001I PL aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we have some superintendent Awards this evening so board if you'll join me Dr Smith on the floor good evening we are proud tonight to start off our meeting with some superintendent Awards and we'd like these Superstars to come forward First Franklin bush [Applause] Mr Franklin bush has received the black excellence in education award from school-based administrator from inop power minority business week the black excellence and education Awards celebrate and honor outstanding achievements cont contributions and excellence in the field of Education by individuals of African descent one part of his educational impact has been his work on focusing on student achievement and providing highquality opportunities
002for his students he has increased student opportunities with clubs and activities with leadership groups like student council black Heritage Society Club Latino leaders and the athletic Leadership Council this has contributed to the growth of participants and positively increased the pride and culture of the Lauren Central School Community we are honored to present Franklin bush with the superintendence award congrat [Applause] ulations put this on B it on your head bring the and Mr Bush has brought family members with him this evening that we are so glad you're here to join us one two introduce family oh man absolutely my I have my beautiful aunts back there um been huge part of my life uh as you guys know my brother Victor uh VI brother mentor and and my beautiful mother um means everything so thank you
003guys is here thank you so [Applause] much next we'd like to recognize rose red she has also received the black excellence and education award for support staff from inop power minority business week the black excellence and education Awards celebrates and honors outstanding achievements contributions and Excellence within the field of Education by individuals of African descent Miss red has made a significant impact in various aspects of Mary Castle Elementary School academically she's been strong advocate for Student Success by generously purchasing books for students her commitment to ensuring a conducive learning environment for students is evident in her efforts to support their academic growth cult Miss Red's visibility and helpfulness have made her a beloved figure at that school her warm and welcoming presence has contributed to the positive School culture and has made her well-known and
004respected member of the community Miss red retired from Lawrence Township last July she'll be greatly missed but we thank you for the impact you've made on so many you and with her is her principal Mr BL for and with her we have her proud principal Mr blle come [Applause] this is my [Applause] son I love it thank you next we'd like to bring up Kevin ker and Franklin Bush to honor Indian Creek Elementary and Lawrence Central High School congratulations to Kevin ker an Indian Creek Elementary School at the 2024 Indiana Department of Education educational excellence awards on September 6 Indian Creek was honored with the Excellence in stem award this award recognizes schools that have expanded access to high quality stem learning opportunities for all students Indian Creek Elementary designated a stem certified school collaborates
005with the Indianapolis Power and Light Utopia class and New Age Provisions Farms to provide students with real world stem application and experiences they plan to use over $180,000 in Grant award funding to support STEM related educator professional learning and to fund some exciting additions to their maker space for students we're honored to present Kevin ker with the superintendence award thank you for your leadership congratulations and Mr ker would like to recognize his team so I did bring my team that makes this happen I have my uh individual that dreams big and we follow her dreams L Monica Henson I have I have Rebecca Faxon who's my our instructional coach she's the one that takes those big dreams and 24 hours later figures them out how we're going to do it and then we have Suzanne
006Griffith who keeps us anchored in the science of reading and making sure we're focused on literacy as well and and the one I couldn't do anything without who keeps the building running all day long my assistant principal Valencia [Applause] Williams come on hold on for a second every want bring his team he delayed the board meeting a little bit protocol Come On Now ladies bring your team right you can call them out Kevin they gotta be in the picture with oh that's true okay once you guys come up we'll do two rows you guys on the front AR you you guys here wejust if you can all take one step to your right there we go go see that's much better all right one two three congratulations next up congratulations to Franklin Bush and Lawrence
007Central High School at the 2024 Indiana Department of Education educational excellence awards on September 6 Lawrence Central High School was honored with the Excellence and student centered support award this award recognizes schools that are expanding access to evidencebased supports in the areas of academic and student well-being with students in mind the Educators at Lawrence Township are using their $250,000 Grant award funding to expand access to high dosage tutoring and continue to support students with mentors through the Lattis system if there's an opportunity to support students in new ways Lawrence Township is tuning in and making it happen for kids we're honored to present Franklin bush with a superintendent award for this great honor thank you [Applause] conat in the middle Mr Bush he brought his Hardware here just make sure put that you got hold
008it hold that yeah because that that way we'll know which pictures she has to post both of them congratulations one two three all right thank [Applause] you just Kidd next we'd like to congratulate the director of student services Mrs Shawn Bush Mrs Sean b on receipt of the Rising Star Award at the Indiana Association of public school superintendents administrators of color preparing for the future conference this prestigious award recognizes a leader in the field of Education who is demonstrated an unwavering commitment to Excellence and growth this recipient has been recognized by peers mentors and supervisors for their outstanding accomplishments and remarkable potential we're honored to present Sean bush with the superintendent award congratulations [Applause] what you going there look at that all right one two now miss Bush I I know that you have family
009here but some of our friends may not know that that's all your fam can you let us know who your family is yes so I have my amazing husband Victor Bush here I have my mother-in-law yeah Carmen glass and my aunts Aunt Ruth Aunt Sher and Aunt Lynette and my wonderful brother-in-law Franklin [Applause] okay that brings us past recognitions to information items Mr Smith could you report on the Blue Ribbon update please Madame President Dr Smith members of the board uh a lot of work going on in pool at LC deck work uh over the weekend the bulkheads were installed Legacy wall is going up and should have that completed by dedication multi-purpose room is complete and they hosted Homecoming in there over the weekend Ln New Edition again the site work is nearing completion
010uh inside work uh continues on and hopefully the end of this week first and next week our new furniture will be going in those rooms again interior classroom part of the media center bser Middle School tennis courts going underway uh we supposed to Asphalt this week but the weather May keep us from that front uh canopy uh continues on steel work has been measured we'll be here in a couple weeks the auditorium is complete turned over to the building I believe they're going to be hosting uh this week uh an activity in their new facility ball Creek Valley art rooms and hallway continue on uh Orchestra room also drywalls going up site work there with the baseball uh softball stadium tennis courts and baseball uh that's a new scoreboard post going up for soft South
011lot this Building completed turned over to the building uh last week and the next slide shows the South Bridge uh we should have a majority of all the work completed by the end of October for this project new steel uh or the new LCC steel work continues on um and site work uh utility work continues on as well do you have questions for Mr Smith no yes no thank you thank you very much um we will move on Mr Notre please um to 20242 District assessment calendar update thank you Madame President Dr Smith and members of the board uh this evening I bring to you as an information item and update on our district assessment calendar and we'll be discussing two different types of Assessments this evening local Lawrence based assessments that we get to
012make the decision on and then state required assessments that are decided for us we'll begin with I ready and I think you're familiar with I ready um we have a board goal that's centered around it for reading and math proficiency we also are testing uh for the first time a pilot for I learn and this is a checkpoints pilot that we've opted into we also have two pilots for Spanish proficiency as well as the stamp language proficiency exam our state assessments and unfortunately these are assessments that the timelines are decided for us the grade levels are decided for us and the purpose is decided so the first one is dyslexia so we have dyslexia screener that we give to students in K1 and two we have a dyslexia screener level one for students that identify
013need some additional diagnostic you're familiar with our waeda assessment this is for students K12 who are English language Learners we have our third grade reading proficiency that's given in the spring to second grade students all students take it in second grade third grade students who didn't pass it in second grade take it and this is in March and this is to measure basic reading proficiency there is a second attempt for I read three for those students who didn't pass it in third grade for the first time they have the opportunity and that's May 15th through June 2 7 and then we round out the year with our I learn summative assessment this is grades 3 through 8 um with window dates April 14th through May 9th and we can choose the dates within that window
014this measures English language arts and math proficiency for all students in grades 3 through eight um science is an additional test in fourth grade and sixth grade and then social studies is an added test in fifth grade one thing that the state has done for us has really paired back the amount of testing that we now give at the high school level and so the high school state required assessments are the PSAT that's for 10th grade students we also give it to 11th grade students as part of the National Merit program and that's U windows in October for that we are required to give the iearn biology end of course assessment and this is for students at the end of biology one and that's a spring window to measure biology proficiency and it is a
015a graduation requirement we also are required to give the SAT to all students in their junior year um we have one exact date uh for that test it's March 5th this year and it is a graduation requirement for um all students we be happy to answer any questions or entertain any discussion word do you have a questions I do have a question um I have a question and it's actually from something that we experienced last year with the child that had began taking I learn and then towards the end of I learn she also had I ready with it and so my question was could that and thank you Dr Smith for um my question was can this test be given at different times and so thank you for the answer but just for public
016knowledge in case anybody else has children that have over over overlapping testing yeah and schools really have to plan in the spring the spring there's lots and lots of state required testing plus we do have I ready um and so the windows for this year just as a an information point for um I learn April 14th through May 9th and we advise our schools to administer I learn in April if at all possible and then maybe do some makeups for students who were absent in May and then I ready the spring in window is April 7th through May 22nd so we advise schools to give I ready in May so I learn in April I ready in May but that requires some careful planning on the school's part to make sure that happens okay I'm
017just as a point to just clarify so if a parent is seeing that the that the testing is overlapping can the parent ask for that testing to be broken up or does it have to be [Music] administered there's flexibility within those time frames and so the best thing a parent should do is contact their building principal and express that concern thank you I had a question about slide four um can you explain the IM am alternative for special education on the the last line yeah uh Mrs neire would you like to explain I am good evening I am is an alternative test that is a case conference committee decision and it is designed for a very small portion of students um these are students who have more of a moderate to severe profound disability and
018really less than 1% of our students do take it um it is an academic assessment and the way they do take it it is oneon-one because many times they have to have many different types of accommodations um in order to complete the test thank you for the explanation so not every child that's in special education would be taking that okay no it's not less than 1% that's okay thank you thank you so much for this update on assessments I do have just a couple of quick questions the first being on the third slide with our Lawrence assessments so I um I always appreciate how Lawrence is ahead of the curve and always piloting and trying find the best assessments for our students so I was wondering if you could just uh talk over a little
019bit about the difference between I station pilots and the stamp Pilots as it pertains to the Spanish language proficiency assessment sure the the I station and mclass are part of our strategic plan and they're more to mirror I ready but for Spanish proficiency and it's for students in grades K through six the stamp assessment is just given one time and it's for the certificate of multilingual proficiency so students begin taking that in sixth grade and can take it all the way through 12th grade in their preferred language okay outstanding and so the mclass is given three times a year yes and we're in Pilot right now as part of the Strategic plan initiative some schools are doing I stations some schools are doing inclass then we'll land on which one will be part of our
020protocol moving forward that's very helpful thank you and then what are assessments my assumption is but just for clarity that at the high school level it's more of the ecas and and um assessments that are given at a school level basis as opposed to districtwide assessments is that accurate that's accurate we would call those curricular based assessments where individual classroom teachers or grade levels of teachers or subject Area Teachers come together and decide what their assessment is is there alignment between the two high schools on those typically yes thank you and then also there was one other question and this was um the screener what is used what are we using for the dyslexia uh screener Level One MA May Rooney the quick phonic screener okay thank you you're welcome um I think I would
021ask a question um based on personal experience which goes back over 40 years so it's pretty old old news where I grew up we offered the PSAT to freshman as well as sophore and had a really high level by by the time they were used to taking that test we had several um very high percentage of kids that would get in the National Merit um is there would there be any benefit to offering it or what would be the cost offering it to nth graders who want to take the exam and we have offered it to ninth graders over the years and um based on the input from our schools we've discontinued that because the data wasn't as valuable for going into the SAT is what that sophomore year was and so um they've really
022put all of their data analysis into the sophomore year okay and um I guess I wasn't I should have been aware and was not aware that our second graders take I read and can pass out a year early that's right um so that that's new this year so last year last year last year this will be the first year that every school in the state of Indiana is required to have second graders take it we opted into that early and so we do have second graders quite a number about 30% of our second graders that passed hre 3 and really good information about those that need did not absolutely okay that good glad to know that thank you so much um if there are no more questions we will move on to our financial update
023Mr miles thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board uh tonight we bring as an information item our August 31st uh general fund and transportation fund reports as we do each month uh both funds uh ending balance are very healthy our um general fund balance just a little over 16 million approaching 17 million and our transportation fund balance at 3.3 million um you may you may note on the general fund um our expenses are a little high right at the moment that's basically because of some internal transfers so it says trans transfers out but that's within our own to ourselves so nothing really of concern there um and likewise at the transportation fund um Revenue exceeding actual exceeding the projected and uh again ending balance ahead of projections it's all good news board
024any questions from Mr miles about the financials okay we will oh I'm sorry kind like it ties to the budget into this um it's another question that I um sent in earlier to Dr Smith and it was concerning um for our budget where does which pot does the professional development come out of um I didn't see it on this tab here but I know you just mentioned that this is for can you explain that because I don't I don't when we go to talk about the budget it seems easier to just bring this up here that abolutely what I was told was that we have about 200 46 um 100,000 that is delegated for PD um but yes what pot does this come out of and where is that at is any of that on
025this line here or where's that at absolutely Happ to answer that as you know uh within education we have a lot of pots that really equal one big pot and um similarly with our our PD funds um transportation has some funds internally within that but within the education fund that's our primary pot for uh for professional development you are correct it's $246,000 that we budget annually for uh each of across all the schools uh for them to use as they see fit we also use Grant monies and uh there's a significant U number of dollars from our grants that our curriculum department and others are able to utilize in addition to uh those education fund dollars thank you for the extra info so it's just not hey let's just send you here and said we
026have an actual budget and that budget also um that the grants also cover that as well correct clar thank you you're welcome great thank you Mr miles on board this brings us to our committee chair reports uh Miss Norman Foundation feel free to tag team with me too if I miss anything Miss Lawrence but um yeah Dr Smith I keep forgetting he's on our board too um the foundation this Friday has the uh Bridge Fund Golf Outing it's the 12th an annual at Pebblebrook Golf Club um special guest Adam vinary okay Dr Smith um it's coffee in conversation with the superintendent this Wednesday for some of our donors um here correct in the boardroom that is all great uh M Pucket parks and wck yes I have a few things um one that I went
027to and it was absolutely wonderful and tasty was barbecue and blues which was at our cultural campus uh about two weeks ago that was pretty pretty awesome so I look forward to that again next year those ribs were really good those ribs were good you guys um we also have DIA Latino de Lawrence this coming Saturday 9:28 from 10: to 2: at the Lawrence cultural campus and I'll also say too to go by and check out our skate park lots of awesome things are happened there as far as artwork and just taking some where things have kind of been vandalized they've turned it into Beauty for Ashes and they have awesome artwork going on there so that's my first update thank you very much Miss dun policy yes get ready is right so we have
028volume 36 number two revision package on the docket and this release includes revisions to 23 policies seven administrative guidelines and two new forms and the hope is that we will have the first reading the 11th of November and the second reading and hopefully approval of those on November 20th I can't wait policy is so important and we do read them all um they're also a little it's it's not like reading a novel it's yeah it's not something you want to sit out on the porch on a rainy night and you know you just do it grateful to have those policies updated thank you for your work um anything you would like to add to any of that Miss lawence okay we'll move on to our action items and Mr miles the approval of the 20
02925 budget please thank you once again Madam president Dr Smith members of the board at this time it's my pleasure to present to you our proposed 2025 School uh calendar year budget as required by the state uh also as required by the state we we held our public hearing for the new budget and the budget adoption on September 9th at that time no uh we opened that up for public comment and none were made no no comment was made also we have shared the budget as required at ltschools.org and at the dgf uh website so tonight we bring this back to you for a vote and for approval also I would like to note included in the budget uh along with the 16 line summary statements that we will look at briefly here um this
030the budget also encompasses our bus replacement plan and our Capital Improvement plan which have also been shared as required as we look at the budget um we're going to have two sheets that look similar uh on the slides tonight our first is our advertised budget uh which is a summary of what has been shared online and then the second sheet which we'll look a little closer at um is going to be our projected which is more in line with where we believe the final budget to come back in from the state near the end of the calendar year I would highlight um our actual U assessed value increased for the coming year versus last year was a 4.02% increase um across all the property in the district um so we're pleased to see that also
031as a reminder when we put the budget together we need to protect our cash balance in our taxing funds so um as we advertise that we always take um a very very um conservative approach uh in order to do so meaning our expenses are estimated uh over what we were actually project them to be and our revenues under what we projected to be so that's why we do the two different sheets that we're going to look at uh tonight as far as the advertised versus the projected I also would point out our av increased um across the district uh for the new tax year from $6.8 billion in 2024 to 7.1 billion uh for the upcoming year we would um also point out that there are two debt issues that were occurring this fall if
032you may recall that's our the next round of our middle school bond issues and our Geo bonds so those numbers we don't have final numbers yet to include in in the budget at the time of proposal so we take a little bit of an estimate from that again a worst case scenario when all those numbers come back in we do expect our our tax rate to be flat and as a reminder once again to the board we have the second lowest tax rate in Maran County against all other of our peers other school districts in the county so we're proud of that um and we look forward to to getting those final numbers back from a Debt Service standpoint and our final um budget back at the end of the year and lastly tonight I
033would just point out we did um we did have a bond sale that actually took place earlier today um that was approved earlier by the board and it just under underscores the fin cial stability of the of the district at the at the current time that was our $8 million Geo bonds we were able to sell those at 3.11% uh today so a great rate um and we were able to uh the FED reducing interest rates last last week certainly probably played into that and didn't do us uh any harm that certainly helped um so good timing all in all uh when that was issued and the district is in a in a good position for next year so look forward to uh the board approving the budget as proposed do you have further questions
034about the budget please M Lawrence Mr miles you touched on the question that I was going to ask related to the federal interest rates being reduced recently what other widespread implications will this have for our budgeted for the next fiscal well there's that's a great question certainly future Bond issues uh would be impacted but currently just our day-to-day operating expenses as money becomes a little cheaper a little less expensive out there hopefully our inflation will come down um the more stability there is in the overall economy um it's it's a good thing for the school district or do I have a motion to approve the sorry I had a quick question I'm sorry go ahead going along with the bond question um I know last year our District bond rating is A++ is that still
035the current Bond rating it is okay yes we've been uh proud to say that we've maintained that excellent rating um with standard and force thank you further questions mine okay um do I have a motion to approve the 2025 budget so second properly moved and seconded there any further questions now would be the time there are no questions all in favor of approving the budget I I opposed the eyes have it we have approved our 2025 budget thank you very much Mr miles uh we will go to the approval of the um 20 2425 and 2526 early enrollment window so Dr Brown Mr kusik President M Dr Smith members of the board you might recall at the September 9th work session Mr kusik shared information concerning application enrollment windows for the 4 25 2526 school
036year we do recommend that you approve those as submitted so moov second properly moved and seconded if there are any questions would you ask them now there are no questions um all in favor of the approval I I the opposed we have approved the early enrollment windows for the next two season sessions Madam president I'm move we treat action items 4.3 through 4.9 as consent agenda do we have a second second properly moved and seconded um all those in favor of creating an consent agenda I I I any opposed um the I have it I move approval of the consent agenda second properly moved and seconded all those in favor of approving the consent agenda I I I any oppos the eyes happens this does bring us to our administrator and board comments board raise
037your hand hi who wants to go first I'll shly I was able to go to the ISA conference today and in between sessions I was trying to catch a catnap and I was woken up in a great way by a woman I don't want to say her name Dr Smith she was the commentator for one of the sessions and she had made comment on our Township she's from another Township and she had mentioned on how well that we take care of our students and making sure that they have all the resources that they need and so I thought that was huge to wake somebody up out of their catnap to tell them that um to speak to the Excellence that we continue to have and that how we meet our children regard heartless we have
038a very diverse Township and that we continue to meet all of our students needs so I thought that was just it made my hearts mouth thank you all lovely to to go along with that um we had the opportunity to listen to Dr Smith and several others present on the community and schools uh partnership and initiative and I learned a lot of new things about what they do for the schools and it's just so powerful to have that support so thank you to everybody involved with that I guess I can go next um I I just wanted to take a moment to commend um the school district and administration for the level of transparency with which we communicated with parents and members of the public the um the threats against our school district and many
039others it is something that as a parent obviously it hits home for all of us but also as a representative for this school district to be able to communicate factually um is critically important and um and critical for our community to be well informed um so I just wanted to thank the the schools who were impacted um and also acknowledge how stressful and scary that is for members of the community parents and our students I actually had my fabulous board memb say all the things that I was going to say so I thank you guys for your comments this evening uh I will say that um I attended the Chamber of Commerce Commerce state of the schools and I know several people um out out in the um seats in front of me attended as
040well uh and heard a wonderful and also presented heard a great presentation on the state of our schools um I'm full of Pride for all the things that we accomplished I will not list them now um and it's it's wonderful to be in our community someone came to the um event because she saw it on Facebook and she really just wanted to to shake Dr Smith's hand and you know thank him for for what we do um and it turns up that her nephew is involved I did find out baritone euphonium French horn um and I can't remember the other things because all I remember is the music he's involved in so I did find that out afterward so so thank you all of you uh administrators for the presentations thank you teachers for uh
041making the administrators and the board's dreams come true for our kids president ltin can I Echo something on that sure I just want to say Dana I shared this with you today but the video that you and your team put together I think you said his name is Josh um Absolutely Fabulous video and the students in their love of our district and just it was it was such a powerful powerful video so thank you for your leadership with that we love Goosebumps Dr altimar we do okay and our next um meeting um our next meeting will be Monday October 14th and this will be 5:30 and a combined meeting um and Dr Smith I'll give you the last word board prior to that meeting board of education and superintendent will be celebrating a great day
042Sunday October 6 Lawrence Central and Lawrence North dedicate you see Roger Smith smiling over there he's ready for this we'll officially bring those high school projects to an end as we will officially do the ribbon cutting and dedication of those buildings a board we start promptly at 1 :30 at Lawrence Central and then at 2:30 we will arrive on time and dedicate Lawrence North High School so that's a big deal for the Board of Education and superintendent will be the CommunityWide has been invited and I say CommunityWide because we've invited every single Patron in this Township and others and parents and families to join us for this important event that we will have and so I will see their board that's our next big event and Dr Smith if we have friends or family who
043want to attend with us it's perfectly neighbors it's perfectly fine perfectly fine for them to join us yes the part's big enough for everybody now we do start on time ladies and gentlemen so remember 1:30 for the Bears 2:30 for the Wildcats what thank you so um if there's nothing further board I would welcome a motion to conclude so moved second properly moved in second our meeting is concluded thank you very much for being here I think that's just now how suppos to do