001call the meeting to order and we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance I alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all want to thank everyone for joining us um for the school board meeting this evening and remind everyone that we are live streaming um this meeting um so we'll start with a motion to accept consent agenda items I have a motion by Earl do I have a second second second by Pat any discussion all those in favor 70 next we'll U move down to community non-agenda items we have some recognitions we do this evening we're going to start with um recognizing and celebrating a Sports achievement and then begin with girls volleyball and if
002they'd like to come in I want you be able to look at them while I read all their achievements up front go right down in room that way they get to see you all yeah so I am going to read some achievements of this historic team for this year everybody get in here so hear anything okay the jny County lady Panthers had a historical season finishing with a record of 26 and9 and 5 and one in the hoer Hills conference the lady Panthers defeated Greensburg and Batesville to capture the first sectional title in 33 years also they also defeated Jasper to capture the first Regional Title in 33 years and some additional um call outs for team members the hooer hills all conference was aan Belding and Addison Martin hoer Hill's honorable mention Cadence lman
003and mallerie manowitz Indiana high school volleyball coaches association academic All State gold honors aan Belding mallerie manowitz Ava eving and Lauren hurger American volleyball coaches association best and brightest award mallerie manowitz ihsvca South all district team aan Belding and Addison Martin avca All Region team a a Belding and er allstar game participants aan Belding Addison Martin and mallerie manowitz you can see how worthy they are of our celebration and we would love to get a picture with you if everybody doesn't mind gathering in that section you got the allstar team you just figured it all out [Laughter] yeah I know I did here go all right here we go all right oh my goodness thank you thank you bye guys good job great seas so I know that was a lot for those in the
004room and also I'm sure for those streaming but again uh what a great accomplishment for our volleyball team so um very proud of them super excited it has been fun to watch them and just to follow um them throughout the season so next we have right Esports yes yes we have a presentation from our Esports team welcome come all the way in you know that open spot over there might be perfect for you to do your presentation from so we can see your faces and look at the screen hello we are jchs sports um a year ago almost to the month uh we were here proposing this program to you guys um I believe it was unanimous unanimously voted on and I figured uh we should come and sort of show what we're doing all
005the cool things we got in the lab um I want to start by first can we move on to the next Slide by first introducing my team starting with our team captain Dylan Hubble hello and then you can introduce yourselves now oh I'm Nolan uh I'm here I'm Noah CR oh I'm Jessie Barger I help her in streams I'm Seth jeer and I'm J gram and we are missing Sam and Zack and Vincent they either had work schedules or um just disappeared today um we started off the Year back in August starting uh with the Indiana Esports Network on a club level this was a probationary period We were put on to um all of our games were exhibitions just sort of getting the field the league in October we started partnering with Ball State
006University um they have a at the time 20th ranked Esports program um specifically in the game we play um I think they've slipped just a little bit since but are still hanging in there top 25 I think um this last January we started at the varsity season competing against other schools in the state uh we have played and remind me if I'm forgetting any who was first Hobart was first Hobart High School um Scottsburg Norwell and have we played blon we haven't played blon yet who was last one Mount Vernon was the last one we were supposed to play Columbia City but they forfeited the morning of our match um we actually have jumped into four- one on the season and are taking fifth place in the playoffs I think hoping to rise up a
007little bit um all of the teams in our leag make the playoffs but our seaing sort of matters as far as the regular season goes and we have a pretty good path I think to the state finals um the accountability piece of this was the part I was excited about I know Mr Roller miss ebbing and miss Taylor and I all went to Mitchell um when was that last last school year at some point um and looked at their program they have a lot of really cool accountability pieces with like holding the students to athletic um what's the word I want standards standards thank you um the same academic standard so they can't be failing more than two classes have to be passing Six have to be at school on game days and maintain like
008good attendance throughout so I pulled some data we saw a 12.8% increase in our grade averages from 23 to 24 and then attendance we saw a decrease of 35 absences across that one jump in the semester um and I do want to throw it to them because the data says one thing but I think their voices are more important um what has it had on you what's the impact of this more motivation just looking to get my grades up so I can keep playing get better definitely showing up a lot more I agree I don't want to let the team down so it gives me a lot more of a drive to keep my grades mindset I agree I love playing OverWatch so I have to keep my grades up awesome yeah they've it's been
009a blast coaching them um they've jumped tremendously both in the game but also in school grades are going up attend is going up as well go to the next side please um this is our lab sort of a slip shot um makeup it's in my class classroom actually so on the back wall of my classroom all our computers on the front wall are all of our Nintendo switches that we purchased um the desks that you're seeing there those bigger tables were actually donated back in January by a furniture company out of New York called BR Furniture um they very graciously donated I think it was 20 desks to us so we were able to outfit all of those um we also partnered with a couple local businesses in a company out of Missour Missouri called
010Guardian Proline to get our jerseys um we sold those spons ships to expert iare Martin Ria and a step ahead pediatric therapies um all of those or all of those logos will be on our jerseys as well as the names their actual names and then their in-game gamer tags there's a picture of those on the next slide as well oh it's not on the next slide it's somewhere else my bad um it'll pop up somewhere um all of our all of our logos were designed by I think he's a senior now um Nick wman Nick wman thank you um designed all of our logos last year he actually asked if he could do it and so I prompted him to do so so all of our logos came from him um some of the stuff
011we're doing this year we're really excited for we have an extra life stream extra life is a company out of I believe Texas they handle um it's a live streaming platform that enables groups like us to host a live stream that's for charity and then take that money and donate to CH donate it to Children's Hospitals um we have chosen Norton children's at hospital out of Louisville where my daughter actually goes this is a personal thing for me um hoping to invite some other jchs groups in I know Jason Burton and the football team are coming in to talk about that program um we're reaching out to some others the basketball team and some others here are our jerseys and our logos so on the left is the jersey that they designed for us and
012then the middle and the right are two of our logos that Nick designed for us as well um some fundraising we did back in December we had the jchs panther class which was a fortnite tournament we had with students and staff members we had one staff team and three student teams um we got a bunch of cool prizes donated some Cincinnati Reds tickets as signed Pacers Hat by Obie toppin some fever gear and then gift certificates and cards from local businesses and we also had an article written on us in the plane dealer by Trace heer and here's that article if you didn't see it my goobers um we also launched a new club on Wednesdays uh letting other students come in and play if they're not a part of the varsity program they're not
013held to those expectations but they just want to come in and play games um every Wednesday from after school until 5:30 they can come in and play all sorts of games that we've gotten um partially use this to start recruiting some other titles for us right now we just have the one title but I think we're trying out for a second one today and tomorrow um but it's been pretty successful we've had BL well I have to say hearing the dream and then getting to see it as a reality and knowing so many those faces over there and then saying what impact it's had on them this is wonderful and I appreciate everything you've done to come share with us put the presentation together and it sounds like it's a very impactful first year we're
014hoping to grow and keep going much amazing well thank you thank you for coming um all of you even thank you for the ones that are missing in action maybe they're playing a game some not sure um but we always like to hear about what's going on um within the Corporation and this is just a little bit unique you it is um we sort of built it from the ground up the metaphor I used with them was we were building the spaceship as it was flying and it very much still feels like that well we know that you all will um continue to encourage the growth recruit more team members that's always important um and again what you're learning here today you take with you in life and Beyond so I'm excited for all of
015you so thank you for coming [Applause] so next we'll ask if anyone is present who would like to speak with any items that are on the agenda or any other topics hearing none we'll go to Old business um under programs we have I'm just asking for approval for uh physical education waiver for next beginning next year um this would take effect with the incoming freshman class so Move Motion by Travis do I have a second second second by Cheryl any discussion all those in favor 7 next under new business we have some Neola policy this is a set of new Neola policies for first reading um please reach out if you have any questions and we'll be following asking for approval next time it's quite a a list so please make sure that you take
016the time to review those um next we'll go down under programs jchs School Improvement team yes we have a high school team here this evening to talk about uh their school improvement work and the success they've been seeing um for school Improvement and specifically for their intervention programs like mtss so Mr Roller yeah thank you um it's really exciting uh you know as we've put together a lot of this work and and Dr Johnson challenged us a few years ago to really hone in on our school Improvement plan and I can't say enough about the group that I've got here with me that has really went to town on that work um and we're excited to share with you that data and kind of tell you the story behind it so you go ahead and
017click tonight's topics are the what the how the why and the who um of this data and I think that each one of those steps is really really important but we will start with a l on what our dat is just some highlights I want to I want to say in the seven years that we've been I've been the Principal and then Stephanie and Taran have been with me as assistant principles we've seen a 76% reduction in disciplinary referrals to the office in that time now on top of that in the last seven years we've reduce failing grades by students by more than 50% and the that is on the seven year ago Mark that's not on the high point it's much more than that if we look at the high point right after Co
018we've returned our our attendance rates to preco ranges and this is the first one here this is chronic absenteeism which is part of our um data dashboard you can see that two years ago we hit a high at 33 and a half% um last year we were able um to cut that down to 26.4% this year we're on track for even more growth and down to 20 2 and a half% while this is extremely impressive and we're proud of this data 22 and a half% still isn't good enough for us um and that's something we focus on every day um Taran and Josh and I'll get into them a little bit they took attendance uh two years ago and made it their thing um they wanted to really re redefine how we did that and
019have just done an outstanding job with that our overall attendance rates um you can see here we have struggled since postco um with attendance uh last year we were able to get up to 91. 93% this year during the first semester we were at a 93% attendance rate again not where we want to be but it only gets tougher I have to remind these guys as they stare at the numbers and get disappointed dayto day like the last month with the illness going around has been really really tough to read our attendance reports because we know what's going on but it keeps getting tougher but we keep pushing to get better total failures I said that the 50% Mark was not indicative of our high point our high point was actually coming out of Co
0202020 to 2021 we had 3,33 failures that year that's when we really put a focus on it and said we cannot have kids failing classes like this in one year we were able to cut that down to 1524 last year was 8819 the number is only first semester but what I would like to point out is if we stay on that path we will have cut another hundred failures off of that number this year so just amazing amazing data and I'm going to get into later how this has been able to happen um and again it's the people that's sitting behind me on track for graduation another one that we've really focused on here during um the last few years and that's kids making sure they had 10 credits after their freshman year 20 credits
021sophomore 30 Junior and Etc we knew that the majority of our kids that we see drop out drop out second semester sophomore year or first semester junior year and when we talk to them about it it's I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel I'm behind on credits you're starting to tell me I may have to stay an extra year I'm might have to go to night school I'm G have to go to summer school I'm out so making sure that they are on track is vital when we really started this work last August of tracking it and making sure we were talking about it we were at 83% of the school was on track to graduate by the end of last year 90% of the school was on track to graduate
022and this uh December end of December 91% of the school is on track to graduate so we track that every uh semester our atris kids um are sent out to our mtss program and counselors so that we can start getting with those kids figuring out what interventions they need so we can continue to grow that number graduation rate um we knew that several years ago when we made some changes uh that we were going to see a dip um and I will be honest as a leader sometimes you have to make those hard decisions to to do things the right way um and and deal with where it goes so you can see that the last few years years uh we've been down hovering around the 80% Mark we jumped up to 83 last year
023but I am a very very proud to say that our graduation rate last year officially and truthfully not there's no smoking mirrors behind this number 93.6 three% of our kids graduated um that were in that cohort um and once again I told my team we went over this with all of our staff just a few weeks ago and I told him again that is still not good enough for me and I know I sound like a broken record with that and as much as we celebrate and I am very very proud of this it's still not where we want to be yet so how did we do this it started with mtss which is multi-tiered systems of support which is a team um Pam love grve is our coordinator our two teachers are uh Andrew
024kumman and Jason Burton um they came in and really put together a system we had always at the high school level just kind of oh we throw intervention here we throw it here but to truly have a system that attacked what our kids needed we were tracking them and gave them the supports they needed um was vital student resource time is something that is a blessing that came out of covid um we had had home rooms we had had a few different things but when we had to go to four lunches to keep spacing during Co and after Co we all decided hey that was pretty nice because there's not as many kids in the cafeteria we're going to keep four lunches it allowed us to build in the student resource time which has developed
025our SRT labs for English and math that we'll talk a little bit more about here in a minute PBIS which is positive behavior intervention support we've started in the last two years this is rewarding the behaviors that we want to see and I've said this before when they first brought it to me and they said we're going to hand out these tickets when kids do things and they could collect them and turn them in and get prizes being a high school first guy and an old football coach I and I did my best leadership and said yeah that that that sounds awesome they'll they'll do that but in the back of my head I thought there's no high school kid that's going to be excited about getting a ticket I couldn't have been more wrong
026they eat it up they love it they collect them we go through prizes after prize the kids collect it's amazing what it has done for discipline attendance um Mrs Kent had a kid last year that would come every day this kid had missed 90 some days almost every year of their career before that every day that they showed up they got a ticket from Mrs Kent every day they walked in her office and said where's my ticket their attendance was cut next day it was you owe me to yeah so it it is absolutely amazing what it's done tiered attendance of interventions again this goes back to the work that Taran and Josh put in to really set up tiers and how they were going to work with kids on attendance to solve the problems
027to make sure that we got them there and pairing that with that positive reinforcement for being in attendance um definitely helped I also have to give a huge shout out to the counseling team um last year I went to them and said I think we need to think about doing something totally different in counseling and that's a scary scary thing um and especially I I won't make any jokes about Mr erle but but you're on when you're on the back nine of your career um I'm still hitting straight say same we're changing the course layout can be a little bit of uh intimidation and and Andis he's always been jumped right in and said let's let's talk about let's let's figure it out so we kind of blew up our counseling department and created what
028we call student support teams um Nikki Cardinal and Ed erle are academic advisors they focus completely on grades transcripts College scholarships college applications anything academic or career they're the go-to Jamie Kelly and Ashley cdam are two student support counselors so Trouble With Friends interpersonal relationships needing supports of some kind they were together and then Taran and Josh are paired up for the attendance and discipline side each kid that walks into the high school has an assistant principal a student support counselor and an academic advisor assigned to them um and it's really a true service that they can get support wherever they need so amazing stuff the why just to break down the data a little bit the increase in graduation rate from two years ago to last year means 25 more kids and this is
029something that Mr land is really good at that I love breaking data down into how many kids 25 more kids walked across the stage with a diploma than before you you think about that effect as it goes to the Next Generation Next Generation and what it can mean students be on track to graduate seeing that Finish Line greatly impacts our student dropout rate and we have seen that level off and keeping kids in in school the 76% reduction in office referrals means students are in class they're not out in the office they're not being suspended they're not creating distractions that are getting them thrown out of class that uh allows that learning environment to go on the hoop this is what this whole presentation's about um the data is amazing um but if it wasn't
030for the people it wouldn't happen um so first of all I I've said a few things but Josh L and Taran Kent and Stephanie abing the assistant principles of the high school Josh and Taran took attendance and created a system that would allow it to be Pro student and allow them to have the opportunity um to really uh grow in what we were looking for Stephanie what she has done with curriculum and bringing programs in and giving kids opportunities whether it's welding that they're now here for or Health Sciences or the new culinary stuff and making sure dual credits are available kids want to be at the building because of the work that these three are doing the mtss department Pam is here Jason is here um I'm gonna be honest with you I don't
031know how I got blessed enough that Pam Love Grove decided to leave the elementary to come be with me at the high school um and I remember when she first came in and wanted to talk about it and man I made it sound great I was a Salesman this is going to be the greatest job she ever had and he's lived up to AB but like I said it's some Dr Johnson and I have had this talk before being a completely secondary guy when I would go down and watch what the elementaries were doing and you know I back when I was getting my license and I'd go go down and see Nikki working at nve and she'd be like yeah they're on reading level third grade fourth month and I'm like how do you
032like you actually know like that kid and like that was not something that was secondary so having Pam come in and really bring those systems from the elementary but making them work for the high school was vital um our mtss department does not have the success it has without Pam love grth um and I cannot say that with enough emphasis she does above and beyond anything you could ever ask of her absolutely amazing Jason and Andrew as the teachers in there um go out of their way to work one-on-one with kids to make sure kids have opportunities feel comfortable coming in and asking questions it's an amazing situation where you'll see kids that are first assigned to the panther lab to come in and get help that maybe aren't so excited about being pulled down
033there that three weeks later their grades are up but they're still showing up to the panther lab because they realize the value of what they were getting while they were there student resource time the great thing about our student resource time um is the fact that we are able to work within our schedule to have certified math and English teachers available during our SRT periods so if a student needs math or English help we have certified teachers that are ready to help them even more um here just recently uh We've even got Spanish teachers that are coming in to help with some of the language barriers to be able to translate um while some of that stuff is going on but I have to tell you when I challenged our staff to really look at
034failure rates um Teresa Taylor is one of our our department uh co-chairs for the English Department and I this a little different story than Pam's because Pam um I just sold a fake bill of goods too Teresa three years ago three years ago in the Summer she was just hanging out by her pool and I called her I said hey why don't you come in and talk to me today and why she thought that'd be a great idea to come in I don't know but she did and I said I want you to be the English department chair and she told me that was the worst decision I was ever going to make I did and she came to me multiple times in the first year and said you can fire me at any point
035in time and I will not be upset and I kept telling her no that's not an option um Teresa has taken what we saw as a problem with kids failing English classes and getting in the cycle of having to repat repeat English n and English 10 at the same time English 9 10 and 11 at the same time she has absolutely Ved her Mission by tracking each individual kid to make sure that we don't have failures it started with English n last year it's English n and 10 this year at the right before Christmas break she came in she's like oh my gosh we're going to have to attack English 11 we got to get after him to where our numbers went from 50 60 70 80 kids feeling a semester to combin last semester
036English D and English 10 six six W two grade levels six failures I want to be very very clear because this is important that's not me that's Teresa Taylor buying into what's been done so if she's the worst decision I ever [Music] made look out because we've done some good things uh Megan Buchanan runs our math SRT Megan has absolutely the same numbers going down trending with math working with our math department to continue to build those Ryan Cummings um our co- department chair as well um I just can't tell you what these guys are willing to do uh it is not a period where you know they're in the SRT lab and they kind of get time off or hang around they they're putting in more time during their own prep period chasing kids
037down tracking down assignments making sure things are collected writing passes for kids pulling them into the lab making sure they're getting it done we have taught kids now the fact that we won't let you fail period you don't want to turn it in Earl that's fine we'll be at your door tomorrow we're going to make sure you turn it in you don't turn it in the next day we're coming back again and you may tell me no but you won't tell her no I can promise you that promise you that the other people the counseling department again Ed erle Nikki Cardinal um Jamie and Ashley couldn't be here but the the Allin approach to hey I know we've done it this way forever but if we truly think this is better for kids let's do
038it because that's what's most important is what's best for kids this group right here is why the high school is making the strides that they are it is absolutely absolutely the people behind the scenes that make these things happen and I'm just going to say something thank you for letting me Shine the Light on them um I was told several years ago to not do things like this that I should make it all about myself by a certain someone but this is what I love is this group right here and what they do because they put in the hours the work and never say anything on top of that though I would be absolutely remissed if I didn't close by saying saying this success and these people we're not successful without this school board and
039what you guys do and the resources you've given us the opportunities you've given us the chance to lead that you've given us and those two ladies right there Dr Johnson and Carrie manowitz without leadership like that things like this don't happen so I just want to be very clear about that the seven of you and those two are just as vital in the successes we've had so thank you thank you for giving me the opportunity to show you why the high school is truly successful I get the awesome job of just waving and smiling and looking good and these guys really make things happen so thank you all I can tell you Earl would get the work in if you take him out for breakfast you're right he was late the other day yeah sometimes
040we' done that I will say on a side note the forklift was delivered this afternoon so very awesome Dr pet I would say Mr Roller downplayed their data it's because they're thirsty for more and more success um but what they have done in a school Improvement plan and the two years they've been working on that plan could be a case study it is that impressive and it is because they are all in for kids whenever I talk to any staff member at the High school it is a story about how a kid's life was changed because of something that they're doing to give them an opportunity or make sure they succeed they are all in kids first and I appreciate the work they're doing for our kids and they're for our community thank you for
041everything you do and I want to thank you for giving the uh the work that's being done by your people I had a saying that sheriff's department sherff for Diamond dozen but the men and women make up the department 100% thank you all of you and sitting on this side of the table and I know the camera can't see it and it's to your all's backs um but we have a mission statement on the back of the room and I think what what you have presented um and all of you have accomplished is exactly meeting that mission statement and that is to inspire and Empower our students to reach their full potential and that's super exciting so thank you all for that enrollment update yes I have an enrollment update so spring count day occurs
042every February so that was just completed um so I wanted to share where we are on student counts our current enrollment for our me count is 3,659 students um and that is comparison to our fall count of 3,719 that is students less from Fall to Spring um I would mention we did have 34 midterm grads that are part of that number if you compare our spring last year to Spring this year it's a loss of 98 students in enrollment and that 98 students of enrollment loss annually is a trend we have been seeing as the county for some time and there are a lot of factors to that in your packet and um Deb has extra copies if anyone the audience would like is the enrollment trend for our district for 15 years and so
043this is our enrollment trend on a 15E time span you can see that we have lost 1,333 students in that 15year time span um it is a consistent loss of around 98 students per year each of those years with some variation of course um I will say that this has been an ongoing thing and it's relatable to multip factors um one though is like when the demographer came in and presented to us that is pure demographics that is birth rate death rate um those types of things when you look more closely in the last fiveyear time span we are seeing a trend that other public school districts in the state are seeing that those factors are impacted Now by vouchers for private schools and online enrollment so those are also becoming a factor in those
044numbers but it is consistent loss over a um 15-year time span um of a sizable number of students and I'm bringing that to your attention and from a fiscal responsibility standpoint something we need to study look at further and see what other things might need to be addressed but I included that chart that gives you that that time span and then you also have a note what spring to Spring looks like and how those numbers compared to what um Mr mcgb the demographer that came in and presented um how those to what he predicted and we are slightly below even what he predicted we would be for this spring count so just wanted to share that data and make sure that you have that in front of you to be reviewing and and aware any
045questions um so we'll go down um the agenda it doesn't look like we have anything for professional staff um so down those support staff recommendations please asking for approval please for the following um recommendations Sonia Jackson to be employed at same Creek Elementary as the sped parpro Brandon Malloy at Jennings County High School as a custodian Austin Martin Jennings County High School as a volunteer baseball coach Charlene sprouls San Creek Elementary is a part-time custodian and Christina Wagers Jennings County High School as custodian please a motion I have a motion by Mary ly do I have a second second by Travis any discussion all those in favor 7 um next we'll move down under Finance who gets the pleasure of reading all the donations yeah so asking for approval to accept these donations uh for
046Brush Creek for student snacks Jill Walman $100 Butlerville grocery $100 Anonymous $100 Floyd and Peggy Bowman $100 Liz and Justin Tucker and family $100 for Jennings County School Corporation donations Jennings County Farm Bureau six books on agriculture donated to six elementary schools for Jin County High School donations Coffee Creek Conservation Club 1,500 $1,500 donation to the academic honors program Mark and Pamela houseb Berger $200 donation to The Esports Team Toyota Material Handling in Columbus uh the Jenny County forklift for the Jin County Middle School Alicia Roberts State Farm Insurance of Columbus $280 for student council field trip Wendy's 60 Frosty coupon donations for the Panther Den ISL challenge for Sand Creek Elementary donations Jeff Jerry's $100 donation for Megan Matthews kindergarten classroom and nvic $250 $250 donation to San Creek Elementary Karen Pedigo for library
047books entertain a motion to accept those donations as r so moved I have a motion by Cheryl do I have a second second by Pat any discussion all those in favor seven and then I do have another one um Mary Lyn Wickham $11,000 donation for plaques to commemorate the 2024 Jennings County High School volleyball season entertain a motion motion by Earl do I have a second second second by Pat any discussion all of those in favor and one six and one thank you um next we have a resolution yes annual resolution to allow the treasure or Deputy treasure to make transfers of Appropriations within major funds to establish the 2025 budget for the current year for the state approved budget order account classification entertain a motion to approve so Mo I have a motion by
048Pat do I have a second second by Mary ly any discussion all those in favor 70 and now we're down under relations we have anou this evening with uh the Jennings with our schools and the health department it's an annual mou for emergency purposes asking for approval soov motion by Travis do I have a second second second by Cheryl any discussion all those in favor seven next we're down to other no other hearing nothing we'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion by P a second second by Earl any discussion we all ready to go home all those in favor 70 meeting adj