001foreign of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and just Welcome to our Monday September 9th school board meeting I would like to start with the agenda approval deletions additions Dr Morocco thank you we do have two amendments to this evening's agenda first under my Roman numeral seven a one professional leave request to attend the school board association annual meeting and then under Mrs mooch's 7b1 some additional Personnel recommendations thank you thank you to have a motion move to approve the agenda we have a motion by Dr Medlin second by Miss Kelly any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes is there any correspondence this evening Miss Kelly there is I have an email that is addressed to Mrs
002Aaron Novak our principal at Lake Central this is from a former Lake Central graduate from the class of 1972. the correspondence reads dear Aaron in the spring of 2021 knowing that the next year would Mark Our Lake Central High School class of 1972's 50th year a reunion committee was formed and began the tedious task of making decisions venue selection finding classmates event program development Etc a key component of the weekend was to visit a and tour our school and to utilize the facilities there to show a presentation reflecting one of our classmates experiences on September the 11th Looking Back Now our weekend and the portion involving Lake Central directly was a tremendous success we want to specifically express our appreciation to Jackie Holden Aaron Graves the four student ambassadors giving our tour and the SWAT
003team heroics of your I.T department to get the LGI room ready and operational very quickly please pass our thanks on to all involved as a token of our appreciation please accept the enclosed donation of 400 to the Lake Central Education Foundation from the Lake Central class of 1972. we hope that our donation helps and inspires those in need to succeed in their Quest For Education and innovational excellence thank you again for making our reunion visit a huge success sincerely Douglas C Edwards for the Lake Central High School class of 1972. very nice yeah very nice yeah it is 400 yes sure thank you thank you so with that we'll move on to our liaison committee updates Mr Marshall uh yes thank you uh as of this point there's nothing to report thank you Mrs Kelly
004uh once again I'll combine my Redevelopment commission and my sharival parks department report uh the Town Council and the shariable Parks Board is continuing to discuss developing the Ileana Speedway property into additional Parks area for our residents so I'll keep you updated thank you Dr Medlin nothing new report thank you thank you Dr Malco yes of Lake Central Education Foundation is hosting their second 5K on November 6 which is a Saturday morning early in the morning the theme of it is Heroes so what we're wanting to do is not only address the heroism that we have all learned about Dr Dana Les but also the heroes that we are know about in our own little neck of the woods in our community they could be veterans they could be EMT they're anybody that you want
005to identifies being a hero so invite them to come show them some love and support um I think it's really valuable and of course it's an important Money Maker for the Lake Central Education Foundation and Not only was that a nice donation to lcef but I noticed in the Clark newsletter on page five there's a really wonderful explanation about how they're using the grant money to buy books and then they have the book clubs that are happening so it's very very exciting to see those types of things happening in the school building but put that on your calendar November 6. early in the morning it'll be here at Lake Central and we will not be going off campus it'll be here on campus and for the parks department do you want me to do that
006while we're here sure okay they had their DAV walk yesterday and they had about 60 Walkers which is not bad um and our next parks department meeting is going to be tomorrow night so I'll have more to share after tomorrow night's meeting thank you thank you and for the St John Redevelopment commission I have nothing but for Dollars for Scholars the deadline tonight at midnight for homecoming tickets homecoming is October 1st as of this morning I believe I was told 1 742 sign ups so it's going to be a nice big dance so thank you where are you going to host this Main Street this year so it'll be down Main Street instead of I always get them is it the wedge or whatever over by the counselors yeah so we've moved it so um
007and with that we'll move on to our official School Board topics consent agenda Dr Barako thank you again Mr Seuss please seek board approval for the minutes from our regular meeting on September 6th also seek approval of the claims payroll and extracurricular expenditures you received in your packets last week motion to approve we have a motion by Mrs Kelly in a second by Mr Marshall any discussion Harry none all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you there are no public comments for Action items so we'll move right into our official School Board business topics regular agenda Dr Morocco my first item is an action item seek the board approval for Mrs mucha and myself Mrs Sue's Dr Medlin and Mrs Kelly to attend the isba function on October 3rd and 4th we've talked about
008this in the past but we just noticed today that we did not yet officially seek board approval for the expenses associated with that event so seek board approval this evening for annual meeting we have a motion by Mr Marshall and I will second that is there any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes thank you I do have a question because I don't see it on the agenda I see the one that Dr braco Terry Mitch and Jerry Patrick we did ours a couple of weeks ago so those school board members were done back in end of July Maybe no I'm just saying I don't see that on the agenda what Larry is asking for the the right here amended agenda the yellow the yellow under the amended agenda the
009revised agenda right so you're asking for the actual isba conference including your presentation all in one right got it okay thank you um I thought we did all in favor hi any opposed motion passes thank you next up we have Deanna Liva is going to give us an update on the current offerings and status of food service foreign good evening everyone the last two school years food service has provided free Universal breakfast and lunch to all Lake Central students through a waiver funded by the USDA and thanks to our dedicated Food Service team during the 21-22 school year we did serve just under 1.3 million meals from August through May this year we are back to the national school lunch and breakfast programs We are following the traditional eligibility requirements for free reduced and paid
010meals student eligibility is determined by the state either direct certified or through an application that we process in our office the eligibility determines both breakfast and lunch meal costs currently we have about 24 percent on the free and reduced program which is holding pretty steady from where we have been our goal is to provide healthy safe food options that promote promote healthy habits to last a lifetime we were uncertain with the demand for the meals would be at the start of this new school year now that we're back on the traditional program for meal eligibility and we're happy to report our numbers have been stronger than expected we are currently serving approximately 5 000 meals daily and it's proven that if students eat a healthy meal they will perform better in the classroom so we're
011happy to see those numbers since participation drives our program we are focused on three areas we're providing students some of their favorite items we're serving food that is high quality healthy and safe and we're employing enough labor to feed the students in a timely manner our menus have to follow the USDA standards so we have daily minimums on proteins grains fruits vegetables calories just to name a few I'll get to a few more but at the secondary level this year we're doing three hot entrees and three to four cooldown trays daily for lunches and at elementary we're doing up to two hot entrees and three to four cold entrees daily for lunch for them and we always have a vegetarian option available so we serve entrees that the students want we were looking to serve
012entrees that students want to purchase so some of their favorite entrees are any chicken item Bosco Sticks rib Sandwich Pizza burgers and one of their favorites breakfast for lunch we have several theme days during each month that includes a special treat this year for just for an example Patriots Day we did a cherry blue raspberry frozen juice cup we've got a camping day coming up at the elementary schools and we're doing a bug bite graham cracker so we always try to coordinate our theme days with something special in their for their lunch some of the special diets are our special diets are all tracked and our point of sale system so our point of sale identifies students with food allergies or special diets so we can provide them with the appropriate Foods this includes gluten-free
013meals nurses at every school are provided the nutritionals so that they can keep our diabetics safe with calorie carb Counting we do follow the offer versus serve guidelines through the USDA to determine a complete meal we have to provide five components at lunch a meat meat alternative a grain vegetable fruit and fluid milk students are able to choose three of the five to make a reimbursable meal one of the components selected does have to be a fruit or vegetable per the USDA guidelines so using this offer versus serve guideline does help reduce some food waste our menus also have to meet the USDA standards for the amount of calories sodium fat sugar protein and whole grains offered not only daily but weekly so our costs have been increasing some of the contributing factors to operate
014the program have been food and Supply costs um have increased 15 to 20 percent we've had some of the supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic uh the war in the Ukraine um we had a spike in wheat prices due to that we had a deadly bird flu which hurt the U.S egg turkey and chicken production severe droughts and we've had high cost of fuel for transportation and some increased costs and packaging inlay and labor are also contributing what did uh the USDA is helping School District Food Service programs during these challenging times they have increased their reimbursement rates for the 22-23 school year um for complete meals to help offset some of the higher costs and they've also provided some supply chain funding to help offset the increased costs of food so we're thankful
015for that so this is where we're at at the start of the school year and we hope to keep our numbers growing throughout the year so thank you very much Dean what was the impact on the regular lunch for paying customers for this for this year last year's price versus this year's price we have had no no complaints I really think they feel like it's a good value for what they're getting we went up about 35 cents which we hadn't raised anything and nothing had gone up since 19. so no no questions or no one's really made a comment the start of the school year have you found there's disrupt disruptions still with getting every week we have different things this week it's it's yogurt and Rib sandwiches and you know it's it's so funny
016but every week we have something different but we try to find alternates so you had said that you had offered a couple choices does that affect that uh you know I guess according to the schedule we're still trying to we'll always we're trying to do three no matter what but we say uh Bosco sticks her out then we'll try to have an alternate for the Bosco Stick so we still have three options of hot entrees so giving a more selection this year thank you I have a couple of questions so the menu price is what this year then at secondary for launch is three dollars at elementary it's 275. okay and then how about milk has that gone up quite a bit yes our prices did increase we had to go up a nickel we
017went up to 55 cents some milk if you're buying at a la carte right it is included with your meal if you take a complete meal but you don't have to take milk if you ought not to so so tell me uh because as we watch the Personnel um resignations and then the hiring and then you know the back and forth that happens in a school corporation this size how are you doing with Staffing with all of the cafeterias um I had a lot more substitute applications this year now we're hoping some of the substitutes when we post our permanent jobs coming up we'd like to do that end of September October we're hoping some of those subs will want to take some of the positions that are open so you're feeling comfortable with the
018staff that's at least applying to be a substitute and you're feeling not overwhelmed as you maybe have been in past years yeah there really hasn't been a day that we're always you know someone calls off we may not have a person to fill it but we kind of rearrange things to make it happen okay you have to survive yes yes we're doing it okay very good thank you thank you thank you Mr Marshall Deanne I found as a school board member that you're always going to learn something new I happen to mention this to Dr baracko in a short comment the other day I found that the school corporation in the collar communities around Indianapolis they got kind of out of hand but within the elementary school students were having doordash deliveries for lunch and
019I just shook my head I I didn't think it was possible have we ever had any problems with that or does it happen if they tried every so often it's not on a regular basis okay because that's corporations send out a letter to parents in Mass they wanted to curtail it okay just we put it in our high school announcements that that's not acceptable thank you right it was just in your announcements it went out and it was very clear that they would be confiscated if they interrupted the school and then you were very clear that anything for students staying after school that had to be delivered outside and could not come in the building hours if they're saying for practice that's I loved it I thought it was really cool are we having problems
020at the middle schools with that do we know just not a middle school rep here oh no okay okay good thank you thank you thank you much good report thank you okay my next item is just update the board on a new tutoring program that is being rolled out October 1st by the Indiana Department of Education in partnership with the Mind trust so this is one of those things where the doe doesn't feel they have the Manpower at least the way I'm reading it to manage the program so they've turned it over to an independent company in Indianapolis through the webinar that I was able to watch and then a follow-up Zoom meeting with the senior director of the Mind trust they're going to have 111 million dollars to distribute over 500 dollars per student
021over the over the two years of the program the idea is to get some one-on-one or at worst one on three one teacher to three students tutoring for kids in fourth and fifth grade who have been deemed below Proficiency in both English language arts and math on the iLearn and so as we look at it and try to figure out how do we encourage people to do this we ask the same questions we ask of a lot of organizations how do we know who's going to provide this service and right now the Mind trust says they are evaluating applicants to do the tutoring tutors can be current teachers former teachers students in college education programs earn working their way toward a teaching license who these providers will be whether they'll be vetted I.E background checked
022that has not yet been answered and so it gives us pause to want to get behind a program where there's just a lot of questions dangling out there including how are they going to decide how much is in Phase One if if a district with a really high free and reduced lunch population Antelope passing scores know that they have a giant population in need of this could could Indianapolis Public Schools get half of the money because on day one they have all their parents sign up and so they haven't really explained how that process is going to work and we're still hoping to hear something prior to the October 1st rollout it does look like it could be an opportunity if we could be involved in terms of knowing that it's our staff provide in
023that service um we we just are a little bit anxious about saying hey you really ought to do this because it could be free to you but if it's not going to be meaningful I think it uh it can possibly you know not be a successful thing and we don't want struggling Learners not to have a good experience when they're supposed to be getting you know the very help that they need so you know some key pieces of information missing I'm hoping that prior to our regional superintendents meeting next Wednesday because it's on the agenda for that that we hear back from the Mind trust and get some answers to some of the questions we asked when we were on the phone call on September 1st but anytime there's something out there that is extra
024help beyond the school day for kids it gets us interested on the other hand we'd really like for that activity to be done here with our people and even if it weren't with our people um some of the very children who need this would have a hard time meeting somebody at the library or some other independent location at six or seven PM versus if we already have them at school so we're going to continue to follow this I just wanted the board to know that it it was in Mr slager's newsletter recently and so it is getting pushed out by more than one source but there's still a lot of questions we have to get answered before we decide how much we can try to encourage people to participate excuse me Dr Rocco did you
025say it was Department of Education in partnership with mind trust correct and who is the executive director of Mind Trust uh it's the last bullet point Shawna Murphy is the senior director of this program I don't know who the president of that company is I just it makes me a little bit nervous to history wise but maybe the Mind trust has changed over the years thank you foreign is just to give a shout out to the high school um it's been a couple weeks to go now but was was attending the open house as a parent and really appreciated the messaging that I received from my boys teachers they they said the kind of things that I want to hear about how they're going to help our kids be successful this year they talked about
026the content of the course they talked about how students can get extra assistance several of the teachers said we officially have tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays but I'm here Monday through Thursday or I'm here after school most days as well I I'm not promising it but I'm here most days so if your child needs help they need to ask me and we'll figure out a way to arrange that time that kind of messaging really resonates with me because I know some students struggle with the content and to know that their teacher has the students success as a high priority is is really really good to hear and I'm not saying in the past years I didn't hear from from the other schools I just thought that I thought that the staff this year didn't get
027into any rules or any of that stuff they got right down to this is what we're talking about in this class this is what we want your kids to learn about and we want to have some fun too and so coming out of what we've been in the last couple years I think there was just a a lot brighter mood and that was good to hear too so I just wanted the board to hear it thank you we'll move on to our director of Human Resources Personnel Mrs mucho thank you I am asking for the Personnel recommendations that were in your packet to be approved with some attention to one of our people who have 25 years of service that would be Mary Gerlach who is retiring out of bibbage elementary school motion to approve
028the motion by Mrs Kelly second second by Dr Medlin any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes thank you I also have a professional leave form that was in your packet move to approve the professional leave request I have a motion by Dr Medlin second by Mr Marshall any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you thank you question uh Miss mucha I see we had one retirement a resignation excuse me of a bus driver what is our current status are we scratching for drivers I think we will continue to have a problem with enough drivers we are getting in some trainees and Chuck has been working diligently on getting them trained along with Judy and we hope to have a couple more trained by the
029end of this month but it's um we get a couple we lose a couple I hear you kind of a net song Chuck is uh on the corporation-wide broadcast a number of times we'll all receive uh whether it's uh construction issues or our lack of drivers where we have to double up or something but appreciate the Insight thank you you've got a busy job and Terry to back up to what Mr Marshall just said I've been wondering does does the construction going on in St John cause delays for students and buses and car rides especially today it seems that every road that led to certain schools was closed so they did some of the routes backwards yeah and amazingly that takes more than when it goes the other way but it does and so he
030had to contact parents and let them know that their either their child would be home early or late but the construction has been tough this past couple weeks I wondered because it's always so different down there at St John it's first one lane then there's two lanes and then we're over here and then we're over there and I just had a feeling that it was causing problems and and we're just being flexible with that I assume you have to we we don't have much Joe we can't go on the roads I don't understand yeah yeah all right thank you so we'll move on to Mrs gramales she will be filling in for Dr Breezy for director of primary education yes um so first item on the agenda is seeking approval for the professional leave requests
031in the packet move to approve a motion by Mr Marshall second second by Mrs Kelly any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes and then Dr bracey's second item was to seek approval for a field trip request to the pumpkin patch we'll also moved to approve any discussion hearing none all in favor aye motion passes and then we'll move on to Mrs mucho again for our director of seven secondary education Mrs Castaneda thank you I'm asking for approval for professional leave forms that Mrs Castaneda has in your packet move to approve the professional leave request we have a motion by Dr Medlin I'll second that second by Miss Kelly any discussion hearing none all in favor aye motion passes thank you and we'll just jump right over everyone else and go to
032our director of Business Services Mr James thank you Mrs sues excuse me um at our last meeting on September 6th I gave the board and the public our annual budget presentation for Canada year 2023. the next step of the process is to hold a public hearing to allow anyone in the public to make a comment about the items that were published on the Indiana Gateway system so at this time does anyone have a comment regarding the items that were posted on the Gateway website okay hearing done that will conclude the public hearing and then the next step in the process will the bolt be for the board to formally adopt the 2023 calendar year budget we will do that at our next regularly scheduled meeting on October 17th um then my second item is to
033seek your approval for the donations that were included in your board packet edlin any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you thank you we do have um one public comment and I'd like to call it Miss Sherry true please when you approach the microphone give us your name address please 164 Primrose Drive Dyer Indiana good evening everyone I wanted to talk to you about some things that have been in our classrooms that don't have anything to do with the education that we're giving our children this poster was in the high school it starts off by telling our children what we believe these statements are highly political and inflammatory statements and this is allowed to hang in one of our High School classrooms Nicole Howard I like you since you're up
034for election to let me know do you believe in this is this okay that this hangs in our classrooms I'm not familiar with it yeah I'm not familiar yeah I can't see it from there that's the first time I've even been made aware of it what type of classroom is it what subject area um I'm not going to say science is real black lives matter Love Is Love feminism is for everyone humans are not illegal and kindness is everything but our school about what teachers can post in their classrooms what do you find an offensive on this first I'm finding offensive that instead of teaching our children how to create critically think and think for themselves you're telling them what to believe in it's not your job as Educators to tell my children what you
035what to believe in but one on here is offensive the kindness is everything what's offensive is black lives matters is an actual Marxist organization [Music] we'll take a look at it I you guys saw it I guess Mr Marshall Mrs Kelly would you like to see it myself but is there any rules Dr Rocco about what people could hang in their classrooms is there any rules about what teachers can hang in their classrooms at Lake Central yeah we would say if we think something is offensive that it doesn't belong Okay so what is your definition of what people find offensive well I I just didn't see anything on there at first glance that I find offensive so I'll study it some more um saying that black lives matter just those words are true black lives
036do matter it also is an organization that's a politically Affiliated organization yeah I I don't know that side of it thank you um but I I do believe that saying those words independently I think is fine okay and that's fine and we can say all lives matter and we can do other things that are inclusive of everyone that's not that statement is not excluding anybody Sherry I just want to know if at Lake Central then we are letting teachers put up whatever they would like in their classrooms well we'll have to review what is going on um if if there are other people who find that offensive I just don't see anything on that particular sheet that I find offensive okay but you're not the the person that decides that everything's offensive there are other
037these are public schools people can find things offensive parents to have a right to say what is being taught what is being shown in the schools so um to find it offensive because I don't I don't think that my child should be taught these things in the school like every human is people are illegal like what does that mean there's a lot of connotations underneath there and so the the first thing that says in there we believe so what you're saying is my child when they walk in the classroom they have to believe what that teacher is putting on there I don't think anybody is saying that well that's what the statement is we believe why doesn't everyone just seek to teach you I don't think people are instructing this stuff either Sherry I think
038I think there's signs that are up around the building just to try to get people to be kinder and gentler towards one another which I think we certainly need right now so if we can be nicer to each other if if the if those messages promote kindness I'm all for it if there are individual pieces in there that have uh alternate meetings that I'm not aware of then I'll have to study that a little bit more okay well I think we should study that because that could have alternate meetings on that piece of paper did you decide not to tell us what classroom what subject it was in because that could have a lot of reason for some of this it was it social studies was it history what uh I'm not at Liberty to
039say at the moment but I just I just lost the board we needed to why don't why are we not spending more time on actually the writing the math well you didn't say that they were instructing anything here if this is a message just promoting kindness that's very different than saying today we're going to talk about the poster in my class it doesn't say we're talking about kindness yes that's not what that says it says what that person believes science is real that after I'm pretty sure after the last two years of us being through covid that is a very inflammatory statement science is real well you know what everybody I wanna I wanna actually do you guys have any thoughts on this I really want to know I just took a picture of this
040I'll be glad if our next board meeting to give you an answer okay I appreciate that and I can tell you it's from my years as being a principal and working we always would go in the classrooms and make sure that the things that were posted were connected to the curriculum or some type of discussion in the in the classroom it's just part of making the classroom enhancing I'm done [Music] oh yeah right you need to come up to the place if you want to speak please you didn't sign up sign up deserves to hear what you have okay three minutes are up aren't they they are okay well I'm sorry Mrs Kelly did you have anything to say on that I will say I do agree with kindness is everything nothing else on there
041though you don't agree with the other one or you don't want to say thank you you said what I had to say thank you all right with that we have no other Community signed up to speak so we will move on to board comments and we'll start with Mr Marshall uh no I have no comment this evening other and everybody stay safe out there thank you Miss Kelly no comments this evening thank you Dr Medlin no comment thank you Dr Malco we all have interpretations of we all have interpretations of items and issues and that's why we are in America let some of it go and let's go down and cheer that volleyball team onto Victory right now so I am done and I call for an adjournment as well after Larry does his speech
042okay um well I um would also like to share on the girls golf team because they were sectional winners last week and they are moving on to regionals at this Saturday at Sandy Pines um so yeah congratulations to the golf the girls golf so with that we'll move on to our Board calendar future activities Dr Morocco can I add a short comment you sure can I think some of the school corporations around the state are more lucky than others I two weekends ago I had an opportunity to watch some games down in the Indianapolis area and I have a grandson that's playing for a seventh grade team we moved from one game to the other court the eighth grade team for his school just finished a game and one of the players was standing there
043he is six foot nine in eighth grade wow I just thought I'd mentioned that tell for sure thank you okay well we we do not have a meeting in two weeks because that's when the Indiana School Board Association scheduled the annual meeting so we will be back in a month on October 17th here the 17th October 17th thank you