HCCSC Work Session - October 2, 2024

001e e e um tonight is um what we have titled our uming um where new school board members also current you might learn a couple things um a work session uh Schoolboard meeting so as we're going through the evening if any of you have any questions or comments or like more information uh anybody around the table don't hesitate to stop um we have scheduled two and a half hours it's my hope that it doesn't go two and a half hours so if it's much shorter than that then we have met the objective along the way but that's what my intention is is to go shorter than that uh this evening I know a couple of of you have uh some previous engagements and will need to leave and I respect that um so please make

002sure that you take care of some of those personal needs too we will not stop if you need to take a break for a couple of minutes please feel free to do so but we're going to try to keep on rolling with this my intention is again not to take the entire time that we have allotted okay that's why we put so much in writing for you all of you is so you can read some of this and then if you have some questions feel free to follow up um with me so what's that yeah the facilities are just right down the hall here um let's start here by just introducing ourselves if you would please um just make I think we all know but those who are watching at home uh and online may

003not know all of us around uh the table here don't worry no matter what side of the table you're on cameras can pick you up and see you so that's why we're intentionally sitting the way that we are um within that too so um let's just start right here to my left Mrs Gray you made eye contact with me so you're the lucky one you get to go first um why don't you uh just we'll just go around the table why don't you introduce yourselves to us um and then we'll just go right around the table then so Cindy will start with you Cindy gray executive secretary to the superintendent Tim Allen District for death trustee uh kyheim District 8 J Peters director of element education no if you want to introduce yourself a little

004bit about yourself Archie that's okay yeah you got to hit the GRE you got to hit the button when it goes green you're good thank you oh there you go I'm sorry I should have said that Archie I'm sorry go ahead I grew up in Union Township and have lived in Huntington County all my life good um I started Public School in 1954 as a first grader uhhuh I was in first grade two years that's okay they didn't have kindergarten there yep um I uh went through I graduated about the time the schools Consolidated here my son went through high school here grade school and high school and uh my two grandchildren Quenton and Jillian went through they had a wonderful uh musical theater program I thought I'd plug that good good thank you and

005uh I taught uh fifth and sixth grade to start with and taught uh as a classroom teacher 29 years I've had a lot of other experiences in life but uh my wife said not to go on too much so okay Aaron okay good uh eron car uh candidate for District Six yes lifetime Huntington County resident and born and raised here so thank you thank you yep Dave Van Gord candidate for district one um I've not been a lifetime Huntington resident but I do enjoy it here y uh we moved here in 2020 built during covid um my three kids El well vered in all the activities of Huntington and keeps us busy well good thank you my name is Kathy shock swingle I was born and raised and educated in Huntington County lived here all

006about 20 years when my husband's job took us till off yet came back after that was over and I'm here now in ex foster parent raised three sons good so that's it thank you thank you Mr Hines uh Curtis Ray Hines I lived here well all 47 years in district one which is the seat that I'm running for uh went to Huntington County Community Schools and uh competed here in athletics and then I went to Huntington University started coaching here in athletics coached here 18 years um won seven Regional championships in cross country was fourth in the state meet in Cross Country um taught in this building for 20 years had uh all effective and highly effective recommendations and uh I I'm a land owner in uh Huntington County I've been in the building here

007and uh like I said been in education a long long time so I feel uh I feel like I've got a pretty good perspective on things in this community so okay thank you uh Mike Richard I am running candidate for district 6 I'm a lifelong Huntington County resident uh took some time away when I was in the service as uh in the Air Force for a few years and moved back about 12 years ago with my daughters and wife where my kids are able to attend the same corporation that I grew up in and graduated from this school also um and Mr lint said he went to Union I was one of the last classes of Union in first grade I believe before I moved over to Lincoln Elementary School back in the day um

008so yes um thank you thank you Chuck brimberry director of secondary educ I'm Kevin Jer uh School Board vice president and representative of District Six good Matt Melcher I'm School Board District One okay Becky Smith virtual Chief Financial Officer uh Ryan Wall uh district 7 uh like several others I've lived in Huntington all my wife except for the uh time I spent down at Pur University in West Lafia uh Matt Roth uh in my 10th year on the board I think Gary and I are the longest uh serving members right now uh District Two um and not a lifelong resident of Huntington but lived here since 99 call at home uh graduated from homestead when it was the size Huntington North is now and Huntington North was the size Homestead is now Taylor University IU

009Bloomington here since 99 with my wife Laura who's an educator and our three kiddos thank you uh John trout superintendent um 1980 graduate of Huntington North High School um lived in this community my entire life daughters both graduated from here and uh just proud to be here thrilled to be here as a matter of fact um this evening um what we have for you here if you're watching online there is a binder that at each place that um each one of our current school board and prospective school board members have um what I'll do is in the table of contents here is that there are quite a few pages covering a variety of topics um here this evening the reason that I do it this way is that I want you to have something that

010you can take home that you can read that you can study um I fully expect you to have more questions uh Way Beyond this evening and at the end of the evening I'll be sure to tell you how to get ah hold of me and so that if we need to have either an individual or small group meeting to to go through this information in more detail I'll be more than happy uh to do that if you're watching online or if you're in the audience here this is a sample of the table of contents that are that is before um each person here around the table this evening um we will obviously not go through all of this there is just no way uh to do that in one setting let alone probably two so

011I'm just going to pick up on my section A couple of the highlights that I want to discuss this evening and see if you have any questions along the way um at the very top there you can see um that we start with the Strategic plan um this has been recently done as the spring if you turn to page uh one the handwritten Pages at the bottom is what we will follow um that will show you um this plan this plan is a five-year plan which begin which began begins this year lasts for five years um through 2029 and if you look at page two you can see right there all of the different aspects of the Strategic plan that we cover um we do we deal with everything and it it shows you the

012process that we followed everything from a don't go too fast on me Cindy right there on a broad base excuse me planning committee which consisted of community members teachers staff that participated in this process um if you look at that you can see everyone who participated the process in which we followed um if you look at um the third table you can see the Strategic plan team members how we help develop the the core values um the vision the mission um living and embedding our values and right on so forth if you go to um uh if you go to the handwritten page at the bottom which is um if you go to the Strategic plan on the 12th page that's what I want to highlight for you here this evening okay the school board

013on page 12 of the Strategic plan um has a set of goals that they have as a board and um I'll read these so the people that so people who are watching online or in the audience can follow along with this but the hccs hccsc board of school trustees has recently established reaffirmed their goals as part of our strategic planning process there are five in which they have developed uh number one is to ensure the continuous Improvement of student academic achievement for all the second one is to ensure uh the school implify a safe secure and effective teaching and learning environment the third one is to ensure parents businesses and community members are actively engaged in the educational process the fourth is to ensure districtwide fiscal responsibility along with wide stewardship of resource our es

014and then the fifth one is to ensure adequate support of teachers support staff and um administrators then if you go we flesh all of that out in this entire um plan the one piece that I want to highlight for you as aboard this evening if you flip on over to in the Strategic plan okay it's near the um it's near the end of this strategic planning document um you are going to start watching us um and you'll be intimately involved if you are elected um to this process so I'm going to have you turn to page 44 of the Strategic plan don't watch the screen if you have vertigo okay so um and obviously we could go through each one of these pages with this but what I want you to see is that one

015of our targets is 5.1 which it says by 2027 100% of the hccsc physical assets are managed efficiently and effectively and we list out how we're going to do that and the process that we're going to follow and in later this evening you're going to learn more about um what we do fiscally in our district from Mrs Smith but I just wanted to draw your attention to some of the fiscal uh pieces of this plan and and just to have you dive into them um a little bit more along Ong the way um you'll notice for example if you go to page 46 near the bottom or excuse me near the top at 5.3 you'll see that you know one we have very specific goals fiscally that we're trying to achieve by 2027 achieve and

016maintain a cash balance of 15% of the education- operation fund expenditures while ensuring at least 75% 75% of the fund funds are devoted to instruction and our ultimate goal is to maintain a $2 million cash balance and so when when Mrs Smith is going through some of her things this evening you'll be seeing how we're trying to um meet some of those expectations that we have along the way Jay and Chuck will share with you um this evening about what we're trying to do academically which is sprinkled throughout this strategic plan also but I just wanted you um to see um the details that some of the details that directly impact you as a board and your engagement and involvement in that process so does anybody have any questions or comments that you want to

017make I'm going to pause here just a second to see if anybody does if you do please make sure you hit the button in front of you that it turns to Green so Mr Lin yes you mentioned they're talking about finances correct budget and so forth I'd uh asked a couple board meetings afterwards uh I wanted to start with a big picture of the finances in the school corporation where the money comes from and where it goes out and I ask about pie charts and uh at the last uh meeting that I attended in person here I was uh given some very nice notes uh about that so I could find the pie charts now I've set through board meetings and every penny and every dime in in a very complex set of spreadsheets is

018listed every half cent but yet in uh recent years a half a million dollars went missing so they can account for pennies but not millions of dollars I think that's a problem I don't know where that all is right now but the uh problem I think can be illustrated by the fact that my notes say this is what I was told to do to find the pie chart on the web go to departments first you go to Huntington Community Schools then departments and then from departments scroll down to school board scroll down then to current board meeting agenda continue scrolling down until you get to meetings regular board meetings then scroll down to view the agenda scroll down to finances scroll down to select financial report and a couple other scroll Downs I didn't get

019quite that far I wasn't able to accomplish getting all the way and I think this is not a problem just for me I think it's for the general public they need a big picture of where the money is coming from and where it's going and obviously there's a problem that's bigger than eye of a needle when it comes to a half million dollars going missing so uh I guess I don't have a question at this point because I don't know what is going on I'm not able to get these big picture type of items but one of my goals would be to get that big picture and communicate it to the citizens of my District Six okay thank you Archie Becky you want to you just want to make a couple comment I know we're

020going to get into this a little bit during your section but before we get there you just want to make a couple of points here sure we did a um a whole uh I would say reorg Financial uh submissions and transparency in the last year and a half so um monthly we do share uh those pie charts and the major budgeted funds to the board and to the public we do that on a monthly basis and then we also do um different presentations throughout the year we have a u midyear fiscal uh presentation that we do we even do presentations on um Esser and special grants and then um once a year we do the first of February I can't remember which board meeting that's at and then we recap the previous year also and

021show all that information by pie charts and diagrams and things like that so that is um what we have done and changed over um from the previous was just a a simple page that gave cash balances and that's all that the board and public was used to seeing so since then we have um created all these reporting mechanisms and transparency for the community and the board in the last year and a half no that's all right yep that's for questions cus am absolutely yep that's what we do corre absolutely all right sure thanks Becky um Mr Lance what I will do for you is that the last couple of board meetings where we've done some of this I'll print some of this off and I'll give it to you okay so and you and I

022will have a conversation about that all right so we'll do that that' be very specific said youa I got well I'm GNA bring them to you so there you go all right okay um Mr trout can I go Ahad for a second yeah um has the board or the administration uh identified like key performance indicators that where these are very transparent like okay what is my attendance rate what is my um I have it written down uh enrollment attendance graduation rates Etc that is easily accessible not only to the the board and and the administration but the public in general to say hey this is how we're doing one place to say hey the health is good it's trending up trending down I think that would be very beneficial as a person who just goes

023over the board reports every meeting and I am still confused on where some of this money is coming where where we are as a as a corporation yes I mean um ADM we're just going to get we're actually actually in Becky's presentation today all those points that you just hit we going to be presented to you even today um within that there's different ways in which um that can all be reported how we're reporting it's what we're required to do by the state of Indiana along the way um we're making sure that we're aligned with all of that information with what we're supposed to do and how we're supposed to do it um in the future if the school board wants um different reports other than what we're required to do and how we're reporting

024it that can be done in a that can be done in a variety of ways that can just be that can be done in a variety of ways if you look at the Strategic plan many of the things that you're talking about is what we're trying to pull out so what I'm saying is is that we will be creating dashboards um same thing is your key performance indicators um we're I'm actually working on those right now so to take all that complex data and all that complex information out the Strategic plan and putting it in charts putting it in in graph form putting it in whatever so those will be um I call them dashboards um different people with different businesses and different organization can call them a lot of different things but what we

025will be doing is reporting that to the board on a consistent basis not only by District but by building by Department by um whatever breakout that the board determines and so um I'm developing those right now I just haven't given them to the current board yet because I'm going to ask them okay is this is this what's you're looking for is that need to be done in a different way but those are currently being developed now I won't call them key performance indicators I won't necessarily call them a a uh a chart or a graph but they I call them there'll be dashboards that we'll refer to and look at and and go with at all times so I hope that helps a couple those conversations along the way in the meantime if there's specific

026information that you want that you don't receive this evening or you don't see at a board meeting don't hesitate to reach out to me I'll be happy to give you what it is that you're specifically looking for in that so okay all right anything else okay if you turn to page 49 it's handwritten at the bottom on page 49 um this the next piece is of information are taken straight from the Indiana Schoolboard Association we are actively engaged uh in this um Association uh as individuals and as a board um if you come on the board you will be seeing and hearing a lot about different aspects of what um the roles of the board member are versus roles of administration versus roles of um a superintendent this page is one in which we will

027starting in January work through together as a new board is seated and this is done in four different quadrants so at the top left or at the top very top it's this what is Indiana School Board Association Calls the School Board member code of athletes um this is what we as a board adhere to um and I'm not going to read all of this to you these are some some really interesting statements um ones in which I trust that you agree with most you may not agree with all and we can work through those but the top left hand talks about a school board members should honor the high demands the should honor the high responsibility that membership demands um the basic function of the school board of a school board member is policym um

028not necess necessarily Administration but policym um and by accepting responsibility of learning to distinguish between these two functions sometimes these blur and we have to work through all these together um but in general that's what we're talking about here um the second bullet point is what I respect about what we're currently doing here by accepting responsibility along with fellow board members to ensure that the adequate facilities and resources are provided for the proper functioning of our schools um and I and you can see the rest of those down there on the bottom left it talks about here a school board member should demonstrate respectful relationship with other members of the board um we have been blessed since my arrival here um to work through this together we don't always agree the new board won't always

029agree but what's important is is that we come together and we work together to find uh viable Solutions um along the way um you know it's it's hard sometimes when the board vote doesn't go your way is to go out and continue to publicly support the direction of the board and that's difficult at times that's that's hard we've had to work through that ourselves from time to time when the vote doesn't go our way and but yet as a board collectively it's our goal to continue to move forward in support the direction and the major of the board and that's hard sometimes that's really difficult to do and it takes a lot of conversations right um I have talked with all of you individually on this piece when a board vote didn't go your way

030we have had some pretty intense conversations about okay what are we going to do moving forward and we try to work through that um as best we can um there's a statement in here that that um that's uh that I uh personally um have to remind myself with a lot of times and um um and and just can constantly remind not only this District but the previous districts I have been in is by refusing to participate in irregular meetings which are not official we can't do that we there there's just no place for that um with what any of us do um we we try to work really hard like setting this meeting I tried to find a night where most all of you could get here and that's hard people are busy people are

031it's it's hard to do that and we try to honor all those pieces along the way but um on the top right on this on this graph on this chart here on this page um this is what's vitally important obviously to me you have your Rel relationship with your colleagues with your fellow board members and then you have a relationship with me and other employees and um we will work through that sometimes um you and I will agree on a lot sometimes you and I may disagree on a few things and we try to come to an agreement try to find the compromise try to find um where we can agree on um I work from this premise uh this is my definition of compromise compromise is getting 85% of what you want and 15%

032of what you can live with many times I will ask you I've asked each one of you around this table tell me on this topic what could you live with I know what you want but for us to come together as a group and do what's best for kids and staff what can you live with if you are fortunate enough to be elected on the board I will guarantee you at some point in time we will have this conversation John I just can't go there okay I got you okay but what tell me what you could support where could you land in support this and we'll see what we can do collectively as a board um within that I am constantly and I get criticized for this once in a while the one two three

033fourth bullet point is I work at this every week every day of every week is by striving to lead as a United team that's that's my goal is to try to um have us work together work collectively together it doesn't mean that we always agree there are times when we just don't but my goal is for the betterment of our students and staff is do everything we can and everything I can to keep us United in our purpose purp United in moving forward because if we can do that collectively together then the beneficiaries are going to be um everybody in our school district and lastly on the bottom right you have big responsibilities as Schoolboard members to your community um this is heavy this is a heavy lift for you you will you will get

034people who will contact you who will applaud you and agree with you you will get people who contact you with just the opposite attitude and I realize as a board member how difficult that can be at times um for all of you um we um I believe in each one of those bullet points uh and I know the difficult task you have and I admire you for wanting to run for school board because it's not an easy job and you're not making a lot of money to do this on top of that but let me tell you I I think the current board understands the Deep respect I have because I understand the many way different ways you get pulled in the community um it's it's it's tough at times to sit on this side

035of the table it's hard but I will come alongside you and help you in any way shape or form that I have so when you see that page comments thoughts questions um I'm getting tired tired of talking I'd like to hear from some of you comments thoughts questions okay perfect okay we're gonna move on um sorry to be a little slow on the draw here but I do have a comment sure well first of all do you press the button on this thing just press it once or what you press it once if the green lights on Mr Lin you're good to go I'm the green lights on you're you're you're live okay so well I think what I'm going to say uh touches on material you just passed over um I wonder sometimes having

036sat in the gallery back there and listened to the school board members and yourself and others if you uh have lost touch possibly to some extent I think it's probably human nature with what you all look like from the audience point of view um and I I think uh that U there's a a feeling that uh there's a rubber stamp going on it says vote everybody votes yes on everything I know that doesn't happen exactly that way but what I'm saying is that's the way it appears and um there's a lot of emphasis on unity in here and going along to get along is the way I would phrase it um I don't like to be contentious my wife my wife might disagree on that but U on the other hand I don't think that

037uh there should be such an emphasis on Unity when we need to bring uh difficult subjects to the table and we maybe disagree vigorously at times on policy in order to get these things forward so uh that would be my comment on that yeah I and go back to what I said before is that my job as a superintendent I take seriously is that you will not find me if you are elected on the school board um you will rarely find me bringing something forward that doesn't have the support of the board that's that's the flip side of this coin in the conversations I'm having with you with the discussions that we have if that's not going to be supported it won't it won't even make it to the table and that's the difference um

038if I would bring all all the things to the table that would be voted down or whatever was going to happen with it I wouldn't bring it it doesn't have the support Why move forward with it um when something does get brought to the board um in the work sessions many times we've had we've had lots of conversations about it it doesn't an agenda item rarely gets to the board without it working through several processes to get to the point where it's at I'm going I'm going back to that compromise statement that I made I can understand from The public's perception that it might look like it's rubber stamped but that's not even that's not remotely true because what it has happened is if we've taken that certain specific situation through various discussions various different

039formats to reach the point where people are comfortable with what what it is moving forward and many times it dies before it ever comes to the board and so that's the side of it that many times the and I know the public doesn't see that nor understands it at times but I I wouldn't put you Mr Lin in that position um as a superintendent that I know that the board's not supported not going to support it I'm not going to be that person that's going to bring it forward to make a point I wouldn't do that I wouldn't do that to this group I wouldn't do that to any of you who got elected for the school board just wouldn't do it so I'm if I understand you correctly then a lot of these issues

040are hashed out and uh figured out at least partially before the board meetings take place among you all um what I'm saying is is that there's a lot of discussions that go on I'm not going to hold I'm not going to hold illegal board meetings I'm not going to hold illegal meetings I'm not going to do any of those type of things I'm saying to you that's why for example that's why we went to a work session format this year I'm going to if you follow follow the flow of the work session we usually talked about these agenda items at an open meeting before I would bring him to the next board meeting or a board meeting in the future I want to see where people are at I want to see where you as

041a board are going to land what is it you're going to support what is it you're not going to support let's talk about this the main reason that I went to a the work session format and then a board meeting format is so that I could see where the board is collectively as a group on this topic um that's why we try to do work session and then board meeting and then work session and then board meeting now the last couple months because of the budget adoption we haven't been able to do that but I tried to see I tried to anticipate things that we're going to be voting on in the fall and have those open discussions in the public to see what are you as a board I think that you as a

042board would probably agree with me we've had many of those open discussions along the way it is not uncommon for individual board members and ID then to have conversations on top of that I mean um I think that's my role if somebody's struggling with a certain aspect and each one I I can look at all of you and know what that has been around a table I will go back to that person and say talk to me some more about where you're at with with X um I'm constantly in communication in one level or another trying to make sure I understand where people are at okay all right um one of your big um many times I'm asked by Boards what's my most important role as a board member what's the most important job I

043have um it's a little weird for me to say this being in this position but I will tell you the most important position you have is hiring and firing a superintendent if you want to know what I think your most important decision is as a board it's who you hire and who you fire as your superintendent I I I firmly uh absolutely believe that um and so from time to time I'm asked about how do you draft a superintendent's contract the next several pages in your uh binder talks about legally how that happens um I cite some Indiana code in there um this was put together back in July of 2018 not much has changed since that point in time legislation changed this process greatly um several years ago but that goes clear over to

044page 55 if you have questions about that um let me know um I would be more than happy to uh talk you talk about that to you and through you the other one that we get into a lot here um is sometimes we get into some difficult employee situations starting on page 57 um again this is the rules and the laws that we do our best um to follow along the way okay and so um again just a lot of information there um along the way starting on page um 61 on is just a variety of different pieces of information for you and I I'm going to flip you to page 65 this is the this is the Parliamentary procedure reference guide all right um I always always have a copy of this with me

045here um at my place just in case we ever get into a situation where one of these situations arise this is um what we follow these are all um the Parliamentary procedure um guide this is rules whatever you want to say um that you that you follow uh as a board member uh when we come here okay so as we run board meetings um this is the process of the board meeting itself um that we follow okay um then um I knew this would be of great interest of you currently starting on page 67 it's the school board candidate election procedures um just so you know those are the rules that we're currently adhering to and following um in this process okay so I just um I wanted you to be able to see um

046all of that it's pretty complex when you look at it all together on a few pages of all the rules and regulations that we follow um at this point in time Pages 69 to 7 before we have to follow the Indiana open door law as board members and as a board collectively and so I um that is spelled out for you about what that all means in those five pages um our school board attorney is sitting right behind you uh Mr Wy uh many times um when we get into some very specific pieces of Legally what we can and can't do um Mr Wy and I will have a conversation Mr Roth and Mr Wy will have a conversation as board president Mr yogger and Mr Wy might have a conversation as vice president um

047but just so you know that we we will always in this school district adhere um by those rules starting on page 75 and I'm about done then we're going to let you ask any questions um this is a really important section for me because it defines your role and my role in these eight areas and um I I really want you to take some time over the next few days and read this and then if you have questions call me we'll sit down we'll talk about it um I have had many conversations with current board members about whose role is that right so when you look at Future planning and growth and this is taken straight from the an School Board Association again um what's the board's role in that and what's my role in

048that now you may agree with some of that you may agree with all of that you may agree with none of that but when I'm thinking about my relationship with all of you as a group collectively and with you individually this is kind of my road map this is what I have in front of me a lot what should I be doing what are my expectations of you what's your expectations of me and sometimes when we have a disagreement in that I will pull this back out and say to you um in policy on page 77 the first four items are your responsibility and the SE and the next seven are mine and you may say to me well I don't agree I think we as a board should have and again this is where

049we'll have our discussion of who's responsible for doing what this is what you can hold me to this is what I can hold you to um if we're working well together um we're working through these processes I try to stay out of your lane I do I you will hear me say from time to time that's not my Lane that's you that's your lane as a board that's not my Lane um sometimes you may say to me um I think that we should be doing that and I will say to you I think that's my Lane I think I should be taking care of that and on these next few pages you can you can debate you can look at those and say that I mean we've already had a conversation about page 78 today

050it's healthy it's positive it's good that's how we get that's how we get to where we need to be what's the role of the school board what's the role of the superintendent I think those are really really healthy conversations to have so that we understand who's doing what and who should be doing what but I'm not going to read those to you you can see student on page 79 where it talks about student achievement this is the board's role this is my role as a superintendent I try to you know we try to spell that out on page SE on 80 what's the B role of the board on Personnel related items and what's the role of the superintendent um it's not uncommon in my 15 years of doing this as a superintendent on these

051pages that we don't sit down and have a discussion that's okay that's how we get better that's what we do but I want to clearly Define what your expectations as a board of me are I don't want there to be any surprises I will always promise you T of takes us back to our previous conversation I will never surprise you ever that's my that's my promise to you my goal and my promise to you is never surprise you I hope the current sitting board I'm looking at you making sure I've held true to that I'm kind of looking at you making sure I've done that but I also guess what my I'm hoping what you promis me I hope you never come to a board meeting and and and surprise me or I hope you

052never come to a public meeting and surprise me because I would never do that to you ever I promise you um I will treat you with the utmost respect whether we agree or disagree I will always I will always do that so over on page 81 we are fortunate this year we have two of our hcta presidents and sitting there in the back is that we're not going through negotiations this year yes so um we are happy campers uh here this year I can't say that for my colleagues uh necessarily across the state are having fun right now but uh we are happy but again what is your role in those contract negotiations and then what's my role as a superintendent when we negotiate next year and we have a new board that's seated I'll

053be talking to you about this page on page 81 okay this is what I'm doing are you guys feel comfortable with that you know this is what I need from you this is what you need from me for that to happen okay I've said a lot comments questions comments questions yes Curtis yeah um I greatly appreciate the questions on the fiscal aspects um but I got a couple questions here going all the way back to page seven page what Curtis I'm sorry um page seven okay seven okay uh the safe orderly and caring environment uh strategic plan I got uh two questions one um is there consideration to be bringing an in-house K9 unit into the high school um it was just done this week good it was uh right Chuck I I remember is

054on my it was just they they had a lockdown this week and they did it just this week so I can tell you that I'll check and get back to you but I'm almost certain it was this past week that's excellent and second um is there a is there a uh consideration for teachers that would like to have uh video cameras in their classroom to have those installed yeah Chuck you want to talk about video here yeah great great question to be honest with you uh Miss Brown's back there and and those conversations happen in a wide variety um based on in your p I think discussions on virtual education here those discussions came up as well on kids that want the in-person instruction I understand there's a safety I understand they're multipronged on your

055question but I will tell you we visited a couple schools that do have them recently and those discussions do take place um the purpose of them needs to become clear if that were happen the we have not openly discussed we evaluate what other districts do Curtis and see if that's in the best interest of our kids and our teachers and so uh literally Len last year at some point we visited a school that did have them and were active and I think they served a variety of purposes most schools do not and so those those are things I'm intrigued by as well and whether they're in the best interest here or not I'm not openly uh I've had private professional development discussions has been the focus on that on virtual education so good question um

056one more question also when it comes to let me double check here I marked it shared leadership on page 10 in the uh rubric here is there any consideration to um Administration evaluations yeah yes we have to do them but be more specific Mr Hines what what would you like would you like to see mean by by an outside entity um we've never done that um here's what I'm saying to you again as a board you have a lot of latitude and um uh to make some of those suggestions and and U set that direction but no we have not had a third party come in from the outside to do administrative evaluations I'm assuming you're talking about this level but I'm I don't know talking about building level and upper level okay no um

057I'm not aware of a place that's doing that um but doesn't mean we can't have a conversation about that but I'm not aware of any place that's doing a third party type style evaluation on administrators maybe you are I'm not so well I'm I'm not aware of any place doing it either but we can be Pioneer on that front I think be a good thing for our community okay anyone else okay on page I wanted you to see um our relationship with our teachers is vitally important to me starting on page 85 is our current um contract between us and their Teachers Association um you can see the next several pages of that agreement I am proud of the work that we have done together it has been long hard work uh to get to

058this point um I will also tell you the collaboration that that I I can speak for me the collaboration that we've had with our association the last two years I think has paid huge dividends on both sides of the aisle um I'm specifically proud of teacher compensation and how we have helped close that Gap over the last couple of years it has been a heavy lift there have been some really hard hard conversations but um what I deeply respect is how we've come together and figured it out um we really have not to say we always agree again we have our disagreements um within that but I'm proud of the relationship we have we' worked really hard at it we really have and I think it's paid significant dividends on both sides of the table

059for us to keep those conversations going you need to know by law we're not required to have discussion meetings you need to know that this board and I have been have been that's not we haven't wavered I think that that would be in that would be wrong for us not to continue the conversations with our teachers on a consistent basis I just would not be in favor of that happening and I think it's paying us again dividends on several fronts now sometimes these meetings are really interesting and sometimes we have some pretty uh interesting disagreements um but what I appreciated about it we stay with it until we come to some compromise and we do um it's not always fun it's not always easy but it seems like we can get to a compromise all

060the time and it's sometimes it takes us a while to get there but we we will eventually get there I just don't see having a adversarial relationship with our teachers gains us anything I just don't see the Plus in that um who negatively impact is our kids in the long run and that's we just can't have that and so I appreciate the support of this current board in walking down that road with me but listen when you get to page and um seven in the comp model okay I don't expect you to understand that um that is really really complicated but I I would be more than happy to sit down with you but here's a classic example of the law we have to follow and it has to read like this for us to

061get it through herb the Relations Board that has to be this way otherwise um the the state will not recognize our agreement and then we have some horrendous penalties to to deal with by having it not follow this format so please understand I'm not trying to be um matter of fact I would think Mandy Mandy and I would all agree if it wouldn't look like this we'd be all much happier um but this is what we have to do and um Becky will tell you too it's it's crazy at times and and if you'll see how the steps are there and how the academic needs are there and then on page 109 and 110 the levels and you're going to ask me why is there so many charts and why is there so many levels

062and I'll just I have to sit down with you and literally painfully go through that but that has to be that way otherwise the state will not approve it period that's just the easiest way for me to say it to you in a group meeting um Bor I know you've been at this a while with me and with Becky um and I appreciate your support but it's it is hard to understand it is but we're we're compliant and we have gotten through with minimal um um problems matter of fact ours is probably one of the cleaner ones around um from time to time you'll have a conversation with me about extra pay schedules that's on page 113 moving forward um that's also negotiated just so you know uh that's all done and that goes over

063to page 119 lastly my section and then I am done okay um I am finished I I was going to try to get done in an hour I'm right there okay um Sometimes some of you ask me about my background I don't talk much about it okay I just don't I don't think it's I don't know if it's that important most people don't care quite frankly but you as a board and especially new board members coming on May on page 121 to page um 129 um that's me that's the history of John trout the education profession okay that's just it is if you want to talk about any of that I'm happy to do that but if you don't I completely understand and I'm not offended in any way shape or form but I thought

064it was important for those of you who may be elected to understand a little bit about where I come from and what I'm doing okay before I turn it over to someone else comments thoughts questions for me anything I'll reiterate Mr Trout the section from isba on the roles and responsibilities of us and you yeah page what page on um 75 75 okay through 82 yep I think this is probably the most misunderstood thing about what we do from the community's perspective and when I started on this board eight years ago the two groups did not understand these roles and responsibilities what do you mean by two groups us and you okay well not you but us and the superintendent y I think our my predecessors on the board did not understand these I think

065that superintendents in the past have not understood these correct and it didn't work and and I pride myself I think we all pride ourselves now that we have a working relationship because we can follow this model MH but I think the community doesn't understand this mhm and I I think that the community has this perception that our responsibilities are a lot more than they are and likewise that your responsibilities are more than they are when really it's this complex system of of different Lanes of responsibility but but I'm glad that you put this in here because this is a really important section no question for board governance no question I consider us a we not a you and I but a we and um sometimes that's misunderstood out in the public um I take my

066job really serious of promoting you and what you do and what you stand for and who you are and collectively as a group sometimes that can be really hard and really difficult but I come at this as a very collaborative model you've heard discussion you've heard talk you've heard meet you've heard whatever my my case and point is why do we do this it's my opportunity to start building relationships it's your opportunity to start building a relationship with me um and those are important and that's why I try to Define and why I believe what isba pulls out because sometimes a real big time misunderstanding is who's doing what in what Lane you know and if I'm not if I'm not doing what you're expecting me to do I want to know that I really

067do I mean it's important to me to understand that but I hope you give me the same courtesy the other way the other way because kids are we're the bottom line is we're trying to do everything we can to help kids that's just the bottom line Mr Richards is there any this is all publicly available information is there any reason that this isn't on the corporation website no it's not um that's a whole another topic we could I you know Kenny Butler who was just here just a little bit he's right over there and I who's uh who helps me with all the uh public relations and everything else what's too much what's not enough what do we put what don't we put those are conversations the new board and I are going to have

068um when we're promoting what we're doing you know this type of stuff is important but is it more important than what we're you know what I'm trying to say right and even if it's just a link to a State website versus keeping the metadata on your own servers but getting it out there so they have a place to to read and understand good thank you no answer your question directly sure absolutely we could put it out there I mean there's no no reason why we can't we matter of fact Cindy and I just to make sure we had the latest data we pulled it right off their right off the isba website we put this together last week and we were on there just making sure so yes to answer your question directly absolutely we

069could okay anything else yes Mr lince yes uh I appreciate uh Mr jer's comments and what's uh playing in my mind right now is is sort of a zoom way out large big picture issue and that is that from roughly 1850 until 1970 we had a Township system of schools and um I grew up in that system and I taught in the last of Indiana's 90s some counties that had that system as you know right now starting with the department of public education that was established in the 1980s or 90 s mhm we have education control from the top down you can no longer get on the phone and call your Township Trustee and and uh talk about a problem you're having with a teacher or an issue and meet with them it's usually somebody

070you knew from rotary club or church you could sit down and have coffee with them and talk now you would have to go to Indianapolis to get permission to go to Washington DC and you would probably never get a chance to talk talk to anybody that could affect locally so one of the things that I is kind of daunting about becoming um if I'm elected a school board member is that there's a there's some serious limits on what school boards can do for their constituents the citizens because of this situation that we're in now it's very unamerican and it's not anybody's fault here but uh that's just a thought that I have that uh there's a limit to what a school board member can do and I think that's part of what the general public

071doesn't understand because we're used to having influence but we don't necessarily yeah right um trying to not make this too political so that's why I'm fusing it's when I go down to Indianapolis and we lobby as a superintendent organization I'm always fighting for more local control um I believe that we in this community can make the best decisions for our kids um and what frustrates me greatly from my seat is how it appears and it seems that so many times more and more is taking away from us you know if you think about what school boards can make a decision for back in the 80s and 90s and what school boards can make decisions on today it's greatly restricted because so much of it is either mandated Statewide or federally and so I it's in

072the 15 years that I've been a superintendent new school board members after a year always tell me what's so frustrating to me is I thought I could make decisions on this and I'm not allowed to um because so much of that control has been taken away from us and you couldn't be RG you couldn't be um more right in just the 15 years I've been a superintendent what school boards were allowed to make decisions on 20 years ago and what they're allowed to make decisions on today has just been so restricted I mean when I'm in the community people say to me all the time well why didn't you do this well that we couldn't even make a DEC I mean that was dictated to us you know so much of what we can do

073and when when Becky talks about the finance we we really have been restricted on decisions of what we can do um with our money which she and I vent to each other all the time doesn't do us any good but we vent to each other so when I go to Indianapolis or I say would you come with me and we go talk to legislators every single message I send is that's a Lo we need to make this a local control issue and so much of that is just being taken um from us along the way so thank you anybody else anybody else and I'll move us I'll move us on I'm trying to be mindful of time okay um Mr Peters you have the next uh section uh Jay how long youve been in Huntington

074County Community Schools uh this is uh 32 years 32 years yes and so um we're glad to have you so anyway so go ahead Jade walk us through Elementary data um tonight let's just do can you hear me you got slide that mic a little closer to you go uh here we go let me just give you a little brief Snapshot from the Elementary uh picture that I have the opportunity to work with uh each and every day um as a director of Elementary education I've given you some slides there as we talk about I read three and I learn data uh again as we've we've talked about our vision and Mission as a district our moreal purpose continues to be as a district to educate all students with high standards with Precision two high

075standards with Precision personalization and we wrap that with professional learning uh as we move forward but let me share with you uh we need some excitement so let's celebrate okay um maybe I'll get an amen out of this maybe possibly uh our students are required to take what's called an i three test all third graders and what we did last year was opted in our second graders to take the IAD 3 test which proved very valuable uh as it's a foundational reading skills test um what they have done now is they have said now all second graders uh for the spring of 2025 is going to be mandatory and they've changed it from I 3 to just an I test and so all second graders and all third graders uh will be taking um the

076IED test in the spring of of 2025 but you can see there in the graph uh you can see our district average was 84.4% State average is 82.5% so we're above the state average I didn't hear an amen amen we got to celebrate something can't we oh wow let's fire up here come on our goal as a district um and we locked on with the idoe that 95% of our third graders students would be proficient when they take the IR test by 2027 this aligns with our strategic plan that Mr trout has laid out for us that by for our K12 students um they'll be reading at or above grade level by 2029 and and that is a huge task that is not easy our teachers our elementary teachers work very very hard our administrators

077work very very hard because you'll hear me say this a lot kids have got to be reading at or above grade level by the time they leave third grade let me repeat that if I stuttered our third graders have got to be reading at or above grade level by the time they leave third grade if we don't if they are not we may have lost them for their career so you can tell I'm pretty passionate about this I get pretty fired up let's rock and roll uh because it's we have got to help our kiddos learn how to read we do and so we applied uh through the idoe for a science of reading Grant uh the district was awarded $43,000 to be used for resources materials uh professional learning uh for our K3 teachers

078interventionist resource teachers uh to help them and to help us uh with that goal now we'll take that test in March students who do not pass and this is a something that has just come out from the doe uh Mr Lynch you talk about uh how things do change from the Doe's perspective uh we sent a letter out to all kindergarten through third grade parents prior to October the 1st stating that now the state law requires that if their children if their child did not uh pass the I test that they would be retained in third grade now once you catch your breath and think about that now they do have five exceptions to that rule um that I won't go through but there's five exceptions that a student wouldn't be retained so thinking in

079terms of what that ramification is going to be the importance of kids reading at above grade level uh the work that we put in each and every day to help them be successful uh moving forward is is key to the work that we do so I'm going back to State Control versus local control that was dictated to us just this past summer so I had a couple parents that contacted me not real happy about that rule and that's one that we don't have any control over that has been dictated to us now now there's couple few exceptions I think what' you say J5 yeah five yes but that's just I'm just want to give you the one of the recent examples of something that's been that's been dictated to us from the state level that

080we will do now we'll follow the law we'll adhere to it we'll do everything in our power to make sure that our kids are not caught in this um but the research is crystal clear about school retention about student retention um if you retain a student in kindergarten in first grade the chances of them having a successful retention are very high if you retain a student in grades two and three research will tell you that when they see the same information again for the second year their scores will jump but when they go to the next grade level they'll dip back down again to where they were previously there's a there's a lot of case study about that what I don't want to have happen to our second and third graders is to get caught

081in this law because I think it could it could not be a positive um um piece for them along the way because research will tell us that their scores will jump in year one but they'll fall back down to the previous level when they move on to the next grade level for the first time so that's just I want to bring that up as Mo one of the most recent examples of something that we are dealing with as a school board along the way so Jay I'm sorry go ahead no that's fine let me share with you a fact uh right now uh our fourth grade class of 377 students were kindergarteners when covid hit and we shut down right now of those 377 students and I share this with you because the daunting task

082of our work that's cut out for us of those 377 students 143 of them right now are not reading at or above grade level and they're fourth grade so the work is hard it is not easy um but we with precision and personalization with small group instruction uh with the things that we've implemented in our elementary cul them uh we we are going to get there let me share with you uh some I learn uh data uh this is gr 345 uh you can see there uh the red is hccsc what page on Jay what page I'm sorry uh 134 I'm sorry 134 that's okay thank you I was looking at my own own notes and wer looking at your 134 uh you can see the red is hccsc the blue is the Indiana State

083average uh two years ago we adopted um a math curriculum a new math curriculum uh that ramped up the rigor of instruction uh it was hard it was hard for students it was hard for teachers um but we stayed the course and and we we are starting to see and reap the benefits uh of that work that our teachers and students put forth U to make that happen and uh and I applaud them for that uh I learn has also changed uh I learn was also taken uh in the spring it now is there are three checkpoints uh the first window is opening right now uh September has been open September to November is our first checkpoint uh November to February February to April so there'll be three checkpoints there students will have an opportunity

084to show us what they know and then we'll be able to take that data and then develop uh remediation uh and support for students and then be able to reassess them uh to see if they've mastered U those standards um at that grade level so we're excited about what that's going to bring for us and the data that will bring uh to show us what our kids know and what they don't know and then how do we go about programming for them the next page what I've done is I've um thought it would be interesting for you to see uh um some cohort data what you're going to see in the slides uh the next few slides this is comparison groups it's based on demographic location uh enrollment size and social economic status are free

085and red reduced lunch percentages so you can see that Salomon and Andrews are in the same cohort but you can see the schools that are listed there that have the same demographic location enrollment size and free and reduced um percentages and so I just share that with you just as for your own knowledge the next slide is Flint Springs you can see their cohort group not as large as Andrews and Salomon the next one is Horus man and so on but I thought that would be interesting for you to see where we are uh as schools in our district how we compare to other schools uh across the state Mr Peters yes um could you explain a little bit more about um those comparisons so make sure everybody understands that enrollments the first number and

086then what are fa F Ela you know at the top of the just so we understand a little bit better I'm on page 136 um Ela is a English language arts okay mat is math and then they have the percentage for the both and then the uh enrollment the enrollment size and then uh the free and reduced lunch percentage thank you so what the state does now they compare us with like schools so if you look at that if you look at if you look at all the indicators there we're pretty similar and then that's that's how they determine who your cohort is then in that cohort then how did you score compared to other schools like you so they they they put those together so before in the past if you remember they just

087clumped us all together didn't matter those variables didn't matter I do appreciate what the state has done with this this is this is really good because it helps us compare ourselves to others Mr Lin I'm not okay with uh this comparing us with other schools I mean it can be part of the picture but I think if I were to communicate with um school district 6 citizens um I think the best way to communicate to them how the kids are doing would be what do they know what are they what should they know what kind of things do they know in math and science and reading and writing and arithmetic um comparing to another school doesn't tell me that and I think that's what people need to know my father had a fourth grade education

088that's as high as he went and I could put in 1883 fifth grade or fourth textbook here from Indiana series for example and I gu I almost guarantee you that most of our high school students would struggle with that so I think the pegging everything to other schools is um I'm I have a lot of questions about it I mean there may be some virtue in it but I think that's the wrong way to approach it well I think future School boards here's our here's a unique challenge for us okay you bring up a great Point Jay and I have have tossed around heavily the issue of Standards base report cards what does the child know and not know what can the child do and not do now some people are for that some people

089are against that um the community members I have gone out and talked to have then asked me this direct question then what's my child's grade now and I'm being really honest with I mean I'm being right up front and honest with you and so as a future board um this whole piece is critical and you'll notice in the Strategic plan we begin to address it and so when you when you start back through the Strategic plan you can see how we're going to start marching forward with just this topic now I do agree that the cohort gives us is one data point is one is one data point and you need at least least three you know so then you have to get drilled down to what's my child's reading level right I mean that's

090just cut and dry and that you heard Jay talk about that previously what is the ability level of my child in math I mean and so then how do we report that I mean this is becoming this is becoming going to become a question that we're going to have to work with our teachers on is we are so we were all brought up in the grade right of the grade but now how do we specify that even greater for so I can move Johnny from point A to point B but what is John's Johnny's reading score where is what's Johnny's achievement level in math and so on and so forth and then how do we report that Jay I don't want to steal your thunder but that's that's really what it boils down to right

091and as as we've talked about John I'm not sure going to a standard based report card uh like I say that's a a community mindset our mindset we are so used to a to F and we change that uh changing that mindset um I think can be very difficult um but I think would be one that you look at that you would actually know specifically what standards they' have mastered and what they haven't but um I'm not sure we're ready for that yet yeah and that's that's a community discussion that we're going to have to have at some point I just don't think we're there I just I just don't B based on conversations I'm having with a lot of people we're just not we're just not there go ahead with all due respect uh

092Mr Peters you mentioned that third graders they have to pass these tests to go on yes then you mentioned five exemptions now having taught in the school system for 29 years I kind of have an intuitive feeling that this is more vision AR and Flowery language than it is substantial as far as what will actually happen because I have a feeling those third graders going to have their own opinions on how well they'll do teachers in this uh I had a a excellent educator leader principal uh tell me one time that and I want to quote if teachers had their way every student would have a good education but teachers only have control over one of the three variables that are important for Student Success or the child the student themselves their parents or legal

093Guardians and the educational staff the classroom teachers the classroom teachers are held pretty much 100% responsible in their careers for the the success for failure but they don't have the authority to solve the problem as quotation said they would solve it and all of these projections of uh in 2029 we're going to have this or that and we must have um this these are I think it's good to have goals and work towards them you you almost have to have that but sometimes they take on the characteristics of a pie in the sky because I guarante where are we where we five years ago what we were guaranteeing for today it would be a good question so um I think there needs to be a measure of reality I at age 76 I'm almost done

094with visions and Flowery language so um if I get on the school board if I get that privilege uh I would like to find out how I can help get them to where they need to be regardless of uh what might look good on paper or in language thank you go ahead go ahead Jay the next uh couple slides 142 and 140 uh yeah 142 it shows there the different tiers tier one is our core instruction where we should be meeting the needs and our hope is that we're meeting the needs of 80 to 80 to 90% of our students uh on that slide on page 142 you can see there materials and things that we have ordered through the science of reading Grant the 43,000 that we received those are the materials that we

095have received uh that we were able to get in teachers hands uh the assessments um what we're doing in tier two and three uh We've added something that's called wi time uh what I need now um and 30 minutes a day each and every day uh students are receiving the support uh that they need uh to help them grow and develop and uh and master the skills that we have asked them to to to master and so we're excited about that teachers have worked very very hard to implement that um and so that's not only for kids uh you know what I need now is kids that are um that need extra support as well as enrichment uh and so uh we're excited about bringing that um to the Forefront uh the next slide I

096think um what I've done is I've given you a pink handout and uh that's basically what our elementary literacy instruction is based upon it's the Five Pillars that you see right there uh through the national reading panel and I just want to make sure that you had that handout those are the slides uh right there um in your your handout that you received uh just so for your reading you can read down through that but uh that's what our literacy program is based upon here um for elementary so I think at that point Mr trout I think that's all I have unless there's um there's other questions all right perfect J thank you Jay Chuck you want to jump us into secondary then we'll Clump this all together then oh yes sir uh well thank

097you Mr trout um uh Chuck bribery director of secondary education I'm uh back in Huntington year three uh previously taught here and coached here uh in the 90s and uh went to uh another district and have held uh teaching jobs soci States job department chair job athletic director assistant principal principal and superintendent in my past extremely proud of um some of the accomplishments of student achievement in my past and uh really really proud to come back uh to Huntington with Mr trout and his team Mr Peters want to introduce one of the people who worked closely with me uh Lynn Brown uh is the assistant principal at the high school but also does our 6 through 12 uh professional uh development Works closely with our teachers and our kids um some of the things we're

098going to talk about today is intentionality of instruction so intentionality of instruction um is what purpose are we trying to do with our children what purpose um are we trying to accomplish with our teachers and Educators and at what rate pace and uh teaching and reteaching an enhancement and those are best practices and so um I am I could talk as Mr trout says this is your Bailey Wick I think he says and uh I am super excited about the direction we are headed in Huntington um I've came here for one reason uh to give back to the district that took care of me early in my career with some experience that I think will help these children be successful that is the sole reason I came back and I'm I'm a child advocate and

099I am passionate about student achievement I am passionate about um the culture of buildings that enhance the likelihood for the student to feel safe secure and successful in the classroom and my job is to help teachers do that for our children so when I start to show you some of the data I tell you my background because like Mr Peters um I am extremely driven to make sure our children have the best education humanly possible in Huntington and I'm uh going to show you a little snapshot of of that and Lenn will chime in from time to time as well first slide that you see and I think it's 148 in your uh book um is intentionality of instruction on the SAT you're going to see a little bit about um it's interesting in in

100our history they value sat and then they devalue sat and they're back to really value an SAT again in terms of our universities and and our um how they assess um our high schools to be honest with you and when you look at assessment of high schools you say well are you vertically aligned that allow you to be successful it's not a 11th grade test it's a corporation test and so are you vertically aligned to allow children to be successful in what the state of Indiana has deemed now very very important for them and so I look at the data of where we're at today and if you look at on page 148 or on the screen up there uh it is clear clear that some of the programming and some of the work of

101our teachers some of the collaborative work within the Departments have allowed the students in Huntington to be more successful than many many places in the state when I look at different areas um this is a data point I use multi- dat points when I look at and I'll talk about many of them um and I won't get into the weeds to the level we have a time limit here but everything that goes into that is number of minutes of instruction number of minutes that uh of intentionality of instruction based on the standards you deem appropriate for your District uh we are standards based in uh the secondary through and through now we have been aligned I walk in classrooms I can tell you many of them what standard they're on I can tell you how

102they're assessing it I can tell you how they're teaching and reteaching or enhancing that that is a practice that I now see in many of the areas of Huntington when I look at this data point although it's only one this prong tells me I can look at intentionality of instruction vertically in uh math and English and I can tell if we're starting to go across the curriculum or not in terms of preparation for this assessment um Huntington's doing it at a higher rate than others I've seen the intentionality of our kids when they do this uh Miss Brown I know started this process prior to my three years uh with the teachers and others and and Mr Hamill as well and um so when I see this uh this shows me that they're getting some

103of the areas that they focused on and I think that if you looked at us and one bucket from Northeast Indiana I think we're second among many many schools in terms of our kids success rate I'm also going to tell you I'm a data person I monitor every every single week in this District in the secondary uh success rate failure rate attendance rate discipline rate and every rate that there is and we put that out to our staff uh weekly in many many different buckets success rates is the number of children um that are passing all classes and what level they're passing at failure rate is number of children who are have at least one failing or failed to master depending on how they're being assessed in the current subjects they're in an atrisk group

104for Chuck brimberry is if right now I know to be true 14.2% of the children at Crestview are now failing one class out of their seven my atrisk group that I need focus on immediately would be that 30 some percent of that group are failing two or more High highly effective schools are 8 to 14% Across the Nation where you feel like at the nature of all of your children that on the mean average schools that are very highly academically successful somewhere fall between 18 and 14% on failure rate of at least one course in a secondary so then you start saying well that's Nationwide best practice where are we when I got here I saw 41% failure rates I saw the the at risk group of 51 to 53% of that group if you

105say that in a high school um at the time I ran it that would have been 416 children that uh had failed at least one course that would have been 216 kids that were failing two or more courses your children having that kind of lack of success becomes another bucket of focus you meet the children where they're at and so I spend 247 and I have in my career and Mr tr's aware of this um looking at multiple buckets sat is one prong of children being successful in a couple of areas another prong is children who are not doing well in an area is there a system within what they're not doing well at is it random typically not it's usually in an area if kids are not reading at level as Mr Peter said

106I can predict with really close of the coursework that they're going to struggle with those of you who have taught can predict that as well we know that to be true so we're tied together vertically on success at the next level because if they do not read at the level necessary to read one of the textbooks online or otherwise I can predict their struggles and so could you uh I say that because the database questions that I get are 247 that I think about how to make sure our kids are standards based are mastered at 80% or above um are success and children who are having different stimulus that they cannot be successful in the normal what are we doing for them Success Academy went in what is Success Academy kids that are struggling that

107are not discipline issues but are struggling in the stimulus and the areas in the secondary schools that don't allow them to be successful in a 47 minute period and need a different setting that meets their needs and so we have a couple of uh Success Academy School uh classes in the high school now that's best practice Nationwide Huntington has that now I said in those classes today and I'm passionate about this and I see Smiles I see success I see questions I saw small group instruction in social studies today Mr lent and they were having discussions about war and current events in the Middle East and trying to draw ties way back from thousands of years ago so I say that because I get up in the morning thinking about this data in Huntington constantly

108of how to help these kids be in the best environment known to man our discipline in this six we quarter is down 41% and 51% in our middle schools from last year in the exact same time period what does that mean how's that attendance they're in they're in class more now if you're not suspended you're in class how's the attendance attendance is 96.4 97.3 and we monitor every week in our middle schools in high school our kids are coming to school more our kids are in class more our kids are standards based we're enhancing and we're reteaching well what are you teaching we're teaching the state standards Miss Len Brown and her teachers work their tales off we're are standards based education now we take formative assessments math department used to be ahead of that

109in Huntington their scores reflect that what is a formative it's a snapshot of how you do how you do every four to six weeks what are we not mastered we have to retach if you don't they move on without them they never Master it they don't know and so we've started that system here in the secondary schools we opted in uh to the I learn checkpoint that was optional for us what is that about every nine weeks we take a assessment in English language arts and math that are a practice test based on backwards mapping of what you've taught and have they mastered it and if you've taught it you'll get a snapshot it's not a grade it's uh hey are you do you know this and if we know it it's going to show

110we know it at what rate if we don't know it we have blocked in best practice Mr trout Mr Peters and I talk about this for hours upon end you have to block in opportunities to retach specifically on a topic a theme a system a problem performance-based tasks and so on those systems are started in Huntington across the board you will continue to see grow growth I told you when we got here this is not new this is best practice for our children and we have great teachers everybody tells me what our kids can't do everybody tells me what our teachers are that's an easy target these kids are fantastic in Huntington these teachers work their tails off in Huntington and what they need is systems which that guy has provided across the board with

111this thing and people that are out working to say what's best for kids kids academically what's best for them culturally what's best for them on how their behavior and then you got to sit down talk to them and you got to talk to them and you got to talk to them and their parents consistently um we're an easy target for kids that aren't doing well I differ on all that our data is going to show you if you flip to any of these pages I look at slide three as you look on page 149 percent of 11th graders meeting performance benchmarks we're above graduation percentage the first cohort I looked at here before we did the internal audit was 72.2% we were averaging 502 53 kids that had checked out to homeschool before we arrived

112that were no longer in us that is not acceptable not acceptable I don't want any of our kids choosing a different path than Huntington I think we're the best game in town so we cohort analyze what do we do well look at the grad rates now we're approaching 96 is something percent depending on the day we have multiple buckets for kids we have a oneplus3 college program aligned with Huntington University we have 1444 dual credits at the high school these are classes that almost don't cost anything some do most of them are free we have multiple kids that have one year of college education we have the best Learning Center that I've personally been in by Tiffany Drummond it is amazing what they're getting over there our kids are getting opportunities of others aren't I

113know it's easy to say what this kid did wrong or this kid didn't right cumulatively Huntington is doing better than other schools we're catching them the instruction is great instruction and in getting better but the environment in Huntington although we have challenges when you have 1,500 in a high school and 605 in a middle school 511 the other the challenges here are less than my pre previous experiences here I'm telling you you have a good school system and you have great kids and you have the collective leadership of about 111 years right now with you and I like going to our teachers classroom our kids are into it our teachers are into it the data as you flip through will show you growth we'll show you areas that we're doing uh intentionality on on 153

114that is best practice Nationwide that is best practice Nationwide it's not easy it's hard work but I know what it looks like and I'm telling you right now I have a bucket full of things that say do these things and you'll see our kids achievement go through the roof and uh those systems are in in Huntington I'm extremely proud of it I know what we're not good at I assure you and we're addressing it um daily and yearly here and so I've given you a cumulative of what we do I've given you the data snapshot but I've also told you some of the buckets that we do uh any questions you have on secondary or or any of those things I'll gladly talk about that's longer than Mr trout probably wanted me to talk but

115I love this stuff okay so questions for uh Jay and Chuck Mr lince uh yes something that you said reminded me of one of the things I wanted to bring to the table today to learn about and I don't know if there's anything in here about it but half of life is physical and I haven't heard anything yet about the physical fitness program in our school corporation and how that is measured when I first started teaching school sure kids uh didn't want to come off the playground they come off beat red and sweating you couldn't hardly get them in the classroom Again by the time I had finished that was in 1976 by the time I finished in 2005 um Pac-Man had come in and all of this stuff and kids were just walking across

116the playground and getting hurt by walking near playground equipment yeah no question so so and there's a correlation between physical fitness and intellectual development that I there's a connection there well let me um the state disagrees with us but we don't they're trying uh on the State graduation exams they're uh excuse me graduation requirements in the future they're taking less PE in the high school I will tell you that that's not best practice and we know that to be true I didn't get a vote neither did you but uh I will tell you we are full in PE um the elementary excuse me the middle schools clearly have it they also have recess they also have advanced weightlifting that we are at 35 Plus in every single period of the day here we also are

117full in our PE classes at 30 to 40 per class per day with multiple teachers they have to take two right now in their time period but many of these kids go from what we call APC Advanced Physical conditioning go from basic to that and those systems were put in under this board not too long ago for the APC and they are packed here where is it a physical fitness program fit in is anything in here well what I would tell you that falls under state requirements is what I would tell you so the doe currently has that in terms of do we put it in a snapshot I did not that falls under state requirements right now but I will tell you APC is not required uh Mr lens and we have seven periods

118a day that are packed and a pair of that helps out because we're overcrowded I'll just um since you mentioned social studies I think that's what it was you mentioned war and social studies I was talking about our Success Academy we were doing small group instruction to some kids that uh the regular classroom doesn't fit very well but I saw some great things examples today of small group instruction uh in Our Success Academy and those multiple buckets are invaluable in a progressive education got to have opportunities for kids that certain things they don't fit into as well to build relationships to allow to educate them sometimes the relationship is the first part then we get to educate and that particular class we work on that as well as mental health do they have the president's

119Council on physical fitness or the equivalent they it they have some version they don't call it that anymore but they do have um I'll just tell you when I go down to um this particular buildings they have certain things they do for distance certain things they do for physical it's not what you and I would remember as regimented it's all in the state curriculum that they cover it's not monitored as they used to what you're asking they have it it's not check off check off check off it's part of their daily part of their semester and they have to do certain things I remember reading that um when World War II broke out English soldiers were pitted against Germans and the physical fitness culture in Germany was so vigorous and so poor in England and

120you know we're preparing the purpose of public education to prepare our young people for citizenship full citizenship good citizenship and um War always comes down to I mean it's a constant war and poverty are Constance in our world unfortunately War always comes down even in age of Technology to two men usually about the distance of myself and this gentleman right here and if our children if if our students are not uh physically fit what good is it you know my thinking is what good is it to get them to this all these levels of of higher education intellectual development and they have a heart attack when they're 42 years old when they're sitting at the computer so I haven't heard anything tonight that tells me that uh we have that emphasis in our School Corporation

121here and I don't even know if it can be done if if we have the authority as a school board to have I'd like to know what we can do but I just I just I guess to sum it up physical fitness needs to be a bigger part of the picture than what I'm thinking it is you know and I we're going to always um support uh Fitness for our kids on a variety of levels I mean one thing that we haven't mentioned is our jotc program for example that's huge um here in what we do um you know we haven't we haven't cut recess times down like a lot of places a lot of places have because of the same things Mr Lin I mean we have to educate the whole child I mean

122there's a lot of different aspects of what and there's a lot of different components of what the whole child is and so um and then you're kind of dovetailing into my next section here is because challenges we have at a board is what are we going to support financially and what can we support doing that you know with compensation and all those type of things too but I would always say to you is that Fitness of our kids is vital it's important I wish we could have more time with it and this is the balance balancing off what we're required to do and doing academic Excellence versus the whole child and the development of that I think one of the challenges we have as a school board is the demand for our kids time and

123that's hard to balance out um we have a lot of community organizations that want to want time with our kids we have Fitness that we want to do we have academic things that we want to do and time is a viable Essence and so um we'll continue on down this path it'll be um it'll be interesting conversations if we try to figure out how to do everything we're doing better um within that too Becky for you know I'm I gonna turn it over to you on we're going to start on page 155 with Mrs Smith we're going to spend the next few minutes talking about District finances um and so Becky I'll we'll turn it over to you sure thank you Mr trout uh this evening I just put a a culation together for you

124um of a lot of different things so I'll touch base on um each one of these and then answer any questions you may have um in between uh just going on talking about State Statute and what it has to um how it is with all the finances uh the compliance regulations requirements of Law and um contracts there's grants everything in all of the district uh has um compliance over that and then internal controls of course um we know that is a huge one for school corporations governmental entities and um that is one thing that we have been working on over this last year to year and a half is um putting those processes in compliance uh internal controls into place uh here and that is a lot of the things that we've already talked about

125um that we have developed the different reporting mechanisms the presentations the transparency of um all the finances over the last um year to year and a half all of this is under the the State Board of accounts SBO a uh and they do an examination of records every two years and that is um due to Indiana code legal responsibility that is the business office the corporation Treasure of the district um is is required to uh be bonded and uh is required under laws and regulations to uh Safeguard the accounting of the district they are um bonded positions so the corporation Treasurer deputy treasure at the district level is a bonded position and then also the extracurricular treasures at the building level are also bonded now um who is responsible for all this and what is

126the difference between the different finances that you may or may not um come in contact with with a school district there are um three different types of financial information throughout the district one is the corporation Finance the the other is extracurricular finance and then um last but not least is pto's boosters and those type of finances they all have different rules and regulations and um different interactions with the the school corporation of course we have to be in compliance um with the Department of Education we um we are also governed by the department of local government finance and that is all of our budget process and all the legal requirements we have with our um adopting our budget and then of course the State Board of accounts is um our audit regulations and then of

127course we go back to our Schoolboard policies um that the school board has uh adopted so going on this is what we were talking about with the three different types of Finance the first one with the corporation um finance that is controlled by the central Administration that's at Treasure Deputy treasur the business office of superintendent and um the second one is extracurricular and that is controlled by the building admin in um in conjunction with the extracurricular treasure and then overseen by the central office and then the third is the pto's and um boosters that are controlled by an outside entity and then I'm going to do a little dive into each one of those and give you the basics on those the school corporations uh funds are considered cash bases and I explain everyone the

128difference of that you may hear from a big corpor coration that has um General accounting acceptable accounting principles the Gap and that is acrel base accounting any school district in Indiana that is under 15,000 students goes by this cash basis accounting and a cash basis accounting I refer to it just like our accounting at home you have your Revenue your job that you get money from that's your revenue and then you have expenses that you pay out that is as easy as um the cash basis accounting for school district it's an in and an out an a cruel basis is two part of accounting it's more um you have liabilities you have statement of goods you have all those different types of things through cruel accounting we do not have to um do that through

129uh regular school accounting um Cash basis accounting of districts that are under 15,000 students we go by a fund accounting and how I explain fund accounting is we we separate it into buckets and you'll see here we have some of those listed that are across the state of IND Indiana these aren't necessarily all of ours here at Huntington we have the education fund operations fund debt fund referendum funds at some districts art and historical food service and grants and fund accounting I kind of explain it to other people like your own your own account you have a checking account you have a savings account I might have a Christmas Club account I might have some other vacation account those different types of account that is um divided up with funds in school districts and then

130um we go uh we budget through uh a extensive process and we have major budget funds that go through that um dlgf that department of local government finance and that um has a criteria that I'll go through uh that has a a long uh checklist and timetable that's required by Indiana code and then uh goes through different processes and adopted by the board and certified by the state and then we have other Grant funds that are approved by the federal and state state level and some local donations and other things that we have budgeted our food service you know they um they go by um their own budgets and um regulations through the food Association and other uh different types of funds throughout the district now here's when I was talking about the major budgeted

131funds if you hear anyone talk about the past general fund you know is general fund for 40 years so people refer to our main fund as general fund back in 2019 uh they did they upset the apple cart they changed all of our funds in school accounting so our old general fund used to be made up of four buckets two of the buckets stayed and created the education fund the education fund is um instructional aimed directly toward students so um over 96% of the education fund is salaries and benefits that's your teachers that's all the people at the building level um that are directly aimed towards um students then we had um old funds that were called capital projects transportation and bus replacement prior to 2019 those other two buckets that I talked about got

132moved in and created that operations fund along with the capital projects the transportation and bus replacement all that moved into one fund which is the general overview operations of the district so that has your transportation department your technology department it has um a lot of the central Administration it has your superintendent Department um business office Department all that is in the general overview um in operations your custodial those type of um positions are also through um through this operations fund and then you'll see some of those ancillary um ones the referendums that we talked about some districts have those there's a referendum debt that other districts have of course we have our debt service our debt service um is where we sell bonds and leases to help fund um o larger capital projects in need

133so uh major repair and Replacements throughout the district so uh when we have Roofing Roofing is very expensive so we we sell bonds to be able to do that that is above and beyond what we can pay with our operations fund so that um every District in the state of Indiana school district has a Debt Service fund for these same likewise um expend expenditures that we need to do throughout the district and then of course a rainy day fund that's just like a savings account any excess money is um saved in our rainy day fund and then you'll see you can read through that I won't read through everything the different uses and Source um for each one of those funds our main source of Revenue that we have for the district for our education

134fund is our tuition support that is um it has all kinds of names state tuition tuition support basic grant that is one and the same it's a funding formula that goes through the legislative session that provides dollars for schools on a per pupil basis that um enrollment that we talk about uh is funded on a per pupil basis that funding uh for our district runs about $38 million from 2020 to 2024 it has raised approximately $4 million for our district so those funds help us when we're doing teacher negotiations to be able to get the teachers um more competitive W rages um wages and such so over 65% of that money goes directly toward the teachers and that bargaining agreement that um Mr trout talked about earlier then some of the other funds outside of

135Education are operations fund our debt service fund are all um their revenue most of that comes from local property taxes so those are our two main buckets of our Revenue that we get for the district and then expenditures that are allowed of course we talked about education fund directly aimed toward the students uh operations already talked about those Debt Service and then different referendums if you've heard that around um other communities and then the other funds that have um sources of revenue and expenditures the main funds are Food Service fund which is a federal program and then other ancillary grants that are federal and state and local programs so wanted to provide some historical data for you a lot of this you might um see through the budget Workshop where we do more in depth

136but I just took snapshots of this so this is our enrollment history his so when I'm talking about that basic grant that tuition support that we receive in our education fund this is where that funding is calculated from our enrollment which is called ADM average daily membership we are on page 166 I apologize and our uh funding comes in two count dates throughout the year so the first count date was just this week October 1 and that funds the district from July 1st to December 31st so you're thinking well if it goes back to July how why don't we take the the count until October Well they um are in line with some other federal regulations in um different counts throughout um the United States on a federal basis so the state changed it um

137to this October 1 date so this October 1 date when um when they solidify ify and certify that there's a couple weeks that it takes to um uh to solidify and certify all those numbers once that's certified they back pay districts if um it was higher than what they originally projected they start out the year we do receive money on a monthly basis and then they Shore it up once that c count is received and certified the next count is February 1st and that one um you'll see the history here it's called the spring count and that is historical data from 2018 um to estimated present and that one is account that funds from January to June of each year and the same thing once that's certified then they back um either pay us or

138if some districts their uh enrollment goes down then they actually withdraw and um take back that money the difference of what that calculates next I wanted to show our tax rate so this is our actual um tax rate for our district from 2019 to present and um I I always like to show data on the left and then a visual on the right so you'll see um I call um this type of of screen here uh a roller coaster so we've been kind of a roller coaster with our tax rate here Home Huntington now our goal in the future is to keep that tax rate stable so since um I've been working with uh Mr trout and the board we have um decided on keeping that stable and you will see that from 2024 on

139we come up with an amount uh that we feel comfortable with and keeping that tax rate stable what does that mean to the public that means now you'll be able to tell what your property taxes will be from year to year based on your assess valuation so instead of you'll see 2019 it was a little over um $1 then in 2020 it dipped so of course you had some relief with your property taxes and then all of a sudden we needed a debt fell off and then we needed to um do some more Roofing Paving lighting some major things throughout the district so then we sold a bond or release and it went way back up so that is what we are um stabilizing in the district so the taxpayers will not have that um

140big shift in the tax rate then you'll see here the assess valuation of course a lot of us know um since covid that the assess valuations across the um the nation have continued to rise along with a lot of other expenses throughout the dish um throughout the nation so this shows you um the difference from 2019 to 202's uh assess valuation in the increases our district has seen with the assess valuation um this year uh that uh in 2025 we we receive these rates in August for the next year so we already um know 2025 we don't have to estimate that when we're preparing our budget and that uh for our district went up 133% now that is on the high front um across the state others within the state um range between four and

1419% so um after this we expect uh our assess valuation to be more stable I think this is still um residual from after covid and you'll see how that kept on going up in 2024 it kind of stabled off and then 25 it went back up and then um predictions are that it will be stabling across the state um in year 26 and on in the budgeting process it is a long um process we uh have a budget Prep schedule that goes to the school board to let them know um when we plan on having the main budgeted um uh required statute steps so there are three main steps to the budget process that uh that the district does and that the board is involved in the first step is when we hold a budget

142Workshop we give a lot of this information we um have and you can look on our website under uh the Departments under business services and you'll see the last um three years of budget workshops so those presentations are on our website and then you'll see a lot of that historical data that same evening we ask for permission to advertise the budgets and we must advertise our budgets on our website so you'll see that notice to taxpayers on our website along with the budget presentation and then we also uh advertise on the Gateway um transparency site uh that is a public uh website it's called Gateway and that also has a a link on our website to go directly to after that the second main step uh has to be a minimum of 10 days in

143between and that is to hold a public hearing so we post that notice to taxpayers we let them know that we will be holding a a public hearing on the budgets on uh a bus replacement plan and also a capital projects plan so um we just uh finished with that at our last uh board meeting meting and then last but not least it must be a minimum of 10 days between each one again and that is where we hold um we ask the board to adopt the budget there's some ancillary resolutions that go with the budget and um that is the last um major piece of the budget we take that information and we submit that to the Department of local government finance and they mold it over they go through all the tax rates

144they do that they solidify everything for every District in the state of Indiana and they're supposed to suppos to certify our budgets by the end of December each year for then the next year our budgets Run January through December these main budgeted funds which is interesting when we're um operate mostly on a school district for um a school year which is a fiscal year so a lot of times we have to think of that we have to think okay in 2025 which we're just in the process of doing for 2025 that is the end of one school year the 24 25 school year and then the other half of that budget is the beginning of the next school year so a lot of um projections um go into that because of course we don't know

145what our new funding will be from the state that legislative session will be happening this spring but I already had to do the budget for 2025 now so it's one of those things where we look at those Trends that's why we show you the trends the historical data and we go by that to um prepare our budget then next this is just a a snapshot of our education fund and information uh that we share during our budget workshop and um those dollars the difference between our actual budget order our certified budget order and what we're advertising and then here's our expenditures and I um always list this by type and these are object codes and you'll see here we're 90 um over 95% of our education fund is s salaries and benefits that is that

146direct instruction from all of our teachers all of our support staff at the building level and then here's um the the revenue for our debt service fund and then what we prepare for our debt service fund is this long range debt schedule and this is to show you um what I presented to the superintendent and to the board to show you how we want to stabilize that tax rate to alleviate that roller coaster effect for our tax ta payers so this is a a schedule that I have prepared to um know when um some debt might fall off what the future holds for the district what's the board's um aspirations on where they want that tax rate to be and then I work backwards from that and um create this long range schedule and this

147goes all the way out to 2040 I think it is so we project way out for the district operations fund same thing the snapshot of the revenue that comes mostly from um property taxes and our operations fund has what's called a maximum Levy so this is another reason why we have to utilize our debt service fund so if you're thinking well I thought our operations fund was all those um the custodial and repairs and maintenance General repairs and maintenance it is for the daily work that we do because we have a maximum amount a levy is the property tax that we can raise from taxpayers so there's a cap on our um property taxes for our operations fund that's why every other District in the um state of Indiana utilizes that Debt Service fund for

148major repair and Replacements because it's millions of dollars to replace different parts of the roof for Paving for lighting all those other things and then also what we have here at uh Huntington is uh the property tax caps so this is a circuit breaker tax um caps that you as a property owner only um can pay up to a certain cap on your property tax well when that was established we used to as a district get say whatever that calculated um at a full rate then they put these caps in the taxpayer only pays up to this amount but we used to get this for Revenue that is a loss for the District so that's what this is is the historical um amounts from 2020 all the way to present of what the district loses

149out on that maximum property tax that we get for operations they take this right off the top before they give us our distribution of our um property taxes so we actually lose anywhere from you'll see 1.6 million to a little over 2 million per year due to those caps it's good good for the taxpayer but then for the district that's where we have to um look at other means like our debt service to do major Renovations and then you'll see here are operations fund expenditures by type and you'll see how that um varies throughout the different types from supplies the salaries and benefits utilities that comes out of our operations fund and such technology Capital outlay all those T then what we do is we take all this information behind the sces these are some

150forms that I have to do through um that Gateway website that we talked about and um the inputs are there on the top this is all the information that um that I have to gather budget estimates that is line by line budgeting so that is okay what are the salaries for the teachers at salamony I have a line item for that what are the benefits for those teachers oh what is their um FICA I have a line item for that what is their teachers retirement I have a line item for that so that form one budget estimate is line by line budgeting that we go through and that's why it takes from May all the way through September to um gather that data and then it goes into a calculation that's where the rates and

151all that come and then the notice to taxpayers and then the resolutions that we'll be adopting at the um next board meeting so the um financial information you'll see um different uh goals and such that that we are um adhering to and that is of course maintaining balance budgets uh Mr trout talked about in strategic plan earlier about that 15% minimum of a cash um operating balance to maintain that we're well above that so we're right on target with that one um you'll see we talked about the maintaining the stable tax rate a strong credit rating because of those um operating Reserve balances and creating a stable tax rate that helps us when we go to sell those bonds and leases um it makes us very attractive for the banks that that purchase those we

152get a better rate for that um talking about um the monthly budget reports from um Business Services annual budget work sessions and other um information throughout the year based on um Esser the different grants that we have um year-end analysis cash flows and federal grants so um just a that is our main corporation financing so does anyone have any direct questions for that before I get into those other two that we talked about ECA and pto's that's I know that's a lot of information it's a lot to absorb but I'd be happy to answer any questions or I can go ahead and move on to the other two I'll go ahead and move on then extracurricular um what I do here is I kind of just put um a couple things on uh for dos

153and don'ts this extracurricular is um raised specifically for an activity or a fundraiser for students um for the benefit of students and they use utilize a fund accounting and some don'ts that you um cannot do through your extracurricular that's the building level um financing uh and um recordkeeping is you cannot do adult activities PTO ptas or boosters do not go through that and you cannot have a negative balance in those funds at any time what that means is that's money that is collected from students for a for a purpose and then expended for that purpose so say they're going on a field trip it might cost them $3 a person because $1 goes for transportation that's paying a transportation bill and the other could be you know the entry to that zoo or anything like

154that so that's why you collect the money and then you um expend it according to um what your purpose was for that um extracurricular activity and it's just talking about how the um ECA treasure the extracurricular treasure at the building level is the bonded person for that and even um that between that person and the principal is responsible for those um funds and then it's overseen by the corporation treasure and Deputy treasure also at the district level and they have different requirements of transparency requirements that are uploaded to that Gateway site on a monthly basis so does the district so this trans trans ercy site has um their financials it has their Bank reconciliations it has all that that they're required along with the district to um upload to that State website and then here

155we're just talking about um different things for uh the activities fund what you cannot do out of that is special equipment anything that is instruction related because that's at the district level those different um dos and don'ts that uh you can do through the uh ECA records PTO and boosters a lot of times people don't understand um how this can blur the lines when there is clear Indiana code that um that it is a separate entity it is an outside entity they have their own tax ID number they cannot funnel any of their part of their um finances through Corporation books they can't at the building level or the district level they cannot use the school tax um exempt certificate they have to have their own so they cannot utilize they might um of course

156they support the schools they do all those things but they're an outside entity outside bank account outside tax everything is outside the school books um the the um district is not allowed to handle any of their money we're not bonded for that kind of organization we're bonded for the district monies and the extracurricular monies but not PTO or boosters so of course boosters PTO can make donations to the schools can make donations to the district you know um it has parents grandparents local businesses general public it's all part of those organizations we love them they support us they're they're wonderful advocates for the schools and then just little tips that I've run across in my 20-y year career I forgot to mention that um I'm going in my 21st um year of um being a

157a Chief Financial Officer for a school district and these are just some things that I've run across in my tenure um of giving tips to PTO and boosters from um horror stories that I've heard one is um no ATM cards so they should not have ATM cards where they are circumventing their own um body that helps with the finances and um they should go through the regular process of approvals and that um through their organizations or PTR boosters um no cash withdrawals they should do everything by um check and um all that through their books so it's has a record of it um dual signature checks we always suggest that they have um two signatures to help with any kind of fraud in case um someone would um have a a need and uh make

158a poor choice and then you'll see all these different things um that if if you have unaccountable money what to do all those um dos and don'ts for tips for PTO and boosters now I know that's a a lot of information for finance um we have um different things like I said that we that we provide to the school board everything from cash flows to now to um board financial statements that have the graphs and the data with them um Regular presentations throughout the year and an annual um presentation also and we uh present all this information um through a board meeting and also um of course the public can witness and and um listen to all that I would be happy to answer any questions I know um I'm um an advocate for educating

159on finance I know that we're a school district and uh our biggest part is the teachers and teaching the students but I feel through my over 20e career that my job is to educate people um through the district and community on school finances and the differences and the complexities that we have through school Finance okay questions for Mrs Smith I had one question on the the PTO and booster financials are those supposed to be open like the school finances or do they have to disclose that to the public or nope they don't have to do anything through the school they don't have to present anything to the school that's what makes it so um complex is that we have no oversight over PTO or boosters they are not regulated to have to show us anything

160or the schools or the district any thing of their finances so it's very important for their internal controls if you're involved in that or know someone that is that make sure that they're doing those tips those checkpoints and um um on their own because unfortunately you've seen things on you know the front page of the newspapers where um something has happened at a school district and people don't understand these three different ways of financing that we have the district Corporation level the ECA and the pto's boosters they think that's part of this District's books and it's not so that's why I like to educate um people on the three the difference of those three um Financial entities what what is their checks and balance system that they use to to be all of them are

161different and there's no requirement so that's the difference so it could be a little mom and popop thing because they might not have a lot of volunteers that do it all on their own and they might have just a checking account at the local bank and they I've seen place that had ATM cards in that where there was two people involved and one started taking all the money out of the account and the other one didn't know it because they didn't have checks and balances so that's why I have those tips because I have seen that over my um 20-year career so I think it's very important um when we um have those entities to maybe educate them hold special education things we can educate them they don't have to follow it but we can

162give them these tips and um ideas to help them through their journey of that type of uh entity good question good question yeah very any other questions for Mrs Smith as we're running just right up to the time here but we'll take any other questions you may have okay uh Mr brimberry I'm G to ask you to do the last part in three minutes okay got you we're on the home stretch you guys are having a good time tonight uh if you look on page 191 192 Mr trout part of uh getting experienc superintendent Mr trout they give you reports for the board of facility studies so one of the things he got done um you're looking at on those pages in the next but basically it's every building and what condition um the buildings

163are in that need prioritized and um for long range planning what are your immediate needs what are your long range plans you can see those for every building in the Corp this was done by vidiian architecture um and I would also tell you that that allows the board that Mr trout works with and I do to look at what is next steps when do you want to do it funding match with projects and so what you have there for your reading is to go through uh those different priorities and evaluations what you see on the screen from uh Mrs uh gray uh are some different mechanical and controls Replacements as you can see uh there's been two phases at Huntington North phase one was completed this summer which is part of the building uh for

164HVAC the uh there's some ongoing now and then another Penthouse will be completed next summer so HVAC completion is scheduled for the end of next summer at Huntington North uh rather large project from one of the things Cindy if you want to go ahead and click ahead uh different Mechanicals controls replacement pictures that uh Terry thornsbury has shown the board over time go ahead Cindy um that is our uh and consumer science that is their lab and that was a part of the construction project that was just finished up at Huntington North uh very proud of that that was uh one of the priorities uh that you'll see that has been just recently completed we're doing punch list as we speak go ahead Cindy uh phase one of science lab renovation kids and teachers absolutely

165love it uh for the board's purposes and uh for Community phase two will be uh complete and it's being punchless now for Oct October 15th and then the planetarium will be October 22nd so phase two completely done and punch list will be this month the exterior walls and you can see some of those things but uh a lot of great work if you um I just love going in there the kids and teachers are are just thrilled about the academic setting uh those were in um poor shape when they started so uh just outstanding Administration renovation is going on right now framing has been completed uh they're doing rough uh plumbing and electrical work as we speak the next two to three weeks go ahead Cindy uh H&S ceiling lighting mechanical PA and piping those

166are uh getting ready to happen I would anticipate uh those uh coming your way in terms of start dates um right around the Christmas holiday sometime that will take place to be finished in the next year we had uh construction meetings today looking at strategically they will do four classrooms at a time which will take up to two weeks for those blocks uh they will also coordinate that with PA install installation they will coordinate that with some piping stuff and the HVAC project that's going on simultaneously so a tad busy around here all of that will be completed in a timely manner by I think December of 20 um five and so we'll we'll have this wrapped up so we got a lot of things simultaneously happening there go ahead Cindy uh you can see

167uh some of the issues they're dealing if you go in the new science or this particular one you'll see what uh less lighting and more efficient and more cost efficient looks like if you walk outside the hall you'll see what the tunnels look like that are more lighting and less efficient and uh cost more so that's an example of that uh different all hallways and all classrooms will be completed on the science and uh uh for the excuse me on the lighting um and piping and uh ceilings those will all be completed except these are areas due to budget uh what we call the West science now you all would call new science but it's now old science it's the West area that lighting is still up to par and will not be touched during

168this those classrooms as well are still fine will not do due to budget the library art and the Fieldhouse and Arena areas those will not be a part of the ceiling lighting and those on this phase okay that'll be for future board consideration salamony HVAC will start this summer they'll do the part that the kids are in uh during the summer they will go to where the current administration offices and business office so on they will start that during the year so it won't affect any classroom so that will start this summer and be completed by December of 25 is the goal so we'll see hopefully that stays on budget and on on task salamony HVAC currently um steam I believe and not many of those left when we fix that rather challenging to find

169people who are experts in those particular areas from the 60s uh still for uh things that we deal with down there so that'll be great for salamony restroom renovation we should start that uh on your latest one this will happen simultaneously as well as many other project in the high school those will start um and keep the dates straight I believe that will start in January uh and go through next December and for that be a yearl project so some of that will take place during the school year the primary ones near the kids common spaces will take place in the summer and do you mind if I tag on to that this is an example of what we're using our debt service fund for these are these major projects that we sold those bonds

170and leases for that's helping us do these renovations if not we would not have enough funds in our operations fund um to be able to do these type of things so that's what we're um utilizing is our B selling bonds to our debt service and um we're doing these projects when he's talking about um according to budget and uh of course we have so much money that we sold those bonds for and that we have to keep um within those dollars because then we have to wait for something else maybe to come off where then we sell another Bond or lease in its in its place as old old bonds or leases come off then um we're utilizing those dollars to do all these Renovations so that's why they use this facility study to be

171able to um earmark what um is needed next um throughout the district as we do that long range plan that I showed you till um um 2040 thank you Mr trout I believe that completes us so um with this when a new board is seated in January what I want you to know is that we are going to go back through this process of facility study because it's three it's going to be going on almost three years now and so numbers change directions of new board changes but what we're going to do as a board in 25 is we're going to go back through that process and then what you as a board will do is determine with all of those um Pages for example 189 to 220 what's the order that you want as

172a board to do the remaining projects okay now it's not just that easy or not just not that simple because what we're going to do then is is to line up cost with bonds coming off and money's becoming available and so the board in 25 and 26 is going to use those 24 months for planning for future upgrades to our facilities based on the available uh funding that we have because we do do have bonds coming off in the next two to three years and so we need to be making preparations of what do you as a board want to see happen next we still have lots of items here at the high school we still have items across our district and what do you as a board want to see is taking president over

173the other and so that will be multiple uh meetings multiple data Gathering multiple on a lot of fronts for us to determine okay what's our plan moving forward to address our facility our facility needs Becky will play a huge role in this in helping us to understand mone's available monies that we don't have available bonds that are coming off do you lease do you do a Geo Bond do you do do you do do you do and we'll work through all of that stuff um it will be a lot um um we as a community made a decision a few years ago that a referendum wasn't the route but we have to use the funds that are available to us and I think that we've done a decent job at that I think we've done

174a great job at that actually and now what's the future hold how are we going to do that um how are we going to do that and I think that's why we have to look at the funds available the needs that are met and the things that happen and so if you are a new board member and you're coming on that will include tours it'll include tours to places you've probably never been to inside our facilities quite frankly um so um I'm excited about that work it's a lot of work but I don't want to go on three four year data old data to make decisions either we got to get new estimates we got to get new study done and we have to look what we got so that's been very helpful questions about

175facility studies I have a quick one yeah go ahead thank you um how much does it cost to uh originate a bond how much does it cost to originate a bond how much does it cost to to do the bonds yeah to isue bond so it depends on our credit rating so there's a lot of different variables in that so if you're asking me okay what does it cost on a um approximately a $5 million Bond of Interest it's a couple $100,000 no just to issue the bond like all the legal fees all the um it's under $100,000 so the legal fees between the legal fees we have a financial advisor and then we have a bond counsel and then our our just our regular staff so that just that part alone issuance fees run

176um I would say between 50 and $660,000 just for that issuance part and them to develop all the paperwork the paperwork um if any of you get on the board they can attest to the paperwork that you have to to sign for those um General obligation bonds to meet the legal requirements in Indiana um there's a lots of paperwork if you think of a mortgage when you're doing your mortgage a lease um is just like your mortgage at home so when you when you go to buy your home and you see that stack of paperwork it's basically that same type of thing it has an amortization schedule it has the um regulations of the interest rate and all those different parameters but good question thank you others yes Mr car so we heard a lot

177about the education on the the elementary the middle school and the high school um one of my questions is on the Learning Center and the vocational project you talked about Miss Drummond doing an excellent job and I've heard nothing but great things about her but we didn't really get a breakdown of anything that's going on over there I was running I was running out of time sorry er no that's fine but that's something that I I know um if if we've got you got a really good program for kids going to college and and it sounds like we have a really good program for kids that aren't on the college course and and I would like a little more information on that sheening um criminology nursing uh 911 um police and fire or uh fire

178and rescue um there is so many different Pathways over there and and anytime Aaron I'd love to take you a tour on that one um it is amazing it's my favorite space in the school uh you'd love it so uh reach out to me I'll take you over there and take you walk around with Tiffany and you'll see all the different things they do it's pretty extraordinary glad to any of you I mean that yeah I'd love to it's it's a kind of a source of pride in my opinion Huntington has it and I'm not sure they know how wonderful it really is but coming from the outside back here it's pretty amazing um Aon what I'm planning on doing we're in the process of leaving our current area 18 Co-op cooperative for a variety

179of reasons mainly to the main two main reasons is one it's more fiscal Luc fiscally lucrative for us to be on our own um because we're sharing program and administrative cost with school districts and Adams Wells Blackford and J County and quite frankly we just have outgrown it um we do not benefit from being in that Co-op any longer and so there's going to be a board report on that sooner than later I'm currently negotiating that process away from that um the second reason is um we no longer need to share program our prog we no longer need to have students go to other districts for programming um we have opened so many new programs we're filling them that that's also ties to the financial piece of this process too and so what I will

180do in an upcoming work session is I'll make sure that Mrs Miss Drummond comes and does a complete presentation at a work session so you all can see that um I'm just waiting until we're a little farther down the process because I know that's going to be the question that all of you are going to ask me where are we with that because we've been working on that well over a year uh now and so um it's a fair question it's a great question um it's our fastest growing programming that we have in the district right now is over there um at the Learning Center so thank you Aon auto body is another area over there too they do a great job so I'd love to show you guys okay anything else facilities okay thank

181you it's a lot it's a lot okay yes Kathy shock swingle from District Four and I just want to reiterate how wonderful this meeting was and how informative it was and I really appreciate everybody's time thank you so you you uh great segue and so what I want to say is is that seriously if you're a current board member um I hope we were able to share information with you that um maybe you learned something today too if you're a prospective new board member please reach out to me I would welcome the opportunity to sit down with you further and have any conversation about any of the information in the um in that secondly seriously if any of you want to go through the learning center um please reach out to us we'd be more

182than happy to take you over there um I was embarrassed when I started working here two and a half years ago I can't tell you how many times I've driven up and down Jefferson Street and didn't realize what was going on really truly did not understand what the the the programming going on in that building it's it's absolutely amazing amazing what our kids are doing and the opportunities they're having graduating from here to do that so please reach out but I would welcome the opportunity to meet with any of you uh moving forward don't hesitate to reach out to me and and go through any of this information or anything else that might be on your mind um thank you everyone uh Becky Chuck Jay Cindy thank you uh appreciate you guys for your evening

183and uh we'll see you all soon take care may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting pleas so moved second all in favor I I those opposed for