001Call the meeting to order. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I want to welcome everyone to the school board meeting this evening. Um we'll remind everyone that we are live streaming um the board meeting this tonight. We also want to welcome Kurt Neman to his first board meeting. Um Kurt was sworn in week and a half ago um as a new board member. So our seventh board member. So it's great to have you um look forward to working with you. Um, so we'll um start with a motion to accept consent agenda items. I have a motion by Chelsea. Do I have a second? Second.
002Second by Pat. Any discussion? All those in favor? 70. Um, next we'll move down um to community non-aggenda items. Um, so um we do have someone here to participate in public u participation, but um we'll read the guidelines first to start out with. Um, so the school board does recognize the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on corporation matters. This meeting is a meeting of the school board for public um in public for the purpose of conducting school corporations business and is not to be considered a public community meeting. There will be time for public participation as indicated by the agenda. The board provides public comment at the beginning of the meeting for items not on the agenda. For items on the
003agenda, the board may take comment during the meeting as the board considers items. The board president will direct when public comment is appropriate. Um the presiding officer shall be um guided by the following rules. Public participation shall be permitted as indicated on the order of business provided. However, the public participation may be prohibited at any meeting that must be conducted remotely or virtually due to a disaster emergency declared by federal, state, or local officials unless the board has elected to allow oral public comment. As such, board meetings um above attendees sh shall register their intention to participate in public portion of the meeting upon arrival to the meeting. Participants shall be recognized by the presiding officer and shall be requested to preface their comments by an announcement of their name, address, group affiliation if and
004when appropriate. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes in duration. And we do have a clock that we'll use as a timer. Um, no participant may speak more than once. No participant may pass their time to another participant. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No person may address or question board members individually. The presiding officer may prohibit um public comments which are harassing, interrupt, warn or terminate a person's statement when the statement is too lengthy, personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant. Um request any individual to leave a meeting when that person behaves in a manner that is disruptive to the orderly conduct of the meeting. to request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a person who is willfully disruptive or when that person's
005behavior interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting. um call for recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such action and waves um these rules with approval of the board when necessary for the protection of privacy or the administration of the board's business. The portion of the meeting during which public oral comment is held shall be limited to 30 minutes unless extended by a vote of the board provided. However, that every person who is physically present and has followed the reasonable rules set forth above shall be permitted um an opportunity to provide oral public comment by dividing the total time for oral public comment by the number of persons providing those comments. And this is part of
006our Niola policy um P 01673. So, will ask if anyone is present who would like to speak on any item that is on the agenda or any other topic. And we do have one individual Gita if you want to go ahead and um come up to the podium if you'll state um your name, address, and group affiliation. And then you can we'll start the timer and you can make your start. Okay. First, that's a mouthful. Oh my gosh. Yes. So, Lita Hadley, 231 High Street. I'm with the Jennings County Drug and Alcohol Task Force. Um I had flyers but you know technology did not work with me. So I just have a couple announcements um that have already been shared on parent square. One is that we are having an open forum for parents um
007provided by centerstone at North Brennan Elementary July 15th 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. for all parents. that doesn't include I mean if you're online any parent um it's titled let's talk um mental health so it's just open form for parents and discussing mental health with our kids so that's one um the next thing is we are having a back to school event um July 26 that is from 10:00 a.m. to that is at the CSL clubhouse. There is construction in front of CSL which is blocking off the main entrance. So I will be providing 20 signs throughout all pathways to the clubhouse just for you know clarity. I I've only been out there a couple times since that happened. Kind of a maze to get through. Um the next thing is that we are having a
008parent cafe survey um that it will be posted on social media, shared throughout Parent Square just to kind of say, "Hey parents, what do you need? Um how can we help support from that survey?" We will be adjusting some educational forums and talks um from the feedback. Um that's really that's all I have today. I had flyers, but so check parent square, check social media. Um, they'll be shared on a couple different platforms. So, what a minute. That's not a minute, man. I try to get through it fast. That's great. That's That's all I have. I'm just going to run through the three items if that's okay with you. I'll just read them and you tell me if if I got them correct. Perfect. Okay. Um, so the open forum, this is um provided by
009Centerstone at North Vernon Elementary on July the 15th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. um inviting all parents and this is a let's talk mental health. Yes. Okay. Um there's a back to school event on July the 26th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 pm at the CSL clubhouse and you'll make sure that there's lots of signs. Okay. And then a parent cafe survey. Did I get that right? So asking for feedback from parents through parent square and social media so that you know how to better provide resource for parents and family members. Yep. Okay. Um what social media will the survey you said parents were in social media. Is there a certain page that that they should look out for? So it'll be posted like on Heads Up Jennings County across the board because it's not
010just one organization that's putting it together. It's kind of a collective communitywide effort that there's like seven of us that have come together to try to help. So, it it'll be put everywhere. Perfect. And we'll have that on our new social media page, Jennings County School Corporation. So, we'll share it there as well. Yeah, that's a great time to remind everybody. Jennings County School Corporation does have a new social media page. If you have not liked it, if you navigate to the old page, Nikki has it linked in the post that says this page is old and it'll take you right to the new and you can like it. I did it myself tonight. Super easy. So, please go and like the new Jennings County School Corporation Facebook page. Lots of important back to school
011information. Great to be there soon. Can I add one comment? I'm sorry. As I was going through this, the back to school event at CSL that's providing haircuts, back health screenings, all backpacks, school supplies, um, oh gosh, all of it. There's resources for parents, all all kinds of stuff. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Great information. We'll try to I'll try to circle back around and remind everybody again at the end of the meeting. Um, and so Gita was the only person that signed in to speak. So assuming no one else wanted to speak, um, we'll move on to new business. We have some policies. Yes, this is a first reading of a batch of Neiola policies. Please reach out if you have any questions. So, first reading. So, this is an inform.
012So, make sure that you're reviewing those policies that were included in your packet tonight. Next, under programs, we have Panther online academy handbook. Yes, this is just an inform also. This is a handbook that was used for students similar or similar to the one after the pandemic. There's few changes, but it's it's what we followed after the pandemic for the most part. Great. Okay, again that item is an inform. Um, so next we have JCHSCT course proposals. We have two new courses um that we are proposing. This is an inform also fundamentals of human services and community health workers. This is so that we can update our health and human service pathways um which aligns more with careers and new federal regulations. Um this will not um affect the our students who are on the
013old pathway. They'll still be able to finish. Great. And that is an also in pilot. Um we have another elementary JCMS JC um MS and JCHS curricular materials list. This is our annual approval of the curriculum materials K through 12. It's the assoc associated fees if a student would lose their material and would have to pay for a replacement because we do not charge for textbooks. So again, that is an um so next we'll come down under professional staff. We have some recommendations asking for approval for the following recommendations. Excuse me. Holly Boswell's Holly Boswell, S Creek Elementary teacher. Nicole Cree, Hayden Elementary principal. Ashley Heindel, Jennings County Middle School girls cross country coach. Jill Stoner, Jennings County High School girls cross country coach. I have a motion by Travis. I have a second by
014Mary Limb. Any discussion? All those in favor? 70. And I believe we have we're going to wait. If you don't mind, it' be good. That' be great. Thank you. Hold on. Hold my horses. Also asking for approval for the following recommendations pending hiring requirements, please. Lily Arnhold, North Elementary teacher. Maline Buffington, Jennings County High School English teacher. Okay. I entertain a motion to approve. So moved. I have a motion by Pat. I got a second by Cheryl. Any discussion? All those in favor? Seven. Now we're ready to celebrate. We are We are excited. We have our we have our new family with us here today and that would be Nicole Creech um Hayden principal and true principal. And so if you would please stand up Nicole. We'd appreciate it. Would you introduce please family or
015friends that are with you today. This is my son Corbin. He goes to Hayden. He's going to be a sixth grader. And then this is my husband Jeremy. And then also stay standing. We're going to keep you there. Okay. Also right in front of her we have our new Jennings County High School English teacher. And that would be um forgive me. I looked at it wrong. Matteline Buffington. Thank you. Hi. And then Maline, you didn't have any other guests with you today. Is that correct? No. Okay. And then I'm going to go back here to the back row. Holly Boswell is back here. Holly's going to be at S Creek Elementary. And do you have someone you would like to introduce? Oh, this is my husband Tyler. He's with me today. Great. Thank you. And
016then right in front of her um with by Mrs. Webster is Ly Arnhold, who is going to be at Norfern Elementary as a teacher. Hi, Lley. Hi. Do you have some friends you or family you'd like to introduce? Yes. This is my little sister, Kiki. She's going into second grade this year at Richard's Elementary in Columbus. And this is my mom, Christina, and my stepdad, Chris. Great. We are so thankful to have all your friends and family here. And we have a tradition here that we just love. And if we'd like to welcome ourselves. So, if you will walk around the circle, we'd like to welcome you in and shake your hand. Can I take pictures? Congratulations. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Congratulations. You're not alone. [Music] Congratulations. There was pressure trying to hit these
017things. All right. the first time. So glad to have you. Congratulations. Welcome. Thank you so much, Lily. Congratulations. It's great to have Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. There he is. Very good. Well, again, we want to um just welcome all of you. Um really here at Jenny's County School Corporation, um we see everybody as family. So, you're now part of our family. We're excited about that um to see what you can do to help us grow our students. So, welcome again. Um anything else there? Okay, perfect. All right, so we're down to item number four, St. Mary's title tutors. Yes, I asking for approval for Abby Capes and Jennifer Erle um for the second half of last school year and the beginning of the school year um to be approved as tutors and it was from the
018latest grant approval. Entertain a motion to approve those. A motion by Travis. Do I have a second? Second by Curtis. Kurt. Kurt. I'll get it right. Um by Kurt. So he is officially on record. Has a second there. Wonderful. Um any discussion? All those in favor? Seven. No. So now we'll move down under support staff under recommendations. Yes, please. Also asking approval for these recommendations. Samuel Ernst, Jennings County High School assistant boys football coach. Shane Howard, Jennings County High School assistant boys football coach. Larry Marksbury, Jennings County High School custodial termination. Trey McAdam, Jennings County High School assistant boys football coach. Chelsea Staples, Jennings County High School administrative assistant to the principal. Nathaniel Staples, Jennings County High School boys cross country coach. Ashley Whitaker, Jennings County Middle School assistant girls volleyball coach. We'll entertain a
019motion to a motion by Mary Lyn. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Pat. Any discussion? Question. Chelsea. Not already. It's a change in your position. Okay. Any other discussion? All those in favor? 70. Yes. Also asking for approval, please, for Tamara Phelps to be employed as Sugene County School Corporation bus. Entertain a motion to approve. Motion by Cheryl. We got a second. Second by Kurt. Any discussion? All those in favor? Seven. And also three more recommendations, please. Alexander Gabbert, Jennings County Middle School custodian, pending hiring hiring requirements. Austin Grund, Jennings County Middle School 7th grade boys assistant football coach. And Vicky Wer, Jennings County High School administrative assistant as a treasurer. Those last three all pending hiring requirements. We entertain a motion to approve. A motion by Travis. Got a second. Second by
020Pat. Any discussion? All those in favor. Seven. Which takes us down to finances. We have some couple donations. Yes. Ask the board for approval for the following donations. The high school student help fund in memory of Linda England. uh Paula and Ed Urle $50 and the high school class of 2025 $1,000 and also Blackcat racing team in memory of Tyler Wells, Patrick and Cynthia Reic $20. Entertain a motion to approve those donations as read. Motion by Cheryl. Do I have a second? Second by Pat. Any discussion? All those in favor? Seven. On the next we have a cost containment update. Nikki. Yes. I want to give an update on cost containment and I know that's a project we've been working on throughout the last year. We've had multiple different conversations on that and and in
021meetings. Um but I'd like to summarize the work we've done so far. And I assure as you've been following the news, there's a lot of work that's going to be ahead of us due to some changes in state funding and property taxes and then also due to some federal grant freezes. So, to make sure that I share that same information with you, and I'd like to make sure our public's aware of it as well, I'm just going to read through a statement on what we've done with cost containment and what our plans are going forward. Um, so I have a little bit of information here to kind of follow through, but we identified in the 23 24 school year that we had a need for cost containment due to ongoing enrollment loss, which is very
022common in public schools across the state. But we worked with a demographer to confirm this wasn't a limited time issue and that it was expected continue for some time because of our birth rate and our mobility. That loss of enrollment impacts our largest funding stream as a corporation. So, student enrollment is what drives ADM funding from the state. Our other means of funding are property taxes, local income tax, and state and federal grants. In the 24 and 25 school year, we did a comprehensive review of our student needs, programs, and opportunities. We were able to directly identify areas that we were overstaffed because of enrollment loss. Um, for instance, that's over a thousand students in a 10-year period. Just to give you some context, we worked as a team to that was including the board,
023JCCTA, and each department to identify where we could make adjustments to rightsize our staffing to with minimal impact on our students. Since staffing accounts for around 85% of our total budget, stabilizing funding to match enrollment size helps support our fiscal responsibility. We determined that we had 35 positions that needed to be absorbed for the 2526 school year. We were able to downsize through natural attrition for the majority of those positions. So, we were able to recall 31 staff into openings that had occurred due to resignations or retirements. This accounts to an overall reduction of approximately 1.7 million. Unfortunately though, as we thoughtfully planned and made these difficult decisions to rightsize our staffing and enrollment, other funding streams were then impacted by the new legislation that was finalized and um shared this summer. So, we have
024estimated losses of over a billion dollars in the next three years in property tax revenue with Senate Bill One. We will also have the loss of local income tax in 2028 for schools and there is a current freeze on federal grant dollars which is equivalent to about a quarter million4 quarter million dollars for Jennings County schools. So while we are able to weather these additional losses at this time we will need to consider what further reductions are needed over the course of the next year to maintain financial stability and the high quality services and opportunities that we have for our students. The first step in us understanding all these new regulations and understand the impact of Senate Bill one on our property tax funding is what's in front of us. So I've asked Barry Gardner
025who we work with from policy analytics to present to the board the impact we're going to see locally on our funding funding given the projections of these new regulations. Um so he's going to come present at our next board work session which will be on July 24th. That's before the next regular meeting. he presents at 6 pm and we will live stream that so that if community members are interested in understanding what that impact will be and what that looks like um they'll be able to watch along as well. Um this change in funding for schools is going to be an ongoing conversation. This presentation by Barry is just a first step in wrapping our our minds around what this new regulation looks like. Um and this is for us and as well as all
026public schools in Indiana. So these are topics you're going to hear about frequently and I want to make sure that I'm giving us the the local picture. Um, and that includes bringing in some financial experts to help share that information. So, Barry will be here at the next meeting. Um, and that will just be ongoing conversations that we have, but we will try to be as transparent as possible and make sure we're trying to share that information in a variety of ways. So, this is just the first step in that. So, I think Nikki, from my perspective, I just want to say thank you um for um helping to educate us as board members. you know, part of our responsibility is really to understand um the our fiscal responsibility when it comes to um the
027Jennings County um public school corporation. So um we appreciate this. We would again invite public um to either live stream, again we're live streaming now, we'll live stream on the evening of July the 24th. Again, Barry Gardner will be here to talk at 6:00 pm. And so if you can't be here in person, um again, take the opportunity to either watch it live or it will be recorded and posted on our um website and so you can go back and watch the recorded version as well. Any comments from board members? I I would just say I highly recommend uh spread the word. You know, public schools are facing unprecedented times and uh people understand how funding happens or you understand what we're facing. I think it'll dispel a lot of uh misconceptions out there and
028uh ideas about the way we actually run schools. So, highly recommend that you go if you would have friends and neighbors too. Thank you. So, next we'll go down under operations. We have an authorization to fill positions. So asking for authorization to fill positions without board action prior to August 7th. That gets us through the first day of school. Um in case we have any urgent need. Motion by Pat, second by Mary Lynn. Any discussion? All those in favor? 7, which brings us down to other no other than August 6th is quickly approaching. So we're excited making prep preparations. And if you haven't followed our new site on Jennings County School Corporation on Facebook yet, please do because we'll put registration times and all kinds of important information there. Great. So again, a couple reminders
029um from Alita who spoke earlier, open forum um provided by Center STEM at North Elementary on July the 15th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Again, all parents are welcome. Um the topic is let's talk mental health. Um back to school event at CSL Clubhouse. on July the 26th from 10 a.m. to 2 pm. Lots of signs out at CSL to get you to the right location with construction. And then a parent cafe survey um to allow parents to provide feedback that will be coming out through Parent Square and other social media um again would like to collect um collectively um you know get that feedback so that we know what your needs are as far as resources. And then again the board work session July the 24th at 6 pm um really um to talk
030about financial finances. So um having nothing else on the agenda we'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Travis. I have a second by Chelsea. All those in favor 70 meeting.