001times you hear people say, "He's not from around here. He doesn't care." From my experience working with Mr. Mick, working alongside uh it can't couldn't be any further from the truth. Um Mr. He never stops. Um it surprises me sometimes how the how the man just keeps going. But he never stops. He's always working and always looking for ways to move Knox forward to make our schools better. Uh that kind of dedication says everything about how much he cares about our students, our staff, and this community, and we're lucky to have him. So, Mr. Mick, thank you, sir. Thank you. And thank you, board. A couple things to to Chief Deputy, you know, might stand up for a moment. Um your relationships you build with kids is really truly amazing. Um I mean, when we
002if there was ever going to be a danger here, the kids know about it first, right? And those kids talk to Chief all the time, whether it's at lunch, whether it's in the hallway, and I think that's such a crucial point to what we do in education to keep our schools safe. Cuz the kids are going to know. Exactly. >> to know what's going to happen, and your connection that you have with them is fantastic. The one other thing you didn't mention was uh we've been working on our crisis teams at each individual school. What's that? He did it. Did I miss that one? Okay. I was I was working with the with with the computer, but that's um we've met with with the high school, we got the middle school and elementary to do
003yet. Um but that team's going to be important if there ever was a crisis. I think we met right after the tornado. Um you know, possibly was going to come here and did, and so we kind of had a little round table discussion of what would have you know, what would that next day look like or that evening look like, and it was really good feedback back and forth. Any questions you guys have? I have a question. Sorry. You're stuck. So, how um like is there anything that you're still feel like that you need or missing or you know cuz you started it from scratch so I'm glad you brought that up. You're not going to prove anything. I'm just asking. But I was working on um uh having a fundraiser. I'm going to hold
004it at the middle school. It's going to be uh I found this company out of Avon, Indiana. Um it's laser tag. They bring in a big blow up. It's 40 by 40 ft. And inside it's different rooms where the kids will have a chance. There'll be two teams of six that will go in and go against each other. So I invited uh third fourth grade to go against each other. Fifth sixth will go against each other. And seventh and eighth will go against each other. And uh think was it the 17th, Jim? Who? I think it's the 17th of this month. I think you're right. 17th So from 3:00 >> And a lot of kids already talking about it, but I want to let the board know. So what's the fundraiser? What What's the need
005Like what's her needs? Like where are where are you at? Like what what are you looking to help to do to improve? Like >> Well well what I'd like to get right now is uh when I get some money is to get a uh a gun rack for my patrol vehicle. That way it's locked secure securely in the vehicle when I got it in there. Then down the road, you know, maybe a radar or something that way we have problems or complaints uh vehicle speeding in the school zone. But other than that I'm doing good. What's your like uh as far as like your sweep schedule? Are you doing like a couple still at the high high and stuff like that or middle schools and stuff like that were checking bags and stuff like that
006as far as like dogs and Oh yeah. Yeah, we're still doing it. How many times do you usually do that? Uh well, I was going to do it before spring break. Um but I decided to do it when we came back. So, I'm going to touch base with the sheriff's department and I'm shooting for some last week. But no, that's good. He's just getting a high number of vapes and stuff like that. We are not. Really? Yeah. It's really surprising. Yeah, which is good. Not to say they're not in there. I remember Mike showing me like 100 or 200 at a time for a year, you know. Oh yeah. It's It's come way down. Excellent. Either they found a better place to hide it on themselves, but and of course the dogs don't approach them,
007so Exactly. But we do what we can do. Thanks. And I try to do it at least every other month or something. Sometimes sheriff's department it don't work out, so we'll skip a month and we'll go ahead. So Yeah. Any other questions? Thanks. Thank you very much. Move on to number seven, principal update. Building building principals will update the board on their respective buildings. Who wants to go first? I think Michelle will eat you up right there. Let me go. Let me go. Let me go. I'll go first. I might go first if the bar isn't set already. Um just a few things for you. Um we had uh our first round of preschool registration right before spring break. We're looking at that a little differently this year. We thought we would do um a
008daytime one. Then coming up in May, we'll do another evening one and and see how that works spreading it out. Um what was great is that it in our first callout, we have about 26 kids. Last year at the main one, we had 22 signed up. So, that's really encouraging. We're happy to see that. Our kindergarten registration and screening will happen tomorrow beginning at 3:30 in the multi-purpose room in the elementary. And this year we've got 70 already signed up. Last year at this time we were about 60, 61. So, numbers overall are looking positive, which is a good thing. Um our parent involvement events have been still going. We had again on that Friday For some reason why it remind me never to pack Friday before spring break with all of these things. Well,
009we did and a lot of people helped out. But we had the fourth grade VIV luncheon was on that day. It's great turnout as always. So, thank you to parents and fourth grade staff for that. Our bingo for books with first grade had to be canceled because of a delay that day, but that's rescheduled for the 14th. And third grade will have their picnic with a pal in May and have all their games out there and things like that. One thing I wanted to let you know quickly is that um our tutoring program is wrapping up. And and you may have heard me talk about this before. Indiana Learns is a grant that our school corporation receives and it pays for teachers to stay after school and tutor eligible students. And we are just kind
010of nearing the end of that. And I just wanted to let you know we've had about 70 students who were it was that took place you know or took part in that. Um each of those 70 got 20 after school sessions with the teacher. Um 10 for math, 10 for language arts. We had about 19 teachers between fourth grade up through eighth grade that stayed and did this with them. It I just want to give a big thank you to those teachers, to uh Mr. Condon who was at the middle school and kind of said, "Here, this is what we're doing." He was great. Ms. Noble has been so helpful over there. Um and to our parents because somebody has to come and pick them up and make that schedule happen. So it was a
011really nice um program and uh we just had a lot of kids participate. Um and that was great. So I think Mr. Engel, did you tutor? I think you were a tutor, yeah? We had good people willing to help us out. We really appreciate that. And not on my list, but just wanted to say thank you to to uh Chief Smith because when he talks about relationship building, he's not kidding. Um whether it's fun things like delivering Santa hats and all the silly things we do down to I need you, he's there in a minute. He'll do anything that we ask him to do. He's always just a great voice of reason in a situation and um he's just been a huge asset, I know, to all of our buildings, but we see it every
012day at the elementary school and the kids just they love him. And yes, he is always in there eating lunch and sitting with those kids and and doing everything he can to make a relationship with them early. And I think that'll matter in the long long run. So thank you to him. >> Thank you. Do you have any elementary questions for me? Sure. The tutor. Harold. Sure. Harold. Thank you. Put them in order. And again, I'm just going to give some kudos to to Harold, too. Um been doing this for a long time. Uh mostly at the secondary level. Uh last 2-plus years here at the at the middle school. And and Harold has just uh uh kind of intertwined himself within our culture, our daily culture. He's just part of the building. Uh part
013of the staff. Uh I don't view him as a outside resource. He's just one of us and that's how the kids view him, too. And they're very comfortable um striking up conversations with him, saying good morning, saying hello. And I think they appreciate that that daily smile, as well. So thank you, Harold. Um this is our April update from KMS. I'll continue to uh speak on three branches and they are performance, culture and community. In terms of performance, we've completed our checkpoint two practice tests. And we'll finish our checkpoint three practice tests this week. We just have a couple to go. In terms of their performance, grade five English language arts, we we were right with the state average is slightly below. Um and on checkpoint three we there was a greater gap. So we've
014got to look at that, but still nothing to be alarmed about. In terms of math, we surpassed the state average in fifth grade math. For grade six English language arts slightly below the state average on checkpoint two. They're going to complete checkpoint three this week. In math, they were above the state average on checkpoint two and they were well above the state average on checkpoint three. I just want you to take note of those those comments and remember where we were just a few years ago at our lower levels, our grades five and six. Grade seven, we still have some work to do. We were below the state average in English language arts. Checkpoint two and we were also below on checkpoint three. Math, we were below the state average on checkpoint two and they're
015finishing their checkpoint three this week. So there's our targeted area for this summer, our seventh grade curriculum and so forth. Grade eight English language arts, we were approximately equal to the state average on checkpoint two in the English language arts. They're scheduled to complete checkpoint three this week. In mathematics they were approximately equal to the state average on checkpoint two and they're scheduled to complete checkpoint three this week. So things are going in a good direction there from our practice testing data. Questions on that, first of all? Good. I applaud the work of our teachers. They really worked hard over the last 2 years uh reviewing, revising, analyzing curriculum, uh working on instruction, and so forth. In terms of our culture, uh our third quarter academic award assemblies are going to be held on Friday,
016April 10th throughout the day. We'll celebrate the accomplishments of our students as it relates to academic performance, academic growth, and attendance. Our National Junior Honor Society induction will be open to the community on April 14th at 6:00. You're all invited. We'd love to see you there. Uh I'm sure the kids and the parents would love to see you there, too. If you can make it, that's a great great opportunity for you to mix with the community as representatives of the corporation. Uh in terms of the community itself, I'm sure you saw the good news. Our PTO has met their requirements to raise $50,000 for a matching grant. That matching grant will be used to purchase an outdoor pavilion learning center and playground equipment behind the middle school. So, we're really excited about that. And our
017our PTO has just done such a great job and and been such a great conduit between the building, the the school itself, and our community. I really applaud the efforts of that group. Uh and then last, our community choir performance is April 13th at 6:00 in the KMS cafeteria. Once again, an opportunity come out and uh see the kids perform. Uh and and they're really good and they get excited about that. So, I'm looking forward to that as well. Questions, comments, concerns about KMS? When are they starting on the um the learning pavilion? It's going to be this summer. It's going to be a summer job. And how long are they thinking it's going to take? They think it's going to be done by when the kids come back for school. Really? Yep. And we
018have a number of local contractors that are contributing equipment, supplies, and time. Some of them free of charge, some some at a slightly reduced charge. Great. Yep. What's Where are we at with the fencing? I I remember there was some talk about doing some fencing along that road. That's part of that project. >> Okay. Uh we're going to do that last, I believe, after we get uh the pavilion built and all of the equipment put in the playground, then we're going to put the fence in. That's going to run going to run uh west of the parking lot north and south. And it's also going to run at the south end of the parking lot east and west. Yep. It's a great idea. Yes. It's needed. Yeah, it'll be better when that when that's fenced
019in a little bit. Anything else? Thank you. Thanks. It's not a speech, I promise. I promise. Uh we have a lot of great events coming up for the end of the year for the high school. Um I wrote them out on a calendar that you guys have in front of you that they're passing around. It'll give you some idea of some of the bigger events going on at the high school from uh choir concert next week on the 13th to the band concert on the 15th. Um on April 27th, we have our academic um dinner for our top 10 um students. It's an incredible evening of of our students who who have achieved top 10 in the classroom and they they get to come to a dinner with their friends and their family and it's
020not just a recognition of their work, it's the recognition of of a teacher who has influenced them um over the course of their schooling and really a a honor to to them as well. So, it's going to be a great evening. Of course, each of you are welcome. So, if you get an opportunity, please please come and join us. Um on the very last page, you'll see that June 5th is graduation. Um it will start at 7:00 p.m. And weather permitting, of course, it will be at Community Field. So, let's all just do the uh rain rain go away dance. So, it will be a beautiful um not hot evening, so we can enjoy our senior class and all the work that they've done over the course of not this just this year, but the
021the course of their career in school. Um and again, a celebration for all the staff members from preschool all the way up to our seniors for for getting them to where they are. Again, I always say for graduation, it's it's not a diploma of what you've done, it's a diploma to say that you are ready for that next chapter. You are ready to go out there and either go straight into the to a trade, into college, into a career in it's something that they now have the opportunity to do. And we're very excited for that. Um beginning of March, our seniors, you know, not our seniors, our juniors took the SAT. And so, I do have the results of that. I'm kind of going through it right now, kind of putting some things together and
022definitely look forward to coming uh at the next board meeting with some updated information on on how our our students did this this year with the SAT. Um overall, it's been a great first day back, first very long day back, but excited just to see our students and be back at it. Is there any questions that I can answer for you guys? I have a question, but just a thank you for this. Yeah, so you know that. All this stuff has been going on. It's crazy to um to keep track of all this going on, obviously, you know, but yeah, that's very nice. And if you guys have any questions ever, I mean, email me, call me, text me, let me know what I can do for you guys. Any chance I can get you
023guys into the building and and see some of these successes, that's that would be amazing. So, and I I want to I want to second what everyone has said that Chief Smith has been a phenomenal asset. I definitely appreciate appreciated him being at the high school, kind of walking into bathrooms and and being in the cafeteria. And sometimes for our high school students, sometimes their experiences and unfortunate situations outside of school and sometimes in school can result in those real consequences that Chief has been trying to talk to them. So, it's really good to have that connection to to help them kind of see that, you know what, a small mistake can lead to to big can be a very impactful for them. So, definitely thankful for everything you do and Yeah. Thank you. Likewise.
024Thank you. Well, while the three of you here, before you go, um just Peggy and I took a walk around the schools today. We spent an hour. We wanted to make that intentional to go to each building um today and the smiles we saw, not only from the kids and the welcome back, but the the teachers, the staff, the stories of spring break was awesome. We in each building we both kind of mentioned the calm, the peace. There's not kids running around the hallways, right? And then we actually had that had that conversation of like, look how organized everything is. So, just a little kudos to you guys for your buildings on the first day back from spring break, you never know what you're going to get, right? But everyone was where they were supposed
025to be. It was quiet, it was calm. They were doing what they were supposed to. So, I just want to thank you guys Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. Appreciate it. Yes, I'm glad you brought that up, too. So, thank you. All right, stay healthy. Wonderful. All right, let's go on to item number eight, public comments. And we do not have any public comments, so we'll move on to item nine, personnel report. Any resignations? Superintendent recommends the board approve approve resignations as listed on the personnel report. Item B, FMLA. Superintendent recommends the board approve the FMLA as listed on the personnel report. Item C, terminations. Superintendent recommends the board approve the termination as listed on the personnel report. And item D, new hires. Superintendent recommends the board approve new hires as listed on that report. Superintendent recommends
026the board approve items A, B, C, and D. Do I have a motion? Motion. Wayne makes a motion. Is there a second? Second. Jason seconds. Is there any discussion? So, um we'd like to welcome uh Ms. Jamie McDonald to the middle school. Uh she was supposed to be on this board um as a sub um but um she is being hired in as our secretary/treasurer at the middle school. She's done a great job of of stepping in and helping us out with her background knowledge. Uh not only from us, but previous schools has been uh fantastic. I think she's filled that role uh very well. So, uh thank you and welcome to her. I'm also welcome to uh Ms. Lindsey Sherosch, who uh joins us. Um she is the associate head principal at the middle
027school. Um after going through that interview process, she um was teacher at Plymouth. Uh then she worked at New Tech. Uh for how long? Six years. Six years um at New Tech, which is a nationwide um foreign corporation um basically on the uh educational practices. Uh we're excited to to have you here and bring that knowledge here. She's been at North White as assistant principal there for last uh what? Two, three? Three. Um three years um and then we were able to bring her on um as the assistant principal at the high school to help Sam for the rest of the school year. Um so, we're we're excited to uh to have you. And thank you for joining our team and welcome to the family. Thank you. I'm excited. May I May I say a
028couple things? So, this one this one is special for me. Uh it's an opportunity to bring a local kid back home. I had Lindsay's brother and sister in school uh years ago. Lindsay was a 06 graduate. Is that correct? Uh she was in my son's class, so I remember Lindsay go back to when she was a first grader running around, twirling, jumping around. Plymouth, and she was quite athletic. I think she was in cheerleading and gymnastics and you name it. Uh she was doing it. Uh when I went to Plymouth uh my first day there for orientation, I looked out at the audience of the new teachers and there were five Knox kids in that audience. Lindsay was one of them. And uh she was being hired in as a elementary school teacher at one
029of the one of the four elementary schools there that year. Uh I actually got a phone call today from uh her former principal uh in in that building who saw that she's being introduced tonight as uh the associate head principal at KMS. Um and and he was extremely proud of her. Um and talked about what a great hire we're making. And we're getting a really good person here. So, I just think that's so important um for our kids to to see uh one of us grow into a leader and come back home to prove that this can be done. You can do this. It's there for you. You got to walk through that door. And I know she's going to do a great job. Um you know, hopefully she's going to be with me for
030a couple years and and I can tell her what not to do uh in in in those year or two uh and and then she'll be ready to succeed me if all goes well. I know she's going to be great. Okay? Thank you. Anything else? Okay. I'm sorry about that, dear. I'll give you reasons not to cry, too. It's okay. Don't worry. All in favor, say I. I. Opposed? All right. Item 10, business. Item A, treasurer's report. The corporation treasurer has provided a report on page 16. Is there any questions on that? Okay. We'll move on to item B, vendor usage report. Treasurer has provided the vendor usage report on page 36. Any questions regarding that? Okay. We'll move on to item C. Superintendent recommends a board approve the claims that are listed on page
03139. Do I have a motion? Motion. Autumn makes the motion. Is there a second? Second. Aaron makes the second. Is there any discussion on that? Okay. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? So, moved. Item D, construction update. Superintendent will update the board on the upcoming construction project. All right. Yeah. So, our construction crew, the contractors, are very excited to have 2 weeks to get into the middle school. Yeah, so remember we're taking the uh vertical, I see the horizontal units out, right? Putting in the vertical units. They spent that 2 weeks, uh realistically about 3 days or so. Um up and down ceiling tiles, looking at the duct work. What are they going to need for the project? Uh so, it was very valuable. We met today as a team, and they would
032like a little bit more time. So, we'll, you know, work that around that. So, that when that Tuesday, which I think June 2nd, comes, we're ready to go. That they can get in there, and start that that construction process. Um so, I mean, tomorrow in person with two of the site logic reps. So, everything is going smooth there. I'm glad you brought up the middle school. We have been having those conversations about cuz both constructions going on at the same time. You know, okay, this is kind of your area and this is kind of your area. Um so, yeah, we we have a plan to make make both those happen and uh middle school's going to get a good facelift. Any questions? On item e, donations, superintendent recommends the board approve the following donations as
033listed below. Uh Northern Indiana Community Foundation and the Hardesty Memorial Endowment want to donate $11,000 to be used for the kindergarten roundup kindergarten countdown, excuse me. Uh Northern Indiana Community Community Foundation and student scholarship and presentation fund presentation scholarship presentation fund uh $3,700 and $71.50 and then $1,885.75 to secure speakers or program presenters to students, teachers, and or parents at KCE. KCS. Does have a motion? Motion. And there's motion second. Second. And there's any comments questions first. Sure. We're just so grateful to the Community Foundation of Northern Indiana for this uh special award the $11,000. It's It's It's kind of hard for me to think that it was 2010 when I was first asked to meet with a person from Starke County Community Foundation. Would we consider doing some kind of jumpstart program? They wanted
034to call it kindergarten countdown. So, I'm like, sure, why not? Not realizing that we would continue this and build the two camps, which is where we are now for several years. It's the jumpstart program we do every summer now for 3 weeks. And this year the Community Foundation asked that we complete a grant. And so, I did that and they graciously awarded us the same amount that we asked for, which will pay for two kindergarten teachers, actually licensed our same two I imagine, and two paraprofessionals as well as the white buses to transport these students. There'll be approximately 40 students. So, wonderful opportunity, very grateful to the Hardesty Memorial who's taken that under their wing more or less, and they do this for Knox, Judson, and Oden. So, great. And then the second part of
035that, you know, the donation here for speakers and program and presenters for our students. We as a team, we really want to think outside the box of how can we use that to be impactful for our students? I think we got some some good ideas. We've talked about, you know, that first day of school when we come back, we started a little tradition this year of having all the kids out on the football field. Well, what what else can we do to make that more impactful and more joyful for the students? You know, how can we bring some type of leadership into that? And that that's what those funds are going to be used for. So, we're definitely looking forward to those conversations as a team. Are there any comments or questions? Okay. All in
036favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Item F, field trip request. Superintendent recommends board approve the field trip request from the choir from the choir to go to Six Flags on Saturday, May 16th, 2026. Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion. Who seconds the motion? Second? I'll second it. So, this is the uh Music in the Park. Uh they have attended this this before. A great opportunity for the kids to to go to Six Flags. Uh they do perform at at this event. So, um I don't think I'll be there, but hopefully we'll get a video that we're able to to post. Any further discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Item G, furniture purchase. The superintendent recommends the board approve the purchase for furniture for the KHS professional development. Do I have a
037motion? Motion. Wendy, do I have a second? Second. Seconded. Are there any discussion? So, what we have here, um I'll bring your attention to the board. Um this is part of the high school construction that that we have been working on. Uh we want to bring a a professional education center, a room where we can deliver high-quality PD, not only for our staff, um but for organizations that are outside. Um I'll even I'll take the community, um you know, the Chamber of Commerce. They the businesses, they meet the first Wednesday of each month. I would love to host that in there, um get the community involvement into our building. Uh Ms. Stone is right next door to cater it, uh which gets our kids involved in that. Um so, I think there's the the school
038perspective of I we want to be the hub, right? We want to be the place where people go uh to to have meetings. I have one more uh picture here. Uh this other one describes it better. Let me click over to this one, um and explain exactly everything you are looking at here. Um but we're we're excited for this uh opportunity here. So, this is uh the new room. Um it's right uh in the corner of here of of the high school uh next to the elementary there. You have the these new windows. You got these pub-style tables right here. Um our TVs are on the wall here. Uh you have this these little tabletops here that can move, they're on wheels. Uh so, we can put food there for catering. And then you have
03930 uh seats that are here for the PD. And this back table is just a little bit higher. You know how it I'm going to go with church, right? When you're church, you can't see in front of you cuz, you know, it's not So, we made the back row just a little bit taller so that they can they can see over the first two rows. Um and again, I want to be the the the leader in this. We want to be the leader in this um to be able to bring PD two knocks not only for our staff, but for the community also. How does that room get designated? Does that run through the high school administration? Like so, usage of that. The scheduling meetings, where where does that go through? >> Yeah, we'll have
040to I mean, we have some master calendars that we'll have to put that on there. Um, I think that's a conversation that Mr. Ellis and I will have um, of exactly what that looks like. I mean, we schedule every single other place out. Um, so yeah, we we can make that work. Now, I just like you talk about Chamber of Commerce, those kind of things. How does that get like does that get driven by you recommending and and saying, "Hey, we'd like to host this." Correct. So, um, I I had a conversation. I went to the meeting um, last Wednesday and and I kind of, you know, "Hey, if this all comes, you know, in the fall time, I'd love to host." You know, so if I can make that happen um, with them, um,
041that'd be great, you know, Mr. Ellis and I will schedule that up to make sure that that that room is available. Um, and then we would do that in in the morning time. Um, but it's just an opportunity to bring the community in. If there's another um, you know, community event or or some business that wants to have a catered lunch meeting, we have a spot. I mean, could we even run that into a business for our catering and have lunch, you know, lunch meetings that we can offer? I mean, how how awesome would that be down down the road? Where's this located in a school? That's the only thing that bothers me is the traffic through the school having all these meetings. So, this door, right here, this is the outside. So, if you
042looked out this window, you would see the elementary. Okay. >> this door right here, um, and what we did is uh, there's actually two double sets of doors. Put a wall in the middle. Um, so the only way to get in this room is through access there and it's a swipe card. Awesome. Okay. Um, so it's completely shut off to to the building. Um, there's one entrance right here and then obviously this is the entrance into the hallway. So you actually can go through that other door and Correct. to the outside. And it's it's walled it's walled in. Um, and then those doors there's another double set of doors that go to the high school but they are a push only uh, for for fire issues. Uh, but you can't can't get into them. And
043then this will also rack or we're going to buy these little racks right here uh, for all the tables and chairs. These tables they stack inward so you can stack five of them in so if cuz I know that um, Mrs. Leslie Conden does her kids on what third Tuesday and Thursday afternoon? Um, where she brings uh, two-year-olds in here. This can all stack against the wall. Um, and she can still use this room. So. So what uh, school functions be used before? A- any type of of P like uh, NESIC, you know, which is uh, Dr. Harmon. You know, a lot of our meetings we travel to Winnetka right? Why can't they they travel to us? Right? I mean we as as Stark County we're always we're always traveling cuz none of our schools
044have a good meeting spot. Right? The vision of this is this is a meeting spot. Let's split these up so that people are coming to Stark County. Right? Um, whether it's CTE, you know, we we have that. Um, you know, superintendent meetings we can have in there. We can have board meetings in there. Uh, we can have retreats in there. Um, so any of those special functions um, that room will be available. My only concern I know we we talked earlier is the the the price tag of the furniture. Um, I know you said you had gotten one other quote and this was the lower of the two but is there a possibility for any other examination of options for the tables and chairs and uh, you know, situation? Um, how's this being paid for?
045With our construction, we saved about $230,000 through that whole construction process, which was which was great for us. We like to take a portion of that bond money and use that for this. Could we could we eliminate some things? We could. Is this furniture have a lifetime warranty on it? It does. It's the same furniture that the high school and the middle school has. So, we you know, we're just matching with what we have already done. You know, is there could you take away these little low pub tables, you know, and and cut some things back? You you absolutely can. Um You know, but it's it's good high quality stuff that folds up very very nicely together. And I mean I know just looking, you know, being good stewards of resources, it's a This little
046$30,000 for one room is a lot of money for furniture. Um Just thought maybe there were Yeah, and that's if you want me to go back to to the drawing board and see what we can do cuz you have these nice cabinets over here where all the food can go in. They can keep their supplies underneath there. So, the bond money goes for for this, but what you know, what other uses I know there's certain things that can be used for and certain things that can't be. >> Any any any type of kid capital projects, you know, or renovations, things like that that can be used for. Previous facilities. Mhm. So, I have a question. Um Great, we got this. How are we going to promote it and who's promoting it and how will we
047know how well this she is? We're going to spend this money, we're going to make this room. So, who's in charge? Who who promotes it? Yeah. Who I I I would like to know >> actually and you know, are are we going to use it cuz is it I heard a couple different things. We talked about chamber we be using it to support and and show what we have, but also heard you got we're going to have professional development, but we also going to have classes in this as well. Not not kids. Okay, you said Mrs. Condit brings kids in. So, she does a 2-year-old with a camp, daycare type of deal. Preschool for 3 and 4-year-olds. Yeah, and that all that furniture would be put away. That would just be a dual purpose use
048of of that room. They wouldn't be using the furniture for that. Cuz she currently uses that that area right now, so we wanted to keep that in mind that she would still have the availability to use that room. But as far as promoting it, I mean, I would love to be the one that that goes out and that promotes that to promote our culinary kids, you know, I think there's there's something to be said when you know, when I arrived here, I think that we were kind of we didn't have a whole lot of people in our circle. We want to open that circle up. We want to invite as many people as we can into our school. Not only the community members, but other schools, other people from other schools. I mean, we go
049all the time safety, right? We go to safety conferences and we're always traveling out to Wheeler, to Hobart, things like that. We can host that stuff. Our bus drivers, right? We did yellow card training. We did it over at the middle school, I think twice in the last 2 years. You know, this would be the ideal place to to hold those those type of meetings. Perfect. It's um Some of the schools over in the NLC Warsol has a restaurant inside their school. That serves these purposes. So, in 2 days a week they host their Chamber of Commerce meetings there. The mayor has meetings there. >> I I think it's an awesome idea. My concern is this and and that I'm bringing up this. That's great. You have something we're doing this, but we don't have
050a plan. Like we're going to do this, we're going to do that. My request is that someone puts a a together and says, "How are we going to use it?" I mean, there's great ideas. We're talking about all this, but what is our plan? Yeah. Lay something out. I I I'd like I think we all would like to see we're going to spend this money and we have all these great thoughts, but what is the plan? You know, we we talk about it, but here's what we're going to do and here's how we're going to promote it and and then we're going to reach out to these people and we're going to try to schedule this and and and by the way, who's in charge of it? You know, we've got it, but it's just
051there. That's great. So, share with us Yeah. And and maybe the next step is, "Hey, here's what we're going to do and this is how we're going to do it." I I would I I would ask I think uh it'd be nice for us to all know. It's all right. Great. We can move forward this, but how are we going to utilize it? Share with us and and here is how we're going to go about making sure we have we're going to reach out to these people. We're going to schedule this. We're going to do these things and and uh it'd be just nice to know that I'm all about it, but I'm just I think I think we need to make sure that we also have a plan. Absolutely. You know, we talk about
052it. first. I think yeah, the plan come first. Plan should have come first. Yeah. We I we can absolutely do that. We can table it right now if that's the the vote and I'll come back with a plan. Yeah, cuz I mean like are you going to run through like building usage form? I mean, are they going to fill out stuff like that? I would like to see like Kurt said. Um you know, maybe we can come up with a way to to fund it with if you guys, you know, promote it and can actually fund this. Um I don't know how that works with the school, but um as far as recouping some of the money. You know, selling it. I mean, promoting it. So, I I think it's a great idea, too. I
053just I agree with prior table on it and So, I have a question. It's like, you know, we talked about this. What was the scheduling of of this? Is this something and we got a quote for this? Is this something that was going to happen over the summer time? Yeah. So, once we order it, I it's 2 months to to get the furniture in. So, that would bring us into the summer and then that the promotion that would come in the school year starts. So the recommendation is that you guys can put together put a band together team put together some ideas thoughts of what how it's going to be utilized when it is and then we can act obviously act on it sooner than later so we can if we can agree on we
054can still make it happen within that time frame but um maybe have a a better put the cart before the horse. Absolutely. I'll I'll do that and we can bring it back to you at the next board meeting. >> So I'll make a motion. I'll make it. So motion to table. I'll make a motion to table the uh item G furniture verse. Second seconds it. Any just kind of further discussion on that? I just noticed the quote on this says it's only valid through 3526. I don't know if that was it's going to be I I I don't think that that'd be an issue. That's the that's when we were meeting and discussing some. I'll I'll double check it. I think something in the plan that comes back to is to how it's going to
055benefit the kids cuz it's our primary focus. I mean it doesn't need to be you know specifically this kids going to get this out of this but something philosophical that ties in what we're doing how it's benefiting. I'll add to that though maybe it's also not all about the kids if it's also about our staff and team. Our community. Right. I mean that it's it's all. It's not just the kids. It's it's what are we doing to help our teachers our community and to promote our school corporation. So with our primary focus being our kids. Absolutely. Cuz I think any any chance we get to bring people in to see because then people understand when we talk about things that maybe our needs or or what we you know then they're in here. They they
056know. Our campus is so awesome. When you bring in someone here for the first time, that's the first thing they say, "Oh my gosh, I didn't know this was so awesome here, right?" And this is part of that of bringing bringing people to here so they understand who we are and what we do. Um But yeah, I'll we'll I'll we'll put that together and we'll bring it back for our next board meeting. And they can see us shine. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um I guess we need to take a vote. All in favor of table nine, say I. I. Opposed. Okay. Let the record reflect tabled. Um item I, educational field trip discussion. Superintendents Today is what I do. H. Homeschool that went to Item H, fundraiser request. Uh superintendent recommendation to approve the fundraiser request
057for the FFA as listed on page 95. Do I have a motion? Motion. Uh Wendy, is there a second? Second. Okay. Any questions or discussion on that? They're They're at the banquet, they're just going to do a do a silent auction as a little fundraiser for the program, so. Any further discussion? All in favor, say I. I. Opposed. Okay. Okay. Now, I item I, educational field trip discussion. Superintendent and the high school principal will discuss the request for an educational field trip with the board. Yes, and we're going on the trip. So, yeah, so Sam and I are going to talk about this. Well, we need Jeff around, you know. Um I'm getting, you know, we had a conversation about getting our kids out of Stark County. Um and Mr. Dusty Minix um has come
058to us and approached us about taking kids all overseas. Um I'm going to let Sam explain that that a little bit more here. Um this is not anything we're making a decision on, just simply a conversation. We're not looking at this until June, July of 2028. Um so, it kind of that prepared planning, you know, phase, um especially financially. Um so, we just kind of want to bring it to your table, Mr. Els. I'm just kind of turn it over to you. Sure. Uh I'm up here. Um cuz I don't like standing up here. Um So, in June July of 2028, uh Mr. Minix wants to take a group of students um to to Europe to France and England on a educational tour of uh Normandy, Paris, and London. Uh be a great opportunity to
059get the students who want to go to let them experience the the cultural in Europe outside of the United States. Um uh what's nice is this is being kind of housed through EF Educational Tours, which is a national organization that focuses on not just getting tours for for students, but also kind of making it more educationally focused for them. Um so, it is a opportunity to get our students out to experience the new things in in in Europe and beyond and just a great opportunity for them to kind of just yeah, try any new experiences in high school. Um so, it is approximately a 10-day tour um with with uh I believe it's starting in Normandy and then it's going to work its way um to Paris to to London. Um right now it is
060in phase of kind of finalizing everything. Um until things are finalized and approved by the board, of course, they won't finalize any tour trips because that would require um money. Um however, they as the the organization, they will actually handle all the finances for it. Um the they will reach out to parents and parents are aware that they will work directly with that organization to to provide um funding for the trip, so it's nothing that we have to do within internally and then collect the money and then submit the money to them and then get everything turned back. So, um it'll be just a nice opportunity for them. As of right now, um you know, Mr. Minix did do a parent meeting to to gauge interest and as of right now, there's about um 10
061to 12 students who are interested in attending who have said that they would like to to go um if of course approved by by the board. Um but of course, you know, right now it's just a matter of kind of giving you guys the information and then of course starting the to answer any questions that you guys have. How long in advance do they have to to start like the definite planning of it? So, they want to they want to start now. Um so, honestly, for them, it gives them the opportunity to kind of spread their payments out between now through I believe it's I think it's 4 months prior to the trip going as their final payment. And it just gives them an opportunity to pay on a monthly basis a smaller amount per
062month versus trying to to to give a larger amount over a shorter group of amount of time. I think that um Bremen was one of them that did it last summer. I think that they um cuz a friend of mine, she's a teacher there and she she went and she loved it. She said it was um and they that's why I was asking cuz I'm pretty sure that it was about a year and a half or 2 years and that way they could the parents could, you know, split up the payments and um but she said it was it was a wonderful experience. >> Yeah, I would say I would say within Indiana, I would say a good 50 to 60% of high schools do similar trips like this. In fact, they get they get
063it set up to where every year they they pick a different location of of where they're going. And so then that way it gives um students the opportunity to, if they want to experience more places or for those um who maybe want to just focus on one saying, you know what in 3 years I would love to go here and then kind of just keep that on a continual basis each year. Where I was last year, they actually had a high school section and a middle school section. Their their high school sections would go overseas, but our middle the middle school section would would go to places within the United States. I think this summer they're actually going to Grand Canyon in Utah. Again, it's just an opportunity to let those students kind of, you
064know, leave and and experience new things, but then also experience it with with friends and family and and their teachers. Great. It's It is great memories for them. What group is I mean is this like Who's it open to? How is that through like Sure. It's current students and and their if they want a parent who attend a parent can go as well. But of course any parent that would attend would of course go through all of our rules. Foreign language I mean like what like Dusty's putting together like you Yeah, so History is it It could be history. It could be It could be foreign language. One thing that they do promote is if if they do go, they can offer the opportunity to actually get college credit for for either world history or
065I believe foreign language And now what country they go to? They were probably like promoting but they've reached out basically to that class of that group of people. >> Absolutely. Is it specific to junior class, senior class? No, it's it's open from freshman to seniors. Such as I know initially when Dusty started talking through it, they were wanting to go next year and not the following year. However, they didn't give enough time to start the process the getting the money paid so it would have been a much larger payment. Um but like current juniors who would have already graduated the time would still be eligible to go. It'd be that that that summer after their their graduation. How are you going to pick if there's say 50 you said 10 to 12 say 15? Then
066they can have 15 go. There's going to be no limit. Yeah, there is there is no limit. They will they will base everything off of whoever is interested. Cuz the the way that I understood of that because obviously if you have like you know double in a room then it you know that's how the price so obviously they would want the more people to go that way it's not as expensive. Yeah, and and typically they they usually say about 25 to 30 students to have a a singular tour group for for one school. However, what they do is they take schools maybe in the same area or similar size who maybe if if we have a group of 10 and another school has a group of 10, they may combine those groups so then that
067way they're on one tour versus trying to make the cost a little bit more for for the group. And then the chaperones that would go just parents? Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Any other questions? Thank you. Thanks for For for me my final question for Mr. Mack and the board would be when when you do take a vote on it if there are specific questions that you would like answered before you take that vote, let me know and we'll make sure we get that for you. Like I have a question is like I guess at this point it's going to be I mean at some point in time it's got to get officially brought to us, right? >> Correct. And that's so I think it's if I'm not mistaken the ball's in your guys' court. Yeah, I
068I put together like what it is a timeline and then bring that to us and have that conversation about am I correct? >> Yes. Yes, so it Just to understand the process. That's >> Absolutely. If we if we had some type of that that timeline, the plan as we're talking about, um you know, for the next board meeting that we we keep them moving forward. Absolutely. I'll make sure you guys have that. Or even like what a representative from this company, would they Sure, absolutely. If the board requests that, I'm sure they would definitely honor that. I will I will get with Dustin and ask him to see if they would um be willing to do that or you know, what they've done in the past to kind of be, you know, suffice to give
069you the answers I need. Just like a What about uh insurance? So, the EF tour, they they provide the insurance for for liability and like for if it was an accident insurance or even if it was cancellation insurance, the company would would handle that, the liability when it come within the school. Thank you. Thanks, Sarah. Thank you, Mrs. Wilson. Okay, finished up here, item 11. Uh comments and questions from administrators and the board. Uh Sammy, anything else you want to add? I just want to say thank you to the library every month, and so thank you. Thanks, Jimmy. Anything else you'd like to add? Would you like to add anything you want to say? Thank you. And I appreciate the opportunity to be here. Uh Dr. Brown? I appreciate again the um principals and all
070they're all they're doing and looking forward to those SAT scores and how we did with that. Um Officer Smith doing a great job. Yeah, I think we're going in a very positive direction. Welcome, Mrs. Sherrod. Thank you. Happy to have you. And yes, Officer Smith, thank you. I know my kids enjoy seeing you every morning out there. Um same thing. Thank you guys for coming in. We We really appreciate the updates and very thorough, not just a click. So, um that is that is nice. So, thank you. Welcome aboard. Good luck to you. Thanks. Thank you, Harold, for your update and everything you do for our corporation and welcome Lindsay. We are lucky to have you. Thank you. Same here. Um welcome. Thanks, Harold, and welcome, ladies. Uh and uh Sam, I really appreciate this.
071>> Absolutely. The way I can look at it and That's all I got. Uh thanks, Harold, you are doing a great job and uh our admins again for coming in. Sam doing a great job over there at the high school. Um Welcome, Lindsay. Thank you. Ditto. Lindsay, thank you guys all. Appreciate everything you guys do. All of you guys and uh we're just blessed to have uh great people in our corporation and uh and join us as well. So. Thank Yeah, Kirk said it well. We are blessed. Very blessed to have you and welcome aboard to you as well. Spring, you know, maybe the weather doesn't say it, but it is the season for testing. So, that's where we are, the busy time of the year. Um IREAD is done, SAT is done. We really
072can't share anything at this point publicly until the State Board of Education approves those. Um parents know that's where we are with that. Today, the I AM window opened for our special needs students who cannot participate in SAT or I learn. So that will run through most of April. That's a one-on-one test with the teacher and the student. Um and then the I learn window for grades 3 through 8, it will open a week from today. And our students will be able to move forward after that checkpoint testing which closes on Friday. And then our students who need to take the I learn bio will open towards the the windows actually open but we won't test those students till the end of the month because some of them are already going to be in taking
073I learn our eighth graders in bio at this point. So and that's just for any student who has participated in biology this year must take that. It's a federal requirement. So test coordinators are quite busy. I'm busy. We're taking care of all the issues right now because you know, there's always issues with students not showing up in the testing pool from the state of Indiana. We got to get it together. Thank you. I'll just say we're excited for the last eight weeks of school here. I mean things are flying by. I think when I talked to people around the school today that that's that's what everybody said. Boy, time is just flying. So I think we're in a really great spot. Attendance for our testing is very important here. You know, as we come up
074these next couple weeks. Um we're we're ready to roll. So that's all I got. Um I have 12 public comments on not on the agenda. We have nothing. So we'll move on to uh item 13 German. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Dr. Brown? I second. I have a second. So any discussion or hold on or All in favor say aye. Okay. Meeting is adjourned. >> Mhm.