001America 's stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty Welcome to our Monday November 7th board meeting the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on Corporation matters if you wish to address the board this evening there will be two opportunities one will be in a few minutes where we will vote on action items and we ask that you keep your comments to those action items then there will be an opportunity for you to address the board at the end of our meeting during the public comments section only those that have signed up with all the requested information will be called up so with that we will turn it over to Dr Morocco for agenda sure you have an agenda
002before you this evening board without any amendments second by Dr Malco any discussion hearing none all in favor aye motion passes is there any correspondence this evening Mrs Kelly nothing to report on thank you we'll move right into our liaison committee updates Mr Marshall nothing to report this evening thank you thank you Mrs Kelly yes I have some updates from our parks department and our Redevelopment Commission in Schererville so in Schererville Lots going on with the parks department we're finalizing Improvement plans for the Autumn Creek Park um reader Park improvements are done and work is continuing on the bike trail along rorman and we are continuing our discussions amongst ourselves and with the Town Council about the development for the Ileana property and then the Redevelopment commission at the October meeting which was um I
003forget which date it was but October meeting the Town Council did approve a new Tiff District in Schererville and the Route 30 and Burr area so that will impact tax dollars coming in and that's all I have thank you Dr Medlin nothing to report thank you Dr Malco hi good evening I wanted to thank everyone that attended the 5K on Saturday uh to raise money for the Lake Central Education Foundation the purpose of the Education Foundation is to support our teachers in the classroom it was a great event it was crummy weather but I tell you what they endured and they got through it and I'm very proud of them especially one of our board members she did not give up either and um so it was good and we thank you for that support
004now today the Lake Central education had the opportunity to be at the soft opening for Portillo's which I didn't know what a soft opening was all about but now I do um so what we did is we basically stood in the front of the building collected donations for the Lake Central Education Foundation and then the guests that came were also guests that we had invited through our leadership with the Lake Central Education Foundation and throughout the community it was a great event once again we had that group of volunteers from the lcef that come out over and over and over again to support our teachers and Dr veracco thanks for mentioning that on Saturday he mentioned to the crowd on Saturday that they're all volunteers they don't get a penny so they run around and
005they put signs up for the Lake Central Education Foundation 5K there's no reimbursement for gas it's just a phenomenal group of people there was even one of our board members that took off work today so he could be a volunteer for Portillos when we talk about Lake Central I think we need to talk about some of those cool cool things that we do and I'll talk more about that later in the meeting but we have a great group of volunteers and it goes beyond lcef I see it in all of our activities at Lake Central so thank you for that sorry I'm so long-winded but it was just such a great day and Dyer Parks it's it's moving forward they are still working on Central Park which is on Calumet as you come down the
006hill there's going to be a strong focus in that Park on Veterans and no surprise knowing how this entire Community is very focused on Veterans and what they have done for us so we look forward to seeing that come to fruition and that's all I have to say now thank you thank you and for the St John Redevelopment commission I have nothing but for Dollars for Scholars I believe these seniors are not the seniors excuse me the students have until the 15th to pay their dues to Mrs Resnick so get that in and with that we'll move on to our official School Board business topics consent agenda Dr Barraco thank you again so for our consent agenda we seek board approval of the minutes from our regular meeting on Monday October 17th our executive session
007of the same evening and the special board meeting we had on Thursday October 27th to put out the tentative agreement that you'll approve later and then additionally Item B seek approval for the claims payroll and extracurricular expenditures you've received in your packets last week move to approved we have a motion by Mr Marshall second second by Dr Medlin any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes we have one person for public comments and that's Mike Kovac I'm sorry I know I pronounced your name wrong that's at the end of the meeting yeah yeah okay we'll call you back up at the end of the meeting all right we'll move to our official School Board business topics regular agenda Dr Barako thank you for our first set of recognitions I'd like to invite
008Mr Elliott Smith the director of bands to talk about some 2022 Indiana band Masters All Region honor band recipients thank you I would like to take a moment to congratulate the following Lake Central High School students who were selected for the 2022 Indiana band Masters Association All Region prescription foreign all right these students were selected from hundreds of applications from over 30 schools in the area their dedication to the Performing Arts is nothing short of extraordinary for the All Region band their concert will take place on Sunday November 13th at 3 pm at Portage High School the students we would like to congratulate are Cameron Berry Charlotte Montague [Applause] Catherine sirkin Liam Philbin Maisie redhead and Samuel camp foreign we would also like to congratulate the following Lake Central High School students who were selected
009for the all district honor band these students were selected from hundreds of applications of over 20 high schools in the area along with their people to the right their oh they're subnaut okay their excellence in the Performing Arts again is nothing short of extraordinary we have a long list of students in this group as well including Jayla parks Nadine Batista Chloe Musgrave Jacob youngsma Landon LaRue Dominic punty Avery Diedrich Matthew Borowski Gracie Cockrell and Alex magaha all district people move to your left it's over here and then Sam you guys can stay over here they want two different pictures [Applause] cheers [Applause] congratulations while they are working on their paperwork I have to say the bands if you've not been to a high school or Junior High band concert or a choral concert you're missing
010something and the Jasmine is outstanding to the percussion Ensemble try to make some of those at the high school it's great entertainment they're very talented now I'd like to introduce Mrs Novak High School principal to talk about National Merit accommodations thank you everybody president sues the school board members Dr varaco and our district administrators these next eight students that we're going to recognize they received a letter of commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for outstanding performance on the 2021 PSAT nmsqt exam to put that in perspective there's about 2 million test takers all the juniors in the United States taking this exam and these students were in the top 50 000 the top two-thirds of them so we are extremely proud of their accomplishments so I'd like to call them down Kai Blankenship Gunner
011doll [Applause] information Nicholas DeVries [Applause] Benjamin de Filippo [Applause] congratulations Kyle Helton [Applause] nachiket mageh [Applause] congratulations because Sandra smolen [Applause] congratulations and last but certainly not least Trevor Pulaski thank you so much [Applause] okay so for our honorees we are going to continue with the business meeting of the board if you need to get home for other activities this is a good time to sneak out you're certainly welcome to stay for the remainder of our meeting could I interrupt for a minute while we're waiting I see Mr Rhody standing up back there and I think you are the coach of the boys cross country that did so well and went to state congratulations from all of us right okay my second item is to seek board approval to go to Indianapolis November 30th through
012December 2nd for the annual superintendent's conference moved in Indianapolis thank you we have a motion by Dr Medlin second second by Miss Kelly any discussion all in favor aye motion passes thank you my third item is to mention to the board that we have made a slight uh minor change in our practice for public comments tonight after our last meeting we had several minor students comment at the meeting I did hear from a couple of parents who didn't know their their children were going to speak and they were concerned about their identity being out there and with not knowing what they were going to say so we added a third sheet this evening for minor students it's an option they can still sign up on the regular public comment sheet and participate with all of
013the other folks who are 18 and above who decide to make comments but the reason we'll do them separately after the adults the 18 year old and over over people is so that while their comments and their image and likeness can appear on the live stream we will not have them be part of the archived piece so we'll the recorded piece that gets saved onto the web will not include the minor student comments I spoke with Luke Britt the public access counselor about this and he indicated that the portion of our board meeting that we have to Archive is the business meeting of the board that technically we don't have to Archive any comments that come at the end of the meeting we always have and unless the board at some future date wants to
014discuss it I I don't see us changing that part of the practice but I just want to clarify that the the the thing is that the students if they come to the microphone their comments will be heard on the live version but they will not be saved for eternity on the archived version those same students have the choice though if they want their message to live on can sign up for the regular sheet that may not satisfy all of the people who say I didn't know my child was going to comment and that you know it's just that we are a public meeting so I don't think we can tell a minor child they cannot sign up with all of the other adults so I just wanted to share that piece with the board are
015there any questions at this time no I think it's a good practice okay and then my final item is to seek board approval for all of the raises that you received in your packet last week all of the minor changes to our collective bargaining agreement it is virtually unchanged from last year because we had to work through with the Indiana employee relations board to get the language that would pass muster with those folks and so you'll see some number changes there and some dates but by and large the language has stayed the same in that collective bargaining agreement and so seek board approval for those raises for staff at this time motion to approve I have motion by Mrs Kelly second by Mr Marshall any discussion all in favor I yeah I do my only
016comment and I will say it probably every time we vote is and I don't know the answer as to how you do this but more attention to para prose I know you're starting training I've heard that through the grapevine and I think that's really good but you know the in and out that we have with the pair Pros have somehow we can and I don't know the answer but again that's my concern is what we can do to solidify that group so there's consistency and they're well trained and all that that may be very difficult to do that I appreciate your attempts at it thank you any other comments all in favor motion passes thank you so move on to our director of Human Resources Personnel Mrs smoocha thank you I'm recommending the following Personnel
017be approved I just want to bring your attention to Roman numeral two be number one that resignation should be for softball not football I would like to move that we accept Mrs mutual's recommendation with that change from football to JV softball we have a motion by Dr Malco second by Dr Medlin any discussion all in favor aye motion passes thank you thank you move right on to our director of primary education Dr barisi good evening I am seeking approval for the professional leap request you have in your packets we have a motion by Mr Marshall and I will second that any discussion I do have some I'm so sorry but I'm so proud of Emily Mark I see she's doing three presentations Emily is a teacher at bibbage and the fact that she is willing
018to go out and use her skills and her talents and train other Educators in music is phenomenal so I just want to give a shout out to that thank you thank you all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you thank you our director of secondary education Mrs Castaneda thank you for my first item I'm seeking your approval for the professional leave requests motion to approve motion by Miss Kelly I'd like to second that a second by Dr Michael any discussion all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you and for my second item I am seeking your approval for the field trip requests and that were in your board packet I make a motion that we accept Mrs custom native's field trip requests we have a motion by Dr Malco second second by Mr
019Marshall any discussion all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you move right along to our director of student services Mrs gramala thank you I am seeking approval for the professional leave request that was included in your packet so moved motion by Mr Marshall second by Dr Medlin any discussion hearing that all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you uh right on to our director of Business Services Mr James thank you my first item is to seek your approval for the two-year lease agreement for our property at 101st and Blaine an award that leads to cats Family Farms as included in your board packet do we have a motion I'd like to make a motion that we accept and Mr James's recommendation by Dr Melco in a second by Miss Kelly any discussion and
020I believe I believe you said that there were three three bids that came in that's correct okay that's good thank you all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you and then my last items to seek your approval for the donations that were listed in your board packet move by Mr Marshall and I will second that any discussion all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you thank you so with that we will move on to our public comments we just like to remind everyone that public comments are for the board to consider the time is not set aside for a back and forth debate if you ask a question and we're able to answer you that will be part of your allotted time all statements should be directed to the board president and no
021person may address or question board members individually each person signed up with the information requested on the sign up sheet will have three minutes to address the board you will be alerted when you have 15 seconds left and we will ask that you wrap up your comments public kind of portion of the meeting is limited to 30 minutes unless extended by the board we also ask that you refrain from personal attacks or derogatory statements about any student School employee or anyone else whether in attendance or not with that we will call up our first speaker and Mike called aesthetic foreign good evening my name is Mike Mila kovachovich 9885 Meadow Rose Lane St John Indiana I just would like to address from the last school board meeting part of the statements of each School Board
022member during the last school board meeting the school board acknowledged their position is anti-christian per their statements they all support the signs and messaging on the signs if the messaging is anti-christian and the school board agrees with the science messaging The Logical conclusion is that the Lake Central school board members are anti-christian in a town named after St John consenting for these anti-christian ideologies is blasphemous the sign read science is real you must be talking about the Jabs where Americans were told take one and you're done maybe two now three four five CDC director is now sick with covid the second time also military and businesses were denied religious exemptions and they were firing employees black lives matter uh all three founders acknowledge that their Marxist I uh ideologies um Marxism is anti-christian Love Is
023Love per the FBI's child sex abuse task force Love Is Love is labeled and associated with arrested pedophiles feminism is for everyone feminism pushed abortion during Roe versus Wade sacrifices to Mellow and demons Margaret Sanger pushed abortions in Planned Parenthood which are in every black neighborhood humans are legal meaning School Board doesn't believe in borders then why doesn't the Lake Central School Board open up their school district borders to Gary Indiana kindness is everything it's a blanket generic statement which is a cover for the above radical ideologies anti-christian so that no one can attack the above radical anti-christian slogans the signs were removed another feminine feminism is for everyone signed was just recently spotted last week in their High School my fellow Christian constituents silence is consent biblical and historical context for Christians to participate
024in our local government and in politics in general has been established the first Speaker of the House was a pastor and his name was Frederick mullenberg he signed the Bill of Rights which starts with the freedom of speech per Black's Law Dictionary rule of tacit admission and admission reasonably inferable from A party's failure to act or speak Leviticus 1917 confront people directly so you will not be guilty of their sins World War II Reverend Dietrich Bonhoeffer anti-nazi are reverend in Germany said that silence in the face of evil is evil itself God will not hold us Guiltless last lastly Proverbs 24 11-12 rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death don't stand back and let them die don't try to disclaim responsibility by saying you didn't know about it there's one party that can define
025a woman what a woman is the other party wants to destroy the definition of a woman vote Nikki Kelly out vote for god let's save our children from radical anti-christians thank you [Music] Maldonado before we have another speaker Let's uh please respect the the rules that we've set down I mean this is not a free-for-all you're supposed to be talking about issues that are germane to this board's jurisdiction thank you board members my son has been attending the GSA meeting since September of 2021. I'm looking for clarifications and actions taken by administrators since you have silenced his GSA teacher on Thursday October 20th per my son the GSA after school group had a surprise inspection by two administrators who came to sit in the meeting Miss Novak and Miss Regan it was disguised as we
026come to participate very deceptive on your part I have questions that should be answered on the next board meeting why would this happen now has this ever happened before is the GSA being targeted and disguised as the Indiana's AG vague and ambiguous parent Bill of Rights then in fact say nothing about lgbtq do all after school groups have monitoring disguise as participation the Bible group doesn't seem to be having issues with their freedom of speech despite being a religious group on Tuesday October 25th the GSA students created a sign that was placed above the locker in the hallway next to a teacher's classroom not in a classroom the banner was then taken down after being up only seven hours not in a classroom I want an explanation why this was done since it was not
027in a classroom it is such a shame that this is what's consuming the school district all due to bigots dogmatizers and their decomposing maggot jack-o'-lantern cult yet The Bullying that's not handled and swept under the rug isn't on the agenda the drug use and distribution that happens daily and abundantly isn't on the agenda the sex that occurs as if the school was a motel isn't on the agenda but of course rainbow flags are much much more detrimental to the well-being of bigots and dogmatizers we are coming to your voting polls all the way from the Far West where Pride flags are not political I leave you with a quote bigotry is where arrogance and ignorance meet equality is where diversity and empathy meet something Indiana is going to learn at some point in the meantime
028I will continue to shout it from the rooftops thank you [Applause] Kathy kameki uh we are at a pivotal moment in our community oh I'm sorry Kathy kaneki11448 Valley Court St John sorry about that uh we are at a pivotal moment in our community where the election tomorrow could take our school district forward or backwards depending on the person that wins we have a person that is trying to take over that would uh that is addicted to the mask issue mentally cannot move on or think clearly enough to put a well-rounded education above their own personal agenda a person who gets input into my children's education when her own do not attend the schools I am hopeful our school board and administration will continue to progress forward with policies that will attract and retain teachers
029and allow students to feel included and welcomed in the district as the school board saw radical individuals speak at these meetings for several years about their belief in faith over fear in terms of the pandemic I want to unpack what these people have faith in and why our school board should not entertain the fears they present faith and Facebook health care but fear of doctors trying to stop people from dying faith in Fox News and politicians that were telling people what they wanted to hear fear of doctors health care workers and public servants that were trying to save people while learning how the virus worked and spread faith and natural immunity and fear of a piece of cloth on their face faith that the American flag could be used to justify hate and ignorance against
030those they don't agree with fear of a rainbow flag or a black lives matter poster because they do not in fact believe that lgbtq people should have pride or that black lives in fact matter faith that people can attack public servants over and over again in order to be the loudest and most ignorant in the room faith that their behavior would be rewarded with the school board seat fear of parents that disagree with them I did not put up these signs but it doesn't mean I don't have faith faith in public education and faith in our teachers administrators in the school board to represent the diverse student community that makes the tri-town area so great faith at our school administration and school board will continue to support our teachers by allowing them to teach the
031curriculum they were trained as professionals to do faith that our community of parents Administration and board continue to support our students in their Learning Journey and allow students to feel seen and heard as well as safe I have faith that the schools will continue to speak up for our underrepresented students that may feel school is the one safe space they have I hear often about parental choice I have witnessed parents scream about their choice with no regard for my children or my choices I have seen utter lack of coherent thinking and reasonable thought in the name of choice these choices affect my children as well are my children less worthy because I have not been so loud out I indeed have a choice my choice is to support my community as we are all responsible
032for creating an educated populace that must interact with the world around them Sheltering students from the world is not having faith that is in fact living in fear thank you thank you Alan haraf foreign good evening my name is Alan haroff of 2609 Howard Castle Drive and I wanted to comment on some things that were presented last month's meeting first I wanted to commend those students who bravely spoke out if what they said is true that they've been that their their voice is concerned about bullying and harassment to the board members and staff are not being heard or they are not getting results then you the board and the staff are failing them if they feel that the only way they can fit in or the only way that they know how to who to
033turn to for support and inclusion is through this play of a symbolic flag the you and the board members and teachers the staff are failing them I'd like to think that some sort of ongoing training and education amongst the staff and students is taking place to address these concerns I'm a retired Coast Guard Master Chief and we're required to participate in annual training in things like leadership human relations sexual harassment and suicide prevention when I worked in education at a private school in Illinois we had a peer mediation program where underclassmen helped mediate conflicts between their peers we also had an off-campus Kairos Retreat program where students with the guidance and supervision of adult retreatants spend three days and nights building friendships relationships and trust or reflecting on one's own faith and purpose well I
034wouldn't expect the public school to offer something similar my point is I would hope that you the board are looking for ways other than a symbolic flag to bring students together and Bridge differences if not you're failing your students and the parents I also wanted to commend those who spoke up against the staff member who knowingly or unknowingly engage in promoting his or her political views in the classroom through a poster the individuals have brought this to light need to be heard respected and included just like anyone else they are not bigoted as someone inferred I commend the board for removing the poster because it was indeed political and multiple fronts but if it's true that this person who brought this concern to your attention felt they needed to do so at a board meeting
035because their emails were being ignored then you have failed that individual or individuals as well at last week's meeting I was left wondering if the board knew about that poster before it was brought to light how long they may have known about it and if it took this issue to be brought to light to ensure that your rooms are being inspected and to be in compliance with the school policy and finally one of the board members at last last meeting made a comment that caught my attention at one point he remarked that the reason the board needed to remove the the symbols was so that the school would be in compliance with the state law but then you interjected something that I thought sounded a little personal by saying something to the fact that he
036continues to find himself in conflict with the views of the Indiana attorney general I just thought that that uh 15 seconds I thought the dead Comet was a little inappropriate and made me feel or questioned if this board was capable of making balanced and fair decisions moving forward thank you [Music] and that is our public comments so with that we will move on to board comments and consideration of future agenda items Mr Marshall I have nothing this evening thank you Mrs Kelly Mike's not on as everybody knows tomorrow is election day please research your candidates carefully and get out there and vote that's all I have to say thank you Dr Malco okay sorry but sometime Malco Medlin kind of sounds alike I should go to that multilingual training you're offering maybe that would help
037me no um I wanted to say congratulations to the students tonight that were recognized for their academic honors and it goes deeper than that and that's the one thing that I has really come to me this week I was speaking to one of our high school teachers very well respected and and just a quality individual she said you know Janice I have worked at Valparaiso and I have worked another school up here in the region I can't think of what she said and now I'm at Lake Central and she said I wonder if people really understand the resources that our students have available to them and I thought wow what a neat statement and that's coming from somebody that works internally inside and sees all the good with the bad so I thought that was
038quite a celebration and I know that our cross-country boy and girl teams did very well our cheerleaders were first in the state um gosh what else I mean it's been going oh our volleyball my goodness and I drove down to see that game that was quite a game Hamilton Southeastern had a six foot three Spiker and you talk about spiking the bombs she was amazing but the volleyball girls did a good job with that too and of course I want to shout out about Michelle snow now Michelle snow is a fourth grade teacher at bibbage elementary she was named the Indiana academic coach of the year for the state of Indiana and I just wanted to shout that out Michelle is one of the best teachers that you're going to find 1999 when I came
039to Lake Central and she was one of my teachers at bibbage and I said Michelle I need somebody to help me with spellbowl we didn't have spillball up in the region at that time and Michelle was the risk taker she's the one that took the responsibility and stood with it and look where it is now almost this is the strongest area in the state of Indiana for spellbo so that's just the type of leadership we have at Lake Central and I just wanted to share that with everyone because I think so many times we get hung up on the little interpretations of things what does this mean what does that mean should I support this should I not support that but when you look at the bigger picture there's a lot of great things going
040on so thanks to everyone for making that happen sorry I'm long thank you Dr Medlin um I just want parents to know that the board and administration continues to Grapple with the complexities of making all the students and teachers and Staff feel welcome and feel like they are part of a greater community and it's unfortunately become a complex issue it's something that we don't take lightly and the communication amongst the board and administration is taking place and hopefully will grow stronger from this we are LLC [Applause] thank you and with that I will pass it over to Dr Morocco for Board calendar or future activities yes so we're getting into uh some more activities at the school the end of fall Sports runs into the beginning of winter sports hopefully some people made it to
041the fall play and some other activities come up please check the calendar for those school activities and our next meeting is two weeks on November 21st thank you thank you do we have a motion for adjournment and motioned by Dr Malco second by miscal