001All who mean in the water, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. By the way, happy Veteran's Day, everyone. Roll call, Mrs. Aubelet. Nelson Here. Hansman Here. Cannon Here. Mr. Cunningham Here. Mr. Mahala Here. Also present is our superintendent, Dr. Brooks. Are there any public comments pertaining to agenda items? No. Okay. All right, at this time, uh additions and deletions to the agenda. I am going to make one change, and that's under new business, 7C. We're going to table that until future notice. So, that will not be discussed this evening. On that note, looking for a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented.
002I will make a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented. Second. His motion. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. New business, Dr. Brooks. All right, new business. Um we had a bit of a snowstorm this weekend, and uh with the winter weather comes a lot of work at various times of the year, uh and various times of the night. So, to get school ready, you know, we've um there are times where we have maintenance staff that needs to come in and be on plows and you know, we can use some extra hands uh for some snow removal, especially on our sidewalks and around our entryways. And if we're going to get all of that completed, we have to keep our plows going.
003So, the recommendation is we have a list of people that are interested in coming in for some short stints when we have an issue like we had yesterday. Now, we didn't have to call any anybody in yesterday because we canceled school, but on some of those days we were trying to power through and get a 2-hour delay and get school in, it'd be nice to be able to have some people to come in and uh work. And we have a few people that are willing to do that. We want to pay them $25 an hour to do that work so they can clear those areas so that we have uh you know, students and staff can come in safely. So, this is just seasonal, uh up to three workers per instance. Only on call. This
004would be a situation where if we had to have school yesterday, we probably would call a few people in and um they would help clear sidewalks with shovel and salt. And it just keeps our plows going. We got two plows and um we want to make sure those plows are continuing to get the the parking lots. And so, this is the recommendation is for $25 an hour for snow removal um on call, but uh this will be definitely monitored as we go through the winter months. We'll confirm a motion to approve the seasonal winter snow removal. Make a motion to approve seasonal winter snow snow removal. I'll second it. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Opposed same sign. Motion passes. Just as uh to talk a little
005bit about that further, our maintenance staff and people that come in to to do snow removal are coming in at 3:00 in the morning, 4:00 in the morning. And that's kind of the ask of people that are coming in to shovel as well, maybe 5:00 in the morning. They come in shovel and salt and get those areas done. So, thank you for that. Next new item of new business is our Title I application. It's been finalized. Brenda Druck, I'd like to thank her for all of her work working with the state back and forth to get this Title I application approved and processed through the the state of Indiana. So, All right. We'll confirm a motion for the Title I application for the 25-26 school year. I'll make a motion for the Title I application
006for the 25-26 school year. I'll get it. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Item C was tabled, so we'll move on to letter D. There are three resolutions here that uh we would like to be read and this has to do with the upcoming project that we will hear about next. Both. All right, I do have one just clarifying question. Are we going to vote after each exhibit? Uh, you can. Okay. Good. All right, I am going to read these. Um two of them are very short. The first one is is a more and lengthy one. Um but basically this is a resolution approving the building corporation. Whereas the Boone Boone Township schools building corporation further known as the building corporation has
007been formed as a non-for-profit ex- corporation to assist in financing renovating, constructing, and improving facilities within the metropolitan school district of Boone Township, the school corporation. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of Education, the board of the school corporation as follows. Section one, that it is hereby determined to be proper and in the public interest of the citizens of the school corporation to approve the corp- corporated corporation of the building corporation known and designated as the Boone Township schools building corporation for the purpose of financing, renovating, and constructing, and equipping certain school facilities and leasing the same to the school corporation. Too many school corporations. Section two, that the articles of incorporation and bylaws of the building corporation presented to be now before the board are hereby approved. Section three, the the providing
008for the financing, renovating, construction and equipping of the school facilities by the building corporation and the leasing of the same to the school corporation is in the public interest of the citizens of the school corporation and it is a proper public purpose for which these board agrees to cooperate cooperate with the building corporation and to assist in it in fulfilling the requirements of all agencies of the federal, state, and local governments. Section four, that the insurance, sale, and delivery of the building corporation of one or more series of bonds designated Brown Township Schools Building Corporation ad valorem property tax first mortgage bond series 2025 or such other name or series designation as determined at the time of sale the bonds in the aggregate principal amount of approximately 14,120,000 is hereby approved. That upon the redemption
009or retirement of the bonds, the school corporation will accept that the building corporation title to such school facilities free and clear and any and all liens and encumbrances thereon. Section six, that the board hereby approves that following to the act of initial directors of the building corporation Carson Roiski, Jeffrey Pates, and Lynn Feasel. Section seven, that the building corporation may issue, sell, and deliver the bonds pursuant to the applicable laws of the state of Indiana, may encumber any real property or equipment acquired by it for the purpose of financing the construction of and equipping of such school facilities, and may enter contracts for the sale of the bonds and the construction and acquisition of such school facilities. Section nine, the school corporation reasonably expects that tax-exempt obligations issued by on behalf of the school corporation
010including the bonds as well as other bonds and temporary loan warrants of the school corporation will not exceed $15 million in in the calendar year of 2025. Pursuant to section 148 F4D of the code, the school corporation in a vert irreparably allocates to the building corporation $14 million 120,000 of its $15 million limit for purpose of qualifying for the small governmental exception to the rebate requirement. Passed and adopted this 11th day of November 2025. All right, look at for a motion to accept the resolution approving building corporation. Motion to accept. Also Go ahead. Go ahead. That's all yours. I second that motion. Uh any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Same sign. Motion passes. Exhibit B, resolution assigning construction bids and contracts once received. Whereas the Metropolitan School District
011of Boone Township, the school corporation, has or will receive construction bids or enter into contracts for the renovation of and improvements to the school facilities including possible construction of a multi-purpose facility, site improvements, and paving and the purpose of buses, equipment, and technology, collectively the project. Now, therefore, be it resolved certain construction bids and contracts related to the project are hereby assigned to the Boone Township Schools Building Corporation. The building corporation, at the discretion of the Board of School Trustees, upon receipt of such bids bids or execution of such contracts. Passed and adopted this 11th day of November, 2025. Looking for a motion to accept exhibit B resolution assigning construction construction bids and contracts once received. I'll make the motion. I'll second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed
012same sign. Exhibit B passes. Exhibit C, fourth supplement to the master continuing disclosure undertaking. Whereas a fourth supplement to master continuing disclosure undertaking collectively the undertakings has been presented to the Board of Education, the Board of the Metropolitan School District of Boone Township, the school corporation in connection with the insurance of the Boone Township Schools Building Corporation ad valorem property tax first mortgage bonds series 2025, the bonds. And whereas the Board must approve the form of undertaking and issuance of the bonds now therefore be it resolved that the Board hereby approves the form of undertaking and hereby off- authorizes the offices of the Board of Educute such undertaking. Be it resolved that the Board hereby approve the issuance of the bonds and any offices of the Board are hereby authorized and directed to execute any
013and all documents and certif- certificates required in order to issue and deliver the bonds and that the use of electronic signatures by offices of the Board or the Board's representatives are hereby authorized and affirmed with full valid legal effect and are enforceable. Passed and adopted this 11th day of November, 2025. Looking for a motion to accept exhibit C, adopt resolution approving fourth supplemental to master continuing disclosure undertaking. I'll make a motion to adopt exhibit C. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh finally Excuse me. is the award of field house bids. I'm going to There is a list of vendors in your board packet. However, I'm going to introduce Thomas Mooningham, who's going to talk a little bit about project and
014the contractors and some of the pricing. Can we start from the top? Sure. Again? So, uh my name's Thomas Mooningham. I'm joined by Faraz Bebe and Lewis Beta. I realized that after I started, I don't know if you've all met. Have you Has everyone met Lewis before? Yeah. Uh Lewis was the developer engineer on this one. Met him today. Uh we were brought in I mean, Jeff and I started working together 3 years ago, uh which is crazy to think about. We did a small phase one, then moved that into a bigger phase two with some roofing, solar, a little bit of mechanical work. And part of phase two was to was the design of a new field house or community center uh for MSD Boon. And some of the things that we all discussed
015multiple times at length were what is going to go in this building. And we finally all agreed on a building with two basketball courts, rollaway bleachers, drop-down baseball hitting bays or hitting nets, uh competition-ready wrestling room, male and female locker rooms, male and female restrooms, concessions, and a rooftop solar array. That really just covers the the you know, the big stuff. We have mechanical rooms, we have mop sinks, storage space, there's an office space in there as well. Pretty much all all bases are covered in the design of this building. We also wanted to make sure that we utilize any and all energy efficient systems that we can in order to limit the energy and operational costs to the MSD Boone. Uh do as much as we can to identify and secure any rebate turns
016incentives that are available. So, hopefully we could get you some money back. And then lastly, and you know, arguably most importantly is to improve the environment for students, staff, and community. You know, we we want to help the district build this field house or community center for for the students, but also if it's ever opened up to the community or when it is opened up to the community, something that can be utilized by everyone. Uh this is just a rendering of what it's going to look like on the inside. Um obviously, it's not going to be as drab and gray as it looks in this photo. Uh it's going to incorporate the Hebron school colors, logos will be painted. But, you have your two basketball courts, you have the the in the background there you
017see the two hitting nets that have been dropped down. Obviously, those will raise back up. You have your bleachers in there. Uh through this door here is the wrestling room, and then the locker rooms, restrooms are over here. Uh beautiful building, lot of space. How many square feet are we looking at? Like roughly 28,000? >> 28,218. Who's counting? 28,218 square feet of space. Uh here's a floor plan for everyone to look at. You can't really read uh what it says too well, but luckily I know this like the back of my hand. Uh you have your two basketball courts up here. This is your dedicated wrestling room. This part is the current existing building, so you will be able to enter the corridor through the current gym. We also have a dedicated entryway here. Uh
018male and female restrooms and locker rooms. You have a mop sink up here. You have mechanical room. You have storage space. Uh I believe there's an office space in there. Um but yeah, you know, it's a it's a really, really nice building. We've gone back and forth the a few times and thinking about the pedestrian traffic flow and just utilization of the space, we really brought everything uh all of our resources and and knowledge into the construction or design of this building. And then we worked with Mico Architects for the actual design, and they did a wonderful job with it. So, for those of you who don't know, Verity, we are a performance contracting company. Uh what that really is is um it's an alternative approach or alternative means to completing construction as opposed to
019going through your traditional architect and engineer. One of the things that kind of constrains us though is that in order for us to do a performance contract, there has to be some kind of energy savings in there. Obviously, in the construction of a new building, there's not going to be not all of it's going to fall under energy savings. Um HVAC, lighting, solar, um things like that that are fairly energy related, you go above code, they counts as a performance contract, so we will be doing that. For the rest of it, the exterior work, the foundation, the structural work, the civil surveys, all that that is not necessarily energy related, we do that under construction management or a CM. So, with the hybrid approach, half of it's going to be done under performance contracting, half
020of it's going to be done under CM. Verity will manage the entire project with your dedicated project manager. So, you still have one hand to shake, one throat to choke, one phone call that or one phone to pick up and call uh me or Lewis or Arash, so really three. Uh but some of the benefits of doing it this way is again, you still have it all under our project management. You still get a turnkey building. Um we handle everything. It It helps us condense the schedule if we're able to sit on top of all of it instead of trying to chase down Jeff and figure out where some of his subs are and our subs and try to get them to line up. And you still get that energy performance guarantee with it. So
021it's a it's a really nice way to to get a building like this completed or constructed. One of the biggest differences though is that for the performance contract side, the PC side as I'll refer to it moving forward, we hold those contracts. So those are energy contracts. So we we put them out to bid. We hold them. For the construction management side, the district holds those contracts. So we've worked with Jeff and the board and developed bid packets, put it out to bid, made our recommendations on who the district should select uh based off quality work, pricing, a whole bunch of different things we make these recommendations. And I'm glad or happy to say that selections have been made and finalized. So for the PC side, uh we'll be using Agent and Electrical for the
022electrical work, D.A. Dodd for HVAC, TLC Plumbing for the plumbing, Corelless for the roofing, and Corelless will be utilizing Tremco building materials or roofing materials, which is what we used in phase one and two. So it's the same system that we've already done, just going out of a new building. Uh SEG will be handling the solar modules, and Sun Balust will be doing the solar racking for us. On the construction management side, the contracts uh the district will be holding. Shambaugh and Sons will be doing fire suppression. They're either the largest or the second largest fire suppression company in the country. Prostar Services will be doing the sports flooring. Jeff was passing around those uh samples earlier. The lead company will be doing about 95% of your sports equipment. They're doing everything except for the
023volleyball nets. We have a different company doing those. Uh the lockers will be done by Elite Storage Products. Structural steel is AMG. Larson Daniels will be handling all the civil work. Adams Masonry is handling the masonry. And then we brought Larson Daniels back in for just all the general construction general trades. Um and that is a massive part of the project. When we initially started talking with Jeff, probably a year and a half ago, Jeff and the board, uh we were saying that a building of this magnitude should come in somewhere between 12 and 13.5 million. We are very very happy and excited to let everyone know that the building is coming in at 12.5 uh and some change. So, 12,548,896 and 78 cents. Uh of that 12 million, we'll call it 12.5 moving forward
024for simplicity, uh 5.8 of that is the construction management. There's a 1% builder's risk baked in, so that's 58,000. Uh we're recommending a 5% owner's contingency, so 291,353 dollars that the district will just hold for now. But, should anything go awry, should the district need to defend, we do have some money put aside for that. Which brings your total construction management cost up to 6.176 million. And the total put PC is 6.372 million for a total value of 12,548,896 and 78 cents. The timeline, which is uh obviously very important. Um hopefully, we will get the board approval to move forward with this tonight. Um double start there. The contract signed, we are still in the works of getting the contract finalized. We're hoping to have that sent over to Dr. Brooks in the next few
025days uh for the district to send over to their attorney for legal review. We would like to do a groundbreaking in March and that will be a formal groundbreaking where we're going to get pictures of people with shovels. Uh it's going to be a lot of fun. Obviously, we are in the Midwest. I mean, we it is the beginning of November and we are talking about snow plows. So, who knows? Um we are going to do our best and hopefully weather permitting we can break ground in March. The steel erection should be complete in June of next year. The roof will be complete in September of next year. The solar array would be complete in December of next year. Again, this is all weather permitting. Um and then the gymnasium and the substantial completion of
026the building will be done in March of 2027. And we would like to do a, you know, once it's done and obviously we'll work with the district to handle the logistics and details of this. We would we still like to host a big ribbon cutting and invite local media, marketing, whoever you want us to bring in, we would happily bring in. Um Arash has joked that I will be dunking a basketball At 12 At 12 ft. I will not be at 12 ft. I'm not doing that. I'm going to make that very clear. Uh nobody wants to see it. Um but that's what we we have for you guys today. Uh it's been an absolute pleasure working with MSD Boone for going on 3 years, 35 months we've been working together. And I feel like
027we've been in a meeting almost every one of those months. Uh or we we've at least been in the district at some point for every one of those months. So, thank you for your trust and continued faith in Berardi and we hope to make you proud with the construction of this building. But, any questions? That's what we got for you. So, thank you guys. Thank you. All right. Ben and Give me a promotion to accept PC project vendor list. I'll make that motion to accept the PC project vendor list. I'll second that motion. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Now looking for a motion for the construction management portion of the project vendor list. I'll make that motion. I'll go ahead and second.
028Any further discussion? All All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Good night. Have a good night. Thank you, guys. Not as much as we It's going to be an awesome building. It's going to be a lot of fun. One thing I wanted to bring up while I was up there was the Thanks for all the support over the everything. It's fun working. It's been a lot of fun. You should pop by. These are public meetings, you know. Be here. If you let me know when you're here, that's fine. That's right. It would be good. For sure. Yeah. We're in the We'll keep them keep them in informed of all that's happening. All right. Administrator comments. Okay. Hey, everybody. On Sunday, November 2nd, seven seniors gathered with
029all of the supplies to paint Jacob Porter's senior parking spots, making sure he was included in one of the many special senior traditions this year. And that was really awesome to be part of and to see those students working together and laughing and sharing memories and I was very honored to be there with them. Thank God for the nice weather on that Sunday before all this snow. On October 28th and November 6th, a total of 25 NHS members packed 950 senior food boxes and mobile market bags at the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana in Merrillville. And these boxes and bags will go to the seniors and families in need throughout Lake and Porter counties. So, that was a good field trip. We had our Veterans Day program today, my first one. It went very well.
030We had a good showing, a good turnout. Uh we are hosting a career fair on November 25th and I would just like to give a shout out to uh Britney Fonti, Michelle Hall, Jill Struble, Caitlyn Proper, and Michelle Saudis for all their hard work at um this is insane to me, but they have secured 43 booths of vendors to come and share their professions with our students. Uh so, that should be a really great day for our kids to kind of figure out what they want to do and go talk to people about their future professions. And then last but not least, I recognized 21 students for the month of October for Hawks Pride. Awesome. Our winter season is in full swing. Our girls basketball team played their first game last Thursday. It didn't go
031the way we wanted, but um we certainly have a much stronger team than we had last year. So, we look forward to some good things from from them. Uh wrestling team started practice last week. This is the start of their second week and they've got some good things coming up. Um more than we've had participating in the last couple years. So, something something good there. Uh, boys basketball started practice this week. So, this is their first week of practice. Fifth and sixth grade boys were supposed to have their first game yesterday against Westville, but weather didn't cooperate with us. So, we're playing around with a new date to get that rescheduled. Seventh and eighth grade boys are playing tonight versus Lowell. Our volleyball team the team picture is entered in a national contest by Interstate
032Studio. So, the photographer who took that picture thought that it was national contest worthy. So, all the girls took home a waiver to sign and it's going to be entered in a national contest. Um I entered our baseball coach Wayne Strawka into a national coach of the year, like a mental attitude thing, and he is a national finalist. It's with the Neuro Fitness Academy, and if he wins this, the baseball program will have $5,000 to spend on their program. So, thank goodness for AI because I'm not very articulate. So, put that together. There it is. So, that's athletics. Right. At the elementary, we had a great set of parent-teacher conferences. We always get a wonderful turnout for that. Our trick-or-treat hallway, by anecdotal count, had at least 300 kids come through. Uh, the week of
033Halloween, we also had a wonderful Halloween parties, um, which is always fun to see our parents come in and I think they dress up more than the kids do for those parties. Uh, this 2 weeks ago we were able to work with Julie Monetta out of the service center, um, on our literacy, working on fluency and comprehension instruction. Today we had Veterans Day assembly. Thank you Mr. Kaslow who was our speaker as well as Mrs. Bean and Mrs. Hale and the rest of the team who did a great job decorating, planning, and welcoming the veterans to the school. We also had the return of the Hebron flag ceremony that was witnessed by our state senator Ed Charbonneau who got to attend and then also visit Mrs. Witz's class to read to them this morning. Any
034public comments? All right. Superintendent. I was fortunate enough to be at both Veterans Day programs. They're, you know, both much different, but both of them have always been outstanding. It's been a while since we've seen the flag ceremony. It takes a lot of work to put that on and to have those students do that that march. And it was a great time for sure. And I thought that all the songs were phenomenal. Our band sounded great. Our choir sounded great at high school. Want to thank Senator Charbonneau for for coming to the elementary uh this this morning. And I got to spend a little bit of time with him. He also talked to some teachers about our I read scores and I think he had a great time here. Want to thank the Hebron Chamber
035of Commerce as well. They helped provide coffee from First Brew and Family Express donuts for our veterans at the at the high school this morning. I want to thank those groups as well for you know, making our veterans feel welcome here this morning. Uh want to thank the guys from Varney G and all the work you've done on this project and helped me us through this. It's taken a long time. I know that there's probably been uh some frustrating days with maybe me. I don't know. Um but we have a building that is going to be something we can take pride in. And it's definitely something that we can say, uh you know, it is a nice thing for Hebron kids. So, and that's that'll be a wonderful addition for many years to come for
036the community. So, thank you for that. Uh the snow didn't I I'm not real happy about November snow, but um got to thank you know, Brian and Lynn, Brian Anderson, Lynn Mills for coming in and getting up real early and coming in and plowing and doing all the work. I saw Brian today and asked him if he felt like a zombie because he had, you know, been going and uh I didn't get to see Lynn, but I want to thank those two specially for the work that they did uh outside. They they put a lot of time in and it was a it was a difficult snow to move this time as well. So, it was wet and heavy and there was quite a bit of it, probably a little bit more than maybe we
037expected. So, I want to say happy Thanksgiving. I can't believe we're here. We're at Thanksgiving already. My favorite holiday. Bring on the deviled eggs. And um you know, last but not least, you know, I want to thank uh Keith Cunningham for your time on the board since 2020. Kind of a crazy time when you think about it when you started. There was a lot happening in this world and um you know, we we got to see some of that, but it wasn't quite as bad as some other communities and we worked through it together. But uh and I know there'll be some other things here to talk about. Also want to welcome Jenna Felton. I know your next meeting will be your first meeting, so uh welcome aboard. So, thank you. That's all I have.
038All right. Board comments. I don't have anything. Thanks for your service. It's been a pleasure. And uh good luck with your new adventures in Demotte. And I'll I'll keep you posted as I think everyone will with the ceremonies and make sure you're part of it. Thanks for helping us get there. And thanks gentlemen for being here. Well, thank you. Very happy to be here. Yeah, I think anymore we're going to have to get you guys an office. Great job. Can I get a card at least? Or we'll just build one in the field house. All right. On that note, Mr. Cunningham, in recognition of your service and appreciation of MSD Boone Township, we just like to say thank you and present you with a token of our appreciation. Come on up. That's going right on
039the refrigerator. Hopefully this goes well on a mantle in your new home. So, yeah, thank you for all your for everything. You know you're always welcome here. You know that. So, Yeah, it's been great working with you, Jeff. So, Here you are. Yeah. >> I don't know. You should get everybody up here. Yeah. We're going to have a problem. No photo. All right. It's fine. All right. It's like just second meeting over there. Yeah. Great. All right. Hold on. I got to get used to it. You can talk to her. I'll be good. Oh, there you go. Yeah, that's right. I'm like you, Craig. I'm good. All right, if there's nothing else, No. call the meeting adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.