001pledge of allegiance aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God with lice at this time Miss Carla Johnson will present our above and beyond award not good evening Madame President Dr Smith and members of the board we are proud tonight to present two above and beyond awards from ELC Brook Park tonight with us we have Mrs Diana Goodwin if she could come forward and her principal congratulations to Mrs Diana Goodwin Treasurer at ELC Brook Park for being selected to receive the above and beyond award in November of 2024 we needed an administrative assistant and since then Diana has worked hard to enroll students adjust attendance and take calls from parents all of this was done in addition to her Treasurer responsibilities she
002works between two buildings and the other building didn't lack because of her time with us she literally kept us going and for that we're grateful she's truly amazing we are honored to present Diana Goodwin with the above and beyond award congratulations [Applause] and next Chanel gray if she will come forward congratulations to Mrs Chanel gray family Leah on at ELC Brook Park for being selected to receive the above and beyond award Chanel has been a huge support this year not only has she pulled between the four elc's but she also has supported other buildings Chanel has come to our building on numerous occasions when it wasn't her assigned day to help support family needs help with the endof day dismissal and get students enrolled when we were without a student support specialist she was here
003helping students talking them through their concerns and feelings and conducting restorative practice she always asks is there anything else I can do for you she asked from her heart not her position that's why we love her we are honored to present Chanel gray with the above and beyond award congratulations [Applause] and Chanel and Diana I believe have guests with them this evening would your guests like to rise and would you like to acknowledge them my husband Bob is there hi Bob thank you my grandmother and my husband wow that's amazing thank you thank you for your support Perot perect spot can't we see yeah all right here one two three one congratulations [Applause] congratulations again and that concludes our Awards portion of the board meeting at this point we will move to our information items
004with our Blue Ribbon update Mr Roger Smith Madam president members of the board Dr Smith again uh renovation on the kitchen continues likewise kitchen Hood going up uh just demoed and putting back the percussion uh band room and at pul Creek Valley we continue a lot of hallway work on the walls and Floors front ENT uh entrance with the weather breaking we're able to get back on that as well as some uh site work new lecc the building exterior green boards Almost 100% complete Roofing and a lot of next slide you'll see a lot of brick work going up and around uh all three sides right now interior work on the first and second floor continue and downstairs we will be finish up uh the four rooms for file storage uh spring break thank you
005Mr Smith board are there any questions or comments Miss D do have a question at the park and Rex board meeting um last week there was a question about a fence between Fall Creek Valley and the Fall Creek Park do is that fence owned by us the school district there's a partial fence it doesn't go all the way down but we usually maintain those fences okay that is what the Assumption was I just wanted to make sure that that was indeed accurate okay thank you yes there was some questions if there would be erected a longer fence to keep folks out and I said I was not aware of that being the case it's kind of opened it up for people move back and forth exactly which is really nice which was what one of
006the individuals said that they really enjoyed having the access from there so thank you I just wanted to call out that Craig is also known as the lecc or future Craig Academy for any any members of the public who don't recognize it as Craig Craig you can good um any other questions or comments board as far as the outdoor athletic um Fields um for the track and the tennis at the middle schools um how how far along are those projects uh they're back on at the Middle Schools they're back on the dugouts both softball and baseball baseball bells are uh the roofs going on right now so we're looking to have those uh ready for uh use thank you and I I appreciate and wanted to share with the public too that Craig or lecc
007where we're at the track was resurfaced a year or two ago and is accessible um for the public it's very nice and also I believe are the tennis courts finished are also finished oh okay tennis courts are finished so um thank you for that if there are no other questions or comments then we will move on to our next item Mr Smith um update on the bids for Mary Castle plans and specifications Madam president Dr members of the board I just want to uh recognize again our partners on this uh project Anna Marie's here with Schmid and the associate our Architects for the uh project uh Dustin thulman and Jose valz uh are the CMC contractors for this project as well uh we did receive bids on February 27th for seven bid categories and 27
008contractors uh bid uh those seven categories bids came in below estimates uh good competitive bids uh the GMP contract for powers and Suns for Mary castle room Edition will be $5,500,000 and the total project hard cost and soft cost all in is at 7 million very good board any questions or comments about the Mary Castle plans okay very good we will move on Mr Smith to the bids for the Craig Phase 2 Renovations mam president Dr Smith members of the board again Fanny and Hoy is the Architects uh on this uh project Dustin thulman and Jose Valdez with powers and Suns uh will be overseeing the renovation of Craig Academy phase two um where bids were received on uh February were nine bid categories with 16 contractors bidding bids again came in below estimates good
009competitive bids and the GMB GMP contract for powers and Suns to renovate grade phase two is 23 m862 ,29 and the total project cost hard and soft cost all in is at 32 million very good board any questions or comments regarding the bids on Craig Mr Smith for members of the public who are wondering if this had to do with the referendum that we did many years ago where is that uh $32 million coming from sorry Mr miles I'll jump in good great question this is not part of our Capital referendum from 2019 this is part of uh new bonds that have been bundled uh which were actually approved um about it was part of our $90 million package that was approved about a year and a half ago by the board U that process
010that included this project and several others throughout the district thank you for that um any other questions or comments board regarding Craig I have a question just when I was reading um in number 19 of the GMP clarifications that no temporary classrooms or food service equipment are in included we're not expecting for kids lunches or anything to be disrupted okay that was it I was looking and reason thank you okay if there are no other questions or comments at this time we'll move on to Mr Matt miles for our 2025 budget tax rate update Mr miles thank you madam president members of the board Dr Smith at this time of the year I always report back um to let the board and the public know where our budget came in in um and just to
011kind of give a brief summary of how the process works again we we start work putting the budget together each summer bring it before the board through the advertised process the state uh required process and get a board approval in the fall we hear back from uh the dgf the department of local government Finance typically uh right around uh with the week of Christmas New Year's right in that time frame so first of the year and then once we're able to um gather the data we report back and so that's what we're doing tonight at this time um first slide shows um our actual budget um what was our budget from 24 the advertised budget for 25 the anticipated or expected budget for 25 and then what we actually got back uh from the dgf
012on that final column um would remind the board and the public uh everything that you see tonight is is requires no deficit spending whatsoever and remind the public once again we have no operating referendum so that's a great thing for for the district helps keep our tax rates low U just on this first slide couple things I'll point out um you again you can see last year's total budget um that's their appropriated budget so the amount we're able to spend was about $234 million this year is actually at 224 so a little lower um that first line item is driving that that education fund line item again that's setep set by the state uh might be something we revisit because certainly um there's you know we could need to spend more than $124 million and
013as long as the cash is there that actually helps protect our cash balance so we may uh be looking at an additional appropriation that line item is not driven uh by any kind of local property tax that's money from the state uh in the for through the forms of our ADM so on the next slide wh actually I'll go back to one other thing right there at the bottom I'll just point out our assessed value um comes in two forms our total assessed value U the top line item there that is subject to our property tax caps so for residences that's 1% property tax cap um and then we also have two and 3% tax caps for Farm ground and for business uh owned property um so that went up 4% this year we're just
014over7 billion do in in the township and our referendum AV is always a little higher U that is exempt from the property tax cap so that uh that number uh drives our Capital referendum dollars that we're able to receive and and as those have gone up over the years that certainly drives um the amount that our taxpayers pay as well so we'll go to the next slide this deals more with the rate again you'll see the the comparisons over versus 24 our advertised our expected and our actual we always advertise High noting that the state's going to knock it down so we we kind of project what an expected rate is you saw the expected rate was about A113 we're going to end up just over a112 uh for the year and then the same
015AV numbers again at the bottom and then the last slide uh is our actual budget order so the levy the actual dollars that we would anticipate receiving if all taxes are paid in full and on time um we would be at just over $80 million there uh for the year across Debt Service uh our pension Bond our Capital referendum and our operations funds uh and then also noting our circuit breaker impact that is the property tax cap piece that we do not receive so anticipating about $7 million in circuit breaker impact in 2025 thank you Mr miles board any questions or comments Miss Lawrence yes I have a couple Mr miles um the the first is related to the tax um um uh for members of the public who maybe aren't tracking on some of
016the tax caps that are running through the the legislature now I wonder if you could just give us a brief understanding of the potential impact to school districts like our should a tax cap be put in place absolutely um do my best there's a lot of things going around right now um Senate bill one uh has to do with our budget um House Bill 10 uh 10 24 1402 sorry got my ones in my four 1402 uh is another one that's coming into play and then another Senate bill um really the the cumulative effect that we're seeing potentially at this time um could could impact the sharing of our local property tax dollars uh with Charter Schools that's one of the big impacts uh uh going through the Senate um that could some estimates on
017some of the early bills that we going through and some of the numbers that were uh being projected was as much as $26 million impact over a three-year period U from 26 through uh 28 um a lot of different numbers some projected it's it's kind of hard to put an exact finger on exactly where those are going to go but but the general theme is um from from the governor uh through the state house now and and the uh the legislature is prop property tax Caps or cuts are coming um will certainly impact Lawrence Township it will impact all school districts um and just to the extent of what that's going to be yet is kind of to be determined and how does our tax rate compared to our neighbors that's a great question um
018again noted earlier we didn't we do not have an operating uh referendum which really helps us uh we are the second lowest tax rate in Maring County Mr miles if I were in court this would be called leading the witness now Mr miles um could you also please give me an understanding for those who don't understand the difference between a capital referendum and an operating referendum and why we see that number going down over time uh great question uh your honor um counselor um so the capital referendum refers to um typically building projects so for us we touched all buildings across the district obviously major projects at our high schools uh that was approved originally up to 24.9 cents I believe just under right at 25 cents uh per hundred uh dollars of assessed value
019well over time as our av goes up and the assessed value goes up we're not borrowing more money so we the rate comes down and still gives us the same money to pay off those bonds U on the operating referendum side um again helps us keep our tax rate low here at Lawrence the the schools that have that the districts that have an operating referendum they're able to use those funds in a variety of ways typically they can they can pay teacher salaries they can pay other expenses but they don't have enough money uh liquidity in their budget to to meet their budget without asking their taxpayers for additional funds so they go back out has to be approved they have to be renewed every eight years and so um while they're upsides and helps
020them have more funds um there's certainly some risk there and at any time it could not be renewed and um and then they would have some budget challenges has Lawrence Township ever gone out for an operating referendum we have not thank you thank you Miss D first of all I think that it is very important um that the public does understand so I want to thank you um Miss Lawrence because it truly is when we look at surrounding districts Lawrence is an anomaly as it pertains to um the fiscal health of this district and that goes um without saying that that is your leadership as well as the leadership of our superintendent and so um during times like this I think it's very very important for us to acknowledge the great work that is being
021done by our superintendent and the members of his cabinet so I just want to applaud you all for the outstanding work that is happening to keep us physically sound um just want to also make sure I for members of the public what is currently happening with proposed budgets House Bill 1402 Senate bill um one as well as Senate bill um 1518 would not have an impact on our district for this tax rate correct that is that is correct I think that's really important very that's that's important to note absolutely that there are some things that are out there hanging but for this for purposes for this budget this is what it is correct correct thank you for sharing that thank you board any other questions or comments I have a quick comment I thought was
022a cool note just to add that our tax rate has actually declined since 2022 so so again that speaks to um what what all has been expressed here so that's what I was looking at when you're like you are going in I thought it was the coolest I was just doing some little research so I thought that was awesome so yep thank thank you yes at that time we were a114 and some change thank you and on page two of this report on the last column on the capital referendum piece it said our actual rate is 01777 that is actually lower than what it was initially um predicted correct corre yes it's that's uh declined steadily since that initial that first year and was the first what was the first uh it was approved to
023go up to 24 almost 25 cents okay so so that's great and all of this is wonderful board uh this really gives us bargaining power when we speak with our legislators and those in public office about the good work of our financial and fiscal responsibil so thank you thank you all right so now we will move on I believe Mr miles is up again for the cancell canellation of outstanding checks thank you madam president once again members of the board Dr Smith this this is an item we bring back at this time each year um just like um you would do in your personal finances the district may have checks that we've written um they've sat out there for some time and they need to be um expunged or cancelled so uh you have a
024list of checks uh that have been written um that are over two years old at this point that by Statute we need to cancel those so uh bring it it to you now as information later this evening uh for approval and action U to clean up a Rooks uh with those cancellation objects I have one question related to this uh have they already been cancelled because if my name was on that list and I forgot that I had a check floating out there maybe I want to come get that, it's a great question despite our best efforts for somebody to claim these monies they have not yet now no they have not been uh canceled until the board approves it and then we'll take that action so if their name was on this list they
025can call you tomorrow and get their money too late okay so moral the story cash your checks when they we would rather you do that make our world a lot better along those lines do we still issue paper checks to most of our vendors or are most automated uh a lot of them are automated at this point we write fewer and fewer checks um over the years um electronic payments have have really caught on um and so we do write fewer checks certainly all our you know payroll checks um most people get direct deposits anymore that type of thing so some of our vendors um Still Still we do pay with papercheck I guess theoretically we could say it was publicly posted Thursday so if they saw their name they could Rush In And that
026is correct get their check before we vote on it tonight so absolutely thank you board any other questions or comments okay so now we will move on to the application for the common school loan Mr miles thank you once again Madam president this next item comes to us uh annually sometimes twice a year um and we always appreciate the state doing this um it's a big help for us uh what's known as the common school loan or this common School fund loan uh we're able to use this for technology devices for our students and for our teachers Prim they have to be in the classroom and it's driven by ADM so we get a percentage um of our ADM and so this year we would be eligible to apply for uh just over $1.6 million
027from the common school loan it is a loow interest interest loan backed by the state of Indiana at just 1% very inexpensive money uh the board did approve a similar action um last fall so Mr gag Dr gagin will be coming to us a little bit later here today to to share some information on that uh but we are investigating uh the best use of these funds should this get approved later tonight information now and then hopefully action um approval later this evening thank you Mr miles I do have one comment Dr Smith I'm wondering if you could talk about the federal program that allows us to purchase um purchase techn technology at a at a lesser rate because even though we get a loan it depends how expensive those those devices are Dr gag
028line your board members are very smart go to the podium they attended the advocacy Workshop by put on by nsba and they heard very clearly from board members across the country that the federal government cannot cut our favored term from federal government eate eate yes tell them about eate so eate comes in two categories and it is designed to uh provide connectivity to schools and libraries uh basically it looks at bringing the fiber to the building and then the devices needed that once it's in the building think of it in your own home the router uh that distributes uh the uh connectivity throughout the building that has those two categories um you can get reimbursement uh based on our location and various demographics we qualify for 90% reimbursement so we were able to for instance
029connect uh Sunny Side the other uh just happened a couple weeks ago finally um but that was 10 we only had to pay 10% and I think we brought to you millions of dollars worth of work and we're only going to pay $100,000 for it so it's a great program yeah I just would like to add to is somebody who works on technology and is in this field dealing with uh the high-tech IND industry every single day uh Computing capacity is not going down it's only going up as we move into this agentic future um we will continue to need to outfit our students with the right sort of devices in order for them to be cutting edge and for our country to continue to be leading in this in this effort thank you board
030for your work at the federal government because would you need to pay attention that if the federal government is deciding to make Cuts particular in E we will Adam be against it because it does provide us tremendous infrastructural support Dr gagl so your board members learned a lot about that and spoke V openly in support of the federal government continue to keep ER thank you okay very well uh any other questions or comments Bard okay well Dr gag line you can stay up there so president Norman members of the board Dr Smith um as Mr miles alluded in the fall uh you gave us permission to go out and seek the common school loan which we received so we got the money up front now it's time to spend that in our yearly uh routine
031of purchasing Chromebooks for the incoming Sixth and nth graders we had 28 vendors respond and we evaluated those 28 uh vendors on not only on price but also on durability of the device and the uh repairability of our device ease of repair we also threw a couple wrinkles in just to see what would happen because we want to keep these devices in service as long as we could or can and we asked if they would throw in co uh covers for them and then we said how about ADP because last year all of a sudden ADP showed up on one of the uh proposals so we said let's see what they'll do and they responded very well and so um we budgeted $1.2 million to pay for all these Chrome books this came in at
0321.19 so we came in underneath just barely but that's good um but the uh electronic strategies not only did they give us one year of ADP they give us four years so the students receiving these devices will get four years of ADP so accidental damage protection and we're hoping that we can continue this every year so this just becomes something that is covered to the common school loan and won't be on parents from moving forward I just want to say say thank you for as as a parent in the district thank you but also as somebody who loves a good negotiation that's pretty that's great so appreciate all the work that went into that thank you so later on we'll ask for permission to engage with El electronic strategies thank you any other questions for
033Dr gag Bo are any of these uh vendors Lo local or um yeah electronic strategies has a office here in Castleton okay thank you no all right very good we'll move on back to Mr miles for the financial update happy this time to present our February 28 2025 financials uh both for the general fund and our transportation Fund in front of you you have the general fund and we always love to see those uh exciting green checks tells us we're running ahead of the original projection projection is just that it's a projection um but we use that that Benchmark throughout the year um our Revenue um at this time exceeds projections and our expenditures are slightly below our um projections so uh again yielding a good net uh cash position for us at the end
034of the at the end of the month uh in the general fund um as we move to look at the transportation fund um similarly um primarily we're seeing um a good Trend there this the transportation fund only receives money twice a year primarily are big chunks um so that's why there's always a lag in revenue on the transportation side versus what we see on the general fund uh but we plan for that we budget for that and again um our current ending balance is ahead of projection very good board any comments questions M I'm gonna say my my same thing is that I really really really like to see us move instead of general fund which is no nclat from 2018 to move to what we're using today in 2025 I think it's very important
035for our constituents that we're using the same terminology I also have a curiosity about um it looks like we are significant Oly over in Transportation on supplies and materials and I'm curious as to the cause of that and wondering if anything that we're seeing currently um with the cost of certain items potential tariffs things of that nature is going to play a role and if we need to make um any mooves specifically in this area moving forward so great great questions I think I'll start with your second one first the other one is just me being me that's okay you know that's that's that's your role um you know as far as the the supplies I think those are great questions uh we've talked to vendors on regular basis um about whether it's potential the
036tariffs uh just increase in cost of goods um we've certainly seen a tremendous increase um on the construction side um I was talking with a colleague um recently uh who said you know one of their building projects has doubled um over the last four years just what they were looking at um our cost of our bus is about the same you know they they've just they've just steel has gone up a lot of those so yes there are some of that driving this yes um we also tend to see a little bit of a higher expenditure earlier in the year just from January the way our the way our uh our PO process goes we kind of have to shut down some of the PO process in December to allow us to to close our
037books so sometimes January gets a bigger hit and and we don't always project that exactly um it is definitely something we will want to watch Mr Smith and Matt miles who's a former director of Transportation I know in January February Roger you have something extremely important happens from the state your bus inspections does that require a little bit more spending on equipment and materials yes and we have some older buses that does require a little more attention for fix and repair so Janu December January uh we are bu buying a lot of parts making sure that our buses are for uh ready for inspection and uh as noted before we did have a 97% pass rate uh so you know kudos to our uh mechanics in the garage for prepping our buses thank you very
038much yeah any other I do have yeah go ahead um thank you Miss Dunn for raising the Tariff question uh because I actually uh it made me rethink some of the questions from the the previous pieces uh particularly around the Craig academy uh Mr Smith do we anticipate that $32 million total budget for Craig Academy to be consistent um even given the potential increases that would happen because of Steel cost or tariffs or any other implication there well with your passing of that contract tonight those prices are locked in so uh we may have a few little things out there if we make changes to uh the process over the next two years but uh uh the cost that you see there tonight should stay within that cost and this is a question that I
039have that is um going to display my own ignorance about energy policy within the state of Indiana but does Indiana import any energy from Canada I know Michigan for example was going to be hit with some some tariffs that were okay yeah I I wonder because that could potentially have implications not aware of as is pretty much uh our provider for all of our buildings and whether or not they buy from certain ones I'm not aware of I know it's a big issue in States like Michigan for example I if it was hitting Indiana I hadn't heard thank you for us and we're some of their largest consumers Roger Smith and Matt miles and that citizen Energy Group and uh the power company IPO so good discussion are there any other questions or comments board
040regarding the financial update okay at this time I'll move on to our board board committee chair reports Foundation dral Holland well February ended very exciting with the Lawrence Township School Foundation gala and uh congratulations to the foundation and on uh raising close to $130,000 very beautiful wonderful evening and they will have an another event some of you may be interested in it's their 39th Annual for the kids golf tournament and that'll be Thursday May May 29th and it begins at 8: a.m so I just wanted to pass that along thank you Dr mahand Lawrence Parks and Recreation Miss dun yes we have a lot going on in the City of Lawrence um you can always visit the website visit Lawrence indiana.com for all these exciting um details every Thursday is the Forever Young club that
041is uh for individuals who like to um play games who are senior in age um April 11th is the Forever Young Club Fitness it's uh chair yoga that is from 11: to 12 and those both occur at community park there in Franklin Road um April 19th is the Spring Fling and then April 22nd we have um some volunteers from our Lawrence Township helping with uh the Earth Day clean up from 7:30 to 12:30 so some exciting things happening again if you want to visit Lauren indiana.com to learn more you can certainly do that wonderful uh do you know Miss stun are they planting trees as part of their e is that on the website that it is Mo mostly a clean up I know that um there is a push by Liz missort to um
042also use that time to cut invasive species of plant life but for the most part it is going to be cleaning specific areas that DS have been designated by the City of Lawrence as kind of hot spots to make them beautiful again thank you all right so now we will move on to policy here's some fun stuff yes um in policy news Neola revision package uh volume 37 number one has been uploaded for processing and we are now awaiting nea's final review before the revision packet goes active um moving forward the policy committee is scheduled we meet on Tuesday March 18th and um this is to review and update volume 37 um number one the administrative guidelines and lastly in legislation news this past week the Indiana General Assembly continued to address education issues spread
043out in a variety of committees as a reminder bills must have Advance out of they must Advance out of committee by April 10th and second reading by April 14th or they will be considered dead for this session so the session ends April 29th thank you Miss Pucket and to go along with that Miss Lawrence do you have any um updates for as our legislatively ason oh my there are several uh so as Miss Pucket rightly said we are kind of in the final throws of this uh of this cycle um Senate Bill 146 is a bill to increase the starting teacher pay from $40,000 a year to $45,000 a year not as much of an impact for Lawrence Township because our starting pay is $55,000 maybe 52 sorry thank thank you for the clarification $52,000
044I was trying to go like tickle brain cells way back but um uh and and in addition to that the one thing that could have some impact for our district is uh a requirement within that bill to um fund teacher salaries from 62% of the budget to 65% of the budget and also add in 20 days of paid parental leave I'm not sure what our parental leave is I meant to ask you that before the board meeting but car do you have that off the top of your head our um leave you got it exactly go go ahead go ahead how many days I think 12 12 days so that would be an INE increase for lawren Township increase that um another bill that is hot to trot is Senate Bill 287 for those of
045us sitting up here on the de um the bill originally would require that um that those who are up for Schoolboard elections would have to declare a party or to declare in their independence from a party affiliation um that has they've eliminated the primary option which I assume means that we could have multiple Democrats or multiple Republicans um running in the same election I know for example in my race I had four people myself included I believe you had two on your ticket um so uh so there that is a an interesting kind of development there um they are also um sorry um it moves to the house for second reading um isba is advocating for May meaning that you may declare affiliation or declare non-affiliation um as we've said as a board um it's
046it's critical for us to be able to work across the aisle um so not having a party affiliation really allows us and frees us to do our job uh which is to to do the best work for our students um in Lawrence Township and finally the property tax relief you heard some discussion of that already in this meeting um Senate bill one uh is the property tax cap Bill there are several bills that have been offered in um as an alternative House Bill 1402 would result roughly um in1 billion do reduction to Public Schools over six years um as we've said before and as was Illustrated tonight in the budget um discussion these bills that would would cap taxes could have significant import for our district but also districts across the state so um for
047those of you who feel so inclined calling your state legislators or your state um Representatives is critical at this time that's all for me thank you for that Miss Lawrence um well said and to go along with your call to action I you know you can go to iga.in.gov and type in sech uh find your legislator you type in your address it pulls up who your state senators and representatives are um the best thing is just we need to keep contacting them and uh and advocating so um thank you for that yes the five star app is the app that um you can download and it makes it easy to navigate it literally gives you you put in zip code and it will pull up all of what you said but it will even give
048you a script and it will pull all of the bills that are currently um moving moving forward but the festar app it is a great tool it's just called five star okay yeah and to go along with that that's my plug um on why we're opposed to Senate Bill 287 I think we heard about that at one of the Democrat meetings and then it was also mentioned at the Lawrence GOP meeting so we're trying to bridge everybody because public education impacts everybody so um yes thank you for that information so um excellent reports board at this time we will move on to our action items and the first one is 4.1 approval of bids for Mary Castle Mr Roger Smith mam president Dr Smith members of the board I recommend the board approve powers and
049Suns GMP contract for Mary Castle Elementary as presentent I'll all right we have a second second all right properly moved Miss Pucket and seconded Miss Dunn board any discussion on this all right we'll go to a vote all in favor say I I I I'll oppos all right the eyes have it at this time we'll move on to 4.2 approval of bids for Craig Phase 2 Renovations Mr Roger Smith mam president Dr Smith members of the board our recommend the board approve powers and Suns GMP contract for Craig Phase 2 renovation as presed sove second properly moved Miss Pucket and seconded Miss Dunn board any discussion on the Craig phase to Renovations at this time we'll move on or we'll I'll um take a vote all in favor say I I all opposed the eyes
050have it 4.3 approval of cancellation of outstanding checks Mr Matt miles thank you madam president at this time I recommend the board approve the cancellation of checks as presented so moved second properly moved Dr mahand and seconded Miss Lawrence any discussion board all right all in favor I I all opposed all right the eyes have it for the approval of cancellation of our checks outstanding action item 4.4 approval of application for the common school loan Mr miles Madam president this time I recommend the board approved the application for common school loan as submitted so moved second all right properly moved Miss Dunn and seconded Miss Lawrence any discussion all right at this time we'll move to a vote all in favor I I all opposed eyes have it action item 4.5 approval of the revision
051of the 24 and 25 board goals Mr Dan kusnick and Dr Brown good evening Madam president Dr Smith members of the board I recommend the board approve revisions for the 2425 board goals as submitted so moved second properly moved Dr molland and seconded Miss dun um is there any discussion at this time Board of our revision of board goals at this time then we'll move to a vote all in favor say I I I all right I'll opposed all right we have approved the revision of the 2425 board goals action item 4.6 approval of the revision of the 23 to 26 strategic plan Mr kusnick and Dr Brown president Norman Dr Smith members of the board at this time we ask for your approval for the revisions to the Strategic plan is submitted so moved
052seconded all right properly moved Miss Pucket and seconded Dr molland any discussion at this time Prime board okay we'll move to a vote all in favor say I I I all opposed all right the eyes have it on the revision of the Strategic plan at this time we will move to 4.7 Dr gagin approval of the student Chromebook bid results president Norman members of the board I request permission to purchase Chromebooks from electronic strategies as submitted so moved second all right properly moved Miss D and seconded Miss Pucket any discussion at this time um all in favor say I hi I all oppos eyes have it I moov the uh I moov the approval of consent consent agenda items 4.8 all right um do we have a second for the approval or for the consent
053agenda a point of clarification I have to move it as a consent that's correct yeah agenda first oh yeah you say I yeah we move you have to put it into a consent agenda and then move approval of the consent agenda agenda items 4.8 through 4.15 it it's not uh no approval no approval Ive you moved and then moved it all right you have you have to package it asent agenda move that bad boy it's okay move it okay just for the record I had um I had my like that I have Che cards it is very it is very awkward that you have to like package it as a thing and then and then move it forward but yeah all right so do we have a second I I second that we create a
054consent agenda okay so miss Pucket has moved for consent agenda seconded by Miss Lawrence all in favor say I I I okay the eyes have it all right now now we make the motion for approval so move or seconded it's okay all right properly moved Miss Pucket and seconded Miss done for the approval of the consent agenda all in favor say I I all opposed all right the eyes have it Dr Smith I feel like we might need to have a social studies class up here somebody somebody somebody need to help help us out you're okay and I was still you're doing great there is nothing very confusing there's no shame in the game I still have index cards I even have index cards for this so it's taking me two years to say second
055so you're doing real well my friend yeah I'm good so okay well great this time we will now move on to our administrator and board comments I will start down on the end Miss dun um I need to have a moment if you don't thank you I just need a second no that's a problem I'll start down on this and then Dr molland you gotta be quick on your um feet let's see so I wanted to mention um a couple of things um I I appreciated the the superintendent notes um and the engagement that's happening in the district uh with the superintendent Dr Smith and um connecting uh through conversations through your road uh Road Show um and I I also wanted to say that how much I appreciated our February 28th Retreat as a
056board um and all the learnings that we've done in DC together I'm just thankful because this this past few weeks As We Know know there's just been um lot going on right so Friday this past Friday we had a chance to attend an event with the uh Lawrence chamber and so these the things that we're talking about here um why why do we want to say stay nonpartisan why do we want to be able to speak for the students without an r or a d behind our name I mean all those things come alive when you get to have these conversations and um so I just wanted I just want to say thank you for the time again I think I said this last meeting but the time that we are spending to um come
057together to educate that every one of you is doing you know doing your part so thank you Miss Pucket do you have any comments last second though talking was an absolute blessing on the campaign for us to Lally talk to thousands it literally thousands of Voters and so it's the lived experience is one thing on hearing about different things but to hear from people's hearts and hear so it resonates a little differently with all of the things that are moving forward want to remind um parents and families that check with your schools talk to your school counselors on the upcoming summer programs I was able to enroll The Not So Littles my not so Littles they're middle schoolers um into some wonderful stem programs that are free of cost that our Township provides through Partnerships
058and so it's important to go ahead and look into those now just want to make sure to add that Miss Lawrence yes well uh since no one's mentioned it we have another state championship on our on our on our Shelf this year so congratulations to the the uh the W the wild cats um for uh making it through state it was a really exciting got us nervous at the end Dr Smith we got we got got us nervous at the end though Amy and I were sitting up there in the uh in the um in the suite and looking down just hold holding it out so uh want to wish our uh men's team luck this weekend as well as they compete to maybe give us two state championships in one year which would be
059pretty unpre unprecedented I don't know that that's ever happened for us before but not Township so we'll take it uh close by I also I also want to call out that our uh that our robotics kids across all of our grades will be competing in the state robotics championship this uh this weekend as well this year it's at the um at the State Fairgrounds it's usually at Lucas Oil but this year it's at the State Fairgrounds um so anybody who wants to come out and watch some robot basketball it's riveting I sit through through hours and hours of that robotics Championship um and then finally I just want to say thank you because I know um with the water main break that happened in Lawrence uh Mr Smith I'm sure you have been a very
060busy man doing things behind the scenes to keep our kids safe as well as all of the people on your team so thank you for the work that you've done couldn't do it without a team it's I mean it's great and when accidents like this happen uh it's great to see the community come together and rally I heard there were lots of water bottles taken to the um to the uh to the show choir competition this weekend in which both of our show choirs qualified for state so that's another great thing but uh none of that is possible without the work and effort of lots and lots of people so thank youa thank you Miss done so I was just sitting here and part of the reason why I needed some time to think is
061because um we did not we did do some voting today on two things that the public has probably been aware of and I think it's important to note um that those two votes that were taken on Strate the Strategic plan and the board goals um is because um that Lawrence Township will always follow the letter of the law um and I really appreciate that about this District of taking Swift action to ensure that we can stay compliant to our federal and local laws I also um believe in my heart that we will continue to do good work in this District um not um against the good work that is happening in the state um but rather with them um but there are some there is a history of excellence in this district and I am
062proud to continue to serve in this District to continue that excellence and so want anybody that is kind of curious as to the why to know that this District does stand on its history of excellence and will continue to serve um in a way that makes the community proud and I also want to Echo my fellow colleagues sentiments um that we have had a lot of growing as a new board and I think that the best has yet to come for this all female board so it's women's history said history month and how grateful are to be on an all email board yes as a and thank you um Dana for shouting us out on social media it is um women have a chance to bring each other up or or sometimes we can bring
063each other down and I believe that this board will do everything to not only bring each other up but also the students in our district up so thank you for serving alongside of me thank you Miss dun well said board um great comments I also uh second everything and I second the state championship because I didn't realize we've been uh we haven't met in almost a month for our board meeting and in that time Lawrence Township does have a new state championship in or state champ ion in the lady wild cats now I don't know Dr nzb's more of an expert on this than I am but I believe we did make history is that correct by having backto back Township Champions and also if I understand the stats correct Lawrence was only a number
064of a handful teams who um had under 20 wins when they made it to the state championship so that is gut and that is resilience and that's amazing so so um that that's great and then there's all of the other qualifiers and the performing arts for the state championships so it it's really a spectacular time because I am diving into board policy and because this is a busy legislative time I wanted to tie in how our board policy 144.5 board member ethics we actually have a mandate as board members to advocate for our district it actually States a school board member shall not may meet their responsibilities to their Community by vigorously seeking adequate financial support for the schools so thank you Dr Smith and your team for leading this charge thank you board for
065um your Collective advocacy and that's all I have at this time Dr Smith it's 144.5 if anyone wants to look at it I'm sure Dr harsh barter knows yes wakes up in the middle of night thinking about those board policies ladies and gentlemen my uh comments are going to be real short Dr nth head to the microphone I do want to remind the district this past weekend you were host over 30 choirs across the state of Indiana as we had our Coral contest you know when we have those kind of events it's a big deal but people love coming to Lawrence Township Roger Smith facilities are second to none things that the Board of Education approv not only help our kids but also other kids across State compete at a high level so our Performing
066Arts facilities are second to none and so I'm very proud to serve a district that makes that kind of commitment to our kids in the Performing Arts area and they were showcased this weekend guys even though they had the water boy water we still had water we had a lot of singing going on didn't we Roger so we want to thank Lauren Central for being the host ladies you are correct we are state champs again back toback Dr nesbeth give us an update on the semi-state and also our girls Allstar cuz we had a little bit of History being made with our girls Allstar also that's right so yeah three weeks ago I stood here on the cusp of the state championship game we did win it we are the first district to have you
067know two different schools win it back toback years um we had a number of allars two from LC uh we have an Ln um our girls basketball is very good here in Lawrence which is pretty obvious really one could argue we have the number one and two teams the last two years um the closest games that they had were each other through those two tournament series oh let's talk about boys basketball uh Lawrence North won the sectional and then over the weekend won the regional down they now and what is the Elite 8 so eight teams left in 4A on Saturday they will travel east to the world's largest and finest High School Fieldhouse Newcastle the finest is what they say but it is the world's largest High School Fieldhouse uh they will play the
06810:00 game against terot North should they win they will play again at 8:00 in the championship game and that would be against Jeffersonville or Mount Vernon you might recall Jeffersonville upset the Wildcats last year in the semi-state so they're looking for low Revenge they did beat them earlier this year so uh KnockOn would feel very good um going into Saturday um and then of course on the 29th should we capture the semi-state we'll be back down at gamebridge for an 8:30ish tip off uh in the 4A Championship we know what to do Dr nwith yep we'll be ready excellent that's all I have Madam president all right well just a couple quick reminders uh the board we will be traveling along with Dr Smith April 4th through the 6th for the National School Board Association
069um annual conference that is in Atlanta I look forward to our time together to all the meetings and learning that we will do there and then our next meeting here will be a work session on April 14th at 5:30 so at this time I will entertain a motion to turn so moved second properly moved uh M lawence and seconded Miss Pucket at this time we will adjourn thank you okay I don't know what she say 6:30 on Monday never it going Willi like it I bet he would do you like I everybody it