001please join us in the pledge of allegiance welcome to our monday june 20th school board meeting and we'll start off with our agenda approval deletions additions dr baraka thank you mrs you do have an amended agenda before you you've got some amendments under roman numeral seven d one and two under mrs castaneda's in seven f three under mr ledger's section thank you move to approve the agenda as stated we have a motion by dr medlin second by mr marshall any discussion hearing none all in favor aye motion passes thank you kelly is there any correspondence nothing to report on this evening all right we'll move right into our liaison committee updates mr marshall uh nothing to report this evening thank you mrs kelly uh redevelopment commission i don't have anything this evening parks department we
002had our ribbon cutting to reopen norman park this saturday so it's fabulous uh fabulous job equipment looks great take a look if you get a chance um splash pad push back construction rain we're hoping for the end of july fingers crossed we'll see oh parks department if anybody has a high school student who's looking for a part-time summer job still parks department is desperate for summer help so keep that in mind thank you dr medlin um nothing to report other than um i am going to talk to somebody with regard to the wellness committee to see what things they have coming up for this fall that is all great dr malcolm lake central education committee met and they're working on their fundraiser the next one will be in november and that will be our run
003that we have last year where we repeat that again this year i'm not sure of all the particulars yet that's in november and then the second fundraiser will be um it's going to be a wine tasting event i believe to be held in february i will keep you updated about that because hopefully we can all attend and show support and dire parks department meets um i think next week so i have nothing to share with that thank you okay and my st john redevelopment commission meetings i have nothing to report and dollars for scholars we are going to be posting that meeting for planning for homecoming so if anybody'd like to join us with that too we'll be doing that and i know that there is a community member that is also going to be
004putting together a zombie run and he is going to donate all the proceeds back to dollars for scholars so um that'll be happening these i think he said the saturday after homecoming so i think that's the eighth if i'm correct but uh when i have that information i will be sure to share it so we'll move on to our official school board business topics consent agenda dr veraco thank you again seek board approval for the minutes from our special board meeting on june 6th as well as our regular board meeting and then also seek board approval for the claims payroll and extracurricular expenditures that you have received in advance in your packets motion to approve those items motion this is kelly in a second by mr marshall any discussion hearing none all in favor aye
005aye motion passes thank you is there any public comments regarding action items there are none so we'll move right into our official school board business topics regular agenda dr veracle we are excited to have members of the keeler staff here to be recognized for their work with best buddies i'd like to bring up tim doyle assistant principal for him to do a little intro and we get to hear uh about this neat recognition yes tim doyle assistant principal at kahler i'm excited to be here tonight to recognize four of our staff members who have served as sponsors for our best buddies program and these four three of which are with us tonight have worked tirelessly to to promote inclusion in the building and to quickly grow the program into something that's really been embraced by
006staff students and and the people in the community as well so and their efforts have been recognized by the state of indiana best buddies who this year recognized taylor middle school as the outstanding middle school best buddies chapter in the state of indiana is not with us [Applause] um [Applause] tim can you act as my proxy and give him a high five for me that's quite an accomplishment ready thank you [Applause] i was going to say a few words just about best buddies uh we started working on kayla best buddies in august of 2019. we wanted to set our chapter in a big way we spent the year planning uh preparing and fundraising we officially became a chapter in the fall of 2020 and at best buddies international's annual leadership conference we were honored as
007the outstanding middle school chapter in indiana our chapter also became an established chapter we had a successful year in spite of the coded restrictions but it was not the same this year we were honored as the best buddies indiana mills middle school chap of the year and we are in the running for the best buddies internationals middle school chapter of the year we were finally able to hold in-person events for the first time we worked hard to come up with fun educational inclusive events one of the things that we wanted to do was to get other clubs and teams involved along with the staff for our first event our art teacher chris guzman provided a lesson on keith herring and showed us how to draw our buddies best buddies logo we work with our track
008teams to attend the conference track meet several of our buddies participate in the unified 100 meter dash we are we also started an initiative to get more staff active at our events which we hope to grow next year for disabilities awareness month many of our members gave speeches during advisory teaching students and staff about various topics related to this month including inclusion best buddies down syndrome awareness day and many others we held three fundraisers that raised money to enable our chapter to help our school become a champions together school for which he raised over two thousand dollars and we also helped best buddies indiana by raising money for the lake county french county friendship law which we raised over three thousand dollars we also held our second annual end of the year breakfast where we
009honored several of our members for the hard work cannabis buddies has worked hard this year to grow our program promote inclusion and help our school and community to become more accepting we have strived to follow best buddies missions and goals the dedicated members whether they are buddies peer buddies associate members or advisors have worked together to make best buddies of force within our school and community [Applause] thank you tim brent you guys are welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting or you can head on out enjoy the evening if you have other things to do but we appreciate you coming out and sharing with us the good work at kahler and i think i'm very proud of how we've expanded what we've done in the area of inclusion not just to keeler but
010in all of our schools but thank you so much for what you've done and i was going to add that i was talking to a parent just this afternoon and his child has graduated from lake central but he just is so honored that his child attended lake central and had the experience he did and was amazed at the outreach and availability of support services for his son and he loved the tap program and that's not the first time i've heard that so kudos for you for establishing a part of that foundation that follows them through the years you know what they say the cream rises to the top right so you're the foundation you bring it on up so good for you okay i'll move on to my next item which is to give the
011board an update on our uni project the uni is the mobile library i was visiting with elena ahrens recently and if you recall about a year and a half ago we were able to double the size of our shelving if you've ever seen us when they pull it out at the park they put the books on display and have some benches for children to sit on and sometimes we have teachers show up to be uh guest readers at these events and so we doubled the size of our shelving but then with covid we really didn't utilize it so i'll give one final shout out to my fellow rotarians in the shareable rotary club because they paid for about half of the second installment of shelving units and elena was lamenting the other day that she's
012having to go back to the elementary libraries and raid books because so many are being checked out which if there's any sign of success with the program is that kids are taking these books and they're continuing to read all summer long and so the project is been an incredible success and we're really happy for that and i wanted the board to know um just where we are so any questions about the the uni and where it's going there is a calendar of upcoming visits posted on the website okay thank you my next item is to give the board a recap from the seminar we went to on june 1st down in indianapolis it was a legal seminar there were some important topics that we heard about and in some ways discussed on the way back
013from the trip mrs seuss and dr meddlin attended with me the first item was one that i think we're in pretty good shape on and that was a discussion about public comment at school board meetings there was a piece of legislation passed that forced boards that weren't taking comments at every meeting to do so this does include our work sessions so since it's a public meeting we would have to take comments at a work session we typically review board policies in its initial form and then bring them to this setting for action and that's typically when we've had comments if we have comments at these public meetings but if someone were to show up we would need to listen to them it was interesting that the attorney said you know while at your regular public
014board meetings you have to listen to comments you don't necessarily engage in a back and forth at your work session since you're not taking action you probably wouldn't engage in a back and forth you can but you likely would not um and so we have a format here where we have a section for public comments on action items and we're intentional about it and we're specific about it so that anyone who says before you vote i'd like to say something because i'd like to influence or at least weigh in on what i think about how this could impact our students and so given that i believe we really have that well covered and then the people who want to comment about something that's not on our agenda but they think maybe coming down the pike
015or in the future that's when we take comments at the end of the meeting and so we do satisfy both types of constituents both types of guests at our meetings they did cover the limits most people are doing a two or three minute limit per person we've been at three we have never stopped taking comments we asked people not to be redundant but you know we have allowed for some of that because if people come and sit in the room this board going back to the first board i served under believes people who show up deserve to be heard and i think that's a good policy you know to do that i mean i want to say one more time though that the public access counselor who was one of the two presenters on this
016did say more than once it's public comment they don't have a right to grill you and try to dig down deeper and catch you off guard so in many cases the answer is you know we'll take it under advisement or we'll get back to you or you know um the superintendent can do a little more research on that and get back to you in the next week if you come up at the end of the meeting and give contact information so i think we're doing pretty well on that piece and um some you know kudos to this board and the boards that preceded you for hearing people the next item was a transgender issue i just wanted to touch briefly on to make sure the board understands that it qualifies as a title ix issue
017and that's where the the legal pieces come into play with the office of civil rights possibly even the department of justice could get involved in enforcement there was one recent case that i want to mention with a student who was a transgender male who was using the boy's restroom and then when a staff member caught wind of it said i'm not comfortable with that the school denied the formal request to use the boys restroom the lower court granted access it went to the seventh court of appeals and they affirmed against the school district so the seventh court is the one that governs us and so the most recent case law is that that student gets to use the restroom of their choice um it's important to know that this case law will continue to change
018and we'll continue to watch it diligently it has not been a big issue for us thus far i i don't think people are trying to make waves or be outlandish but i do think that they want to use the restroom of their choice and currently that's the standard that we'll follow and then my final piece is they did a presentation on employee rights to political speech and this gets into when is it appropriate and when is it not and it really comes down to sort of a litmus test we've followed for years if it interferes with the performance of their duties well then you know you have the right to step in and say that's that's not what you're supposed to be teaching in mathematics talking about the presidential election in the manner in which
019you're doing it it always gets gray though because our teachers you know they're well educated so when students ask them questions that aren't even on topic they like to address it with students if you don't if you ignore student questions it creates a problem with a relationship but there is a point at which someone's making a political statement that can be disruptive to the school day similar to what students do if you go back to the case law and when students can wear an armband or not or when students can you know have signs about using drugs well if it's considered disruptive to the school environment it's a no if it's not disruptive then you probably need to allow it and so that part hasn't changed it's just important that our board meetings can be
020considered these political things and so the board members they even talked a little bit about board members if they're up for election can they make a statement on the stage about their candidacy or can they pass out materials and of course you know if you allow it then you need to allow it for all and it was a pretty simple summary on that and then one thing that wasn't at our conference but i did want to put it on this sheet just for um just for our board because there was some legislation passed regarding training for officers working inside of school buildings this is really terry's lane and most of these notes i got from a conversation with terry but during the 2022 session any person who is assigned to one or more schools during
021the school hours would need to have the specific nasro training which all of our officers have where it gets gray is you know we have at the high school a two to six person who generally comes from the county and they not only walk the building but they also drive the grounds and they are just a presence for the roughly 800 kids we have here doing extracurricular activities and so that officer or those officers would too moving forward need the training mrs mucha is arranging to figure out how to accommodate one of those such trainings here at lake central high school to make it convenient for our local officers not only who serve lake central but who serve other school systems in the county um but they need to receive the specialized training the nasro
022training the one that we go through is the most common there are a couple other acceptable ones but i don't think they're the ones that are being offered in indiana right now so we'll keep you posted on that but the difference being in a nutshell our five sros have always been certified it's some folks who may come in for two hours at lunch or do the two to six shift those folks would also need to to be certified somebody supervising at a football game doing traffic and crowd control would not need that it's not for those evening activities it's inside of the building is what the law pertains to but we're in pretty good shape on that and we'll tighten up the little piece that that's missing before we get into too far down the
023road any questions about any of those pieces no thank you thank you i'll turn it over to mrs mucha move right on to our director of human resources personnel mrs mucha thank you i'm asking for a recommendation to accept the personnel that was in your packet so i have a motion by mr marshall second and a second by miss kelly any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you i also had a professional leave form for diane aliva to attend and i'm asking for your approval for that professional leave motion to approve most by ms kelly and i will second that any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye aye thank you and my last item is i provided you with the last five handbooks that you needed to go
024through um and i'm asking for your approval for those minor changes to those handbooks move to approve the employee handbooks a motion by dr medlin and i would like to second that second but i don't appreciate seeing those thank you second by dr malcolm any discussion hearing none all in favor motion passes thank you and they'll be posted on our website so thank you thank you and we'll move right on to our director of secondary education mrs castaneda thank you for my first item i'm seeking your approval for the professional leave request the revised copy that you received this evening move to approve the professional leave requests we have a motion by dr medlin second second by ms kelly any discussion all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you and for my second item
025i am seeking your approval for the revised copy of the field trip request motion to approve um motion that we accept that all right we have a motion by dr malcolm in one second second by miss kelly any discussion hearing none all in favor motion passes thank you thank you and then for my last item i just wanted to share some highlights from our summer administrative professional development week which just wrapped up last week on monday june 13th we held our usual administrative meetings that's always nice when we have that break in the summer to bring everybody together including the assistant principals additionally the elementary principals met that day with dr bracy and becky gramala to talk about some increased student behaviors that they're seeing at the elementary level talk about how they could better
026utilize their staff and help out students who are in crisis mode as well as providing emotional support to staff and students so that was a very valuable conversation for that group to have on tuesday june 14th then in the morning we had a workshop with franklin reed franklin reed is a parent in the community who also works in the public sector and so he was able to come back and continue some training with us this particular training focused on cultural competency which is being aware of your own cultural identity as well as learning about the cultures of others we talked a bit about some of the covering behaviors that people sometimes demonstrate in order to try to hide their differences or downplay them and also about the concept of cultural humility where we're trying to
027then recognize where we might have some biases and be sensitive to others we discussed ways that we could improve our cultural humility as a district by engaging with people who are different than us showing empathy listening and of course being an advocate on that afternoon on tuesday the administration went through cpi training which is an annual requirement for our building leaders and then on wednesday and thursday june 15th and 16th we had professional development for all the secondary administrators as well as the secondary counselors and ssps on restorative practices this was provided by a group called the neutral zone out of michigan they had previously done some training with our elementary principals and some of our counselors and teachers at that level and they've had very good outcomes with students using restorative practices so that's
028something we want to continue to bring up through the middle and high school level so we talked about restorative practices which if you're not familiar is an approach used in schools to create a positive climate by building relationships and so on day one we discussed strategies for building relationships that way students feel that they're part of a community no matter how big the school is we also talked about some concepts within social discipline so they're feeling a high level support as well as a high level of structure we talked about fair practices in dealing with students or parents because these can be relationships involving adults as well and then we also had a second day where we talked about the restorative practices continuum which ranges from more informal things such as statements about feelings questions
029about what happened and how they feel a situation might be resolved to more formal types of conferences and circles i think by the end of the two days that all the secondary staff felt it was a very beneficial training it was good because some of the things they spoke about are practices that we're already doing so that positive reinforcement for our administrators is definitely something that's always appreciated and they also shared some new strategies that we can start using as soon as this next school year so it was a very beneficial day for the secondary staff two days i should say the elementary team on thursday june 16th had dr christine eaton come in from the indiana school mental health initiative she focused on addressing the social and emotional needs of our students and the
030elementary principals are going to continue to work with her virtually throughout the 22-23 school year any questions well my my big question is how does you know this has to filter into the schools and so what's the plan to get that done because right now it's at the administrative level so to to bring that down into all the teachers in the classrooms any ideas on how you're going to do that so i think a lot of it was very practical when they put it in the lens of like social discipline where you know you can be punitive you can be permissive or you could be restorative that makes a lot of sense and i think we we all knew moments where we we had hit that higher level being restorative but also moments where we
031kind of slid back into being a little more punitive or a little more permissive and so i think that's something that easily can be done with our staff a lot of the community building activities they actually suggested doing with the teachers to demonstrate that to them the other thing is that some of the activities that we have built into our pte and our advisory already at the middle and high school level do focus on these community building type of activities and developing coping strategies learning how to relate with other people and express your emotions in a productive way and so we do have elements of that i think the next step is going to be to try to um educate the staff more about it and then also possibly partnering with the neutral zone we're
032kind of thinking how it'll work but they have like a train the trainer model where some of our staff who went to the two day training could then come back and start working with our teachers and so we think that's probably the next step we're going to be heading in okay thank you you're welcome thank you thank you all right we'll move right on to our director of facilities mr ledger thank you thank you mr seuss uh tonight i have about seven items uh i'll be discussing with you uh some require action my first item is to seek your approval award execute the site work trade package three site concrete for the bivich project to larson danielson construction company for 114 140 on june 1st we opened bids for for this package we had two
033bidders cns and lmd um they were very competitive and on this one l d won for 114 thousand 140. move to proof motion by mr marshall second second by dr malcolm any discussion all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you my next item is to seek your approval award and execute the bid package one site work trade package for building concrete um to cns concrete construction for 506 again these were opened on june 1st and it was l d and c s and this one cns1 with a very close bid of 506 000 also moved to approve we have a motion by mr marshall seconded by dr malcolm any discussion all in favor aye aye motion passes i thank you my next item is uh to seek your approval award and execute the contract
034for trade package five the asphalt paving striping and parking lot signage to wreath riley construction for 159 408 dollars again this was june 1st we had three bidders site services reith riley and the former walsh and kelly as mr marshall and i discussed last board meeting and they were all three very competitive and wreath riley was the low responsible bidder at 159 408 dollars motion to approve motion by ms kelly i will second that any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you thank you my next item uh was my revised agenda item and it's kind of a big update along with uh seeking the board's approval to move our bid date um i just asked you for approval on what we had what we called the site package that's that's
035this package we got done on the front in the project that we could we could get done expeditely and get it out for bid uh that included the three awards you just you just approved as well as site work and site utilities we did not have great coverage on that so we're rebidding that next week and then the remaining package is what we call the building package this is all the other trade packages involved in the project including the expansion part of the project i mean i'm sorry the renovation of the existing building which includes the hvac renovation as well as the acoustical ceilings of the existing hallways and classrooms so it's basically everything what except for what you approve tonight and what we're opening uh we had a big pre-bid meeting last week we
036finished up the drawings earlier last week we had a pre-bid meeting we had a pretty good turnout but a lot of contractors feedback again we've talked about this these are unique times right now uh between between manpower issues uh material and the supply chain and right atop the holiday they've asked that if we could extend the bid date and i think right now it's really not a priority for that work like site work is so i think it'd be a lot more beneficial lake central we did give that extra time where we could get a lot more competition and with bidders so we'd like to move the bid date we advertise for um june 28th and we'd like to move to july 13th so that's what and i talked to our legal counsel this morning
037early and there's code in here we had to abide by which is basically the letter i gave you guys at your stations so but basically it is asking your approval to move the bid from next tuesday the 28th to wednesday july 13th i think the rationale there makes sense so i moved to approve that recommendation by mr marshall i'll second that second by miss kelly any discussion all in favor any opposed motion passes thank you and just to review um i i brought up mr ledger's request and for that special board meeting we meet on july 11th that we would meet we need to meet briefly to approve what he's going to get in on the 13 i'll let you go from there right yeah as dr rocco's said i asked him about possibly because
038of the july one board meeting um i we we're going to open bids on july 13th and then our next board meets not to august first so um the week of july 20 i think that'd be july 18th i might need a special board meeting for critical lead time items i won't bring you the whole package but i may have a half a dozen like hvac equipment steel those type of items that i'd like to get approved just as soon as we get the project scoped out so as i said to dr rocco we you know as long as three of you can attend and we could do it in the morning or afternoon it would just you know hopefully i was going to see there's 40 minutes or something right i was going to
039suggest to my fellow board members we make it convenient for them to select a time and we can get a quorum there sure i'll let you know once we open bids so i can have my agenda items and so probably the 14th i'll i'll let the board know with an email fair enough okay we will make it work thank you i appreciate it i'll need uh mrs kelly and mrs seuss to sign that document at the end of the meeting i'll bring it to you okay sign that thank you for that uh the other update on vivid uh we're drawings are done out for bid like i said we had pretty good response um but it's the market's tough right now and you've we also have found out last week i kind of knew it
040in the back of my mind but i was hoping it but some contractors are affected by the crown point hospital because their workforce is depleted anyhow and a lot of them are on that so so that's also factoring into the market as well so but we're we're going forward so um my next item is a grimmer project update um that's going very well i wanted to bring the board's attention i talked to dr veraco about this um i worked with mr volkman the town manager sheriff as well as the town and they approved and waived all of our permit fees for this project which exceeded 43 000. so i want to the town thank mr voltman for the cooperation between the town and the school corporation you know that's forty three thousand dollars plus that
041we can put toward the project so that's wonderful news very generous yes miss kelly will you pass our appreciation on to them at the next meeting and i thank you dr barack and i have traded emails with him thank you in this world but yes right as a board member please do we greatly appreciate it i'm not biased against any other town but neither of them but no no he was they were fantastic and again that's 43 000 we can put toward the project so that's awesome uh my my next update is is basically the um lc schmidt and arctic optimization we're doing as i brought to you several attention several meetings uh we received a check from that's nipsco of the optimization process we did a project in the winter or late winter early
042spring where we've got these heat exchangers in high school and because of the bad water st john everything else we have to clean them even though we soften it and you know basically um our cost to do that was a little over twelve thousand dollars but going through the optimization nipsco refunds and everything else we got five thousand four hundred sixty dollars back so it basically equated to 43 the project was paid for by them so that was wonderful news um on that matter just last week i received an email from nipsco uh we filed all the paperwork and they have approved the incentive offer and rebate for the grimmer project which is just aforementioned for 63 131.84 so that's that's a rebate from nipsco for the upgrading the efficiency and energy consumption grimmer project
043nice great result um my last item is just the the annual update of the summer project list we're starting week four so we've had three weeks down we've completed about 38 of the projects already um some of the major projects we've completed today uh we repaved the south parking lot holmen that's completely done and striped uh we've replaced a large concrete sidewalk at grimmer as well as added a sidewalk at pifer for access for snow removal equipment to the back area we we completed the fourth grade roof replacement on the on the east half at uh grimmer and one big project we are in the midst of we started last week is we are having to replace the tanks at a transportation center with the 12 000 gallon diesel tank the 5 000 gallon fuel
044gasoline tank they're over 30 years old so they're not being replaced we're going with above ground tanks so last week we removed both those tanks uh it was quite the process it took three days and we have quite the mini grand canyon over it transportation right now it has been backfilled up to 12 about 12 inches below grade so it's tanks are gone they're disposed of uh we had numerical environmental engineering out there to do all the testing that the epa requires they took all the samples last week they are in for testing right now i should have those results by sometime after the holiday and they're out there today and they'll be out there all week running the new underground piping because we still have to run around piping from the dispensers which is
045what you guys refer to as a gas pump back to our above ground tanks and then the concrete where there's a bunch of concrete work associated with that that starts next monday and then our tanks are going to be delivered the week of july 11th so that's a big project going on and so we want to have that up and running by the time school starts and other projects as you can see by the list are ongoing and i'll have an update the next meeting any questions yes bill a point of information you talked about the fuel tanks yes metal i'm sorry are they metal they are the above ground the underground tanks were a double-walled fiberglass that's what the above above ground tanks will be double line steel they are still you if you
046watch the indianapolis 500 in pits they're kind of look sort of like that they're they're on four-legged pedestals on concrete pad but they're steel double lined tanks okay very good this is uh quite the to-do list it's a lot like whoa yes oh we did another thing we did we're finishing tomorrow um the the fencing repairs at the jv softbond baseball field should be done tomorrow good great great good all right thank you bill i have a question someone had mentioned that our teams our teams your custodial teams we're working four days 10 hour days no you're you're doing the five day week yes five day week okay thank you with that public comments there aren't on this evening so we're going to move right on to board comments and consideration no yeah board comments
047in consideration of future agenda items but i would like to start tonight i just would like to congratulate dr morocco for superintendent of the year for district one by the indiana association [Applause] so congratulations on that all right time with that we'll move on with mr marshall well as they've always said anyone who garners the honor of superintendent of the year must have a good board behind him no congratulations sir kelly yep sam congratulations larry well deserved dr medlin congratulations congratulations but i have a question now does every district represe elect someone as their superintendent and then do all those nine districts or eight districts whatever do they then do a superintendent of the year for the state like you are you in the running for another competition yeah we're like district one so we're
048five counties in this part of the state and then they'll there's like eight districts aren't there there are nine and then out of those nine groups they'll select one for statewide cool and then will that selection take place later this summer i don't know i don't know exactly why that's announced at the uh the fall conference at the fall conference yes yeah yeah well congratulations and good luck thank you yeah do we need to write letters of recommendation or anything not this time let us know so with that we'll move on to our board calendar of future activities dr rocco so we only have one meeting in july and um but the lines of communication are open and as you see bill's list there's certainly a lot of activity going on around the district in
049order to get ready for the start of the next school year and i'll say bill's doing a commendable job on how much has already been done and you can drive on any property and you can see that everybody's getting some love so that's important for our staff and for our families and our students to see those sections of sidewalk get repaired and to see those little things get fixed so that place is neat and tidy and we're very proud of the work that is being done by our custodial maintenance staff as well as those vendors that are coming in from the outside to help us spruce the place up so thanks bill all right with that one moved for uh german move for adjournment motion by mr marshall david second by dr meddling all in
050favor