001open ouraring at this time thank you madam president Dr Smith members of board at this time as we open our additional appropriation hearing I would like for Mr Jeff Quin bush from barnon thorberg our legal council to please come to the podium Mr qu bush is going to present information regarding our 2023 to 2026 facilities transformation long-term facilities Improvement and buses and Equipment acquisition project thank you Mr miles Madam president members of the board Dr Smith it's a pleasure to be evening again Jeff so is the next step in the process that was started back in August in connection with these projects you've already held two public hearings on the financing and the overall project components and tonight is the next step in which we are authorizing the appropriation of the bond proceeds for the
002general obligation bonds to be issued later this year in an amount not to exceed 12 million appropriation will be actually 14 million because that's to include interest earnings and potential other proceeds that come in the of so that's higher am this notice was published earlier this month at least 10 days in advance of this public hearing and so at the culmination of the public hearing presentation that I will give you should then open it up to the public and ask them if comments or questions regarding the project or the financing solely presented at at the CB's public hearing so after this public hearing tonight during the action I open two resolutions that will be considered by the bo the first Bond resolution for the general obligation bonds that's for a total of1 million to be
003repaid over the next several years the overall financing for all of the projects to up to9 million of roughly 8 to 10 years just depending on Market condition um tomorrow marks the end of the request period for Community to additional Community consideration approval process so tomor office request provide add issue the bond and then we will sell these bonds sometime later November and then CL in the middle of December and the bond be available this first component is going to be used primarily to purchase some buses materials you remember law take also lot r$10 actually so that's what's in Connection in addition some other components of the project some furniture acquisition as well as some general maintenance improvements such as some reping and restoration of Loops uh parking lots those at Point do any other
004any here have comments about our bond issue that was just presenting if not we'll end our public meeting thank you very much unit States of America Mr Smith there you are thank you mad president Dr SM members of the board we are LC baseball stadium continues we're getting ready to uh LC soccer stadium uh you'll see the uh Foundation ready for the stadium to go in uh the surf for the softball has been completed and they'll be uh waiting to move to the new baseball G thereafter uh ELC pool placed in hbac over uh winter break we had to use a helicopter to lift three units up on top of the roof and they did that about 30 minutes LC pool dig continues you'll see some exterior storm water and interior work continues as well
005Lawrence North Edition we do have the Footers in place for the new North Edition and the concrete wall up against the field hous is going up after the street Ellen pool we're glad to say that kids are in the water so right now this week and next we will be finishing up the uh elevator that will open the uh bleacher area at the second level the next two weeks we'll see a completed version of the pool there a lot of excitement at El bser Auditorium uh continues on roof is uh nearing completion and concrete going in in the floor walls are up on the ins uh bus turn around for the special needs area uh get close for asphalt curving and sidewalks are auxiliary gym we took over the auxiliary gym over fall break and
006it has started will be completed at winter those are classrooms in PC continue on W Valley new Clinic they are moved in and utilizing that new clinic and some classrooms with special needs they moved into and we more classroom to renov U the main office back half the U main office has been demoed ready for renovation LC site uh we are using our new North site just in time for election this week and uh it couldn't be any better at the end of next week we should have the west side parking compl any questions Mr Gru good evening Madam president Dr Smith members of the board back on June 7th and June 8th each of us were at the fairgrounds as we can participate in the commencement ceremonies but by State Statute we actually have
007until September 30th uh to graduate our students and we had a couple more students students that always quote unquote make it across the stage before September 30th so this this data for you is as of September 30th and I'm happy to report over the last decade you'll see the grb right there for 2023 is 95% of our students that graduated 7% of them received a general diploma 61% a core 4 diploma 31% an honors diploma that consists of either an academic and or a te Technical Honors diploma and only 3% received their waiver before we move on to the next slide I want to mention two things about 2023 2023 was the first year of graduation Pathways the first official year you've heard about it for several years and we've been able to use it
008as an alternative means for students but 2023 was actually the first official year where all students graduated on a pathway also 2023 was the first year of our alternative diploma where we had some students some exceptional learning students that were able to graduate and count as part of our grad tion rate as opposed to in the past they would received a certificate of completion and actually been counted as a Dropout so two big things for 2023 the next several slides show you our graduation rate broken down by race of first our black student population graduation rate for 2023 was 96% 9% of those students received a general diploma 66% a core of 40 and 25% honors with 3% waiver up next our Hispanic student population 94% graduation rate 9% General 66% core 40 24% honors
0092% waiver our white student population graduation rate of 95% that's 3% General 45% core 40 51% honors and 1% waiver and lastly multi-racial student population a 91% graduation rate 1% being general 57% core 40 43% honors and a 1% W rate so that's a lot of data especially if you're looking at over a decade so we wanted to bring to you some conclusions over the last decade if you look overall our graduation rate is up in all subgroups over the last decade up 8% overall that's up 10% for both Hispanic and black and up 7% for white when looking at the type of diploma overall the percent of diplomas that are core for diplomas is up in all subgroups plus 133% overall the last decade that's plus 10% for our black students plus 18 Hispanic
010and plus five for white looking at honors diplomas overall the percent of diplomas that are honors diplomas again that's either academic and or Technical Honors is up in all subgroups that's plus 2% overall which is up 10% for our black students plus 2% Hispanic students and plus six for our white students and that's not an error these last few numbers even though they're negative are in are still in green because it's a good thing that we have fewer wavers being given to our students overall the percent of wavers are being is down in all subgroups down 10% overall and that's down 177% for our black students down 18% for our students and down 4% for our white students so a lot to celebrate here in Lawrence Township next steps per your board goal will continue
011to work to close the achievement Gap and percent of students achieving an academic and or Technical Honors diploma per subgroup we'll also continue to increase the number of graduation pathway opportunities to meet the needs of our students if you think of graduation Pathways as a menu of options for our students we want to make sure they have the different opportunities that they need so for example that will mean increasing capacity within our current Pathways that are offered we don't want to tell a students sorry that class is full so we need to make sure we continue to increase our capacity we'll continue to implement the next level programs of study the different phases have been brought to you by the curriculum instruction division over the last several years and we'll work to create additional graduation
012Pathways not currently offered here in La lawren Township an example of that will be agriculture this year for example we started agriculture at the middle school level with intro at the high school level with principles of Agriculture so that's the first course in that pathway that we're beginning this year Mr Noor and I uh work together to provide this presentation for you today which is the ultimate achievement measure for our district we're happy to answer any questions you may have first I would just like to saying workings you I think that Lawrence does a great job as far as our access for students and so my first thank you for that but I asked um what tools do our students have access to um to track their own to track their own academic success um
013one of our and I I say that to say because some parents aren't able to be fully involved in their child's life or there are some students that make their way to Lawrence um through untraditional routes as we discovered on one of our tours it was a young man that was over to lawence from another country so I still like to say um what tools or what do we provide for a child to track their own pathway um for a parent that's not able or placement language barriers um and also to we know time is a form of equity so some parents just they're working two three jobs and they want to track through their success and not able to so what tools does that student have that they can access to their own so
014obviously we have skyw worker students trct their academic progress we have canvas which is our um learning management system that our our district uses for our students we track different things with different what we call buckets of graduation Pathways bucket one bucket two bucket three um we also have navian which is a counselor software that our counselors use with our students and we have a pretty robust um tracking process that our counselors use with our students to make sure one by one we're not looking at the whole group we're looking at one student at a time that we look through to make sure that they're reaching all their goals as they progress through High School in all four years to make sure they're on track graduate and our students are invol in that process as
015well parents knew that it's just not strictly talking to counsel or it's one of the tools thank you yes absolutely both for their work during high school as well as a prep for post and just to followup because you do meetings about each individual high school student every year you know those students who are consider that on their working out working this out on their make sure they have access to these yes we have status meetings every year so freshman sophomore Junior and senior every year making sure that we know what concerns there might be for student be it academic be it behavioral be it support be it access whatever whatever the concerns may be and and I would just like to say um with all that information it's all great news all of it
016is news but to see the to% is fantastic fantastic thank you for everything that's every SCH question first of all Kudos I know this takes everybody from our preschool through our um High School administrators teachers families and most importantly the students doing the work um you all had a fabulous presentation about the Indiana GPS um earlier this spring and one of the things that we were talking about is the employment and enrollment and the graduation and Beyond do you have data on what our most recent graduates are doing what percent are going to high or I'm sorry going to college what percent are enrolling is that something that we could get access to just to see um the amazing contributions that are Lawrence Township students are making on our community and Beyond yes we do
017have that data and we can submit that to you there is data in the GPS or how going rates just over 60% last update was about we we don't have it for this current class but we would for thank you very fin thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board in front of you you should have two uh of our most recent monthly Financial reports dated September 30th our general fund and our transportation fund and I'm pleased to present tonight that both funds are in a very very good position as we expected them to be uh our total revenues uh both exceeded expectation at this time of the year as well as our expenditures being under uh projected so I would welcome you to um take a look at both of those reports
018and happy to answer any questions could could you um enlighten me a little bit you the bottom of the page the bottom of the page um we're we're in negative balance on the transportation fund yeah yeah the trans absolutely so the transportation fund um gets revenues does not get revenues monthly on a monthly basis but rather twice per year so it runs in kind of fits and spurts as far as there's obviously expenses every month um but we don't have that Revenue coming in every month so um this it will continue to run uh in the negative until we make that yearend transfer thank you and then um the new bus um expenses is that's not part of this Transportation expense is it correct that's a separate fund it's a separate fund and that's part
019of what the geob bonds will be paying for correct that's one of one of the items from the Geo Bond our trans our bus replacement fund okay thank you I love whistling into a questions then wow that that was a quick meeting and that will take us to we have polies we do not however uh we are going to be meeting hopefully tomorrow to be discussing administrative guidelines those are the only updates we have from the policy committee at this time uh the Lawrence Veterans Day celebration November 11th at the Civic Plaza um I have no time for you right now um I will get back with you on that also have a Lawrence Christmas this will be November 25th the tree lighting will begin at 6 to 7 p.m. so have stand up and
020say yes yeah we'll have our marching van will be our Dr Le the par and then we'll have our dancers dancing and then the we'll have Foundation Miss Norman and and also our foundation president is here if you have any questions yes thank you madam president we're so excited to have welcomed our new president and CEO Miss Johnston who's in the crowd with us tonight yes um she this has been a a great time for the foundation it's also been a busy but good month with the LTD good week right before fall break as well as I believe 19 Creative Impact grants totaling over 20,000 were recently distributed to uh several of our staff and if there's anything else you'd like to add that's good well welcome that will the the approval of the resolution
021for the 2023 General oblation and appr of the bond resolution thank you once again Madam president Dr Smith members of the board at this time I recommend that the board approve the resolution approving the 2023 General obligation bonds and the resolution approving the additional appropriation of the 2023 General obligation Bond proceeds and interest earnings as submitted so moved second there any questions all in favor I any oppos and we are now next thing is what we usually call a consent agenda Madam president I move that we treat action items 4.2 through 4.8 as our consent agenda second is that a second properly moved second all those in favor of items agenda I any moove approval of the consent agenda second any questions uh all those in favor of approving the consent agenda I I apprent
022ask M Cara Johnson good evening Madam president Dr Smith members of the board and Community this evening the school board of the metropolitan school district of Lawrence Township has approved the appointment of Mr shant Smith to the position of director of McKenzie Center for Innovation and Technology [Applause] Mr Smith has held this role on an interim basis since June of 2023 prior to this position he served as the assistant director of mcit as an assistant principal at beler middle school for 11 years and born Central High School for one year his teaching experience was in language arts at Fall Creek Valley and middle school for 9 years superintendent Dr Sean Smith shares the Career and Technical educational program in Lawrence Township is second to none Mr Smith has demonstrated his leadership ability and strong commitment
023to the secondary students of mcit and it's a pleasure to see him permanently in this new role Mr schmith shant shares as the Lawrence Township graduate who attended McKenzie as a student he's honored and grateful to become the new director thank you to Dr Smith and the board of education for giving me this great opportunity to Le M Kenzie he adds I'm excited to take on the responsibilities and challenges that come with this role I'm also looking forward to working with the dedicated faculty and staff in our many programs as well as collaborating with students and their families to provide the best possible educational experiences Mr Smith is a 1995 graduate of Lawrence North High School he continued his education at Indian University where he completed a bachelor's degree in science and secondary education he
024graduated with his master's degree in education focusing on curriculum and instruction from Indiana Westland in 2005 in 2008 he completed the principal leadership program at Indiana westling University Mr Smith is currently completing his CTE director licensed at fall State University congratulations Mr s thank you to the board and Dr Smith for this great opportunity I also want to acknowledge the uh principles I have the privilege of serving under who help M me to the leader I am today that includes Mr fi during my time at Lauren Central Mr noer Mr harer during my time at Belzer and Mrs Swain during my time at McKenzie serving as the assistant director um I also want to thank my wife who was also a principal for being my biggest supporter during this amazing journey I look forward to
025leing McKenzie to making it the best CTE Center in the state of Indiana thank [Applause] you this has been an evening of nothing but good news for LS really very very pleas all the information um we're to board comments and I want to say that tomorrow being Halloween um um we just wish for all of our students all of our families to be safe and save some space you know to for them so that um all of our kids go out and have a fun time those that want to and um come home safely it's been a bit of a a rough week in in once um with incidents happening on the northeast side students finding themselves in the line of fire and um just keep keep those families in in your thoughts your prayers
026and um I'll ask them moment I just hope everyone also has a safe Halloween and if have my comments at this time I just have a a off of Mr Smith's appointment um I wanted to say that so a lot of people in the public weren't aware that I talked to um we do have an amazing barbering school and Bernie's place which is open to the public um the website at McKenzie Center has the hours and take advantage of it they do a great job so thank you Dr Smith we have some big things coming up this week you have r n please stand sectional finals are Friday night give us an announce hosting Cathedral for the teams are topam be then you know where my loyalty is so let's get it all right right
027that's our house the game is at home correct Dr nth thank you and I will add board and Madam president just simply we want to send a thank you very special thank you to Community Health Network for sponsoring this past Saturday a huge CommunityWide event black men and white coops which is supporting minority students who are interested in the medical field uh they had 00 participants have signed up for this wonderful event which was held at our high school one Central High School uh Saturday uh pretty much all day long so we want to send a thank you special thank you out to Community Health Network for sponsoring this event and all of our families that attended and special thank you for lawen Central High School was a wonderful host for it and all the
028VIPs that show up for we had the Mayors from both cities several of our state legislators uh and local um common council members who were in attendance at that so I just want to s a thank you to that so that's all I have Madam president thank you very much um that um will'll conclude our meeting if we have a motion to moved moved and seconded we are adjurned