And also, yeah, you're you're zooming in on it. And also the logo in the corner in front of the concession stand, it's facing the that hallway. To me, it almost should be rotated a little bit. Could you at least talk to Terry about that and see if there are some additional possibilities in that? I don't want to have a change order, but to me it just the flow of how people go through there. If you sit there during a basketball game, I know that they're trying to think that people come in that door, but not many people come in that door anymore. So, just just as an option, as a thought. It's not
018that I want to put a put a kibash on project because I think that's going to look really good there. But I just think people are going to look at it when they walk in and they're going to like, why is it going that way? Because of the normal flow of the traffic. So, Ryan, what you're saying, the hallway there runs uh north and south is literally flipping, if possible, all those logos going up the hallway. I think the one closest to the door is fine because if someone does come in there, but I would say even the Vikings there, right across where it says unit J and then that the thing south of that, to me, those are prime ones that maybe be flipped a little bit or looked at. And then even the
019the logo in the corner, I would say put it on a 45. It may be on a 45. It just look it looks weird on 2D. So, I'm just thinking about it. So, that's the only thing that stands out weird on a drawing. So, Pat, you Pat, you'll have a conversation with Terry about that then. Yes. Our esteemed marketing director, uh, Kenny Butler, sent me an email after seeing these uh drawings today as well. Um, my thought was that everyone could just walk backwards down that hallway and so as you went past it, you would see it in the right direction. Mr. Trout didn't like that. So, uh, yes, I don't think that because we're just now awarding the bid, I don't think it would necessarily be a change order. Um, Mr. Thornsbury is the
020one that made these drawings for it. And, uh, I don't think that that will be a problem. Like, if I really were going to be nice, and I almost could sense what Kenny may have thought too, is that Vikings in front of the unit J. If it was turned 40 uh, 45 degrees, made a little bit bigger right in front of that trophy case. to me that would be if I'm thinking of that space right might look really good but you know he's the artist not me but that's not here there I appreciate just having Terry take one more look at it and in including Mr. Butler in that conversation so we'll certainly do that any other comments or questions yeah um I think that uh Mr. Thornsberry mentioned this in the like when we
021were talking about it in the work session, but the stairs, we're not doing we're not resurfacing those like with the whatever material it is. Um, we're doing something different with the stairs. Correct. Like the rubber. I thought we were putting a rubber down, but I don't remember. That's what that was my question. Yeah, I believe that it will be similar to uh what was in the uh science area that that type of flooring on there because there needs to be some type of non-stip uh slip um thing on there. There may be some type of treads or something on there now, but I think that uh would be part of the steps. Yes. Yes. Because I think they thought just trying to rough those up and try to do anything with the stairs themselves. So,
022they were just going to put something down on that. I think those are just clarifications just so we kind of know when we get asked about it. It would be great, but it's not something to to delay what we're doing. So Carrie, what we'll do is we'll add that and then once Pat gets these questions answered, we'll make sure we kick it out to the seven of you there then. Okay. But I I would agree with the steps. Cool. And it may be listed in in some of the submittals, but yeah, I just I didn't see that. So cool. Any other questions? Great comments hearing none. Mrs. Gray, we're ready for a vote. and the motion carries 40 zero. Moving on to E presentations E1 HNHS project updates. I'm assuming again Mr. Mclofflin. Yes. Thank
023you, Mr. Wall. Uh so Mr. Mr. Trout had asked if uh we could put together a brief update of the uh projects that are currently going on and the next projects uh that will be coming. And so Mr. Thornsbury uh put together a presentation for us and unfortunately uh he had a family commitment. He's not able to be here this evening uh but sends uh his regrets and uh he did include himself in one of the photos that you'll see here. So it'll be kind of like Terry's here when we go through this. So uh Mrs. Gray, so the mechanicals uh and controls replacement phase one of the high school um has been complete and phase two is started. That is the big portion that will go above the auditorium this summer to finish that
024up. Um and they've started some prep work in the north mechanical penthouse. um and starting to to get that ready for the summer work when they uh do the remainder of that project. They have started the restroom renovations and uh just kind of some before and during pictures and as we get more of those and those are completed uh we will be providing those as well. But they're doing one restroom set at a time and I believe they're still at door one working on those restrooms and they'll work their way um around the building. The science block renovation, the big project uh that was done last summer is complete. Uh both interior classrooms and the uh wall around the outside of it. We have completed the renovation uh and the move to the new administrative
025center and the sign went up. Is that just last week that the sign went up? It's been up two weeks. Uh but we have the sign up and that was kind of the last piece. They had some landscaping to do which they started over the weekend since we've had some warmer weather. And the interior of that building is complete and fully functional since uh February when we moved in. This uh summer at Salimony uh they will be doing uh new units over the gymnasium uh boiler room. Uh that work will be completed this summer. However, due to a delay in shipping, we will not be able to complete the HVAC on the air conditioning side in the summer of 25 and that will be moved to the summer of 26. So, existing air will be
026used for this coming school year. The following summer, we will put in the new air for elementary school. And there's Terry uh showing off the new lighting in the hallways. And uh as you've seen, if you've been in the the building at all walking around, I know the students have noticed there's no ceilings. Um but the areas that are done are considerably uh brighter than what they used to be. And uh that project is going uh very well. They're about half done uh with that at this time. They're also following the piping and the ceiling. They're putting in a new PA system uh throughout the school as well. and uh they're following behind the guys doing the ceiling and lights with the cabling and speakers for that. So, they're kind of working together along with
027those uh doing the piping work as well. Uh some good news here. Uh that piping project is going extremely well uh and may actually be 100% by the summer. Uh which would be ahead of schedule for that. The original schedule was November. Uh but they're able to get in and do some things um and get that taken care of. So, that could be done by this summer. And then for uh this summer, we have two roofs that are are being replaced. The the flat roofs at Flint Springs and Lincoln are being done along with some uh sighting work. Um when they built those buildings and designed them, there were some issues where water was getting down behind the bricks. So, they'll fix the roofs and then also put some siding on that prevents that water
028from leaking down inside the walls. And here's some of the terazzo repair uh from the flooring project that will be taken care of. You can see the cracks in the pictures there. Um so, that work will be done along with the stripping of the wax and then the diamond grinding to bring it to a to a high shine. Um, and there would no longer be a need to wax any of the tozo areas. And then when they run the floor scrubbers over them in general cleaning, there's a special pad on them that continues to bring that shine back to the top on on those floors. And this is just uh the slide again of what's going to happen down in the fieldhouse arena area with the designs uh for the flooring there. And then uh
029the facility updates about 95% complete and we hope to have those before the end of May on the other buildings. So as we uh set aside more funds to update our buildings in the district, we know what's the highest need and highest priority in those buildings and and Terry and his company will have those to us very soon. And I'll entertain any questions. I'm going to start at the end with the facilities update. I'm assuming it will be a similar format. We'll have like a general overview with really like high level stuff and then each building will have by building and of uh I think they were colorcoded even last time red yellow and green of the immediate needs for consideration of the board. I think Mr. Trout, Mr. Mclofflin will be bringing those back
030to you guys so you can help uh as a part of the planning process for future bonds. And this is for Cindy. I know we have the old ones in board docs. As soon as we get the new ones, can we make sure and have those in there as well? But I don't want to lose access to the old ones, too. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Wall. One other comment just as a friendly reminder to our community that uh from Memorial Day uh through we're hopeful for July 18th. Uh the water and air would be uh shut off at Huntington North High School. All community groups, all um classes classes will be summer school will be at Crest View. Uh but just a friendly reminder that uh there'll be nobody other than workers and some key
031personnel at Huntington North this summer and we will update you throughout the summer board meetings uh between Pat and I in terms of how those things are going and uh anticipated uh water and everything should be back on July 18th is the goal. Thank you. Do you have anything? Cool. And I also noticed uh we have uh later in the session we'll talk about where we'll be meeting. So, we'll we'll get back to that because we won't be able to be here during that time. So, moving on to E2, Huntington Youth Leadership and Mental Health. Tonight, we have director of uh behavioral health and wellness uh for our district, Meg Fzen, and she has with her tonight some of our outstanding students from our Huntington youth leadership program that will be giving us a presentation
032on mental health. Thank you, Meg. Happy mental health month. Um it's May, so that's mental health month. So, I thought it would be fun to bring some students to kind of talk about what we're doing at the high school right now. Sometimes when you think about mental health interventions, you think about um second and third tier kind of interventions and students who are really not doing well. But what is even as important, if not more important, is that we're talking to the tier one students. So, the students that are doing well but might have days where mental health needs to be addressed. So, I want to bring up first two groups from um Huntington youth leaders that did some very impressive programs um related to mental health. So, they're going to talk first. Hi. So
033the first part of our um project, well actually I guess the second part which is an ongoing project is uh random affirmations on lockers throughout the school. So our goal is not only to inform about mental health but to also like encourage people. And so as we as Meg said um May is mental health awareness month. Viking. And uh so we waited till May to kind of do this uh also because finals are coming up and we know that's kind of a stressful time for a lot of people. So we're just doing some like affirmations that kind of help people throughout the day just as something small but to kind of help encourage them. Um, so when we got to choose what we wanted to do for our project, we decided that we were going
034to do a big presentation within the school, but we decided the video would be better because you can watch it throughout whenever you need it. Um, when we were coming up with the planning for this video, we created a survey for students to take. We put QR codes all around the school. Students grabbed their phone, scanned the QR code, and took the survey. And it really just asked them about what's going on in their lives. It was all anonymous. We don't know any of the students who put what. It was all anonymous, but it just um split them by grade, age or grade, um gender, and like what was going on in their lives. So, we took some of those responses and we mashed them up. We put them in the video just to show
035other students what people around you are going through. So, we don't know who these people are, but we know that they are within our school community. they're like next to us in our classes and that they are going through something that we can be a part of to help um spread awareness and help really show them that they have people around them. Hey Vikings, we're part of Huntington Youth Leaders. Mental health is a big issue within our school and we have a message to share. We put out a survey for Huntington North students and these are the responses we received. [Music] All [Music] right. So, that was one of our HIL groups. Um, and we had one more HL group also focus on mental health. So like me said, our uh project was also mental
036health related. Um so we raised money for um High Hopes and we went to basketball games and sold raffle baskets and raffle tickets and from that money we raised we gave it to High Hopes uh to use their outreach to our school. So, what was so great about the second group choosing to support High Hopes is that it gave us a chance to be able to do something um fun with the money that we wanted to do to reach out. So, High Hopes, everybody come up here and stand. Um High Hopes is a group at the high school. Um HOPE stands for Huntington Outreach Prevention and Empowerment and that is a group of adults in our community that does suicide prevention work throughout Huntington. And so at the middle schools we have two groups called
037hope in the middle and then at the high school we have high hopes. This year we have held two digital detoxes. A few of our members went to a training last semester and learned about the link between poor mental health and teens and the use of cell phones. We wanted to see if we could get students to give up their phone for the day. Our first detox was in February and we had 233 students participate. You could either turn your phone into grayscale or stay off social media all day, leave your phone in your locker or leave your phone at home. The second digital detox was in April and we had 251 students commit. For this detox, we had students turn their cell phones into the library and keep them there during the day. We
038think both detoxes were successful and we would like to do more detoxes next year. This year we also participated in what is called QPR training which stands for question persuade and refer which is the same training teachers take to learn about suicide prevention. We took the student version which was taught by the youth services bureau and 22 students were trained. We were also able to use some of our day to plan for next year. Some of our goals for next year are to help support the walk of hope in in September which w which we work will work with other clubs like national honor society and diversity club to run a watch what you say anti-bullying campaign and talk to the administration about having more fun days for students to look forward to where we
039do fun things like we did in middle school and elementary school. This month, we want to make sure all students know that they can get two free Bowen Center counseling sessions over the summer. It is also a great time to check in with your mental health and every single student in the district is eligible for two free sessions. Are there any questions? Does anybody have any questions? So Meg um you're in a new position this year and we've started this is this I mean you're just unrolling this really for the first time. Talk to us about your perspective of how this has gone what you have learned through this process etc. Then I have a question for the students then. Okay ask question. Okay. So, we in the past were uh had a suicide prevention
040group called sources of strength and this was a group that is at the national level like you can do it at schools all over the place but they started to charge money for students to be able to be involved in it. So, we thought we're creative, we're exciting, all of these students have all of this energy. Let's start something that is our own. So, this is a homegrown group, which I think is really exciting because I think the kids are um more into it and they can make it their own. Um we also have um probably 70 students at um Crest View that are in Hope in the Middle and 40 at Riverview and Hope in the Middle. And so when those eighth graders that have been in Hope in the Middle now for two
041years um come up to the high school, we're going to double or triple our group next year. So, I think we'll have a lot of energy for next year. So, if a couple students if if you're brave enough to come back up here, tell me something that you learned this year. What a couple of you what what um what did you learn through this process? One thing I learned from this process was that nobody is alone in whatever struggle they're going through. There is so much going on in so many people's lives that we never know about. So, I kind of always go by that everyone is struggling through something that you never know about. So you can be talking to like one of your friends that acts so happy, but you don't know what
042can be going on in their lives for even in their alone times. They are struggling, maybe even wishing they were not alive. That's amazing. It's powerful. Wow. Anybody else? So, what I learned in High Hopes, like first off, I'm gonna say I took part in the uh suicide prevention program, which I would never have actually done if I was not in high hopes. And it helped me realize I'm not alone in my struggles because I've I have a lot going on. And it just helps me realize people are there. And if not, just in my home life at school, I have people I can talk to. Thank you, board. I don't want to control the questions. Jay, Mr. Tri, what I'd like to do is Meg with your group uh before you leave to have
043a group photo and maybe the board come up and surround this group right of uh our Huntington youth leadership team uh with Meg to to get a group photo before before they u leave tonight. Yep. Deb, thank you Meg for your leadership. Appreciate you so much. Go ahead. did want to say how impressive and how reaffirming it is to see so many caring youth reaching out to your peers. You will never know how many lives you've touched and how meaningful your work is. Keep it up you guys. It's great. Kids, I'd like to add um Huntington North is is an amazing high school. Um I've been to and Mr. Trout, Mr. Peters have been to numerous other places in our careers and uh one of the things that stands out to me of what makes
044Huntington North is amazing is the students go out of their way for others above self on a regular basis. I see it at Huntington North all the time. And so I thank you for your commitment to others. There's no more important topic than this one tonight. And so although we talk about a lot of things and budgets and all the things and you'd love to have a ceiling or two back in your high school, um I would tell you thank you so much for taking care and and reaching out to others. Keep growing your group. Um Mrs. Fen, thank you for your passion for this and I'm just so proud of you kids for being here tonight. All right, so before we take the picture, how many seniors? Really? Wow. Freshman up here talking fresh.
045That's amazing. Wow. Okay. So, here's what I want you to do because one thing we didn't do, we don't know your we don't know all your names and what year you are. So, uh that means every single one of you have to come up to the microphone and you have to tell us your name and what grade you're in. That that is amazing that these are underassmen that did this this evening. That is absolutely incredible. So, um, one of you just has just come up. I want I want to hear from all of you. I want to hear your name and what grade you're in. My name is Cadence Spiel and I am a freshman. Man, that's impressive. Yes. I'm Lauren Worthman and I'm also a freshman. Wow. My name is Fallon Powell and I'm
046a sophomore. Thank you. My name is Alice Fzen and I'm also a sophomore. Thank you. My name is Karen Fields and I'm also a sophomore. Good. My name is Kira Stansel. I'm a freshman. My name is Savannah Slade and I'm in 10th grade. Okay. My name is Emma Richard and I'm a sophomore. My name is Libby Couch and I am also a sophomore. My name is Maline Smith and I'm also a sophomore. Thank you. My name is Claire Herendine and I'm also a sophomore. Uh my name is Gwennneth Kaiser and I'm also a sophomore. My name my name is Lauren Rust and I'm also a sophomore. Well, how about a nice round of applause for these students? It's amazing. Okay, board if everybody here at the table, everybody's going to come up. We're going to
047get our picture taken with these great students. Okay, another opportunity for a picture with Mr. But this is one of your bigger groups, Mr. Butler. So, we're gonna be very impressed how you pull this off. People might have forgotten Stay there. All right. All right. All right. Uh again, thanks for the the youth of Huntington the North and their their good things. Moving on to E3. It says Superintendent Trout. Well, it is, but it's been delegated to Mr. McGlo. Oh, okay. It's the Okay, the new guy. So, um, we wanted to, uh, take a couple of minutes here and give you an update, a legislative update. Um, I know board, you're asked frequently out in the community. What is the new, what's the impact on us, uh, financially and and Pat's going to share those
048details with you a little bit. I want to give credit where credit is due. The slide that you see up on the screen right now is generated by Mrs. Smith. even though she can't be here this evening, I want to give that the credit. So Pat is going to talk to this plus a few more items from the last legislative session. So Pat, we'll turn over to you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Trout. So as we've been hearing in the news from the legislative session in terms of funding for schools, um the the news is not great, uh but it's not as bad as it once was from some proposed legislation. So, um the the slide that you see up on the screen kind of talks through what the uh foundation amount for the ADM
049count will be moving forward uh into fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27. U there's about a 1.6% increase uh in funding for 26 and about a 1.4 increase for 27. they'll tout that there's a 2% increase for schools, but that's actually an average across the state. Um, so ours are in that 1.6 1.4 range. Um, and initially they were touting closer to 3%, but that was because they had dumped the curricular materials reimbursement money into our state basic grant and we're counting that as part of our increase. So when you take that out, we fall just below 2% increase over the next couple of years. Um along with that, even though there's an increase in the foundation amount, the complexity amount, which makes up some of our special populations, uh that actually is going
050down uh by about $23 per student next year. Uh and then it goes back up 14. So, we're still down $9 uh per student in the next two fiscal years. And part of that, it's not because we don't see, and this is statewide, uh there there's not a decrease in special populations, there's a decrease in special populations applying for those benefits that are available to them in the community and in the state. Um, and that's what those numbers are based on. That's what our complexity index is based off of. So, it's not that Hoosiers are wealthier and there's fewer people u you know struggling financially. Um it's that there are fewer people that are applying for these benefits and that's what the state is seeing and that's why that complexity uh has gone down. Um
051so the budget itself you can see that there is an increase in the yellow or just outside the yellow there. uh our our basic foundation goes up from 6,800 to uh just under 7,000 in 2026 and then just over $7,000 uh per student in 2027. Um so there is some increase uh but not what we had hoped and what we'd seen in the past. Um, along with that, another piece of legislation that's really uh just now coming out and kind of changing the landscape of things in terms of uh benefits for teachers is what used to be the TAG or teacher appreciation grant uh where teachers that were effective or highly effective were awarded a stipen usually around Christmas time through the uh teacher appreciation grant the monies that were set aside by the uh
052legislature. that has changed where now you can only award the grant to up to 20% of your teaching staff annually. Um, and those awards uh are determined based on a uh what will be a rubric from the state and then the state will look at those after we submit our 20% and determine what level of stipen they may receive. If we submit 20% and they would all fall in the top category, which is a $7,500 stipend and they didn't allocate enough money to uh fund 20% of our teachers at 75%, they would adjust that amount accordingly based on the number of awards that they would give. So, this is a a huge change from what we were used to in the past. Uh, one, it's a it's considerably a larger amount than what our teachers
053had received through the teacher appreciation grant, but nearly 90 plus% of our teachers were receiving that grant. Um, the they were falling in the effective or highly effective categories. Um, so there's going to be a large percentage of our teachers uh that wouldn't receive that or could possibly not receive that if they're not in the top 20%. Um, and that funding will come in the springtime versus Christmas time, uh, when the TAG grant used to be distributed. So, there's three tiers. Uh, if you meet what they consider the recognition u threshold, that's a $3,500 stipend. If you meet uh what they term as exemplary, it's a $5,000 stipend. And exemplary plus is a $7,500 stipend. But again, we've not seen the rubric. We don't know what that looks like. We don't know how they're going
054to make us submit those names necessarily. Uh we're guessing sometime this fall. We'll receive that information since they're not going to be issuing those grants until the springtime of 26. The other piece of information that I wanted to share, and I shared this when I did the the budget uh at the last board meeting, one of the areas that they talked about cutting was local income tax or what they refer to as lit. And um not all districts receive that uh income or or revenue from that income, but we are a district that does and it goes into our operations account. And over the course of uh the year, school year 26, I'm sorry, 2728, uh almost 3/4 of a million dollars, uh just about $675,000 will not be awarded to uh our operations fund
055because we will lose that revenue. Uh they have done away with the uh local income tax revenue for school districts uh starting in 27 and 28. So that will be a sizable hit to our operations budget and that is another piece of legislation that was uh that was passed and will go into effect shortly. So um those are just a few of them. Uh we could spend days the the bill or the amendment to one of the bills was 353 pages or something. So we could spend a lot of time going through these. Those are some of the highlights and I'll entertain any questions on those or anything else that you may have questions about. So, they they haven't told you how you're going to pick those 20%. No, I'm trying to think how do
056you pick 20% of your staff? I mean, you're you're graded. And here's what I will tell you, ma'am. Um, this is what we know, okay? um we must use a state created rubric that incorporates student data and mentoring expert expectations. Okay, beyond that I can't tell you what the requirements are. Um I will also tell you that we must report why each selected teacher qualifies. Um and there's a couple other pieces here. I I will tell you this is a real struggle for me. Um because we're all working very hard on teacher compensation, but yet we put we're we're taking money out of 80% of our people's pockets right here. Um and I think it's just a shame quite frankly. Um, I get, you know, if you're exemplary plus exemplary recognition, you're going to be
057thrilled. But how do you pick one out of every five teachers for this criteria that the state's going to be putting up here is is concerning to me. It's quite concerning to me. Um, and so we're still learning about this. Um, as soon as I know, you guys are going to know. But on the on the first look at it, um, I'm I'm just I'm just disappointed is the words I would use. Well, usually in politics, if you don't know, they're still if you're still learning about it, that means they don't know and they're still trying to figure it out, right? So maybe they'll come to their senses. Yep. But here's what that's what I'm sharing. You know, I think Pat did a great job of sharing with you this evening, but we're sharing with
058you what we know today um about what's going on here. And I would believe that was that legislation was put through by Representative Benning, I believe, and he talked at the legislative update, the legislative update ISBA had, and he was his main point of contention was that we had a bunch of teachers getting the TAG grant. uh they were all rated highly effective and yet the the scores did not bear out what he felt needed to happen. So that's why he put this change through. Um so and it if you what we heard from the regional update is there's a lot more requirements to be able to get these different stipens, but yet it doesn't guarantee that if you follow everything in this that you will actually get the dollar amount because if more people
059put it in there, there's not. But he really did put the clamps down on this the tag grant and stuff like that. So I was trying to find some stuff from the thing and I can't see where it is in here. So cool. Other questions, comments? If you don't mind, I was just going to mention some of this at the end, but I think this is a perfect time to talk about it. So from the regional update, one of the things that uh ISBA was doing is just kind of giving us a a recap of that. I'm just going to do a couple other quick recaps. I know uh Superintendent Trout shared this slide deck out. I'm just going to talk about a couple of the early slides on this, but basically there were 1,229
060bills introduced in the last legislative session. Of those, ISBA tracked 174 of those as having to deal with with um something related to uh education or something along those lines that they felt they needed to track. Of those, 14.15% of those bills were related to K12 schools governance or something to do with children. Out of those bills, 240 of those, 244 of those became law. Governor did sign everything that came in front of his desk. So, they all knew 244 new laws were enacted related to that. Some of those laws were some reductions. I know one of those bills removed 30,000 words uh from title 20, which is the educational statute. But just as they were removing and cleaning some of that stuff, they added additional stuff in there as well. Uh but basically, there's
061a lot of stuff coming down the pike. Uh, and I know the legislative I know Mr. uh WY I'm assuming will be attending the law session update. We could not get through everything that in our aotted time that we usually do at the spring conference to go through everything. He spent most of that conversation talking about the new stuff. Lisa Tanzel, who usually also then gives a legal update about stuff that's coming out from courts matters and stuff like that. She didn't even have time to talk about it because we were just trying to do a high level on some of this stuff. So, do take a few minutes uh and read through that PowerPoint and if you have questions uh let us know let us know and we'll try to help you out. Um
062but also know too ISBA is planning on giving an updated primer of all of the new laws and how they were going to be affecting schools and school boards coming out. Uh just to let you know and so look for that to come too. But they're still they still have questions about stuff even after it's been signed. Just as Mr. Trout said, how does this all interact? The other thing to note about that that I know they didn't talk about that school accountability is coming back. So we will be getting A to F grades here coming soon as well for all the schools. So that's also on the horizon again as well. So yes, now I want to give credit where credit is due. Okay. Um where this whole process started is not where we
063ended. Okay. It could have been far far worse. All right. And so I am truly, and I mean this, truly truly grateful for what our local legislators have done in support of our public schools within this because these numbers that you see um are much better than the first numbers I was looking at early in the session. And um I thought we had made it and then when the uh state revenue forecast came out and we were 10 billion 10 two two billion under um I had to take a deep breath. But again um legislatively they protected us in that process toward the end. So for that um I am grateful. I don't want to paint not a balanced picture up here of what could have been to what is. And so please know um
064I am grateful that we landed here. Um you can notice that we're project you know this is comparing apples to apples. This is a flat ADM. Okay. So that's that's the variable in here that that uh can float and fluctuate in this whole process. But Pat, thank you. You did a great job. Thank you Mr. Trout. Um, just very quickly, I want to reiterate for those who are listening in our audience. Um, we are tasked with trying to retain and recruit the best and the brightest for our kids. Um, our teachers start out with a salary that's equivalent of hospitality workers and yet they have to have a beginning four-year college education and additional certifications. So, we're demanding more. We started the school year or mid school year and the state of Indiana had um
065approximately I can't remember the exact number 1,500 openings in classrooms in the state of Indiana. That means that we had 1500 classrooms with approximately 25 to 30 students in each who did not have a highly qualified teacher for that subject area. This is very disconcerting. I appreciate everything all of you are doing, but we are tasked with trying to retain our teachers and recruit for our students and for our community. I hope our community will continue to have dialogue about what's necessary for highquality educations for our students. No, absolutely. And uh to piggyback on that, we are blessed here. Um I the retention rate of our teachers this year is as highest as it's been since I've been here. Um, we have very very few openings at this point in time and that's that's really
066encouraging. Uh, matter of fact, in our mid admin meeting this afternoon, those couple of those positions that we didn't have filled are going to be filled as of the next school board meeting. Now, that doesn't take into account late retirements and people's lives change and they move. But what I'm saying to you at this time this year, it's greatly reduced the number of staff. And so for us to fill all our classrooms last year and to do all we're doing, um, I'm very encouraged about where we're at moving forward. But Deb, you're your comments are spot on with where we're at as a state. No question. Well, thank you to all of you H to all of you, Ryan, for staying aware of what's happening and keeping us a breast of it. I think that's
067very important for all of us and for our community to stay aware of what's happening. Any other fun conversations about the legislative update? On that note, I'll move on to E4 June and July 2025 schoolboard meeting locations. Okay, we have one more meeting in here uh coming up in two weeks. And since this building is going to be shut down in the month of June and most of July, we are moving the June and July school board meetingswork sessions um to the Crestview Middle School Library. And so um that's where the board meetings and work sessions will be in June and July is at Crestview. Um we had a meeting out there the other morning. Um we're confident that we can host those out there. Now, we won't have two different camera angles and we
068won't have all that. We'll have a standard camera setting up out back, but we'll meet all the requirements and just for three meetings. Um, we are going to meet at Crestview and we'll be back here hopefully forever again. Uh, back here in the cafeteria at the Huntington North High School after that, but just putting that out there for the community. Uh, and I would want to send along special thanks to Mr. Sumpter who's sitting back at the room and his IT group that is back there helping us get these meetings online. Uh the amount of work that they do to make it look as smooth as it can be is is a yman's job having had done that a long time ago. So again, thank you. I don't know we give you guys any praise
069anytime soon, but again, thank you for everything you do to help make sure that the public gets to see the meetings uh as they go through. Hearing that, we are to F1 and adjournment. Do I hear a motion to adjurnn? Thank you, Deb. Second. Second. Thank you, Matt. All in favor say I. Thank you.