001greetings at this time I'd like to introduce our assistant superintendent of secondary education Mr Dan kusik thank you Miss Johnson Madame President Dr Smith members of the board I'm excited to bring to you tonight as we bring to you every year this time our AP scholar Awards we have 127 students from Lawrence Central and Lawrence North un fortunately several of them are already off at College we get this information late in the summer uh from the college board and this is the soonest we can bring them to you so unfortunately every year a lot of them are not present but we will still read their names tonight for the record um before our principles come forward and read those names I want to read to you the definitions of each iction an AP scholar is
002granted to students who receive a score of three or higher on three or more AP exams AP scholar with honor is granted to students who receive an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP exams and scores three or higher on four or more exams AP scholar with distinction is granted to students who receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on five or more exams AP Capstone diploma is granted to students who earn three or higher in APS and AP research and on four additional exams of their choosing and last we have AP seminar and research certificate which is granted to students to earn a score of three or higher in APS and AP research but not on four additional AP exams
003up first from Lauren Central principal Franklin [Applause] bush good evening and thank you I'm going to recognize our students that are here present with us first Evan Ferguson AP [Applause] scholar Reed Harden AP [Applause] scholar Katherine mackas AP scholar with [Applause] distinction Lena mackus AP [Applause] scholar and Allison sites AP scholar with [Applause] distinction Now read the rest of their students name into record Kaye Aila AP scholar Hannah Baker AP scholar with distinction Raya Benjamin AP scholar Nathan Bray AP scholar with distinction Addison kagley AP scholar AP Capstone diploma pton corns AP scholar Jason castano AP scholar Adam Cheney AP scholar with distinction Indie Kohl's AP scholar with honors Nia dly AP scholar Andre Dumis AP scholar and AP Capstone diploma Samuel Greenfield AP Capstone diploma AP scholar with distinction Anil Gupta AP scholar with
004distinction Lena Gupta AP scholar Renea Hardman AP scholar Ella horal AP scholar Evan Isaacs AP scholar Mary Janowski AP scholar Genevie Johns AP caps on diploma kathern kovax AP scholar with distinction nor Krug AP Capstone diploma jayen Lamson AP scholar Christopher Laura kcha AP scholar joshin Leonard AP scholar Samuel Martin AP scholar AP scholar with honors Jacqueline Marino Pont AP scholar Matthew Novak AP scholar Patricia Patton benavites AP scholar Brook paus AP scholar AP C Capstone diploma Julia RAB AP Capstone diploma AP scholar with distinction Charlie Richie AP scholar miles Robinson AP scholar with uh with honors Joseph Raley AP scholar see the Raleigh family here in the audience Andrew SS AP Scholars with honors Savannah scales AP Scholars Lucy Shane line AP scholar AP caps on diploma James seal AP scholar Z soale AP
005scholar Isabelle Stanley AP scholar with distinction Kennedy Stucky AP scholar Abigail tanan AP scholar Alexandria tanan AP Capstone diploma AP scholar with distinction Olivia Tran AP scholar Roy Watkins AP scholar Cameron Williams AP Scholars with honor and Caitlyn Wilson AP Scholars thank you congratulations to our [Applause] Bears up next from Lawrence North proud principal Mr Brett Kor Dr Smith president must members of the board thank you for inviting us tonight do want to recognize also assistant principal Jason Floyd and AP coordinator Alex Coker for being here tonight I appreciate them them showing up um we're going to do the same thing Franklin just did where we'll read the names um and then go through it Colin Anderson AP scholar Kamari bellam Bellamy AP scholar Henry Brown AP scholar with distinction grael Chavez AP scholar Jacob
006eids AP scholar blae gri AP scholar with distinction Spencer harshbarger AP scholar Dorothy Huff AP scholar Henry icing AP scholar with distinction Ariel Robertson AP scholar Jackson Russell AP scholar Jasmine stro AP scholar Grace vanders sand AP scholar so I'll read into the record a lot of our Juniors and seniors seniors obviously are off at school Isabella Anderson AP scholar Nelle Anderson AP scholar Ryan Buck AP scholar With Honor AP Capstone diploma Camille bardis AP scholar Joseph Bergen AP scholar with distinction Sasha Burton AP scholar with distinction Marissa cordoza AP scholar and research certificate Trenton Chandler AP scholar Morgan Clark AP scholar Roxanna Cornell cillo AP scholar Samuel deboise AP scholar Priscilla Espinosa AP scholar AP seminar and research certificate Ariel Fardo AP scholar Elizabeth Fritz Kent AP scholar AP Capstone diploma Matthew Fritz Kent
007AP scholar Gabriel fry AP scholar Zachary Gordon AP scholar Sabrina Hardaway AP scholar Natalie Harper AP scholar Gavin Harrington AP scholar With Honor Kevin Haney AP scholar With Honor Julia Herman AP scholar Heaven Hillman AP scholar Samuel isum AP scholar AP Capstone diploma Abraham Johnson AP scholar with distinction Taylor Johnson AP scholar Elijah Jones AP scholar Sean Kelly AP scholar AP Capstone diploma Mara colner AP scholar Emerson lehan AP scholar with distinction Carter melik AP scholar Julio Mareno AP scholar Logan Murray AP Capstone diploma AP scholar With Honor Olivia Norton AP scholar Nicholas Aus andorf AP scholar with distinction Kira papalo AP scholar With Honor Emma Pletcher AP scholar Sydney or Sawyer rebano AP scholar Gabriella Reid AP scholar With Honor Vanessa Ridge AP scholar With Honor Autumn Rimer AP scholar Jezebel Rivera Lopez AP
008scholar with distinction Bryce still AP scholar With Honor Maisy tippner AP scholar With Honor Alysa trod AP scholar Alexandria Turner AP scholar Mara Welty AP scholar Noah shik AP scholar and Jonathan zlca AP scholar the [Applause] Wildcats time congratulations [Applause] Wildcats wow if you all didn't hear me those kiddos were all in kindergarten and preschool when I started on this board and I couldn't be happier or more proud of this group of kids it's a lot of hard work and fantastic okay that brings us to Mr Smith and our Blue Ribbon update Madame President Dr Smith members of the board we continue on with our renovation site work at LC continues uh a lot of edging ready for uh Turf uh LC Cafe and Auditorium hallway are starting to be buttoned up and enclosed LC
009pool uh will start digging the pool this month uh again the main hallway and utility rooms Ln site work continues getting ready to lay Turf on the baseball field and then they'll move to softball again that's a baseball field getting ready for Turf LM Plaza you experienced that last Friday the asphalt in the plaza is finished we have some more concrete and steel work ready to go up Len pool the decking tile is going in place and we're about uh two-thirds of the way of the pool curing so that we can start filling bser Middle School auditorium continues actually they have the front wall up uh as of this week um maker space was turned over to the building last week and phase three continues uh B Creek Valley new clinic and exceptional learner space
010under renovation and the Robotics and Project Lead toway spaces soccerville continues and we have the mountain the dirt still there and site improvements here at L lecc continues with the front walk uh stabilized today and soon to have uh Stone and asphalt uh the signs on the new fort property has been placed and we continue to work on the plans of the new building any questions about the progress of our Blue Ribbon plan thank you very much Mr Smith it's these are exciting times it just keep it coming just keeps coming so now we're going to ask you to share with us the results of the Lawrence North roof beds if you would Madam president Dr Smith members of board bids for the roof sections 2 and three at Ln were open on August 15th
011that we had three very good competitive bids uh Dano Roofing Incorporated was low bid meeting all specifications for a price of okay um any comments from the board I just had a question um thank you Mr Smith just for the um public clarification can you explain what sections two and three are at Lawrence North uh sections two and three if you look at the uh the band area north of the band area exceptional Learners uh uh World lit and uh Performing Arts area and then also over into the art and North up uh next to the new building thank you great that brings us to the authorization to proceed with our 1028 preliminary determination public hearings Mr miles thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board in order to move forward with a
0121028 preliminary determination hearing we must first publish information about the hearing uh to the public and as we have a need to move forward with a 2023 to 2026 facilities transformation long-term facilities Improvement in buses and Equipment acquis acquisition I would like to request the board to provide us authorization to publish this notice later this evening uh the first public hearing would be held on September the 11th 2023 with the second public hearing to be held on September 25th at each public hearing there will be a presentation regarding the proposed project and finan ing information and the public will have an opportunity to provide comment and ask questions about the project and financing uh during the meeting on the 25th of September the board will consider the 20 the 1028 preliminary determination resolution for the
013proposed project and the financing based on uh public comment so at this time I just present this as information and we'll bring it back for a recommendation later this evening terrific Bo do you have any questions for Mr miles okay great um that brings us to the update on our Neola policies Mr harar Dr harsher pardon me thank you Madame President members of the board Dr Smith at the August 14th work session I brought forward the Neola special July 2023 revision packet for first reading revision packet was in response to recent legislation and subsequent updates to Indiana code I now bring forward the revision packet for second reading um I would just like to I would like to just make a clarification it it was September 14th correct not August 14th it was August oh
014my gosh my heart po I'm a month ahead of myself be there in a couple weeks okay uh pardon me pardon me Bor um senior moment okay um no questions board we've been through these do you have any questions any further questions about them I just wanted to thank the policy committee again for your work on this small and mighty on it small and mighty dug on it okay just out of uh out of curiosity more than anything else how many policies do we typically see in a year as a as a new board member I am not aware but this does seem like a bit of reading so I'm just curious if this is an inordinate amount I'll give you some fun facts very quickly since October or yeah October of 2021 we've done
015130 policies revisions are new since January of this year 45 of that 129 came came forward so if that gives you any kind of point of reference we're way over what we would normally see in a year it's a lot it's a lot a lot of change going going on Dr harbarger remind the board the why where where do policies are impacted by what by legislation obviously change in laws federal and state level um those kinds of things are going to affect the legislation and we may get a revision or new policy altogether because of it okay thank you oh I'm sorry Jessica go ahead I just want to commend you Jess Dr harburger as well as superintendent Smith and the board because I have the distinct pleasure of being um in a national Fellowship
016um as well as working um in public education and uh thinking about how swiftly and quickly this district has gone about reviewing policy as it pertains to new guidance from the state is really something to be applauded um I am incredibly impressed by your leadership um by your leadership Dr Smith and just want to Express gratitude as well to the cabinet because these policies just to we're a small and mighty team right but um the input that each of you have played into making sure that these are not just a boilerplate uh policy but truly policies that represent our um Vision our um our just the heart of our district does not go unnoticed and so I just want to express that gratitude to to all of you because I know um that this is
017not work that is done in isolation and I would like to say thank you to Mrs Dunn for um being the first to read these and then to read them subsequently with us each time and um really it's I've done this before not on this level these are a lot of policies thank you very much that's it's a lot of work Dr Smith just a point of clarification we did cover this in the working session but given that we're in a full board meeting uh could you just remind members of the community what our role is as a board as it relates to State policy and how that impacts uh the work of the school district well you all raised your right hand and took an oath that you would uphold state and federal law
018so as board members uh our policies cannot supercede state and federal law so we have to fall in line with that I'm sure that our policies uh meet the standard of the law and so uh this board certainly does that and uh believe tonight you'll approve the uh policies that we have on the second reading so very well thank you very much um that would lead to Mr notor can you tell us about student achievement thank you madam president members of the board and Dr Smith I bring to you this evening as an information item an update on our I 3 data um and this data was recently Rel recent L presented to the State Board of Education is now available for public conversation and so um just to remind you of your board goal
019for this year we did not have a board goal last year around I 3 we have one for the 23 24 school year I'm including this for you as reference for this year uh by June of 2024 an average of 80% of all third graders who've been enrolled in LT for three years will be proficient on I 3 with accelerated growth in underperforming sub groups so let's look at where we ended up by June of 2023 so this table uh shares three years of data from 21 22 to 23 um you can see the total number of students tested over those three years and you can see um an increase of nearly 100 students in third grade that were tested between 21 and 23 um you can see that increase really across all of our
020subgroups um the very last column where you see the uh green and and red numbers that's the change in proficiency from 22 to 23 so that represents the one-year change and you can see a a 4% growth for our African-American students 5% growth for our Hispanic students uh multi-racial also with an increase we had a pretty significant decline in our white students from 22 22 to 23 in in a 5% deine deine um a special education 1% decline from 22 to 23 but that plus five in parentheses shows the growth from 21 to 23 and it's important as we're looking at academic recovery post pandemic that we look at multiple years of of data points um are free and reduced but then our Els um this perhaps is the the greatest celebration for us as
021a district uh plus nine in in one year for our English language learners as we had even a significant growth from 266 English language Learners in 2022 to 319 in 2023 yet we were able to increase our proficiency rate for third grade readers uh by 9% so that gives us a grand total of of a 3% increase from 2022 to 2023 um as we look at it relative to your board goal this is your Baseline data uh for your board goal for this year um our board goal is 80% proficiency that would get us above our prepandemic proficiency rate which I think is important for us um our Baseline is 70% so we have a lot of work to do um across all of our schools to make sure that we hit that 80% Mark
022as a district and so on the following slide you can see uh the various approaches that we're taking to support our schools so that they can support our students and so the the first one and we've talked about this in board meetings before uh the science of reading uh this is a transformation in the way that we teach reading in this District it's really a transformation across the country uh so professional development and coaching around that transformation um to to one that's focused on phonemic awareness phonics instruction vocabulary comprehension and influency and to do that we have taken advantage of a grant from the Indiana Department of Education that allows us to place a full-time literacy coaches and you can see the schools that are listed there and these are our schools whose data indicates
023they've got the most need uh for support for our students and so we will have we do have full-time literacy coaches in each of those schools this year that we did not have last year um we do have reading Specialists um in every building with some buildings having two reading Specialists that um teach part of the day and then have part of the day as release time to support data analysis and support um program intervention for students uh so continued training and support for them uh decodable text and this is part of the Strategic plan as well um that each of our students would have access to decodable texts that aligns with the scope and sequence of curriculum that we're working through particularly in phonic um so that students are getting an opportunity to practice
024uh what their learning um and that would come through our foundations's curriculum and then the the building knowledge curriculum uh and this piece is really important for us will be in year two of our pilot um and this is about that background knowledge that vocabulary building those comprehension strategies that um some students learned because of experiences that they're provided either at home or through the community other students need us to support them in that background knowledge um so we can continue to see the the kind of growth that we've seen this past year so that's the professional development and coaching piece uh the data monitoring is also really really important uh that short cycle in the moment data has to become U more a leading indicator for us so that data that teachers are collecting
025in the moment of instruction to pinpoint the minute that a student begins to uh not understand and begins to to go Ary in terms of of reading Focus um will be a major emphasis for our literacy coaches and our team leads and then we recognize that um recovering from the pandemic is not just um our elc's and Elementary Endeavor we've got to have the whole Community supporting us and so we again are partnering with our retired teacher Cadre um we have um most of our retired teachers that are working in that early literacy and particularly third grade um we also have a very robust partnership with Huntington tutoring um they also are working third grade and they do some up upper grades as well and then we continue to have a solid partnership with Maring
026University that helps us fund our Orton Gillingham tutoring during jump start I'd be happy to answer any questions or entertain any discussion um I have one thank you Mr notor I appreciate that explanation about the in the moment um data collection I understand do all of the second graders take I they do okay and then to go along with that is that used as a data collecting tool too to see which children are Mo most at risk and then you can um select help for tutoring yeah it really provides us that data point leading into the school year and so in 2023 we had about 30% of our second graders that passed I3 so those students will not be required to take it in third grade and then that really allows us to pinpoint additional
027support to those students who didn't pass thank you further questions yeah so first of all Kudos I am so incredibly impressed especially as you look at the work that has been done for El's um I also want to applaud you and your department um for partnering with taju um to make sure that you are really exploring exploring the science of the bilingual brain as it pertains to the science of reading um Lawrence Township continues to be at the Forefront of dual language education um and it is it is incredibly impressive the work that is happening um I did have a question um as it pertains to the IR data because I do know students who do not pass in third grade if they do not have a good cause exemption are required to retake again
028in fourth grade and so is that data that we're seeing for third graders inclusive of those fourth graders or is this just the third graders taking it for the first time the data shared this evening is just third grade perfect okay thank you but Kudos very well done thank you I go ahead okay I was gonna ask um how does the Equitable student outcomes dashboard um align with the next steps as well so the the Equitable student outcomes dashboard really is about systems and processes so there are specific action plans around data for example and so you you've seen that mentioned this evening there's specific actions around professional development and support to for teachers particularly with English language Learners so you see that presented this evening um the way that our Equity audit was done
029and the way that the um action plan is set up it's built around our systems as opposed to a very specific data point in time and so you should see data professional development and support for teachers particularly for language Learners hearing you say is we are literally seeing our Equity dashboard and okay thank you for that um I would just like to mention for clarity that that well before I mention anything for clarity um this is a first for me I've been on the board for 11 years and to see this kind of um upward movement and achievement in all on almost all of our kids and such um amazing achievement for our El kids is profoundly profoundly impactful for me um the work we've done is start is working I thank you from the
030bottom of my heart it'll mean it'll mean the world to our children um and I just for clarity you know we see on slide three if we go back to slide three we see that the um um scores went down significantly for our white population but if you go to to four and which is we never want to see that right we never want to see that but if you go to slide four we see that um the pass rate appears to be around 88% yes which is the highest pass rate of all of our subgroups yes um so I don't have as much concern as I would if that were a number slipping in a different subgroup um but to see you do just need to pay attention to that over time that's why
031we look at three years of data if we continue to see a 5% decrease we're going to close our achievement Gap but we're going to close it the wrong way exactly exactly so that's not what Lawrence Township will do um and I just wanted to to talk to you for a minute about in the moment Data Tracking I know I have seen in classrooms do you mean literally in the moment so we I've seen in classrooms where the kiddos are working on their computers and the teacher is monitoring um and you can literally see literally in the moment what's what's happening is that how that's one form of of data monitoring in the moment another is uh teachers and let's just take phonics for example teachers working with an individual student for 30 seconds around
032aonic skill is the student able to identify correctly the Blends that they've been working on is the student able to sound it out are they able to recognize it in text and working with each individual student and tracking that data so that there can be immediate intervention for a student who's not getting it as opposed to waiting two or three weeks for some type of larger assessment it's great and that is what I love about Lawrence Township drilling down to the individual that is fantastic thank you so much uh this is wonderful information I appreciate it you're welcome okay um if the board is ready we'll move on to our financial update Mr miles thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board tonight you get uh twice the fund from the financial report
033we're going to look at both June and July's reports uh as you may recall um back in July we have some transfers and other things that have to take place um to close out June so sometimes we share those uh financials in August which is what we're doing tonight so um as you look at the general fund uh report from June um again you see our Trends uh moving as we've seen them earlier in the year um our revenue is tracking up just a slight bit above projected um and expenditures just a little down um so everything's very positive there um as we move to the transportation fund also from June 30th again trends that we've seen throughout the year um with our salaries trending a little a little little above what we originally projected
034um and revenues I'm going to come back to that in just a second um but our totals there uh very close to in line with where we had projected through June as we move forward to July uh for the general fund again same Trends um Revenue in a good place expenses in a good place as well um very positive on the general fund side and then I point out on the transportation fund for July um just a note there at the bottom um there's a transfer an internal transfer from where we receip our some of our operations funds and then split that out we had not done that yet as of the end of July but we did make a note on that so um we do have a revenue an income uh posting for
035um July of just about $7.5 million so once you include that uh the transportation fund is in a good place as well board welcome any comments about our finance I want to continue to congratulate you on doing such an incredible job of making sure that we are well balanced I I do have a question I was looking at um some items here in our approval of our uh service agreements and know that one of our um initiatives is to make sure that we have retired teachers which is a wonderful ship um but also know that we're paying them $100 an hour and some of them are making upwards of $70,000 an hour for contracted services and so I'm curious as to what bucket of money that is coming from and how that is sustainable over
036time sure that's that's a a great question I welcome that um is that something I see Troy's keying up his mic Mr not that's gonna come from curriculum go ahead to that yes our retired teachers are funded through our federal funds Esser funds okay so this is about our academic recovery our learning loss recovery that those funds are intended for so what is and sorry I meant to say 70,000 a year $100 an hour right um what is this obviously we're not paying $70,000 an hour um but what is the plan for that because we know those dollars are sunsetting in 2024 um what is the plan for sustainability well the the first plan is to monitor Effectiveness and so in order for a retired teacher to be renewed for this year um the students
037that they were tutoring last year had to have above a 5050 50th percentile growth on our fast Bridge assessment so we'll be using I ready this year and measuring growth over time so that's number one we've got to have um proven results um we are in the process not just with retired teachers but with other um academic recovery initiatives that we have the data to know that we're getting the return on on our investment um we are in the process of moving those some of those expenses even before our Esser funds run out into other um entitlement grants that we receive every year so for example title one so you will see um some retired teacher contracts that are embedded into title one uh we're beginning to put some Huntington tutoring into title one so
038that over the next two years we can for those um initiatives that have proven successful um we can begin to create sustainable funding sources for them thank you I recognize some names on those lists and you've got some really really outstanding retired teachers doing the work so um just wondering how we keep those good eggs doing the work that they're doing absolutely let's see we are at board committee chair reports already how about that um Miss Dunn policy I don't know what more we can say about about it tonight love you Dr harburger that's all I have to say thank you for holding my hand this newbie uh Miss Lawrence my committee wasn't listed on here and I have no update I'm good okay thank you no problem Miss Norman uh mine's really short registration
039is still underway for the ltsf bridge Fund Golf Outing Friday September 29th at Pebblebrook golf course in Noblesville 100% of the proceeds directly benefit LT kids uh registration can be found at www. msdl tf. org that is all and Mars e fabulous thank you very much at least one of our audience members is very glad that you mentioned the butterfly gardens no doubt miss butterfly all right um at that we will move on to our action items um action item number one Mr miles the approval of the authorization to proceed with our 1028 thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board at this time I recommend that the board board approve authorization to proceed with a 1028 preliminary determination hearing as presented so moved properly moved and second is there any discussion all
040in favor I I I any opposed we have approved that authorization next up is the approval of our superintendent contract um and I recommend that we approve the superintendent's contract is there a motion second she did no I know I recommend oh I'm sorry recommend so moved my apologies properly moved and seconded um we have some audience uh some stakeholders who would like to address this I would like to ask Miss Liz Missour to come forward please even though I Stay your name just again state your name your address and your affiliation with Lawrence Township I am Liz mour I reside at 6203 Carrington Drive uh three children of mine three daughters went through the Township Schools and are productive for the most part members of uh productive citizens and I was a teacher at
041Lawrence North high school for a few years so thank you Dr Smith and members of the school board for giving me an opportunity to speak it is an honor and a privilege to live in a school district with a mission statement that states that it Fosters a community that values academic excellence and lifelong learning and challenges each student to become a responsible citizen of a global Society Dr Smith as the board considers renewing your contract I hope that you will as a servant leader think globally and act locally about MSD lt's Landscaping policies for the health of the health of our children and the environment and for fiscal reasons please consider instituting a sea change when it comes to turf grass despite the insistence by chemical companies such as beay Monsanto da and most long
042care companies that pesticides fertilizers and herbicides for treating turf grass are benign there are concerns Owen wormser 2021 book Lawns into Meadows present scientific studies delineating how quote Lawns significantly degrade the ecological health of land and water and contribute to global warming on quote a local physician Dr Paul Winchester has stated there is data showing a connection between exposure to Lawn Care chemicals and pre-term births in his book Nature's Best hope Douglas Talam details how quote 40 to 60% of fertilizer applied to Lawns ends up in surface and groundwater where it kills aquatic organisms and contaminates drinking water unquote additionally mowing grass is responsible for 5% of the air pollution in the US pollution which exacerbates the asthma many children have reducing turf grass and installing native pollinator friendly flowers in contrast is beneficial native
043flowers flourish without pesticides and fertilizers their deep roots reduce flooding and they sustain insects such as bees and butterflies which pollinate a third of the food Foods we consume in addition to health issues there are fiscal reasons for reducing turf grass a 2020 30 seconds left okay so there are fiscal reasons so as a school district which applauds innovation and doing the right thing please start implementing Landscaping practices which reduce costs reduce global warming and benefit our children thank you thank you very much Miss mour we appreciate your comments uh Miss Mr Eric Young again please state your name and address and your affiliation with the township and I as I forgot to mention you have three minutes hello I am Eric Young I reside at 8354 teista Circle I am a parent and volunteer
044of the district Madam president members of the board Dr Smith good evening I'm here to speak on the consideration of the superintendent's contract I have several questions about the contract while I realize you may not answer my questions directly however I hope each of you will take the time to be sure you can answer these questions for yourself unfortunately the data provided in the given contract does not give comparisons to the current contract so that makes it a little bit difficult to make informed decisions on my behalf thus the questions section two states the term is set to July 1 202 3 to June 20 2026 so my question is why is the board discussing and potentially approving the contract after its effective dat item 5B incentive pay I would like to see more definitive
045measurements included here for example the districts I read score which we just discussed our recently released score of just 66% is woefully inadequate which I think everyone can agrees to LTE has the second lowest score in all of Maran County and we are significantly below the state average of 82% retirement contributions as I read the published contract the district is paying for one the superintendent portion of his contributions to iner Indiana Public retirement system plus we are adding to his salary the am equal to the federal income tax amount on that contribution two $20,000 to a 457b retirement fund total in 2023 the maximum that can be contributed is only 30 is 30,000 so we're big chunk of that contribution or that limit three 17,500 to a 403b retirement fund and four we are contributing
046,000 to a Viba which I had to look up a voluntary employee benefit Association defined for my reading as a group of employees that may pull resources to establish qualified benefit programs curious to know reason for those funds and why the district as the employer is making that contribution Mr Young you have 30 seconds thank you I do not know the amount being contributed to impers but with just the other three this is nearly th000 in addition to the salary and other benefits I would like to see the district's contributions re stated as a percentage of the contribution made by the superintendent himself finally as it is the board that employs the superintendent is my expectation that all of you were involved in drafting this contract and my ask to each of you as your
047constituent is that you do not that if you do not have clear answer or understanding to any of these points that you table this decision until you do have clear answers and understanding thank you thank you very much for speaking with us we appreciate you um board comments Miss Pucket do we have comments on the do you have any comments on the contract I can miss Norman do you have comments on the com since we live in a world of acronyms I had to write out an acronym for um regarding the contract but can is now the time to speak or should we wait till we vote we speak before we vote okay got it okay well when considering and I appreciate all of the input from the public um when we look at this
048take a step back and look at a big view um I had to use an acronym because I have Mom brain and it helps me put everything in line I came up with vase um the reason uh moving forward for me is Vision we need leadership that has Vision not for the next school year but beyond because this will impact our children we are parents we have a lot of uh kids involved and there's a lot at stake also the vision to develop to see the future and to develop the Future Leaders of not just our District but those who might go out to other districts um a is acknowledgement acknowledgement that we are not perfect and there are definitely areas of improvement um you takes humility to see where we need to really grind
049our heels and um and work on and that I do see that um s is stability stability comes from the continuity um we are fortunate to have a superintendent with I believe 34 years of public education experience uh my mother and my uncle were both lifelong Educators almost 35 years each and we are in challenging times right now it feels heavy it feels burdensome it feels that way for the teachers for the families for everybody involved um public education is under attack at times and we see that so we need that stability in our district um moving forward um and again just um I put Excellence from that realm the Excellence for me comes from getting us a seat at the table from our uh view on the board one of the important things to
050me is that we're able to meet with our state legislators we'll see we've seen some impact we still have more to go but being able to meet with our state legislators face to face most of us are parents of kids in the district multiple kids actually and to be able to meet with them face to face and share the stories of how public education funds have helped our children not just learn and grow but physically walk navigate a space an environment that's uncomfortable to them um I mean I can't really put a quantification on that but from coming in Corporate America I do know that the networking is very valuable and I do commend Dr Smith on the connections that he has created um and I do believe we're going to see continue to see
051a return on investment there so that is my um comments that I wrote out uh in my deep Reflections about their superintendent contract moving forward and I will pass the mic on La if you could come back to me I wasn't necessarily prepared we don't normally do comments right before the vote so I'm gonna pass it to miss dun yes and so um vice president Norman I Echo many of your sentiments uh superintendent Smith you are truly doing an outstanding job of leading the ship here in Lawrence Township most recently you are appointed um as the regional advisory committee for the Midwest um for the Department of Education something that um is truly an honor I know that our superintendent is doing outstanding work um across this District I also know that when we look
052at the compensation that our superintendent is making and comparison to other superintendents with similar experience across the district or across Central Indiana um that um we are paying um a very handsome wage to our superintendent um I know as a 30-year educator none of us go into this profession for um the salary we do it for other purposes and I truly believe that about superintendent Smith um that said um I have 100% faith in the work that superintendent Smith is doing um my vote to abstain on his contract is by no means indicative of the respect that I have for superintendent Smith but it is because I truly believe that it is our job to negotiate the salaries of our teachers and of our classified staff before we negotiate that of our superintendent and that
053is why I will be abstaining this evening I will also be abstaining this evening um for many of the same reasons that Miss Dunn stated I do want to say Dr Smith you and I have worked together for a very long time I've been deeply involved with this district and with um with the refer referendum I've been a member of the Lawrence Township foundation for many many years as well and I've known many of you on this board for many years prior to being elected to the board my vote to abstain is not at all a reflection of how I feel about this District but I am echoing many of the same sentiments that Miss Dunn shared in her comments um Dr Smith I know we're going to do great things as a district I
054also know that on this board we have the votes to pass this if if that weren't the case my vote may have been different tonight but I I do want to say and thank you and your Administration for the work that you've done over the many many years to continue to support our school and our children thank you um I've been on this board and worked with Dr Smith I've been on the board for 11 years and worked with Dr Smith for 10 so I am tonight the history teacher I'd I'd like to start with explaining the salary structure for Dr Smith's contract when he came on board Dr Smith as Miss dun so beautifully said did not come to this job for the money um we intentionally structured his contract at that time so
055that he was near the mid or the bottom range of superintendence and Maran County we structured it that way because we knew that he would get the percentage raises on that base salary year after year equal to what our teachers got so whatever we determine our teachers will get this year based on the monies that we are given from the state Dr Smith's our Administration will get the same percentage so the reason that Dr Smith's salary has base salary has become large is because we have been blessed with the longevity the continuity and the sustained Excellence that that board that hired him believed we would have so in comparing his salaries to others you have to look at how long they've been on they've been serving you have to look at um what they have
056been able to accomplish while they've been there and um as for um retire pay Etc it is not equal to what we give our teachers Dr Smith is responsible for every single thing that happens in this District it is a heavy load and his salary is structured differently than our teachers but his raise on his salary has always been in line with our teachers Dr Smith has improved our graduation rates from the mid to high 8 80 percentile range to 93 94% across the district we've seen significant upticks in our achievement particularly in traditionally underperforming subgroups as you can see with u Mr not's presentation this evening we spent two and a half years working on our Equitable outcomes initiative because in Lawrence Township Equity is not a one paragraph statement it is a way
057of life and that through Dr Smith's leadership we reorganized how we deal with gifted students in light of our Equity how we how they are how they come to us how we treat their individual needs um we have a strategic planning um dashboard that will be up soon or is up I'm sorry and you can can um you can see our dashboards on site for equity and strategic planning speaking of strategic planning when Dr Smith arrived on campus we had no board goals we had no strategic plan we had no Blue Ribbon building plan we had teachers that hadn't gotten a raise for three years there was a lack of communication throughout the district and between the board and the administration we were we were almost at the brink of deficit spending we might have
058been in deficit spending for a year and had to close the school we had um no meetings with our legislators we had very few meetings with the administration Dr Smith came on board and within a year we had board goals we had a strategic plan we had a blue ribbon building plan we meet with Dr Smith once a month each board member that's no small thing and we get reams of information every week that it's very almost very difficult to keep up with every school has been renovated retouched we want a referendum we you can see in our the pride in our school schools we've rebuilt the stadiums we have rebuilt the high schools we have um brought Pride back to our kids my children in particular who used to call um along with all
059of their friends call our fields on their campuses the ghetto they were so bad um I will say that what is crucial in this district is continuity and continued Excellence we all know there's a teacher shortage we all know there's an administrative shortage you all are the top in your field each and every one of you here tonight and so are our teachers and you could leave tomorrow and find a great job at another District if you wanted to leave this great District why are we doing this contract today because the fiscal year is July 1st and I want everyone in this District to know that Excellence will continue in this district and we can count on Dr Smith's being here for another three years and that makes makes it easy for me to sleep
060at night so for that reason I will be voting yes having heard from each of the board members and our community members oh okay Crystal yes um I again I think um everyone that had spoke today that's one thing that I honestly you hear so much from neighboring groups on what it looks like the negative way to hash out things I have to say I appreciate the honor and how um we move things forward so I'll just leave that there but I will say just for the record I did want to say that Indiana has had a superintendent leader um around 2018 who was around the 300,000 salary benefits package Mark um and this uh person was well under 10 years of service just so that we aren't um thinking that this is like an
061outlier moment right now um this moving forward um I do want to also say that there's a duality in my mind because I sat and thought about this as well that I can be equally passionate about the salaries with our Township um of our Educators and so forth and equally passionate about my superintendent and um what he what he earns and I'll I'll just leave I'll just leave that there you guys I'm really trying to um thank you for hearing me process out loud um I'll just leave this here Dr Smith your human capital has brought Lawrence a higher economic reach return for our Township um referendum leader for advocate of mar Marian County leader in the urban School Association political state house um representation I'm not sure what all else I can name so
062I'll just leave that right there the one that stuck stuck out to me the most and I wish that I I didn't get his permission to share his name and so I won't but in the conversations that I have had this individual um I simply asked asked from your experience with superintendence what stands out concerning um Dr Smith's leadership this individual works with many leaders Nationwide and what he had said was his understanding of community his perspective of a mentor education and business the fiscal component we have no fiscal concerns he also added the additional people that I could talk to as a reference to even give more depth and more grounding um this sealed my yes and um I think my bigger concern is we would lose more by not having you as a
063leader of our Township you bring receipts with with your work and receipts are Urban vernacular for proof or evidence just so you know um so I just want to just what I really want to say I'm going to put an ellipsis on but I will say this I think that I will continue to e in the form of Duality because the beauty of equity work is that the beauty of equity I'm just going to say it the beauty of equity work is that you have to be cognizant that the decisions that you make or that people make don't undo the very work that you are looking to move forward and so the bigger thing for me is we can't afford to lose you um I'm going to leave that there but I'm grateful for the
064work that we all do up here I really truly am um I'm going to leave that there Wendy thank you all for your heartfelt comments I appreciate all of that them um I will also say if Dr Smith wanted to donate his entire salary and benefits package today to the teachers it would have almost zero impact on what they could be paid almost zero and I'll reiterate again Dr Smith is not a teacher he's LED this great District into in into a new great space so with that all in properly moved and seconded all in favor I I any opposed any abstaining say abstain abstain all right thank you that Dr Smith your contract is approved and with that we move on to the um we move on to the um less emotional approval of
065the Lawrence North roof bids Mr Smith Madam president members of board Dr Smith I recommend the board approve Dano Roofing Incorporated for the Lawrence North roof replacement as submitted you have a motion so moved second properly moved in seconded is there any discussion board with no discussion all in favor I I any opposed guys have it um go on to the approval of our Neola policies Dr harb thank you Madame President members of the board Dr Smith earlier this evening I brought forward to Second reading the Neola special July 2023 package revision package and now recommend that for approval as submitted so moved properly moved and seconded um is there any discussion about the Neola policies all those in favor of approving those policies I I any propos oh yes um we I'm sorry I'm
066sorry Mr Evans we can't that would be out of our word anyway I'm I'm very sorry I apologize um okay um so have we approved the policies yet did we vote all those in favor of approving the policies did we approve them yeah we did vote okay waiting no to okay all those in favor of approving the policies i i i any post okay we've approved the policies um um approval of the board minutes um we are at the oh Madam president I move we treat action items 4.5 to 4.11 as consent agenda so moved second all those in favor of treating 4.5 to 4.11 as a consent agenda I I I any opposed I move approval of the consent agenda and now so moved okay she moved it so you second second yeah okay
067properly moved in seconded um all those in favor of of approving the consent agenda I I I any opposed we've approved the consent agenda okay we have found ourselves at uh board and and uh superintendent comments I'm going to I'm gonna I'm gonna wait just a second and go down here any board comments Miss done no La none from me either thank you Miss Norman I just had a really General one um we had our consent agenda but one of the items at the end was 4.11 it's something we do as a board we approve donations given to the district and we are very grateful for our Community Partners and oftentimes these are in the form of money or um other um physical items so I just want to thank the public and our partners
068who donate to support our kids and teachers thank you very much uh Miss Pucket do you have additional comments tonight no um I I would like to say that um the LA Central game was really exciting really exciting really exciting a lot of really exciting and I didn't get to go to the Lawrence North game uh that we yeah they did that and uh we're proud of both of our teams very proud of both of our teams they're they're working hard um and I will just add one thing that I neglected to mention in the approval of Dr Smith's contract is that the administration and the teacher teams and the teams of AIS and the fact that AIS have access to to through our schools to help them move on and get their teaching license
069um our staff is second to none our custodial staff our our our food service staff our bus drivers our staff is second to none and that is thanks to Dr Smith's leadership so thank you I will give you the last board com well since I know a lot about Community Dr nesb please stand and give us a report on what's going to happen Friday because if we don't bring this to the board and put on the record then we're not doing us a service because we're going to Clash on Friday is that correct that's right president Mustin members of the board Dr Smith talk about Community our biggest Community event that we do about every four years as far as when say biggest volume of people that will be present because we'll be about 6
070to 8,000 people will come down to Lucas Stadium this Friday September 1st and it'll be just a big celebration of our district uh centered around of course a friendly rivalry between Lawrence Central and Lawrence North and we' also of course have Fall Creek and Belzer so here's how the night will run down uh gates open at 5 o'clock the parking lot's open all day so you can go down tailgate all day if you like uh but gates open at 5:00 at 5:30 7th grade bser versus Fall Creek football game and then at 6:30 eighth graders Fall Creek versus Belzer uh then pregame we'll have RC presenting the colors we'll have the Lawrence Central and bser choir sing we'll have the Lawrence North and Fall Creek uh choir sing our national anthem um we'll have our
071dancing groups out there uh and of course then at 8 o'clock we'll have the the Marquee event the LC versus Ln varsity football game and then we'll uh we'll present the trophy after the game any questions we have for you Dr nth will the marching Pride be there oh yes how could I how could I leave that out yes marching Pride they are actually this is a big day for them when we rent the stadium um we rent it from 6:00 AM to midnight and we'll send them down there about noon they'll get there about 1 o'clock and they'll get to practice on the bands of America contest uh Stadium floor you know the turf floor there and um so so it's a big deal for them they get to practice all afternoon they'll have
072dinner down there and then they'll put on their their official performance this year's performance during halftime that's all I have Madam president well I I do have one other question because I do have a trumpet player at Fall Creek Valley and I happen to know that they will also be playing wonder if you could also say something about the Middle School bands Middle School bands will be there too there's so many groups here folks it's really hard to get them all here just at the podium but yeah the Middle School bands will also be participating we really try to get as many grips as we can as a former athletic director there is a a side motive there and that that means parents us should buy some tickets uh but again it's a big event
073we we need to sell tickets to to make it uh you know to so we can put it on but it's really uh a community event uh and we're fortunate to do it we think doing every few years makes it really special um but we really like every four years so every kid have the opportunity to go down there and uh we want to showcase our students and no other school district does this some other schools will play down there we're one of two high school football uh events down there they already had one opening week and there was four four different schools four different school districts but no one can put this on even the other two high school districts they they don't have this leverage uh they don't have this much enthusiasm and
074Community Support uh Lawrence is it and uh we're excited to to be the only one doing it well done all I have Madam president thank you um is there a motion to adjourn so moved second properly moved and seconded we are Jed y hey Matt there's the they're on the table Yeah grab what you want