001I'll stand up there. All right. This will go ahead and start our business portion of the monthly board meeting. At this time, we will hear from Mr. Roger Smith on our blue ribbon update. Mr. Smith. Thank you, Madam President, Dr. Smith, members of the board. Uh nearing completion of the the new kitchen at Bzer Middle School. Serving lines are in. Uh the orchestra room is going back together and most of the hallways are now complete throughout the building. Brake Valley main gym. We continue to paint uh from top down and then next will be the floor refinish. Site work continues around the building and also tennis courts was finished and ready to play. ULC exterior work continues on. All the brick is up. Uh the ethus is now going on. Also, we just put down
002uh the entryways which allows us for the new storefronts to go in both north out east. Uh new le exterior site work continues on. Uh cabinetry is going in the countertops and again ceilings and floors continue. Lot of data cable in this Uh here at Craig phase two uh construction trailers being set and other work on the exterior continues. We have uh roof work continues at Harrison Hill testing. Thank you Roger Smith. There is a lot going on board. Do you have any questions regarding the blue ribbon updates, Miss Lawrence? Yes, Mr. Smith. I'm super excited to see all of the changes happening at our middle schools in particular because I know that's been uh a a constant presence in your life for the last year or so. About 18 months. Two. Yeah, thank you
003for the correction. Two years. Um Mr. Dr. Smith, I did have a question from a member of the public who was asking if we would be able to get any of our spring sports on any of the fields this year at the the middle schools. My assumption was no, but I wasn't sure. They have been playing on Okay. softball, baseball, and now with the tennis court top coat on, they'll be able to use those. I did I did see the tennis courts today. They looked really great. Um, will members of the public be able to use the tennis courts as well in the same way that they use the facilities at the high school? We have them open for public use uh throughout our district. Thank you. Any other questions or comments regarding the blue
004ribbon updates? Um I did have one on just a comment on slide 14. Uh Craig phase two. Just a fun little point of clarification. Um the the picture on the left, the chute, I believe that was utilized because the moving process for the public to be aware is starting to begin. Correct. Everyone's starting to box up and the foundation was um had great partners from the United Way helping to um get rid of some items and get ready for the move. And again, that move will be happening in June. Is that correct? Okay. Thank you. Like I said, that was just a fun little It was popular. It helped people um help get rid of their trash. I need a shoot for my house. But um yes, so thank you for that and uh thank
005you for the updates. Um to the tennis point, I know the courts here are finished, correct? Um and the public can use those here at the Craig um campus. So okay, thank you. Well, if that is all on the blue ribbon and updates, we will move over to the request for RFP on cyber security updates with Dr. Gagline. President, President Norman, members of the board, Dr. Smith, you're very familiar with -ate. You've gone out, you've advocated for it to continue. So, you know that that's where we get our funding to connect our buildings to the internet. And bringing the internet to the schools is wonderful for our students. It opens up the world to them. Unfortunately, there's people on the other side who'd like to come in and do bad things. Those are cyber thieves,
006ransomware, things of that nature. And so, the -ate program realized that schools need help buying the cyber security tools necessary to prevent people from stealing our students identities and to stop them from trying to take over our uh networks. So they ran a pilot uh this year. It wasn't very large for the entire nation. It was only 200 million to cover the entire uh US. But so we weren't sure if we could even try, but we went for it and we got just shy of $650,000. So we can now go to uh out to bid to see all the vendors who know we have this money now. they're chomping at the bit to show us what they can do to help us keep our students safe on the cyber side of things. So, I'll be
007asking your permission to go ahead and u start to entertain those bids. It's going to take a while to evaluate them because they all come at it from different directions. Uh and then in July, we'll bring a recommendation to you. Thank you, Dr. Gagaline. That sounds like excellent news. Board, do you have any questions regarding the RFP? Yes, Miss Lawrence, Dr. Gaklin, congratulations because that I know is a huge is a huge deal for our district and um will also help us not have to appropriate funds out of uh out of our budget in order to help solve what is a needed uh change to our cyber security and will only continue to be so. So, thank you for the work that you did in order to get to secure those funds. Thank you for
008that. Any other comments or questions regarding the cyber security RFP? Thank you, Dr. Gagline. At this time, um I will turn it to Dr. Mhalland to present the proposed board meeting dates for our board of education for next school year 2526. Dr. Mhalland. Thank you, Madam President. I uh present the proposed 25 2025 2026 uh meeting dates for the board of education for your review. Thank you. So, uh, Dr. Mahalland, board, do you have any questions or comments regarding the proposed dates? And so, you'll see, do you have one? Okay. Um, the public might notice that there are some months where we only have one meeting and it is a combined work session and board meeting. A lot of that is typically due to the school calendar, breaks, um, other events that happen. So, if
009you just notice that and you're in the public and you see that we have some months that there's one meeting, it's still two meetings, but it's in one date. So, um, just wanted to clarify that. So, thank you for that, Dr. Mahalland. All right, we will move on now to our financial update with Mr. Matt Miles. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Dr. Smith. In front of you, you have our March 31st uh end of month reports for both the general fund and the transportation fund. Um happy to present both funds. I'll just start with the transportation fund which is up first. Um again we get those revenues uh twice a year. So you don't see much in the revenue throughout this time of the year but our expenses are trending uh actually
010a little better than expected which uh translates to a beginning or an ending balance as of uh 331 a little better than what we had initially projected. Similarly, on the general fund side, um revenues in total a little ahead of expected and our total expenditures a little less than expected, uh yielding an ending balance of just shy of $13 million currently. Thank you for that, Mr. Miles. Uh board, any questions or comments regarding the financial updates? Looks like we're in good shape. So, we appreciate that work. Thank you. All right. At this time, I will move to our board for our committee chair reports. Um, we'll go ahead and start with policy. Miss Pucket. Yes. Um, I have three points for this evening. The Indiana General Assembly adjourn CADA early in the morning on Friday,
011uh, May April 25th. Now the real work begins of making law into actionable policy begins. So I know that we'll have more conversations on how um these policies will affect our township. So I'm looking forward to that on having those further conversations. Secondly, from this from this legislation session, we can expect two revision packets. Um, a one will be a special 2025 package addressing laws that will go into f uh go into force July the 1st and b the second will consist of all the policies not in the special package. Three, given the amount of education legislation in this session, we anticipate a large package likely consisting of 50 or more newly written, revised, or rescended policies. I'm going to bring extra coffee. We're going to lean in. So, I'm looking forward to it. Dr.
012Harshburgger. So that is my update. Thank you, sir, for all your work. It's it has been an absolute joy working with you. So yeah, thank you for that update, Miss Pucket. I did have a question. You may have mentioned it. Um I was writing the updates. When is it going to be around the summertime where it will roll down to the the two revision packets or is it later in the year that we'll be expecting to see those? This summer. Oh, that's soon. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I know it's a lot. So, thank you for your work on this, everyone. And to go along with that, I'll just segue into um our ISBA legislative updates with Miss Lawrence. Yes, as Miss Pucket alluded to, it was a very busy season in the general assembly with lots
013of implications for uh public schools across the board. Um there were three bills that have been mentioned here in regularity. Um uh Senate Bill 287, which is the partisan schoolboard bill that did pass. Um but for those of you in the public who are wondering what that means, it basically means that we schoolboard members um will have the option to declare a party or we can be or we can be nonpartisan or independent. um that party affiliation will ha carry with it um a potential for um for party influence as we continue to move forward. And based on um on the legislation, there will not be straight ticket voting. You will still need to mark your schoolboard members um regardless of which party you are a member of or a member of no party. Um
014Senate Bill one, the tax cap bill also passed. Um some key highlights from that bill uh relates to school referendums only being allowed during general election ballots. Um and uh also it is I think the the net net of it is it will make it harder for schools to raise funds um given that they will lose tax revenues tied to growing property tax increases. Um and then the funding bill HB 1001 um also passed. Um it included a a 3% increase in um in total funding for um for public education, but it also last year we got a grant to fund our school books um as as part of the funding measure. Um this year it will be rolled into the total funding package. So, it it basically is approximately a 2% increase in funding
015for schools. Um, and I think we'll have lots more on what that actually means for Lawrence Township in the future, specific to our township, but it was a very busy uh cycle for public education in Indiana. Oh, um, also of note, universal vouchers um were also part of that funding measure that did pass. Um but it will go into effect in the second um annuum. That's it for me. 2026. Thank you, Miss Lawrence. That was definitely a busy season. Uh I didn't know Dr. Smith if you had anything you wanted to add because I know we've been busy and thank you to the board too and Dr. Smith for our advocacy this session. Let let me say this. I I don't think the public understands the amount of work that the board and you guys
016have policy on this that you will be engaged. The meetings, the conversations that take place are numerous and it's important for people to understand is that we have a very good relationship with our local legislators. Uh we talk constantly. Uh we know where they live. We meet often and we talk about the best interests for Lawrence Township. Those roads also cross and intersect with other school corporations and other legislators and board members, board presidents and others talking across the state of Indiana. I'm very proud of our board because they were active and engaged in this legislative session. And guess what board? The work now begins immediately as we work for the next legislative session. So we'll be engaged for the rest of the year as we prepare for next January. And then of course the
017budget is every two years, but the work starts now. You with me folks? It starts right now. So, thank you board. Thank you, Dr. Smith. And now we will move on to our foundation, Dr. Mahaland. Well, the Lawrence Township School Foundation kicked off their spring up and running program. Um, and I just want to read from uh their their site. Uh the mission is to challenge students to experience the benefits of goal setting, character development, adult mentoring, and improved health by providing them with a life-changing experience. So the goal of this semester is uh to train two days a week, and then they will uh run in the Prairie Dash 5K in the spring. That will be May 17th. So um I know they're always open to volunteers and support. I just want just want
018to share that date again of May 17th for the Prairie Dash. Thank you. Now we will move on to parks and recreation. Uh Miss Dunn. So for parks and wreck, few updates. The first is the Forever Young Club game days are still going on on Thursdays. Um that occurs from 11 to 1. It's now an 2hour event as opposed to one. And that occurs um at 5301 North Franklin or Lawrence Community Park. Um we also have the international festival that is coming up. um we're very excited about on May the 10th. Um and that will happen at the um Arts for Lawrence um there at Fort Benjamin Harrison. So, two very exciting events to put on your calendar. Thank you, Miss Dunn. And I drove by Lee Road and I know pickle ball was pickle
019balling a lot. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We do have leagues um obviously in our various parks. So, OIO, their um season is underway as is Fall Creek Valley. And then, um there are two different organizations with pickle ball. Uh we have um the American Legion that has their pickle ball tournaments as well as an adult league. So, very exciting. And then when those folks are playing, obviously individuals from the community participate in it. Joy leagues for both kids and adults. We also had a very successful Earth Day cleanup. So, keep Lawrence beautiful and clean and rid of trash. Yes. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you for those updates, board. I know it's a been a busy month, a busy time. So, at this time, we will move on to our action items. We will
020go to our approval of our diploma task force recommendations. Mr. Noter and Mr. Knik. Good evening, Madam President, Dr. Smith, members of the board. At the April 14th work session, our team presented an update on recommendations from our diploma task force team and I recommend the board approve the diploma task force recommen recommendations as submitted. Thank you, Mr. Knik. Um board, any comments or actually um I'm sorry I'm I'll entertain a motion. I got out of sync there. My brain got a little heat fried from tennis. Okay, I'll entertain a motion. So move. Second. All right. properly moved. Miss Pucket, seconded, Miss Dunn. All in favor of the diploma task force recommendations? I I All right. All in favor and none opposed. Okay. Board, any questions or comments regarding that? I just want to continue
021to express the gratitude to the work that you are doing along with the team. This is an extraordinary amount of work that needs to be done as we're reinventing again uh what graduation looks like and so very proud of Lawrence Township for being um on the forefront of making these changes so early. So well done. Just uh a note for members of the public, we had extensive conversation on this in our work session. So, if they're not seeing us uh ask questions back and forth about some of these items, they were discussed a lot in our work session and that they can um that's also available online um from our April 14th meeting. So, um if you want some reading or watching on what was discussed, it is out there thanks to Dr. Altmire and
022her team. Um so, at this point, thank you for the comments. We will move to the approval of the curriculum advisory committee um recommendations and we will move on to Mr. Noter again. Thank you Madame President, Dr. Smith and members of the board. I recommend approval of the curricular advisory committee recommendations as submitted. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion for the approval. So move. Second. Properly moved, Miss Lawrence and seconded, Miss Pucket. All in favor? I I. None opposed. All in favor? All right. Any questions or comments board regarding the um advisory committee recommendations? And again, that was discussed at our work session. And also, I don't know that we did um enough to express our gratitude to the members um that were on that committee, especially the educators who gave their time um and
023talents to help inform those decisions for their colleagues because that is something that I know um is um is a task that not everybody wants to sign up for. And so, um very much appreciative, very appreciative of those efforts of those educators. Thank you for that, Miss Dun. All right. So yes, that was a lot of hard work, heavy lifting, and we do appreciate everyone's input. So with that, we'll continue on with the curriculum and move to the approval of curriculum update PE and health 4.3. Mr. Noter. Thank you, Madam President, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. I recommend approval of the PE and health curricular recommendations as submitted. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Second. All right. Properly moved, Miss Lawrence, seconded, Miss Pucket. All in favor? I I and none opposed. All
024right. Properly um this has been approved. Any questions or comments regarding PE and health? All right. We will move on to action item 4.4, approval of the curriculum update on computer science recommendations. Mr. Noter. Thank you again, Madame President, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. I recommend approval of the computer science recommendations as submitted. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Properly moved, Miss Dunn. Seconded, Miss Lawrence. All in favor of the approval of the computer science recommendations. I I All All in favor? None opposed. All right, this has been approved. Um, does anyone have any questions or comments regarding the computer science recommendations? Okay, very good. And again, this was all discussed in depth at our um our work session on the 14th. At this time, I will move to 4.5 approval request
025for RFP on the cyber security upgrades. Dr. Gagline, President Norman, members of the board, Dr. Smith, I request permission to issue the RFP for cyber security upgrades as submitted. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion for the approval. So moved. Second. All right. Okay. properly uh moved, Miss Lawrence, and seconded, Dr. Maul Holland. All in favor? I I All right, none opposed. All in favor? That has passed. This is for the approval of the RFP on cyber security upgrades. All right, now we will move on to 4.6, approval of the proposed 2526 board of education uh meetings. Dr. Mahal. board. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Properly moved. Miss Lawrence and seconded, Miss Pucket. All in favor? I I. None opposed. All right. We have approved the proposed 2526 board of education uh
026meetings. Um, at this time we will move on to 4.7. Awesome. President. Yes. I move that we treat action items 4.7 to 4.13 as consent agenda. All right. Do I have a second? Second. Give it to Jessica twins. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Who got places you got to go? All right. The consent agenda has been uh moved the moved by Miss Pucket and then so we're giving it to Miss Dunn for the second. All in favor? I All right. None opposed. All right. I move approval of the consent agenda. All right. Do we have a second? Second. All right. Um approval of the consent agenda has been approved by Miss Pucket, seconded by Miss Dunn. All in favor? I I I All right. None opposed. The consent agenda, which um comprises our field
027trips, fundraisers, payoffs, building projects, service agreements, claims, and personnel reports, and board minutes are all included in this. Um I do want to move um ask for um a movement to pull out one item on the personnel reports for Miss Johnson on 4.8. We do have an announcement. Miss Carla Johnson. Thank you, Madam President, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. We do have a special announcement tonight. Our school board approved the appointment of our new chief technology officer, and that is Mr. Harsha. Mr. Harsha will transition to this new role on July 1st, 2025 from that of the director of secondary education, a role that he has held since 2022. He has previous experience as the principal of Belzer Middle School and has spent his entire professional career in Lawrence Township in secondary education.
028graduated from Ball State University in 2000 and his mers in educational administration is from NOVA Southeastern University in 2004 and his coursework is from IUPPUI in 2009 whose administration regarding his new position. Mr. Harsher shares he looks forward to transitioning to this new role of chief technology officer and continuing his efforts to support teaching and learning in our schools, ensuring the best possible educational experience for our students. He adds that it's been a privilege to serve Lawrence Township Schools as a coach since 2001, a teacher, a teacher leader, an assistant principal, a principal, and a director at the secondary level. He's learned a lot from all of those roles and he's been proud to serve in each one. And according to Dr. Smith, our superintendent, he is a brilliant educator who models excellence in everything
029he does and he's an ideal person to assume the leadership of the fast-paced and ever evolving division. Congratulations, Mr. Harsha. Mr. Harsha, you get your first directive. Come down here and shake the board of education's hand. You've been at these meetings a thousand times. Come on down. Congratulations, Andy Harsha. All right. Congratulations, Mr. Harsha. adds to our wonderful evening of celebration. Yes. Um and we will do our best to continue to advocate for -ate funding. Yes. All right. At this time, we are now to 5.1, our administrator and board comments. So, I will take I will um take a vote on who not a vote. Once again, my my brain is a little hot. Okay. Would anybody like to volunteer to go first tonight? If not, I'll call on you. I don't have anything to
030say other than in the great prophetic voice of Tupac Shakur, you are appreciated. As we end near to the end of this year, it is quite hectic and busy and so I sincerely you are appreciated. Thank you for all you do. Very well said, Dr. Mhalland. Um again I I I want to echo the appreciation and yesterday's event um at Lawrence North High School uh recognizing all the distinguished graduates. It was just such a special event to see all the many talents. Um and then again to come back tonight to our board meeting um you know just feel feel very excited uh for all the graduates and the plans ahead and um just honored to be a part of it. So, thank you, Miss Lawrence. I'm just excited that we're wrapping up yet another school
031year. It's um exciting times as a member of the board of education, but also as parents. Many all all of us are parents of kids in our district. And so, it's always an exciting time and um excited to be part of all the celebrations. Thank you, Miss Dunn. Thank you. Yes, I second that. I mean, the work we do is always to be centered around student outcomes and tonight was just such a great example of that. Um, it was a time to open our doors and have the community and the parents come celebrate their students and their staff members. So, that was such a great night. And to go with that, I know that there's been a lot of um celebration weeks lately. Um I think assistant principles, administrative assistants. Thank you, Sheila. You're you're
032the best of us. And um there's more to come. Teacher appreciation. In business school, uh we were always taught that a lot of times we as consumers expect good service and a good product. And it because it's assumed a lot of times we forget to say thank you. But that but then you always hear when something goes wrong. And I'm guilty of this myself. But um I like these appreciation weeks and days because it reminds us to say thank you. But I want to encourage myself and anyone else to even throughout the year just if something's going good, if your child feels welcome on the bus or you know they they've had an amazing experience in a class, just um just randomly say thank you. And so this is my general thank you for that.
033Um so that that's what I leave it with. Um Dr. Smith, any comments from you? I'll keep them very short. board. Just to remind you, watch your calendars as we have a lot of events coming up. Uh I know next week we will do and this is always uh beautiful but it's also very difficult. We have our retirement celebration next week which is a function of the board and our district administration is we will celebrate years of excellence in this district who will be leaving us including two men who are in the room. So it's going to be bittersweet but a celebration. So, we certainly want to do that and also remind you board, join me next Sunday because this time we celebrate the Bears and they expect for us to be there at 12:00
034sharp to celebrate the distinguished graduates of that high school also. And we will build up for the big celebration in June as we will hold both of our graduations and that's always a big deal uh June 4th and June 5th. So, I'm going to leave it at that because there's so many things that you can go visit and be involved in as our student plays, our end of year celebrations and honors at every level are worthy of our time. So, I look forward to the future meetings. Madame President, I turn it back over to you. All right. One last thing to wrap up. Our next uh monthly board of education meeting will be a combined work session and board meeting here in this room on Monday, May 12th, and that will begin at 5:30. At
035this time, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Second. Properly moved, Miss Dunn and seconded. Thank you everyone and have a good evening.