001Hey, welcome everyone. I'd call the order and have the pledge of allegiance. Here you go. I'm going to go ahead and say the mission statement in unison. Uh, next I'm going to ask for a unanimous Excuse me, unanimous approval to add the resignation of Diana Hall, Max High School math teacher, to the agenda under the personnel part A. Any objections? No objections. We'll add that to the agenda under part A. Thank you. All right. Uh, adoption agenda. The chair will entertain a motion to adopt the agenda for the May 4th, 2026 regular meeting as presented. Do I have a motion? Motion. I have a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Item five, minutes from the April 6th, 2026 regular board meeting and April 20th, 2026 executive session. I have a motion. So Adam
002has motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Andy Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Item six, champion moment. Stern [clears throat] hour will present the champion moment. I am really excited to bring this to you today. This is our math bowl team from KCES. And um Mr. McCann is their coach and I'm going to let him fill you in on some of the highlights of their season because it was a good one. It was. Okay. Uh first I'm going to introduce who we have here today. Um we had a couple that couldn't make it. So I definitely want their names to be heard though. Uh Emma Bateman, Kaylin Johnson, Connor Russell, Lena Snyder, and Paisley Craig couldn't make it today. Uh when I say your guys' name, just kind of give them
003a wave so they can put a face to the name. Uh here today we have Walker Lawrence, Victoria Robinson, Tesla Shafer, Jayden Langston, Danny Garbison, Angie Zhang, Scarlett Carter, Christopher Thompson, and Oliver Robinson. So this is the fourth grade math bowl. Uh it's really similar to a spelling uh spelling bee uh but we are in teams of three. We went up to Chesterton and competed. Uh we are in the yellow division, which means we are only fourth graders. Um some of the schools we went against uh there were in the blue division, which they have sixth graders. Um we beat Bremen, we beat LaVille, we beat South Central, and all of those teams um have sixth graders on them. So they did really, really well. Um all the questions they get are sixth, seventh grade
004questions. So it's stuff that these guys haven't even seen yet. So, really proud of them. Um we placed first in the Northwest uh region. And out of the state, we finished 28 out of 70. So, they did excellent. We're going to do a little uh trial for you today. We're going to give you guys one of the problems they got. So, so what happens is they give you a problem and they read it out loud and they give you a set amount of time to work with your group. And uh when it's all said and done, you fill out uh the little piece of paper, circle what you think the answer is, and that is how they score you. So, we're going to put you guys in the firing ring like they did. So, what
005they do is they go They sit the kids down and they go, "Okay, you may turn your paper over. You have 60 seconds for the following question." Yeah. cheating Dr. Brown, we're looking at somebody else's paper. And as you're doing it, the gym is full of people. You have little babies crying. You have moms and dads yelling at them, "Oh, there's my baby." So, they're working during all of this. And then you get a ding, "Pencils down." And Walker going to explain how we answered this problem. So, what I did to answer this problem, it said he bought a bike it usually cost $250. But, it's currently off 30% and he also has a coupon that takes off $25. So, what I did is I first found what was 10% of um $250, which that's
00625. But, I didn't need 10%. I needed 30. So, I multiplied 20 um 5 * 3 giving me 75. And then I subtracted 250 - 75 giving me 175. And then I took the $20 off giving me 155 making the answer A. And he is correct. How many questions we got right? Um there were 32 total questions. Um the team that came in first in the state only got 28 of them right. So, um you know, we we talk a lot about like it's a great opportunity for these guys to see questions that they haven't even learned yet. We met during some recesses, we met after school, and uh they worked really hard. So, very proud of them. Awesome. And they were also like the best behaved team out there. Like you would watch all
007kinds >> Every day crawling around and they were always like I'm with them. >> [laughter] >> They were great. Yes, and a big uh shout out to our graphics department who um put together our shirts so quick for our students. So, all that's cool. Everything in house. Do you guys guys have any questions before I chip in? How was the selection for the out of the kids? So, great question. Um I talked to all the other fourth grade teachers and we try to take, you know, the top ones that really get the in class and are ready to be pushed a little further. Um, you know, a lot of these guys in class, and this is one of the first things we talk about when we um start Math Bowl, is, you know, in your
008regular setting classroom, you know, how it just kind of clicks and you get it really quick. Well, these questions you're going to get, you're going to know how the other kids in the class feel now having to Oh, I got to take a second and try to think about this. Uh so, we we try to It's a All of us teachers come together and come up with formulas. So. Anything else? So, for you guys, we Each one of you get t-shirts. We have your your sizes here cuz you guys are champions. I really I appreciate that. I even appreciate more the comment of you guys behaving yourself while you're out there representing us very well. So, thank you guys very much for that. Mr. McCann, I'll give you these and you can pass these out.
009We have the sizes for them. Um so, you can get those uh on your way out. Make sure everybody gets one. Um and then also, if you get get a picture for me, too, and just send that to me. I'm going to get you guys on the Facebook page, too. Okay? So, definitely appreciate you guys' work. Keep it up. Math is one of our focus, right? So, keep developing, and I'll even encourage you guys to find your friends and bring them on the math boat, right? Help them out as you guys are going going through school. Definitely appreciate that. Okay? All right, guys. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. There you go. Appreciate it. Thank you, everybody. High five all around. Good work. Good work. Good work, guys. Good work. Good work, guys. Congratulations. Good work. Thank
010you, parents. Parents, thank you very much for bringing them. We appreciate you. You're You're welcome. What are you What are you talking about? That's good, Mr. S. Yeah. How do you feel? I feel fabulous. How do you all feel? >> [clears throat] [laughter] >> Okay, let's let's move forward. Item number seven, board recognition. Mr. Wish will discuss the recent board recognition from the Indiana high school school board association. Yeah, so every year the uh ISBA, the school board association, they give out little plaques and awards to uh boards that have gone through professional development, been through meetings, whether that's in person or online. Um and you guys the board uh got the recognition. This stands for the exemplary governance award. Um it has a plaque here that has all of your names on it. So,
011I just wanted to tell you guys thank you for being dedicated to our school. Um we we have a couple other other of these. I think next time you come out I'm going to have them hung. Uh so, we kind of have those uh here on our board room. But, I just want to tell you thank you for your guys's hard work uh and your dedication to the Naxspen schools. Next uh director's report, Chris Beaver will give us a tech the technology director will give us a report. Forward, so. Mr. Wish. Good evening. How are you all doing? Pretty good. So, first of all, I just really want to thank my staff at the IT department. They do so much. It's probably one of the best groups that I've ever worked with, had the pleasure
012of working with. Um I've been with uh Naxspen for 9 years and I believe the everybody has around six to seven. So, we've been together for a really long time. So, it's it's almost become, you know, team {slash} family. So, you know, it's great. We get a lot done and we they learn a lot. We we all learn a lot all the time. So, I just wanted to go over a few things uh that we've done over the year. Um one of the big things that we did is the back end of the network, we redid everything. Uh new switches, new cabling, everything like that that basically provides internet data everything here that allows us to get out to any of the shares networks internet. So, we redid all that. Um the speeds are much
013faster now. We've actually looked at those and they're showing much faster. Uh we were able to set it up in a proper way that where we have core equipment now. So, that's a great and it's able to handle the traffic that we need to handle. Which then each building is set up as own little island. So, we know where that traffic exactly is coming from. Makes our lives a lot easier and also kind of lowers the congestion rate. So, there's not a lot of uh communication going across everything. So, that's been an awesome uh project to finish up and get that in. Um let's see. Chromebooks. As far as the Chromebooks, uh we processed uh 352 repairs to date. So, uh on top of that, we've also the help desk uh 658 tickets have been
014closed. And this is all since August 1st. So, just kind of wanted to give you a little bit of an idea of like our uh day-to-day if you divide that out type deal. Um we've also been able to get the corporation 12 new radios, which has allowed the radios to be cycled down. So, the basically to get the newest radio at a place where it's going to survive the longest. And then the cycle kind of goes down from that. We take their radio, goes to the next, to next, to next. So, that was able to fill in some gaps that we had in some places that we needed radios. So, that's been really great get our radios back up and go. Um but yeah, uh we just had a we've had a good year. Um
015the online enrollment's been really good to us. So, it's made Jared's life a lot easier. I can tell you that. So, he was literally having to read off paper and type every single thing off paper. So, now it's actually entered into the system where it's readable, legible. You're not trying to go through handwriting and things of that nature. Is this a I J F? What is this? Um and we're all kind of using our decoding skills there. So, that's saved a lot of time on that end. Um and actually I think we had 126 pre-registers already that have gone through and and redid the, you know, for next year. So. Yep. Um any questions for me? I'd say one of the the awesome things that uh Chris and his team does, um a lot of
016other schools and their IT department will actually send off a repairs. They won't even bother with trying to fix them. Um and that's one thing that his team does. They will they will tear those apart and try to fix those in-house to get the computer back to the kid quicker. Um which is which is awesome and it also saves our families from some money of of shipping all all these out. So, you know, thank you to your team for that. Yeah, definitely speaking on that, too. Um you know, we're able to do We don't really have anything on the outside. So, we're a one-stop shop. If we're pulling cable, if we're, you know, setting things up. So, it's a nice because all of the work We're doing all the work within the corporation. We're not
017having to hire it out. So. Okay. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Next Excuse me. Next we have the principal update. Uh the building principals will update the board on their respective buildings. So, who wants to go first? You got voted there. See that? >> [laughter] >> Okay. We'll start out with some highlights here. Um um about the staff. So it is staff appreciation week in our district and in our buildings and that includes thanking everybody. The teachers, the paras, the maintenance people, the food service, clerical. I mean, everybody works so so hard to just make our buildings go for the kids and we're so appreciative. So we're having a little Oregon Trail fun at the elementary school. That's our theme this year. Um we did last week as a
018staff we kind of stepped into kind of our school improvement thing that we'll be really tackling next year. Sort of follow suit with what Mr. Cannon in the middle school have done. We focused kind of just giving them an overview of just the things we're going to dig into next year. Things like what are the things we're all going to commit to? Like what beliefs do we all kind of have to hold ourselves accountable to? What's our vision? We get very bogged down in the day-to-day. What do you really want the school to look like in 5 years? You know, we have to have some vision of what that we want it to be instead of just going day-to-day. And then following that, what are some goals? Good goals, not just goals I handed you,
019but goals that really will mean something to you. And then just using data to make all those day-to-day choices. So we talked about those things and then we did kind of a fun [clears throat] personality activity they got a kick out of and we'll use that to actually make cross grade level groups to kind of dig into things deeper next year. Um as far as students, we are I mean, it's testing time of year and we're wrapping up Ilearn and getting second round of Iread ready and all of our end-of-the-year reading screeners and math screeners. That's happening, but on the fun side we have picnic with a pal on Thursday for third graders. Um our fourth grade bridging over day is Thursday, May 21st at 12:30. Thank you to Camus. They always help us out
020making a really nice day for our fourth graders. We start out in our gym and they wind up going over there. Um it's just a special day. It's It's just nice to mark them with a a little bit something different for them as [clears throat] they they move on. And then last Friday was our bikes for kids event. So, that is an event I know that Ms. Shryock has spoken of. Our second graders who are free lunch got a free bike and a helmet. Um, thank you. We had volunteers, Mrs. Sullivan, Mrs. Bourne, uh, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Mick came and and the biggest thank you to Ms. Shryock because she really just gets all of that funding. And when I say that, I mean for the county. This I mean, what she's doing
021is is not just good for Knox kids. These are kids from Oden and North Judson that are benefiting from all of her hard work. So, um, so that went well and it was just fun to see the smiling faces wheel those bikes away. So, do you have any elementary questions for me? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Those Those uh clicks you just heard were my bones from >> [laughter] >> baseball practice. Tom Brown and I have uh, taken on middle school baseball this year, if you didn't know. That's why I move even slower now than I did a few months ago, but we're enjoying it. Um, you get to make memories every day with our grandkids and the other kids, too. So, I don't think too many other grandpas are doing that. Um,
022I'll limit mine to the same uh um sequence of of uh things we've talked about each month, performance, culture, and community. Uh, looking back on uh KMS through April, uh, we're wrapping up ILEARN testing. It'll be done by Friday of this week. We are still testing some kiddos who were absent or might not have completed the test. We have our fourth quarter academic progress reports. Those went out last Friday to our parents. It's just hard to believe it's May already. But here we are. Congratulations to the students who participated in uh the various events and activities we had recently, including but not limited to science fair, the academic Super Bowl, and the choir community concert. They were all great. Um the eighth-grade awards program will be in the evening on May 14th. You're all invited.
023It's 6:30 in the cafetorium at KMS. And on May 19th, we'll have our grade level academic assemblies where we recognize students for academic performance, growth, effort, attendance, and various other things. It's always fun. In terms of culture, this is a fun time of year for the kiddos because it's field trip time. End-of-year field trips, we change things up a little bit. The fifth graders are going to go roller skating and bowling. It's always a hoot watching them roller skate. Uh there's a you know, a couple couple dozen of them that have been on roller skates before. And then you get several who have never put a roller skate on before. And it's really funny when those are your grandkids. And they're pretty good athletes, and they get out there looking like baby giraffes, and they're
024falling all over the place. Um sixth grade is going to go to Zoo Island over in Valpo. Seventh grade is going to go see a South Bend Cubs game. Principal might have to accompany them to that one. And the eighth grade is going to Indiana Beach and Tippecanoe State Park. They always get two at the end of the year. In terms of our community, our PTO continues to shine. Uh they recently sponsored what I'm going to call a wish tree through social media where teachers can post their supply needs and wants. Once again, uh without hesitation, our community stepped up. Every teacher request and need was granted quickly, and we can't say thank you enough to our PTO, and our community, and our parents for their continued support and trust in us. Thank you again
025to our PTO. As uh Michelle mentioned, it is uh teacher appreciation week and our our uh PTO has stepped up again and planned something for each day of the week, Monday through Thursday. And then on Friday, Toms Coffee is coming in uh in care of Mr. Mikulich and Mr. Schager. We thank them for that. We also have a inner organization within the school, small group of teachers who always leads our our culture activities, our our wacky Wednesdays and all that stuff. Uh Sarah Morgan, Sarah Ivarone, and I'm sure there's a few others. Uh but they've planned some really nice things for our teachers this week, too. So, we we want to recognize them. Questions? Comments? Thank you all. >> [laughter] >> All right. So, May is busy for high school students. Um this past weekend,
026I hope each of you had the opportunity to see Mean Girls. Um it was a incredible weekend of our students showcasing their abilities, their their Thespian side of of school, and it was phenomenal. It's great to see them out there. I love that um every play that we've had, it's been packed every single night. Um I just now know that we need a bigger auditorium. Um but May fix uh tomorrow is uh band concert at Weinberg at 7:00 p.m. Uh May 9th is prom. So, if you feel like cutting a rug and coming to Valpo University, um join join our juniors and seniors um at Valpo for some some fun festivities. Um next week, we have our freshman, sophomore, junior, senior awards during the day. Uh May 20th is our scholarship night and of course
027leading up to the big day June 5th. Um as of right now, weather permitting, it will be outside at Community Field. Um be a great opportunity just to get out and celebrate our seniors. Um their their schooling from K to 12 has been phenomenal. They've done a phenomenal job and really this is a night for them to celebrate and definitely look forward to kind of celebrating them and and letting them kind of enjoy the night and then send them off with uh well wishes. I think to end for tonight, I definitely want to spend a little extra time talking about my staff. Um I think this year um has proven that the high school staff is by far the best ever. I'm sorry, guys. Uh I love every single one of them. Um they have
028helped me more than I could probably say this year. Um they've given support. Um they've they step up for our students on a daily basis. Um I get to see them interact. I get to see them on the academic side. I get to see them on the fun social side um at our different events. And you know, it is Teacher Appreciation Week and we do get to celebrate them and I always say it's just a little portion of what we can do to support them because they are the they are the heart of our building and without them, I don't think we would be where we are today. So, so thank you. Um a year ago today I was sitting here with you guys talking and I love it ever since. So, um is there
029any questions that I can answer for you guys? All right. Thank you. Item 10, public comments. We do not have any, so we'll move on to item 11. Item A, personnel report. Item B, FMLA. Item C, new hires. Item D, transfer. Item E, source for staff. Superintendent recommends the board approve the items listed on A, B, C, D, and E. Do I have a motion? Motion? I'll motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. We'd like to thank you, Miss Richard and Mrs. Hall for their time here at Knox Community Schools. They've had a big impact on on us. We thank them for that, and we wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors. Mr. Pearson and Mr. Gaynor, they are the automotive teachers that we will be taking over for next
030year. So, we've already had communication with them, a lot of different meetings with them. So, we're excited to bring them on board. And we also have Dr. Asper who is here with us this evening for the assistant superintendent position. And we'll hear more from from you Oh, and then one more thing. Thank you to our summer school staff. That is on there underneath E. You know, a lot of those people commit Sometimes it's hard for school to end and the next day here are summer school kids, you know. So, we definitely thank them for their time that they're going to put in trying to support our students through that time. Further discussion? Okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? We'll move on to item 12, business. Item A, treasurer's report. Corporation treasurer has provided
031the treasurer's report on page 19. Questions? Okay. Item B, vendor usage report. Corporation treasurer has provided the vendor usage report listed on page 38. Item C, claims. Superintendent recommends the board approve the claims that are listed on page 45. Do I have a motion? Motion. Aaron and Autumn. Okay. Any discussion? Questions? Okay. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Item D, [clears throat] construction update. Superintendent will update the board on the upcoming construction project. Yes, we got those middle school those vertical units that we've been talking about for almost a year now. Um this time has been great for them. They've been able to get into the middle school and find out the little nooks and crannies of what they need, uh which has been great for them. So, when it is time to go,
032which is that Tuesday was the June 2nd, um they have a leg up. They know what they need. They know the material that that needs to be there. They've already studied the building. Um so, that's going to help, you know, our goal is to have that construction done, all those vertical units done before school begins. It's a big task, um but they they got the people to get it done. Uh so, we're excited for that. Um and then we're looking forward to next summer, uh believe it or not. Um we that cool unit um that is in the pool, it does not dehumidify the air. Um it is it's shot. It needs to be replaced. That's a pretty uh expensive um unit that's up there. In the wintertime, it's not bad, but in the summertime,
033it gets really warm in there cuz we we can't dehumidify it. So, um that is the next thing with that bond money that uh we're currently getting uh bids out for that, and we're looking at that happening uh next summer. Questions? Item E, uh affidavit payment. Superintendent recommends the board approve the affidavit for payment as listed on page 87. Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion. Jason, any explanations or a second? Yeah, that's just our um psychological um payment that we have uh every month. They broke those payments down, um and then there's a reimburse reimbursement on there for us where we put some money up front uh in the the beginning of the project that we're just reimbursing ourselves out of our bond money. Further discussion? All in favor say I. I.
034Opposed? Item F, donation. Superintendent recommends board approve the anonymous donation in the amount of $5,000 to be used for the elementary science nature center. I'll have a motion. Motion. Hearing second. I'll second. Jason seconds it. So, I had Michelle and I write out just a little bit um for her vision that she has of um the trails that she has back there. So, she's been walking through with the kids. I think this even went back to last year, didn't it? About naming the trails. So, she started naming the trails. They're actually taking steps out there to see how long the trails are, which is which is pretty cool. Um, they moved some different rocks and and limestone uh slabs over there to kind of say this is trail one, this is trail two, where it
035starts, where it ends. Um, I her her big vision is that she'd like to get like a kiosk like when you go to the state parks um and they have a kiosk of the trails and where everything is at. That would be amazing um if we could get that point. That's one of her her big visions that she has. And then there's also two little small ponds out there. And she's talked about, you know, what's the possibility of trying to dredge those ponds a little bit, maybe get some type of solar um fountain or something in there that will move the water around. So, um that that grant or that donation, excuse me, will go towards uh that project. So, we're we're excited about that. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Item G, school
036safety handbook. Superintendent will discuss the school safety handbook for incorporation. So, you know, school safety, if you're not careful, kind of gets pushed aside a little bit. We have to keep that on the forefront of what we're doing. Chief in the beginning of the year sends out a weekly email to the staff and they're they're they're very good email. I think he may have mentioned that last time we met. I don't know. But he went through the our handbook, our crisis handbook and that's how what he based those emails on to the staff. We went to a professional development right in January and we picked up this behavioral digital threat assessment. And this is a really really nice guide. The whole point of it is to stop violence before it occurs. Where is the warning
037signs? How do we identify the warning signs? What do we do when we see warning signs? And this is kind of a map to that. We picked this up and I like to put it in the handbook because I think it's very beneficial information for anyone that is is meeting with us. We have met with our crisis teams at the schools to hand this out to them. They even have like a little road map of you know, look for this, look for this, look for this. There's a lot of different flow charts in here. If this then that, you know, keep going. And it even talks about how you get together with your crisis team if there is a emergency and trying to divide people up, you know, if if you're good with with social
038media, you take the social media and go find some information. If you're good with power school, you go to power school. And and then talks about how to divide the team up to get, okay, you got an hour, you got two hours, whatever it may be. You go meet with kids, you go do this. And then you all come back so that you can get things done quickly because you know, in a crisis time, you don't have time to kill. So I would like to add that to the handbook. This is just a discussion here. I can share this with you guys. But it is a good tool for us to have. Again, that's part of that professional development that that we go to and we we still good ideas come from from other people.
039All right. Item 13 comes questions from administrators and the board, so. I just want to start by saying thank you to Mr. Nicholson. Thank you to the board for the opportunity. Um I was lucky when I was at North had a string of phenomenal educators that gave me the tools and skill set to be successful in the world and I'm so excited to be back here and helping out having every kid learn every day cuz our students are worth it. So, thank you. Sure. Congratulations. Thank you. Is there anything else you want to add, team? You have the floor. Okay. Just ask him. Just Just ask him. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, Dr. Brown. Um yeah, the looking at the full thing, I think was pretty impressive that they were competing at such a high
040level and doing well. Um the principals, again, it's always good to hear what's going on and particularly use the enthusiasm you guys continue to have even as late in the year and sure been beat down a little bit, I'm sure this year, but good to hear that you're still going strong. And then the play um the play was interesting. >> [laughter] >> So, yeah, I I did enjoy it. Um yes. Thank you, principals, always. Um welcome, Dr. Esparza. Um also, the the play, yes, I I did love the play. Um and I think you it's been mentioned a couple of times about the auditorium. Um I know that that sound system, oh my goodness, those kids, but they are phenomenal for doing such a great job through it. You know, nice things cut out and
041they just keep going. It's They're They're awesome. Um I just um had just had some communication here a little bit about about class sizes and things. Um I just wondered if there's a way maybe we look at our class sizes maybe in general across the board at the school and and elsewhere and see where are we projected to be and are we, you know, well supported student class sizes throughout um I know we always have changes and and things are we accommodate and things, but if there's something maybe we should look for for the next school year. Um maybe have an opportunity to do that. Thank you. Um so I went to the musical Saturday night, not thinking that it would be um packed. It was packed. Like usually like it had three performances and
042they did such a good job, but yes, the sound system, oh. That's but they they do they work around it and they did a a phenomenal job. Um and then I went to the plant sale that the FFA had. She does such a good job, and the kids were so so friendly, like so helpful. I mean, they were carrying a tray around following me everywhere. Like I mean, they they just they did a phenomenal job. I mean, the the plants looked good. They were very knowledgeable, so um I know that she's done a lot with the program over there. So that was that was really nice. So thank you guys. That's and welcome aboard to our team. Um I think that's it. Well, I will say the same thing. It's welcome. Um the musical was
043great. The kids all did great, and the plant sale was great, too. They actually insisted on carrying everything to my car for me. I know. I know. >> [laughter] >> I mean, yes. So they did a great job, and she does a great job with them making sure they know what they're doing and they're very helpful and respectful. First thing uh two veteran coaches here from the school baseball. Easy easy. >> [laughter] >> How how's that going? Well, we haven't got kicked out of any games yet. Well, that's good. >> [laughter] >> I haven't done any yet, so. But yeah, and uh thank you principals uh that's that's fine and uh musical was interesting. And uh after the first intermission Well, they all I was going to say how many intermissions [laughter] I was going
044to say I was going to say uh I didn't know if I was going to make it to the meeting tonight. But it it was you know, it was a 3-hour but it was great. You know, the kids were great. That's all right. Um congratulations. Uh welcome uh to the school and thank you again uh staff. You guys always bring good information and good enthusiasm. Uh congratulations. I was really impressed with the fourth grade um math uh bowl kids. They were that's impressive. Um and I still think for staff recognition week next year uh we need to have field day and let them let the kids have some fun with the axe. You know, thank you guys and everything. What was that said sorry you said thank thank you very much and uh you know,
045I again a shout-out to the team for the the bikes for kids thing. That um it just keeps growing and uh I think you're going to be missed. So, big shoes to fill. Um but no, wonderful. Um I'm glad to hear the play was a success. Um, that's all I got. Uh, okay. So, welcome Aaron. Thank you. You're going to do a great job. You'll be just fine. Uh, >> [clears throat] >> the other item I want to point out Derek Cowart, uh, director of maintenance shared with Mr. Mick and myself today. I just want to highlight him for a moment here. He on his own took a course in the uh 12-hour course online this weekend and he took the test that was closed booked and proctored and he passed and he is now
046EPA, I got to look at it to get it right, EPA 608 certified. I sound like I know what I'm talking about, but the good news about this is now he is certified and he for our district can buy the freon, the refrigerant that we need with that for all of our AC systems and I know you understand what that is as do I. That's very expensive. It's gone way up in price you and when you buy it as a school system, you always have to buy it through someone certified and it tends to cost even more. So, now he's our direct buyer, which is wonderful news and because of this certification he can now work on air air air conditioning units. He said that can be recovered, reclaimed or recharged. So, he's definitely going
047to reduce again the cost of repairs for our district. And what he said at the end just warmed my heart. He said, "I look forward to using this license to help reduce expenses for the corporation." He did it for the good of us, right? And yeah, for himself as well, obviously, but kudos to someone like Derek, a young man stepping out. And the only other comment I have I promise you I'm more cuz my time's getting short here. Um, it is staff appreciation week. Having been a veteran teacher of 31 years, I know how I know how much work it is to be a teacher and I'm thankful to all of them, but it is for the entire staff. We have a good working staff here. And I just want to say thank you, and
048that includes our directors and our administrative team. Mr. Meek and I could not do what we do day in and day out without all of you. So, I truly thank you. I'm going to go back to Derek uh real quick with the why behind that. Um with the construction, we have to take out a unit on top of the middle school. Uh I think that we're in charge of us like $1,300 to do it. And uh in the big scheme of a, you know, $4 million project, that's not much. Um but it's still something. And Derek's like, "I can do this." And and and he didn't want to pay the $1,300. And at the time, I didn't know he was going to go do the class. He he was going to He had another plan.
049Let's just put it that way. Um so, for him, I mean, that's how he operates. He is he's he is very good at what he does. And even all these construction guys um were coming in here like, "You got it, Derek." wanted Derek. Like, he does a really nice job. So, so kudos to him. Uh staff appreciate appreciation week. It's great great to have this, you know. We're we're a team. We're a family. We talk about it all the time. Um you know, we we set these lofty goals for us, right? We need that team to come come through. Um and that that's part of that. So, we definitely thank you for them. Uh the the musical I That's what impressed me. It was so packed Friday night. I had to stand in the back.
050I actually stand stood out there with a Ms. Midas act. Her and I together were we're standing. Uh and that was great. It was great great to see that much support. Um on a side note, I have an opportunity to go see a brand new auditorium here coming up uh in a couple weeks. So, I'm going to take advantage of that and learn a little bit more about the construction phase cuz, you know, we could have two bigger projects coming up here. So, I'm excited to see what what theirs looks like to get ideas for ours. Um Dr. Asper, welcome. Uh I'm excited to have you here with us. Um, you know, I know you're going to do great things here with us. Have that that big big vision to help support us. Um, so,
051congratulations. Good to have you. Um, and it's interesting what you say about the staff and kids and field day. Um, talk about big ideas, right? I think Sam and Mr. Cannon, we've talked about this, too, about in the beginning of the year having like the beginning of the year school kickoff and having it out there on the football fields. And this is the that what you're talking about where we can all go out there and say, "Welcome back." And have the entire corporation out there. And again, you there's all these big big visions we have. Um, and it's a matter of um, putting the pencil to the paper to get it all organized. Um, so, there there is a time for that. So, um, that's all I got. Okay. Thank you. Uh, item 13, public
052comments. I assume that they're not on the agenda. Okay. Um, item 15, adjournment. Do I have a motion? Motion. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, the meeting is adjourned.