MSDLT Board of Education: Board Work Session 11/11/2024

001determination Mr thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board it's my pleasure tonight to begin the process of our Blue Ribbon Phase 2 projects uh following up on the heels of Blue Ribbon phase one that's just closing out tonight we begin the process with our 1028 hearing and we will talk uh briefly about the legal process and upcoming steps as well as project overview uh the scope of the projects that were um contemplating and then the financing piece as well so um at this time if Hannah clendinning would come up to the podium Hannah's going to lead it off for us uh with the legal pieces and then Roger Smith Mr Roger Smith will jump in on the project and we will then go to miss Belia gray for the financing Pieces good

002evening everyone Hannah clendenning barneson thornberg we act as bond counsil to the school corporation for this transaction um as mat said this is just kicking off the very first step of the process for this new project so it's an elementary school project we can get into more details about that here in a moment um but as far as the actual process goes legally speaking this timeline will kind of mirror what the school corporation did last year with the two preliminary determination hearings to be held towards the end of the year and then coming back in January for additional approvals for the lease with the building Corporation and things like that so tonight this is the first of the two statutorily required preliminary determination public hearings in we're not asking you to consider any resolution or

003anything like that tonight it's just a public hearing to provide more information you'll close the public hearing and then come back um I think it's later this month and hold the second of the preliminary determination public hearings at the close of that one we would then ask that the school corporation consider a resolution that sets out the basics of the financing and the proposed transactions so the maximum par amount $60 million um for 25 and 2026 um max interest rate Max term things like like that and Baker Tilly will have more information on that here in a moment but that's kind of the overview I'm going to be here if you have any other questions uh following the other two presentations but yeah happy to be here thanks M president members of the board Dr

004Smith just uh reemphasized Blue Ribbon phase two had five priorities and we are uh considering two of those priorities tonight uh one of those being the uh Elementary expansion uh which is estimated to be a cost of $30 million that would include six classrooms at Forest Glenn restrooms and playground uh CR view four classrooms restroom and playground and Mary Castle would be four classrooms and a playground the second priority was energy conservation a hbac uh roof restoration repair and upgrades uh we combined those two in an energy savings contract process and virtually we're looking at uh going back and hitting all the elementaries and elc's if uh you recall cres view we're almost 14 years since we first touched cres view so some age in uh uh HVAC control and upgrades and then of course

005continue with our roof replacement plan for the district that will cover these buildings as well hi good evening Madam president members of the board Dr Smith I'm Belia gray with Baker Tilly we serve as the school corporation Municipal adviser and this evening I'm here to present some of the financial information related to the proposed projects under consideration um one thing before I get into all of this I did want to point out that the school recently completed a transaction for its General obligation bonds I I do want to report that the school corporation maintained its outstanding issuer credit rating of a doua minus as well as the um program rating which is the ability of the school to rely on uh the state intercept program if it in some way wasn't able to make its

006payments which which that should not be the case um but you get a doublea plus for for that as well and the bonds that were issued had about a 10year repayment and the interest rate on those bonds was 3.12% so I just thought I would share some good news before I get into the information for for this project this evening uh this this slide here shows information related to a lot of the maximum parameters that the school corporation would be uh in a position to potentially approve at your next meeting on November 25th we're looking at a maximum borrowing amount not to exceed $65 million and we would look at issuing them in multiple series of bonds likely likely two different series of bonds with a repayment term not to exceed 20 years for each

007of those issuances so when I show the next slide if you count the number of bars it's more than 20 that's why and we're showing it as a Consolidated um picture just to avoid a lot of conflicting colors on the graph if you will uh the rest of the the rest of the parameters here are all maximums and I do want to point out that they are maximums because we're looking at issuance over several year time frame we want to make sure that we've provided enough flexibility to the school corporation in order to meet all of its uh Financial objectives at the time of issuance so we're assuming a maximum lease rental payment not to exceed $10 million the maximum total lease rental payments and the percentages included at the bottom of the graph relating

008to the percentage of both Debt Service and direct and overlapping debt as a percentage of net assess value are all pieces of information that are required to be provided by Statute and additional information can be provided upon request to um Mr miles the other big thing that I want to point out is that we are planning to structure all of this debt while keeping the school corporation's total debt service tax rate uh at its 2024 levels of the 55 cent range and the 55 cent includes both the school's exempt Debt Service tax rate which represents the debt that you have approved by referendum and The non-exempt Debt Service fund which is your um debt that still goes through lots of different processes but is not approved through the referendum process so the way that we'll

009structure both the the proposed series here and any uh outstanding bonds that are still approved but yet to be issued uh the other thing I want to point out is that we used can't see it on here but we used a 6% interest rate when we calculated this information today based upon a 20-year borrowing you're looking at somewhere in the 4% range so again we used conservative interest rates we also used uh a 3% assess value increase for the next few years so through 2027 and then level that off so again we wanted to reflect that there is growth within the district but didn't want it to be um overly aggressive so we felt 3% was a was a reasonable number for the next several years the next slide then shows the information all pulled

010together with the gray bars representing the school's outstanding indebtedness and then the green bar at the top represents the the total authorization of the 65 million and then again we're showing that there's that management of the overall Debt Service total debt service tax rate for the school corporation there that's all I have for the financing this evening thank you that's our presentation tonight madam president we'd be happy to answer any questions question yes Mr miles I do have a question as it relates to the funding for these projects um just so that members of the public understand um the money that is being used for the renovations and for the building of the new laccc and I know that's not what we were discussing here um that comes out of a different fund than say

011our teacher salaries or any of our other operating salaries could you please address that that that's correct those are all funded out of our debt service fund the those construction uh accounts and just for clarity can you explain the difference between the different funds that um that we pull from in order to operate the district sure the different funds that we have have changed a little over time through the state of Indiana but uh in essence we have our education fund which houses those teacher salaries that you referenced other expenses that run through the classroom then we have our operations fund which includes uh transportation bus replacement and then our uh capital projects so maintaining U the day-to-day of the of the district then on the debt side uh this this uh 1028 that we're

012talking about tonight would fall under our debt service funds uh as do um the previous projects as you mentioned and the project that Miss gray mentioned that we financed last year um so most of those anytime we borrow money we issue debt they're going to go through the debt Debt Service piece um and then the referendum that was passed many years ago is its own Standalone fund as well can you uh tell us please Mr miles how much total uh debt we currently have and what is the balance in our debt service account I'm not sure I have that number right off the top I don't know I want to put you on the spot Miss gray but is that on our on our report you're looking for the total amount sorry yes I because

013I I I don't think that I'm reading that correctly on slide number six because it looks like this is the annual Debt Service yearly as opposed to what is the overall debt that the district has currently currently has let me um let me pull that for you I have a schedule of all of the school's outstanding debt but I don't have on this particular schedule that I have with me the um the outstanding principal amounts on everything but I pull that really easily from the most recent official statement that we have from the school I think that would be very helpful because knowing these have come to us as Miss Lawrence had um shared in kind of different packages I think it would be very helpful for the public to see overall how much debt

014and um what we're looking at here so sure is that okay if I provide to Mr miles to provide to the board certainly certainly maybe we can we can address that at our next board meeting dur the public hearing as well I can absolutely have that I had a question I believe this will be for Mr Smith can you explain a little bit or give a more of an overview on how the um the upgrades will help in energy conservation and cost savings uh the main emphasis will be on HVAC controls uh here in the last several years dealing with the uh middle schools and high schools were able to put on the most uh uh recent software and upgrad for those buildings uh along with of course our lighting that we've been doing in

015all the renovations we want to Circle that back around because that type of uh management wasn't in place for us uh early on so we're going to be consistent on one uh platform and then also uh we do have some lighting that we will be upgrading uh in some of those older buildings that prior to 10 15 years years ago the different LED is uh much better today thank you Mr miles can you explain briefly how we can borrow that much money and not increase taxes to our stakeholders yes that's a great question Madam president um and I may refer back to um the slide um that has the bar chart this this um gives you a sense of how our debt is structured as you can see um even from looking at the bar

016chart over time we pay off previous debts and in doing so that gives us capacity to maintain a level uh a level tax rate and and we can adjust um the payments therefore uh to allow us to do so uh basic basically because we can pay off old debt we can replace it with new and as our assessed value in our Community increases is there a slight possibility that our tax rate will actually go down there there is that possibility okay okay any other questions board are there any questions from members of the public about the this hearing if there are no questions I will go ahead and close out the 1028 preliminary hearing thank you very much everyone we will open our uh work session G that in Blue Ribbon facilities update Mr Smith

017thank you Madame President members of board Dr Smith uh we continue continue on Belzer Middle School serving lines we're nearing completion of that and uh being ready to turn that back over to the buildings new hallway that's part of the serving line as well as that new wall on the outside that faces South into the courtyard tennis courts continue on fencing going up and we're hoping the next two weeks we can get the top coat to the blue and the red surface on there uh to finish up the tennis courts uh the orchestra room is demoed and is starting to go back uh into place with the the new walls and prac practice rooms wall creek Valley hallway a lot of hallway work going on right now uh flooring going down and wall cover new

018Auditorium floor is finished uh they're finishing up the stage working on Sound and Lighting and then the last will be the seating going in front entrance continues on and hopefully in the next uh three weeks we'll have some metal facade on that as well uh bleachers are in soccer and we're near completion of that portion of the project with just a little bit of site work left to do uh baseball and softball continue on they're doing uh grading for uh soils in Grass seating to take place and then their tennis courts are going back in with the sidewalks and fence fencing the new la cc is coming along well uh roof is they're concentrating on getting the roof dried in and then also moving to the outside walls to get it dried in so that

019we can move through the winter months uh this week and next week they will start grading the overall uh site work uh for the new asphalt and sidewalks and Kirby are there questions questions from the board thank you very much Mr Smith we appreciate that we'll move on to um enrollment and demographic update Mr kusik and Dr hos Dr hos Brown sorry evening president M Dr of the board we come to you tonight with our yearly update of demographic and enrollment information for you as you might recall from last year we always do this update after our fall ADM dat in and certified and so we will begin this evening with enrollment as you can see on the first slide we continue our trend of increased enrollment since the pandemic and this year our enrollment

020number is 16,74 I'll do the math quickly for you that's up 245 students our next slide we have for you um broken down in our elc's and elementaries and you can see the enrollment at each building by cohort so starting with prek and K you can also see it our elementaries that have a prek and or so that you can see at the bottom the total cohort number but to the far right the total enrollment per School building and moving on we have our secondary schools both middle schools and both high schools it's the same setup where you can see by cohort at the bottom and then if you go to the far right you can see the total at each building the next two slides we bring to you each year so you can

021see fiveyear Trends and so you can see on the left hand side we have each grade level labeled and then on the far right hand side you can see a fiveyear change of that particular cohort so for example let's looking at the orange you can see that fiveyear trend of the junior class all the way back to their seventh grade year the next slide continues with the younger grades of course we won't W have a prek through second as they've not been with us for five years yet and we'll move on to some demographic data and here we look at um the demographic data from 2012 2013 um all the way to this school year um by ethnicity and this um slide also has our free and reduced percentages in numbers so you can see

022the trends from 12 through this year um or changes Trends and changes next slide and we break this uh information down further for this particular school year you can see at the top we have our four elc's and each other building listed separately both by ethnicity free and reduced our English language Learners and our students who are exceptional Learners at the bottom we have the total for the entire District you might wonder about a particular school you're connected with or know or had a child at and so here we have each School building's five-year Trend our four Early Learning Centers are together you can see the trends of enrollment both by ethnicity free and reduced English language Learners and our exceptional Learners so we begin with the Early Learning Centers Amy beverland and Brook Park

023Crest View Forest Glenn and Harrison Hill Indian Creek and I'll stop there and just point out that both Harrison Hill and Indian Creek which did have the addition of immersion program solid growth as did Mary castle and oaklandon so we continue that trend of when we have immersion added we have families who want that programming the next slide we continue with Sky's test Sunnyside and winding brige as we shift to the secondary level you look at our middle schools there we see pretty consistent F flow enrollment for the last five years a little bit concern are and Lawrence North both are up over the last five years lawren Central is up couple hundred as expected and Lawrence North is up a little bit over the last five years staying pretty study consistently each year for

024the last part of our presentation we will shift the trans transfers in and out of our district so the in and out of our district first chart looks at the other Maring County countship Schools so as an example these charts Beach grow we had nine students that transferred into us from Beach Grove over the last year and nine students that transferred out to Beach Grove over the last year so for that example there's a difference of zero but as you go through the chart you'll see a negative red difference um if that net amount is a loss of students or you'll see a positive green number if that net amount is a gain students overall looking at all the townships across Mary County we had a gain of 216 students next group of schools that

025we look at are nearby districts or what is often also referred to as the donut around Marian County another example here I'll share with you Anderson for example we had 11 students that transferred into our district Anderson and we lost 29 students to Anderson would be a difference of8 overall across all these school districts we saw a loss of 192 students which is down a little bit we had a loss of 207 Li next group of schools we'll look at our Charter Schools an example the first line there we highed different charter schools and have a significant number of either ins or outs all the rest are grouped together at the end there under other for example the first line AJ Brown Academy we have 54 students transfer in one student transfer out so positive

026gain there of 53 students from that Charter School overall across all the charter schools we saw a gain of 161 students next looking at our private schools we've highlighted certain ones that have a significant number of either in or out and the rest are grouped together there at the end under other and overall we saw a loss of 29 students to private schools this next chart we've been monitoring since Co the need in our community where if there's a need in our community for virtual school over the last year we've we've gained 49 students that have transferred to us from a virtual school and we lost 101 students to a virtual school so that net gain or sorry excuse me that lost there is 52 students that's up a little bit from last year we

027continue to monitor that very closely from year to year we see that in our commun last ins and outs chart that we have for you is other states in other countries look at the First Column there the first chart there on the left we have a loss of five students to other states that is significantly down from 171 last year for other countries we have a net gain of 8 which is up from 184 last year before we change to the next slide I just want to point out one thing with ins and out to make sure if you're trying to do the math as you go through it you have a lot to transfer in or out multiple times and therefore are counted multiple times in this data so this data do not always

028line up 100% with the enrolling data because of that that's important to note this next slide we share with you every year and this is all of our current nonresident students so this isn't just over the last year this is as of October 1st students attend Lawrence Township but live somewhere else we have 222 students that's actually down about 100 from last year October 1st so again you look at that within the state if we for example we have seven students that 10 Lawrence Township that live in Anders as you look at the chart you may think some districts are further than others some of the farther ones for most part are uh employees children drive to to the school with their parents each we thrown a lot of data at you this evening as

029we want to summarize just a couple conclusion points for you overall we've seen increase in enrollment over the last decade plus want to highlight that increase in enrollment of students from other countries going from 184 up to 58 as a net gain and down 1% from last year we have a 9% reduced difference between the high school and middle school pass that we have year across District happy to answer any questions you may so so as you were sharing this data a couple of things um just popped in my mind and thank you so much for this comprehensive report it's quite fascinating to see how our district has changed over time but one question that I have um is pertaining to free and reduced lunch uh when we look at slide eight um it looks

030like that has remained fairly consistent although uh we know that we've seen an increase in students as you pointed out on the last second to last slide of families who are coming from other countries um it's my understanding that we directly certify free and reduced lunch so is it fair to say that that data could be skewed by the fact that some of our families who do not uh have the proper documentation to be in the direct sech are not counted in that number yes do we have a uh kind of an approximation or an estimate of how many students are not in that number because I think it's very important especially as we're thinking about our state legislators use this number um for the poverty index and how um if we have any idea

031of how many are are missing from that number I don't think so I think that's a tough question to answer because if they're not reporting they're Notting to us either in terms of so it's fair to say though that that number is probably off significantly okay thank you um the other question is it is so interesting to see the ins and outs of the district one question that I do have um I know Miss Pucket asked a question about um the number of students attending Charter Schools as a whole in our district do we have um knowing that it's kind of an anomaly that we're seeing a lot of positive transitions from other school districts but our parochial and private schools were seeing a loss do we have an estimate of how many total students

032in the district um that could choose Laurence Township are choosing private and parochial schools over Public Schools so that number has not been released by the state yet this year um that would be Bas ADM from October 1st we do has we do have that as of last ADM typically the state I just check today to make sure it wasn't there so I didn't say wrong um speak wrong but um last year it's typically post on the D in December December we'll monitor that closely and provide that when when it's released um if you want I can share last year's number so as of October from 2023 uh we had 1,616 students uh that lived within laurren Township but instead attended either a different traditional public school or a public charter school but does that

033does that does not account for the parochial schools then also sorry we had 151 students um that attended a non-public school okay thank you and do we know um home school numbers is that reported to the state okay so the non-public school would be the home school okay thank you so very much I appreciate that I had a question on slide two on the pupil enrollment for our Township so on 20 the year 20 and 21 we know that was the big Co year enrollment was way down and then it jumped back up to the the trend was that the same Trend that we saw across similar townships due to covid where a lot of schools their enrollment dipped way down during that one year yes I think that's fair to say that's very fair

034to say we have a lot of students across the state across the country probably across the world that just kind of disappear for that year and they all show back up and I don't have spec I mean I know we probably don't have specific data on it but could some of that be students who chose an online school and also I had even heard of other families who just kept their child out of school for a year absolutely okay thank you so I would ask I think we go to slide three and I see that there is a dip in the number of our students in in the sixth grade can we address that a little bit there's an overall dip in the number of our students in the sixth grade this reporting be helpful

035to look at the the fiveyear trend of that that group and so if we can go toward the slide with yes there we go so you can see that the um sixth grade cohort if you go back is actually up 94 students so that cohort and smaller but has grown that would explain that yeah I app that fiveyear trend is helpful to watch you sure I appreciate classes grow um our prek we have low enrollment in prek compared to our kindergarten yes part of that is based on space and obviously preschool has a cost as well and so we work to make that minimal for our families but that also prohibits some from starting with us what help do we have available to families who can't afford it but maybe are um you're I'm going

036to present on that in just a little bit but I'll go ahead and and share a teaser uh we do actually first always ask all families to apply for ccdf and on my way prek and then if we have families who are denied on my way pre or ccdf they can submit a pay stub and the number in their family and we follow federal poverty guidelines to give either a 50 or 25% tuition reduction thank you I have a question what type of support is given to apply for ccdf and on my way prek because I know that's generating a lot of dollars for some of our outside neighbors to in increase the number of prek students so what type of support do we offer all site leaders and treasurers of the elc's work with

037families to help them get through the process and then we actually have direct links with contacts there who will email us directly if there's something they're missing to ask us to work with the family as well so do but if a family is not aware so for example they don't know that this exists that they have this opportunity to apply are we doing any Outreach to the district to ensure that families who are interested in prek understand the threshold for um their income to be able to uh potentially get this benefit we have it communicated just at the beginning of the year the principes will send out information we have it there for enrollment so that families can see when they're enrolling when they're enrolling that they have those options for support as well thank

038you for asking my followup questions Miss D um um I did out for the districts um and this would be to both of you um can this be due to moving out of the district as opposed to just students needing the district this is largely parents moving okay I think that's all my questions and I thank the board for asking great questions anything else nope okay well then we will move on to curriculum uh update Mr notor um curriculum advisory recommendations thank you Madame President Dr Smith and members of the board each semester the curriculum advisory Council meets to bring forward High School course recommendations for the following school year our director of secondary education Mr Hara facilitates that Council and will present their recommendations for this semester good evening Madame President Dr Smith and

039members of the board as you can see just a little bit of background on our uh curriculum advisory Council um each semester we meet um in order to give the high schools an opportunity to recommend either new course offerings or potential um weight changes to existing courses um those are all reviewed requests are brought to the curriculum advisory Council and then um you can see there that curriculum advisory council is made up of District administrators building level administrators school counselors and teacher Representatives uh we ensure that we uh run our list of recommendations through the state approved list that Indiana provides annually obviously we give strong consideration to any of our pathway courses as we continue to um increase our offerings for students and then um just as a a note uh anything that would

040be approved from these recommendations could be offered as soon as the fall of next year so there is one core course that we are um looking to add to our offerings and that is an ACP Advanced College project through Indiana University Physics 221 uh and our um teachers continue to look to grow our offerings for the Indiana college Corps and this course meets um one of those requirements so uh we wanted to bring that forth in our electives we have two offerings that have come forth from the committee one is Heritage French um as you may or may not know we do have Spanish uh Heritage Spanish offered in the district and with our increasing um population of frenchspeaking students uh our high schools want to offer a Heritage French course um the second one

041is Computing foundations for a digital age uh the state legislation is now um going to be requiring a computer science offering beginning with our current eth graders the cohort of 2029 and this course is one that meets the requirements for graduation so we want to make sure we get this course approved and begin offering it um this uh as a note can be offered to students as early as 8th grade moving on the rest of the slides are additions to our existing Pathways you'll notice on these slides the course that is listed in black Print have already been approved by the board and the ones in blue are um the next set so as uh just as a reminder all of the pathways include a principal course followed by a concentrator a con conator B

042and then ending with a Capstone so in this example exercise science principles of exercise science has already been approved and is currently being offered in our district and next fall we will have students ready for concentrator a and then each year after um the next uh course so on the next slide you'll see we have the same um setup for human and Social Services we are ready uh next year for students to take the Human Services Capstone interior design we are proposing two courses the con conator B and the Capstone fashion and textiles Advanced textiles which is the concentrator B and the Capstone and those are all the recommendations I'd be happy to entertain any questions my question is that we have um these principles um of of our Pathways in intact and and going

043for U for instance interior design path way um our students have been able to looks like they've been able to take concentrator a so now they'll move on to concentrator B and we're also talking about the Capstone do we have students that will be able to take that Capstone this year so uh typically what happens now we do have a couple that we're um looking into just for scheduling purposes running some of these courses concurrently but right now this in most of our Pathways this represents a four-year Journey so that would be principles um followed by the concentrator each each one of those courses per year um but we do have a couple of our Pathways where students can enter in as a sophomore or even as a junior um and take those courses so

044in this case we would have students ready for the concentrator B in the fall and then the Capstone the following year so you're asking us to increase these course numbers Year bye not necessarily all of them this year that's correct what we've done in the past um especially because a lot of the things were still changing with Perkins and moving over to um Pathways as we were just bringing courses one at a time um when we knew what the next course would be and the only only the course that we were going to be offering next fall in this example we would be offering this concentrator B next fall the Capstone would be approved because we know now um that we are we have students in that pathway it is sustained we've got students in

045concentrator B and we'll be ready ready for it the following year thank you Mr Hera y other questions for I do could you please um elaborate I was able to sit in the language review I want to say back in April and I learned some pretty great things and um could you please just kind of elaborate on what is the difference between a Heritage French a Heritage Spanish versus just your regular Spanish course what is the difference there I thought that was pretty sure so the the Heritage courses are designed for our native speakers um it is an elective course it is really focused on um celebrating cultural heritage um um and and of course there is language Focus but it's very different than an English native speaker who would take the Spanish elective to

046learn how to speak Spanish it truly is designed for our heritage uh our our native speakers to take a Heritage course thank you that was a piece that I really enjoy was the fact that the Heritage was celebrated in it so thank you y so what I understand that for a Heritage language um the students are already very Adept at their native language and this is just to increase their skills it's for uh cultural purposes but also to increase their skills in terms of formal language absolutely yep I just applaud the district on um including a Heritage Spanish it's wonderful to see how responsive we are to the needs of the community so thank you very much just a couple of clarifying questions um could you remind the public it's wonderful that we're offering Advanced

047science for college credit for ACP physics um is there a cost Associated for dual credits for students through IU there are not they wave our uh registration fees that's what I knew and I just want to again congratulate the district because there's going to be a lot of students that are going to our various local universities set very very well so abolutely um Kudos I think the other question that um in terms of the pathways it's exciting to see the pathways expand um it also knowing that there could potentially be some seismic changes to our graduation criteria um that we should know about here soon um are these Pathways that we believe are um in talking with our Community Partners are high demand High wage um positions uh I'm generally speaking I'm going to say

048yes um that was one of the criteria as we began the process years ago of offering these different Pathways was that we were offering Pathways that were in in fact um High wage and high demand of course as years go by those can change um and so it is an important part of our process that we regularly um inspect and you know right now we have conversations about making sure we are um encouraging our students to consider those Pathways that are in high demand awesome and would it be possible superintendent Smith or um just to get an idea of how many students are enrolled in each pathway just to see um how many students are choosing for example exercise science pathway I think that would be something really interesting for us to to see but

049thank you this is super exciting we do have that data and I'll be happy to get for you thank you and thank you for the work of the committee very well done thank you thank you we will move on to m plant early childhood education update thank you president must Dr Smith members of the board tonight I bring you an early childhood update with where we are uh just as a quick reminder we have many many different scheduling offerings that we offer for our families we have our school day preschool um which is really just mimics the school day of our elementary students for families who want to keep all of their students on the same schedule last year we started year round preschool so that our students can attend all year round rather than

050having to look for other options for break care and that's been very popular we have AM and PM extended preschool which allows parents to have the option to extend either on the morning or the afternoon and then we also have then the traditional offering of just 6:30 to 6 and that's our extended we want to make sure that we give our families as much offerings as possible so that they can make the choice that's best for their budget and their schedule um as we look at our pay rate adjustments we always take a look at this because we want to make sure that we have the best paid preschool staff that we can so that we can attract the best quality uh Early Childhood workers and so you can see the raises that our staff

051has had over the past four years that's important as we think about when we want to raise our preschool rates the other thing that we do whenever we look to raise preschool rates is to do a market analysis and so you will see on the next slide that we um have gathered the information from our local child care that are next to us to make sure that we still are offering the most affordable option for our families as well so that's what our um competitors are doing and if you look at the next slide what we are proposing to do you can see our current rates um under the 2425 we are proposing to ex um increase our rates by $20 at the school day rate and then that affects all of the other choices

052that parents make have but if you look at our full extended 2526 at $265 a week that's still well under the options of our competitors and so we're proud to be still the best option for our families we know that if we are going to have our families and want to uh convince them to come to us we also have to have the best um opportunities for them around and so we have a guaranteed and viable curriculum to make sure that the families can assure that they're getting a return on their investment as well and so this is just a listing of those different curriculum program that we use for our students and I had to end with just a quick note um about our growing Early Childhood pathway at the high school level it

053has been a delight to start to build our own Early Childhood Educators um this year we are one of only five districts that are a registered Apprentice program and this is a picture of our 27 Apprentice students with representative Hamilton um at their signing event at the state house that was a great day I'd be happy to take any questions yes yes thank you for this um as you know we had two of our three children go through Mary Castle ELC so it's U this program holds a very soft place in my heart um question related to before and after care I know in the past we had offered free before and after care through a grant that we had yeah um and I did not see any of that reference so is it my

054am my understanding correctly that that Grant is no longer correct correct yeah um we had that for the elementary schools with the 21st century skills program but that yeah we haven't had that it's expired have we explored other options to help our families who um yeah go ahead you're Shing your head yes yes absolutely like I said ccdf and on my way precare always the first step and I will say that we have found that 90% of the families who ask for assistance we do help them end up qualifying for ccdf and on my way prek um that system has gotten easier to navigate and to support families and then those that don't can always request us to look at tuition reduction which we do as well great and then the final question I have

055is related to staff salaries can you explain why uh we have a different salary schedule for our elc's than we do for our class class ified staff that yes well the preschool the preschool instructors and preschool assistants they are classified employees but they do have other requirements because they are teaching the students and then with licensing and pass to Quality they have education requirements that they need to have in order for us to keep those accreditations and so we maintain a higher salary scale for them I had two questions on Slide Five um just for clarification I noticed at the bottom there's the material and Supply fee yes thank you um the state legislator had recently offered to pay for the curriculum materials fee just for clarification that's kindergarten through 12 so not preschool correct

056that is K12 it's not for preschool and with our licensing requirements there are things that we required just for example cots and then we get all of our students helmets and the tricycles and so there are things that we buy to make sure that the programming is high quality okay so the kindergarten families at the ELC they would fall under the correct they do not have this this is only for preschool okay and then the second uh comment I had um we had touched on it earlier was um my my youngest child has special needs and a lot of people didn't realize that the state covers the tuition for children with disabilities and at the time the cost at the time was over $500 a month of free tuition and that is so impactful to

057families and why you I like to share this story with our legislators to help get them over the line get the extra supports that they need it it's just an amazing amount so I just for any families out there that weren't aware if you're in First Steps right now th this was a game changer so absolutely thank you and thank thank you to the state absolutely can you explain to us what are the benefits to our families of ccdf and on my way prek absolutely so ccdf and on mayway prek um allow families to have the entire amount of their tuition on mayway prek for preschool ccdf or before and after care and then it also helps to cover any additional fees and so for families who have on my way pre it covers the

058material and Supply fee the registration fee and all of those things for them so if they apply for one and are granted that they usually um are eligible for you yeah they they are continuing to work on the system it's it's had lots of changes over the past 10 years but now what they're really doing is sometimes a family will have ccdf for siblings and so I've noticed that a preschool child will automatically get ccdf to start the school year and then they will adjust and move them over to on my way prek they're really doing a great job at the state um to maximize the dollars in every way that they can great thank you so much yes so just a few followup questions first I Echo the sentiments of Miss Lawrence and Miss

059Norman we also benefited greatly from The Early Learning Center at Amy beverland and I absolutely love the fact that we are one of five school districts in the state of Indiana to have The Apprentice program one of the reasons why my daughter is so excited to be um hopefully a bear um moving forward uh and so just so grateful for those opportunities uh just a few questions would it be kind of a followup to miss Norman would it be appropriate to assume that when we look at the demographic data that was shared earlier on slide 10 that 57% of um I'm sorry 38% currently of our ELC students um qualify for free and reduced lunch would it be appropriate to assume that those 38% are also also qualifying for ccdf and um getting on my

060way prek we actually um we're actually at about 48% of our preschool students that have some type of assistance from either ccdf or on my way prek awesome and then what percentage of students are developmental prek that's a really good question I'd have to get the exact answer for you that would be interesting to to hear because from this Norman's I just wonder how many families are aware that that is um an option and then could you share if we have a weit list at all at any of our elc's we we always do have a little bit of a weit list the filling classrooms for the preschool is is a different process from just K12 um first of course it's about classroom space and all of our classrooms have to be licensed and um

061we have to make sure that they meet the requirements for past equality um we do have some space at ELC Brook Park our weight lists are generally at ELC am beverland and ELC Mary castle and then the other thing that we're required to do um as Miss Norman stated for any of those families on first steps as soon as their children turn three we give them an assessment to determine and welcome them into our Early Learning Centers and so we have to start the year by having enough space to be able to take all of those students throughout the year as well so our preschool number will grow all throughout the year wonderful thank you and do we have a breakdown of what state funds are um District receives for preschool from either on my

062way prek from special education or any other funds that we receive yes I could get that for you absolutely just the total cost and then how much the district is paying um through the um parent pay yeah absolutely thank you very much a quick follow up on that question um is it fair to assume that we um that we net a profit from the ELC or is that not a fair assumption it's we have to operate in the black and so as you can see that's why we're only raising our rates by $2 we work to make sure that what we are bringing in can cover staff costs and then pay for all of the extras for licensing and then be able to push back to families any reductions that we can for tuition well

063there are no more questions thank you very much Mr we appreciate that very much um we will move on now to the Craig Academy update uh Mr kusik and Dr president M Dr Smith members of the board we're excited to bring to you tonight A Craig Academy update H tonight we'll be sharing information with you some of which you've seen before but at the end we will be seeking approval for programmatic additions to the building as well as a name change go back to the thank you Cent in our building we do have students here not right now but tomorrow morning we will and we already host our diagnostic day treatment which is a program through our exceptional Learners our Lawrence Advance academy and our Lawrence educational alternative program for elementary um the programmatic additions

064that we'll be sharing tonight are a Home Access Center adult education and credit under the current plan and with the construction and moving to the laccc there are Community Partners who are here now and will remain even after we move out to make room for more students and that is the sharing Place communities and schools the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and our foundation will continue to use portions of our building for storage so um we mentioned uh three areas the home access the adult education but I'd like to start with Craig Academy and this plan will reintroduce Craig to the township as a school it's very important reestablishing this building as a school will not only offer options to our families and Alternatives but also it will protect our building asset so the first of

065three additions that we bring to you this evening is for home a Home Access Center programming for a home access center will provide face to-face instruction to support students who are currently placed on home access as a reminder home access is used as an alternative to expulsion most cases for our students that are placed on home access programming would be available Monday through Thursday from 4: to 6m with different days reserved for different grade levels so for example Middle School might attend on Monday and Wednesday High School attending on Tuesday we anticipate a need for four classrooms and since this will be after school those classrooms could be shared with our current LA classroom addition number two is for adult education as you may know l no adult education opportunities within our community program we

066would explore would be potentially to offer adult education programming in the evening the funding is different than it is for K2 as we're used to for K2 therefore we would explore possible grant funding and or Partnerships uh to possibly fund and or facilitate the program we've deated a need of four to six classrooms for education and the Third programmatic Edition is a new School within the township serving approximately 100 students in grades five and 100 students in grad six with the goal of adding um over the course of the next two years after the opening of the school another 200 students for a total of 400 in grades 5 through eight on this slide you can see the projected Craig prep timeline believe it or not it covers over 10 years so we first started

067this conversation with a CommunityWide task task force back in 2018 brought the first presentation to the board in 2019 you can see we took uh the pandemic years off um and and placed this um on the back burner for those years and now are are bringing it back forward again a renovation will occur from June of 25 to July of 27 marketing of to families will begin in the fall of 2026 you can see Staffing in the spring of 2027 opening day and this would be for fifth and sixth grade students would be in August of 2027 and then subsequently adding seventh and 8th grade in the subsequent years so the question is why Craig prep uh and this really going back to that 201819 task force and the input from the community was to

068fulfill a need within the community for a school that provides a smaller environment so this really is about a small environment as AAR as compared to our large schools and particularly their large middle schools with an emphasis on African-American culture so how would Craig prep be different than what we currently offer in the district um the first thing is it would be enrollment by choice so 100% of the students that would be attending Craig prep would be enrolled by choice that small school environment no more than 100 students in a grade level uh would be very appealing to some families um primary emphasis on the Pence's contribution pride of African-American culture with self-directed evidence of student learning that could be project-based learning performance-based learning um and student performance would be a Cornerstone of Craig prep

069with that focus on a culture of leadership development so really development for the whole child for every single student The Core Curriculum would be one of integration um focused around the humanities Steam including the Art and Design Within Steam and then elective offerings as well students also would uh have extracurricular availability including Athletics academic competition teams just like in our other schools robotics uh Service Learning philanthropy as well as Student Government the process of selecting students is a one we already have that we use for our early immersion enrollment and then C process so the Craig C would use a very similar process where families complete applications within a window and accepted um as long as we have space and after that a weit list if we would have more applications than spots then it

070would be randomize who would get in a spot Staffing the Craig prep in year 1 in 2027 we are looking to have 200 students combined from grade grades five and six with four Humanities teachers and four steam teachers also looking um shared with the Lawrence Advance Academy a music teacher a PE Wellness teacher special ed and an enl two administrators one nurse and a cafeteria staff in year two we would add seventh grade so that's another 100 students making Craig prep at 300 students continuing um to add Ela math science and social studies that would be four additional teachers um once again those related arts classes and electives would be shared with laa um but in seventh grade we would have the addition of a counselor in year three looking my goodness at 2029 we

071would be adding grades eight and that would be taking our students to 400 students adding for ELA math science and social studies teach teachers um sharing with the laa the the previous teachers mentioned with music PE Wellness special ed enl two administrators a counselor a nurse and a cafeteria staff would compose the Staffing for Craig prep taking all that information above working with uh each program we establish the building usage so therefore Craig uh prep uh would need 34 classrooms in shared space diagnostic would be four classrooms in space laa seven classrooms and some office space leap four classrooms uh Adult Ed uh three classrooms that also could uh be utilized by laa rooms as well seared space uh of course we have two and a half gyms in this uh building uh running track

072tenis on the outside all the inside Space downstairs of course the cafeteria would be shared uh in the kitchen by the entire school and all the programs so looking at the facility itself laid out this is the first floor so uh where the current Administration is uh you'll see laa doed leap uh day treatment and uh some other support areas for not only their programs but also the 58 the center of the building would remain a community based section of the building uh that again could be utilized uh by the entire school but the professional development room the boardroom and then uh Community or communities and schools as well as the Chamber of Commerce uh would be in that community area along with our sharing place on the lower level you would see next slide

073NOP go back I'm sorry this second floor I'm going up and I went down too quick uh would be the 58 uh Craig Prep Academy and you'll see there the five six seven and eight and then the all the curricular space and needed for uh that program going downstairs all the way down that's the kitchen the gym area the cafeteria uh would then be shared by the entire uh facility Safety and Security is a big emphasis to help separate uh the different age groups throughout the building as well as from the public to our students and vice versa as a board you have already approved the construction plans for renovation of the building what we're bringing you this evening for information and follow approval following recomendation seeking approval ofal of a name build from information

074this evening and our team is happy to answer any questions thank you so much I can say I know that we've been working on this for a long time and it's lovely to see it come to fruition I think what the board um definitely needs to know is what would be the additional HR costs you know for Staffing I will I know I understand we'll be sharing um some leadership um with the Lawrence Academy so and and knowing that these are students that we already have in lawence Township what additional costs do you see in HR for um the years kind of kind of go through years one through three you know I would have to bring back that more specific information from you because as we look at parent selection and parent choice of

075students to come here it would all depend on the the number of students and then teachers selections that we may have teachers that are interested in coming here that are already current teachers versus hiring teachers so we'll have to see how all that would pan out um I don't actually have that cost for you but I could be begin to think about that and work on what that projected could be I I appreciate that and I I it's fine with me if we make the assumption that there are a 100 each year because that's easy to divide by how many actually choose it the process would not be unlike what we now in the spring there's more fluctuation in elementary Productions that I bring to Dr Smith each year after we have um selected students

076for high ability and after students have applied for immersion after students have made cap requests and so that can significantly swing particularly in our first grade enrollment and they can change the number of FTE per school so I make those recommendations at Productions in the spring and we monitor throughout the summer so not unlike that and that where students go that's where FTE so you don't really anticipate a huge difference in the HR costs not at this point that is correct Madam president and then the board that any additional staff would require your approval and that recommendation would come directly from me this would be over a twoyear phase anticipating the start we would look at shifting staff that would be the goal but it really depends on where the kids are going to come

077from so we would take it year to year the beautiful thing about this program you're phasing it very similar to what we did over time with Lawrence Advance Academy we started out very small and then we've added pieces over the years to get to where we are today with that program which we'll be celebrating tomorrow night 10 Years celebration and I I do know that with the Lawrence Advance Academy several teachers volunteered and have been there for all 10 years the premise behind that that teachers would opt in we wouldn't shift staff we would give teachers the opportunity to apply and and if they so choose we could shift them we would just have to shift staff around and we've done that that's what we did with Lawrence Advance Academy the public wants to know

078I uh I do have some questions first of all I um appreciate the comprehensive information and appreciate the time that previous boards put into this I think as I think about 2018 compared to 2024 there have been significant amount of changes within our communities um one in which is a huge huge huge um shift and that is s sp1 when I think about how we are in service of improving student outcome comes my fear is that we are not looking at the overall what is the goal of the district in terms of improving student outcomes what is the cost and how we're getting there but we're working on an input of creating a new school without truly understanding how that is going to impact our district for example when we look at the demographic data

079that was shared earlier this evening we know that Winding Ridge oaklandon and Brook Park are three of our schools in the Elementary space that um would have the largest population of African-American students I'm curious as to what that will do to those schools I'm also curious as to when we think about third grade retention our third graders and potentially third graders that did not pass are going to need some very very significant supports my concern is not knowing the full amount that this is going to cost the district knowing that we have other priorities how are we making sure that we're fulfilling the promises to all of our students I love the idea I think small classes are great I personally have chosen that for my own child however I do not see that creating

080a small environment where it looks like six staff six classrooms for a 100 students and that's a class size of less than 20 students is good for one and not good for all especially when we have an early literacy crisis on our hands and because it will not reduce what I have heard from our community the majority of um the majority of concerns are at the middle school level and we're talking about 50 students per Middle School per grade level so you're talking about 100 students um total that would potentially be um so all that to say I I really would like to have a comprehensive understanding of the budget impacts and other competing priorities and how we plan on doing both before we make a financial decision of this magnitude where we're asking our

081stakeholders and our community to invest more money in a building without knowing the outcomes to go along with that I had a question about there's a different programming option to this Academy but will it also help to serve to um alleviates the enroll the growing enrollment that we have in our middle schools to us to a degree and also that we have fifth and sixth grade in our elementaries that will be another option to help a little bit is is that also another purpose of the academy as well it certainly is a help as we grow we've seen the most growth in our element and then um I wanted to make sure I was looking at it correctly so once we get to full capacity in 29 uh we'll have around 400 Craig Academy students

082plus around a 100 in the laa and plus would that be around another hundred in the LEAP program roughly I think I don't [Music] know would not that okay over the of the Year could okay I between and 800 Okay Plus in addition we still have all the remaining programs like the sharing Place holding space and everything so because I I believe Mr notter you you can answer we talked about this back in the summer because you have direct knowledge as the prin former principal it at the Heyday it was around a thousand students 12 okay so we have the good bones for it absolutely okay thank you Roger Smith we're going to renovate the building no matter what very valuable asset that you have board that should we grow even more and have to

083shift we have a place that we can play students so we are blessed to have this facility we need to make sure that we have students in it long term okay um two quick questions um I see that we have steam there which is awesome do we have an idea of the funding from the stem lens I know that that would open up funding just because of it being stemmed we have an idea as we are thinking about money what that would look like that does kind of open up a little bit more yeah and we fund much of our stem education through grants right now right both title 4 as well as state grants and the other question that I had um would be the Cadence overall it says that it's africanamerican um have

084we not considered like African diaspora only and I ask that because that opens it up more what I'm thinking of be honest like marketing that opens that experience up more so which lens or which route are we looking at for this African-American culture or more really both africentric so um an example would be integrated Core Curriculum um around ancient Egypt and the Great Pyramids of ancient Egypt and studying geometry and Science and the humanities would be an example of an Afrocentric approach okay thank you um go ahead sorry go ahead missence but oh sorry it's okay um is the intention to keep the class sizes small are we keeping them consistently small even as we grow so if you go back and look at the Staffing so if you're thinking about four Humanities teachers um

085you would look at a class size of about 25 which is actually 25 Elementary aage is um and will they have the same curriculum the Marzano curriculum that our other teachers are subject to this fly you guys it's hit all of us on like all of us so from a curricular point of view our curriculum are our state standards and so we would have definitely be following state standards and then have curricular resources to implement those standards Troy is a point of clarification Marzano clarify that for marzo is an instructional framework so instructional practices okay and and how will students be selected for admittance to the academy so it's an application process just like the immersion application process and or cap so we use both of those processes right now very successfully I have two

086follow-up questions I think the the one question is knowing that we do have such a large uh African-American population primarily at the schools that I mentioned earlier even I guess my wondering is why are we not offering a similar type of curriculum as Miss Pucket um referenced in those schools now is that something that we could do regardless of the direction that we are going as well as to all of our schools and ensuring that we have a very broad Multicultural educational background that certainly is something that we could take a look at this would be different and that families would be choosing it and they would know exactly what they would be choosing is it face is it safe to say though that we do have Multicultural curriculum currently in our district at our

087other schools we we have curriculum that is relevant to our students in all of our schools and our teachers make every effort to uh make connections with students based on their Heritage their background the assets that they bring to school and that would be true for all of our students um all the diversity we have in the district okay thank you and then there was another question that I um on as we were talking about the building and the space could you clarify please um when we talk about protecting our building access um with the capacity it sounds like even if we were at if the building's capacity is 1,200 and we're talking about 600 students that we still could potentially be at risk because it's my understanding that we would have to be at

08860% capacity the to be at 800 and so is the is the building if is protecting the building access based on the capacity because of state law absolutely it is because of state law absolutely okay absolutely thank you for that clarification and just to clarify also I know we were talking about the HR portion of it so we don't yet know who will oversee or who be like the principal or the are are we not certain yet on where we we have an idea we have a wonderful principal that's in this building that we're going to ask for her to expand out her roles and responsibility and we'll look at some additional support but we already have uh a leader that's in this building and she roughly has about 150 students we would expand upon

089that and put some additional um support in place but I want to emphasize to the board the Staffing pieces to this will come back later as we're seeking seeking to phase the program over time and that will require us to come back to the board on multiple occasions to talk about how we're going to be able to fund this or shift staff in order to make this work because if we move students over time from their traditional buildings that's going to free up some space so we'll talk about that over time okay okay as we look at administrators I think we have defined administrators in m multiple ways here um as we've gone through the salary um the salary conversation when we say two administrators is that to a principal and maybe an assistant principal

090are we thinking administrators in some other capacity I I think that's safe to say Miss Lawrence administrators are very much defined as those individuals that are in a supervisory role okay some capacity being an assistant principal principal we have other terms that we use matter of fact our leader at McKenzie who one would think he's a principal we call him a director so just somebody's just going to supervise the teachers and staff that we have inside of this building would be a school administrator which are very important to our organization very important okay um I have a few questions um we've had these questions before um I will tell you my feeling feelings about this Academy I see it as an extension of the cultural care we are giving our students for instance to offer

091immersion Spanish Immersion um to offer um Heritage language that this is the same kind of program and um certainly as um our children went through Forest Glen when there was a narrow pathway pathway up to Lawrence North um there was such demand for the program that it expanded greatly in these um 12 years I've served on the board so if there becomes a an increased demand for this program are we ready to increase our offerings throughout the district if need be as we uh seeing demand and requests from families we've met that need with access access is very important it's not okay thank you be monitored under the application thank you very much um in addition um we know that our our our our unique cultures are very intertwined with music and I see music

092as an extracurricular will our fifth and sixth graders be afforded the same opportunity to work with their middle school bands and orchestras and what happens for our seventh and eighth graders if they want to continue with band or orchestra or a music program at a larger school so currently the plan is for music to be part of the curriculum that that's offered so um in the vision would be that there would be an instrumental music program as well as a coral music program um and so I would see that being able to be offered here with the numbers of students that we would have you think with one music teacher we could do we can do that uh we'll see we'll see we may have to do some sharing but we'll see okay thank you

093I think that the board has asked great questions I are there any other questions board not now not now okay um we'll get the rest of the information that was requested and we'll give that some more thought thank you so much for a great presentation um and for all the effort that's gone into this um process over the many years and you just just a little bit of History um and just to to a point that Miss Dunn made um I think um yes it is important that all of our children who want this kind of access to their cultural heritage do have access um and I know in previous boards we felt that it was not appropriate to offer this access until we addressed the barriers for all of our children and that was

094the impetus for our one of the impetuses for our um Equity policy to remove all kinds of barriers cultural and otherwise and that kind of explains the halt in the planning process a little bit okay we will go ahead and move on to our Neola policy update Mr harsher Dr harshbarger I think it's still on yeah Madam president Dr Smith members of the board uh bring to you tonight present to you volume 36 number two revision packet which is comprised of 31 policies revision package is in response to recent legislation and subsequent updates to Indiana code so I now bring that before you denied for first reading Bo do you have questions or comments about this policy these policy updates had them okay um thank you for for that we will continue to look at

095these um before our next reading second reading in two weeks had um this brings us to our action items and our first action item uh Miss Johnson the approval of the 2425 collective bargaining agreement Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board um we are really proud to have worked um with our Lawrence Education Association to bring to you approval of the collective bargaining agreement um we had our public meeting last Monday November the 4th and I'd be glad to review anything that was in the ratified tentative agreement for you tonight or to go forward and ask for you to approve a collective bargaining agreement that has been submitted Miss Johnson this might be a question more for Mr miles than for you um as it relates to the $3 million that we're proposing

096comes out of our reserves to um buy down the cost of health care it's my understanding that that's a 10% increase in health care roughly um across the board for our staff and administrators um and we're estimating that around $2 million of that three million goes toward our teachers correct and 1 million goes toward the administrators is that is is that correct Mr Johnson I'll jump in on that so two slightly different things there um there's the $3 million piece that's going into uh the laser and to buy down the increase and then there's the 10% increase so uh look at them in in two separate things uh yes the three $3 million is buying down that increase um without the incre without that $3 million we would have been looking at a 34% increase

097um and it would have been one one item um the $3 million buys that increase down um we used the two the $2 million attributed towards our teachers is because uh of all of our insured uh staff about two-thirds of them are teachers so that's why we use that in the calculation of of really how much benefit um is going towards the teach teachers and and and the CBA um the 10% is an increase is is really the remaining increase that both both employer and employee will see on their health insurance premiums month to month so the $1 million is not attributed to administrators or is it attributed to administrators and others yeah absolutely good question I didn't get to that um the 1 million would be administrators and others we have other other classified

098staff that are also on the plan um so I don't have the breakdown of of how much of that is administrators versus others uh but but yes it would be it would be made up of of anyone that is non uh certificated questions if there are no other questions do we have a motion to approve the collective bargaining agreement so moved second properly moved and seconded if there are no other further questions all in favor I I oos we have approved our collective bargaining agreement uh we will now uh move to the approval of our administrative salaries Johnson Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board we bring to you for your approval of the raises that have been proposed for our administrators and our classified raises board questions will we be voting on

099these in two separate items because the cost is different for both um you we can we can vote we the way it is um presented to us we'll vote on administrative um up and then classified separately so the the department chairs will be a different vote from no ad ad and you have a delineation between all I understand that they're administrators um but I I do think it is a little um challenging because I want to vote for a 4.5% department chair increase um but I will not be voting on a 3.5% increase for our administrators yeah I I understand but these are these are different we're we're actually proposing different salary increases for each administrator and we also have different benefits packages for each of those administrators um and yet we're being asked to

100vote on them as a whole additionally um Mr miles could you please explain to us the stiped increase because I don't see it listed on this Slide the stien increase for our department chairs as well as um or sorry not Department chairs for our building administrators um principes and directors certainly um so just to clarify um we that that would be in the form of the allowance the health insurance or benefits package is that is that your question yes and for those who don't who maybe haven't heard this discussed on the day before could you please explain what that is so um we have our benefits package we have two different benefit packages for administrators um our we have a benefit package for uh cabinet directors and principles and then basically all of our other

101administrators as Dr Smith mentioned which would include Department chairs and and assistant principles and the like um the two packages um the primary difference as two two pieces are uh the package the benefit package for uh those cabinet principles and directors includes a 457 retirement account that's not included in the other package and it also in the way their health insurance uh pieces are are are paid out for ad for those for that U cabinet directors and principes is is different than it is for the other group um all groups all employees pay the same health insurance premiums out of their their employee piece it's it's exactly what's in the CBA but for the for that uh higher level administrator group if you will their insurance is paid to the employee first and then the

102employee turns around and pays that back in addition to their uh employee plan which calculates or results in the difference in what you see in Gateway versus what you see in contracts and the piece of increasing because we are increasing the allotment for that Healthcare statement statement isn't that true so that the allowance um as it's referred to it mirrors what the the rates of of the insurance package are so in essence yes it will move to to match that that new piece uh the new premiums Insurance whether it's the employee piece or the employer piece so is there a change to the administrator's health care cost as a result there cost will will move with the plan so again whatever whatever they're based on what plan they're on uh they would pay all administrators

103either either group just like all teachers anyone else that's on the plan they're going to pay their that new employee piece that's exactly the same the employer piece that I referred to earlier as far as uh with the directors principles and cabinet that would move to to the new amount which would be a 10% increase so um those those match our our HSA 3000 uh plan and what is the increase to that stipend so it's a 10% it would move it it follows it moves exactly the amount of of of the health insurance change I'm asking for the I believe it was, 1900 and some odd dollars from 1700 previously that number is 1732 I think was sticking in my 1734 and would move to I don't think I have the new number in front

104of but it be 10% increase 19 19 and some change and and that is a that is a monthly allotment correct correct and it's my understanding that they're not obligated to use that for healthare is that correct correct so it's the same cost to the district um as if I were if if that employee were to select that plan so um and then if they do if that is the plan they're on then they take it in and they pay it back out but no they're not obligated to select that plan just a quick follow-up question um sorry to to jump in um so if we have administrators that both qualify for the same stien they get the same amount of money in which is different than what it would be if we were um

105any other staff member if they had a spouse that was working in the district and they bought for example the family plan they wouldn't have multiple people buying into that family plan correct I yeah I believe I'm following you correctly yes so just a followup question so if we had two administrators who are both employees in the district but only one is paying for the family plan they both would get the stiens for healthare if they're both in that group okay so then it's safe to say that that some folks are getting an additional $1,900 a month that doesn't go to any health care cost because they are married or on the flip side potentially maybe they're on their husband's insurance or their wife's insurance that that could yes that could play out the cost

106of the district would be the same if they are on that plan but um but how they choose to use that whether it's by a different plan by a more expensive plan um that's that is their choice but the cost to the district we're still paying a stipend so the cost is that we're paying we have to pay a healthc care stipend to our so I guess that's where I'm confused because I don't think that there's anything in State Statute that says we have to pay a health care or a stien that then administrators could use if they want to to pay and offset their insurance cost there is there is nothing in statute so this so this though is something that the district is choosing to do for cabinet and principles and Department chairs

107correct thank you and Mr miles what is the total cost for increasing the salaries for uh administrators and department chair for administrators by 3.5% and Department chairs by 4.5% what is the total cost of that increase I don't know Madam board me member if I have that number with me but I'd be happy to report that back if if if I were looking at it from last year's data and I recognize that this is in this is not a necessarily Apples to Apples comparison just given the fact that we may have more we may have fewer um administrators than we had last year um listed our on our website we have this fly again um we have 115 administrator contracts um of those totals it it's about a half million dollar or $53,000 judging by

108last year's salary increases as a baseline um but that does not take into account the department chair piece of it given that it's a little bit difficult to figure out who's a department chair and who isn't a department chair just based on their the way their salaries are reflected in Gateway would it be fair to say that it's roughly a half million dollars increase that's fair to say it's it's an N per so that combined with the $1 million that were proposing go to administrators we're looking at about a $1.5 million increase to administrator salaries the the two understanding that there are other people involved correct yeah I don't again I don't have that split of how much that million dollars as administrators and how much it's classified we do have a lot of classified

109in our on our plan as well is that Mr miles is that money um that's taxable inome income correct yes and what do you know currently what the tax rate is on that the they would pay it's the standard FICA and Medicare um tax rate that we're talking about I think I think that's your question Miss Norman yes I believe and I meant to have that number handy in front of me um it's between seven and 8% and Mr miles there's also a 427 plan that those top level administrators are also could you um are also privy to could you please explain that a bit more sure it's a yeah it's a 457 tax deferred retirement plan and basically that is a um it goes in um it's pre-taxed going in uh but it does

110get included in that Gateway number again that we we referenced earlier so it's a benefit obviously um for for those administrators again roughly 40 or so um and is calculated based off of the uh employee it's equal to the employee portion of the HSA 3000 and it adjusts annually along with that so it's a benefit for uh for those administrators allowing them to offset their healthare cost more or is it it would be they they they don't get access to it um immediately it's for retirement only um but it it's the same amount as one of those plans oh actually um and that's how again um I'm looking off my phone so um I apologize uh my computer died and I've been dealing with an emergency today so did not have time to grab the

111charger um the uh the cost for that per administrator that is prived to that is roughly $750 monthly I remember if I'm recalling correct I believe you're correct it it's in that ballpark I'm looking for it quickly here myself but um roughly $8,600 a year uh going by memory once again and and the to the total for that and the stien is roughly $22,000 a year this the the the 457 is about 85 8600 and the allowance is that number you referenced earlier 2000 correct so correct per employee so roughly $30,000 difference corre which is what we see in the difference between the differential between the Gateway data as well as um our contracted data correct and uh would I be correct in saying that the increase of 3.5% would be on the base salary

112not on any of the benefits correct okay thank you um I will go on record as saying that um um with increased responsibilities come increased benefits and I appreciate every single teacher in this District every classified employee and every administrator and every team lead and um I'm thrilled that we can offer raises to our employees this year um that with between last year and this year are the best raises in Maran County County and that is that is because of um Good Financial Management our administrators are given budgets to manage and it's largely because of the work of our administrators that we have this budget to work with I appreciate every single person in this District so I do have one followup question um Miss muston uh the $3 million that we are taking out

113of our reserves this year is that the only time we'll have to take $3 million out of our reserves uh it's a great question and that is coming out of our cash balance um in our education fund we did we had a similar um need last year um we had some remaining uh laser from the prior year so this is year two uh of having a large chunk of that cash balance go towards uh reserves we do not know how long um we will need to to do that but it could be for at least a a few more years um mind you I guess I would note also um our health insurance that's part of our health insurance plan we are self-funded we're basically our own health insurance company as as a district um

114over the past several year we put that in place um uh could have been shortly after the Affordable Care Act went into place and it could have even been a little before that um we have out outpaced the market in in lowering our health care costs but that those types of factors those types of things that can come into play are part of the risk um that we assume having our own plan and and in the public hearing Miz Mustin framed it as uh deficit spending I I wasn't sure that that was the right framing there but could you yeah the um that's that's framed around new money that we're getting in from the state uh annual new money versus what we're spending um towards our increases and in that in that respect we are

115spending uh beyond our new money so it's not long it doesn't create long-term deficit spending but it is short-term deficit spending and I I will add by the way that um Dr Smith Smith's salary is like the rest of the administration um his raise will occur on top of his um base pay and in his contract um we have agreed that he will get the teacher raise which is 4.5% but he has asked us to give him the administration raise of 3.5% any other I have a question do we have an average um retention rate for admin but how many of our it would be very low but I can get you the accurate amount you mean our retention rate would be very high for those that left very low rtion rate very high is

11693% 93% thank you okay if there are no more questions um do I have a motion on the um approval of administration administrative salaries so moved second properly moved and seconded if there's no more discussion um Miss dun yay or nay n Miss Lawrence N Miss Pucket yay Miss Norman yay and yay for me all right we'll move on to the approval of the classified salaries Miss Johnson Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board we bring to you for your approval of our classified salary increases board discussion if there's no discussion do I have a motion to approve have just to just to clarify too on all of these this this was all part of the bargaining process this this is what the Lea and our admin agreed to before bringing it to

117us correct the Lea agreed to the collective bargaining agreement for the teachers I just wanted to make sure that that was clarified so we are what what was brought to us was part of that b bargaining process make sure sorry just the teachers okay thank you administrators is my understanding do not bargain these are raises that come at the will of the board right same with class yes do we have a motion to approve the classified salaries Mo second properly moved and seconded um all uh in favor I I I opposed we have approved our classified salaries um and tonight we have the approval of a Personnel report Miss Johnson Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board we bring to you for your approve approval of the Personnel report this evening so moved

118second properly moved and seconded any questions all in favor of the approval of the Personnel report I I any opposed okay we have reached the point in our meeting for the administrator and board comments who would like to speak speak thank you Lawrence Township thank you for um for hanging with us through this process it can be grueling and um and I hope with all my heart it doesn't divide our district so hang with us those sentiments sorry go ahead go ahead I share the same sentiment um so yeah I'll just leave that there thank you for everything that went into this process forward to moving forward I want to make sure that it's very clear that I too value all of those that work in this District I myself have an administrator in another

119district and I know the countless hours that go into being a district level administrator I also know that it's part of my job as a board member um to really think about the budget in this district and this was not done in a malicious way certainly did not mean to um create any Division I actually think a healthy board is a board that can have discussion and not always agree because we are elected to have these conversations um and we have different lenses in which we come to this table but please rest assure that I will continue to work diligently to serve the community in which I love and live and this certainly um I appreciate all the administrators all the school-based Personnel all the classified personnel and I because I do not believe that

120it has been the best interest financially for the district to keep spending in this way does not mean that I value any of you any less and I hope that through my actions that you see um that I am committed to this district and continue to serve in a way that represents the community and hopefully makes folks proud thank you for that and I I would Echo your exact sentiments uh we have some of the finest administrators in the state um and the issues that we raise here on the deis have not to do with individual performance but instead of cleare eyed evaluation of the facts at hand um which is our job as oversight for this District to ensure that the spending we um that we take on each year is not as was

121discussed earlier this evening in a deficit I remain concerned that as we pay our administrators more than any other District in the area that we are not doing our due diligence as board members um I have a a a mentor of mine um his name is Mike legarza and he talks often about um the he has the methodology called fire and when you speak in facts you um and not ire you eliminate the fire nothing that was shared on this deas is intended to divide we can have different different you know perspectives on the on the F on the facts at hand we can vote differently but they still remain factual and I would offer it to the community to continue to push to assess um particularly all all of our spending but also particularly

122administrative salaries we when when I share data it is done with Incredible due diligence and hours and hours and hours spent evaluating and ensuring that the data that I'm sharing is correct I have validated that data both with um our administr our Administration as well as um the people who administer the Gateway system and I've reached out to all of the CFOs for the districts that I referenced in my evaluation to ensure that I was representing their districts accurately in my assessment um I will say that I am very um frustrated with the fact that while I speak factually and I'm attempting to speak factually others even those on this District are speaking more from an emotion perspective and that's not fair to this district and I would just challenge everyone here to understand that

123when we speak in facts that's where we should have commonality not not in public attacks or attacks against one another could you please share of what emotion is being expressed let's just clarify that to see like what what do you mean by emotion from that because what I've exess I have some concerns in Con in continued governance and this is what I mean you had shared about reaching out to other districts um concerning Gathering info um while that doesn't violate isba there is a concern that why wouldn't that why wouldn't you go to Dr Smith our superintendent to reach out to those districts to ask those questions have that conversation with your board members it is protocol as a board member that that we do not reach out directly to admin we reach out to

124the superintendent it is a negative reflection when you do that you in essence usurp his authority so to sit here and also say that you've done that with other districts that is reflective almost of all of us as well we were not aware of that so when you say moving from emotion to me that speaks more of moving from emotion than having a conversation with your board concerning your intent and what you'd like to do these are pieces that I will continue to like to be a part of but am continued to be left out of so I think and the term emotional it would be great if you could could kind of expound on that on who is moving emotionally as I continue to always seek to understand how you navigate I don't understand

125it without calling anybody out directly by name I been publicly smeared with incorrect factual information which is not fair I've never once raised anyone's name in any of the posts that I've put out on social media because I find it critically important to speak only to the facts at hand that's it and Miss Pucket the reason why I went to the other districts and I spoken with Dr Smith at length about this we had a 2hour breakfast the other day um when I reach out to the other districts it's so that I get an unbiased opinion and I will and and I'm not saying that um that the information that shared is incorrect but when I have to do a salary analysis between contracted data and Gateway data and I have to bring that to

126the board and that and through that mechanism is the only way that I was able to identify what the differential is between Gateway data and the contracted data I question whether or not I get the full picture and that is not um that is a level of trust I think we all need to rebuild with one another there definitely yeah distrust because I would say I I I find out what is being done through other means than directly from the board collect I we have to move differently but to hear that you're reaching out to other districts and not to us that yes I do agree that there does need to be a firm movement I have reach to us which is what I just said I don't disagree with the what I disagree with

127the how like what Miss Pucket said going to social media I've also seen the things people have said because of this data it's the the the how is there were conversations that we had in executive session that made it out to social media my mother was a teacher and administrator and a school board member she she told me to hold those close she said there's a difference between transparency and and being subversive and so I think that is the what here and I think we're all tired of negativity we're we're here to celebrate the collective bargaining agreement which I know was hashed out from both sides coming together in good faith and you know all of our people are human beings working hard we all agree we thank you for that it touches our children

128too um and I would add that um the $3 million taken for insurance um was bargained was part of the collective bargaining and if we gave zero money to the administrators nothing to any administrators or any class classified people that $3 million um would still be short-term um deficit spending so it that the the classified and the administrative salaries have nothing to do with um and I will I will add that um our next meeting will be be November 25th Monday November 25th um our Len Wildcats are on a roll um we'll be in Brownsburg on uh this coming Friday um for the Regional Title and um that's where I will leave it Dr Smith no comments for thank you thank you thank you do we have a motion to adjourn second I