MSDLT Board of Education Board Meeting 5-22-2023

001pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right as the Lawrence Township Board of Education we are here to set goals listen to reports of the superintendent approved budgets contracts and Personnel appointments and make policy for the district we are not here to make management decisions or solve the problems of individuals management is the responsibility of the superintendent meetings of the board are open to the public it is time when the board conducts its business of governing the school system in a public Arena the regular meetings are not meetings with the public therefore comments from the audience will be confined to the time designated for the public to address the board I am so

002glad you have taken the time this evening to join us and we are very proud of Lawrence Township Schools and thank you for your interest in them okay at that we are going to the board is going to congregate in the front and we have a few Awards above and beyond and the superintendents award we'll start with Miss Carla Johnson good evening Madam president Dr Smith and board members we would first like to give our above and beyond War to Gary Randolph if you could come forward foreign congratulations to Gary Randolph Safety and Security Officer at Belzer Middle School Mr Gary Randolph is a true asset to the students and staff that he serves within the Belzer learning community in his role as a PSO he takes time out to learn about our children so

003that he can better serve their needs or has an understanding of how they can be redirected in a restorative manner when Gary is in the building his presence is felt because the staff and students know that he is there to keep us safe and to support the situation or the person in need Gary is truly a Difference Maker because he cares I'm honored to present Gary Randolph with the above and beyond award congratulations [Applause] Middle School thank you next we'd like to recognize Tracy destorr [Applause] congratulations to Tracy nurse at Belzer Middle School when it comes to providing medical attention and support to the staff and students at Belzer middle school nurse Tracy exemplifies excellence in customer service on a daily basis nurse Tracy serves the members of the Belzer Community with bear pride and

004goes above and beyond the Call of Duty to make sure that the members of our Learning Community are well supported when calls are made for medical support nurse Tracy shows up takes control of the situation with a sense of urgency and works with our families to make sure that our children are receiving the best care possible we're an honored to present Tracy with the above and beyond congratulations [Applause] thank you happens and you have with us tonight oh [Applause] and next we'd like to pretend to present the superintendent's Ward to Albert guten senior [Applause] stand right congratulations to Lawrence Central heads boys basketball coach Gooden senior on his retirement from coaching coach Gooden celebrates 525 career wins 13 sectional championships nine Regional championships five semi-state championships and the 2001 double-a state championship he has participated

005twice in the Hall of Fame classic championship and has coached four Indiana All-Stars we are honored to present coach Gooden senior with the superintendent's award congratulations [Applause] foreign [Applause] thank you all for coming our next Awards will be given by our assistant superintendent Dr Haas Brown thank you Miss Johnson president Mustin Dr Smith members of the board I'm so proud to bring to you tonight our 2023 district elementary science fair winners and to introduce those winners I'm going to introduce first our four principals who are represented Within These winners and will go honorable mention we have two schools third second and first and so our principals if all four of you would come up our honorable mention Award winners come from Forest Glen and Sunnyside our third place winner from oaklandon our second place winner

006from Amy beverlyn and our first place winner from Forest Glen so introducing those students Mr Lalu Miss Dana's Miss sheets and Mr Pennington and we'll begin with honorable mention with Miss Dana's and then Mr Lalu congratulations to Leah Coley Coley and JC Anderson an honorable mention for the science fair and Mr Lalu if you'll come up and the huge congratulations to Lindley the hearts and Charlotte Tran for the honorable mention Forest Glenn and Mrs sheets from oaklandon our third grade place a third place winner is John Heiser and his family is not here tonight so we congratulate him from a distance and our second place Award winner Mr Pennington if you'll introduce congratulations to Second Place Award winner for the science fair Miss Katie Miller and Mr Lalu if you'll introduce our science fair winners

007and the first place in the Canada and Chloe Bartlett [Applause] thank you [Applause] I think they've got the I know I love that thank you so I see you've all gotten the memo nobody wants to stay for our fascinating business meeting uh enjoy the lovely weather too much sunlight today I have to say that was pretty exciting that um we had an all-girl winning science team up there that was uh that's true [Music] so we'll continue now with our regularly scheduled business meeting um Mr Roger Smith our Blue Ribbon update please Madam president members aboard Dr Smith again we continue on Ln West Wing we are nearing completion on this major portion of the building uh LC or the new Art Labs finishing touches going on there and likewise in uh media center Fields continue

008on we've had a couple of good weeks of weather so they're making a lot of progress on the site improvements at both buildings actually you know the pool continues on the steel girders are up and almost all the concrete walls are in place phase two at Ln continues again six classrooms and a small theater Commons area second floor is being erected with steel the gym continues renovation and of course the two-story demo continues as well LM pool tile work continues on as Wells the rest of the portion of the building the site work around the pool continues likewise the site this here is a new if you go back one is a new parking lot at the Ln soccer and baseball stadium and this is a soccerville being prepped for Turf those are middle schools

009prepped and ready to go for renovations that start in June and ln's almost there their portable was delivered this week our Fall Creek Valley I'm sorry LACC we can our forest Glenn Portables uh are in place and they'll be set starting next week after the kids are out of the way and uh ready for four classrooms in addition for uh Forest Glenn LACC the new lecc we continue to design work on that facility as well great Ward do you have any questions about how we're progressing on the Blue Ribbon facilities plan I do have one um thank you for the updates Mr Smith with the summer athletic camps going on at the high schools for instance basketball and volleyball camps where will those be housed in while the construction is going on uh we'll be

010moving the parking lots around through the course of the summer so they're going to have some mac uh actually parking on the North and the west side but there'll be moved periodically because we have a lot of site work going on but we're still going to conduct our camps both for sports and Performing Arts okay in the gym yes oh okay so it'll be well the field house oh in the field okay at both campuses okay okay thank you great and then we go on uh Mr opposed Ford resolution approving the land transfer for the new lecc Madam president members board Dr Smith I'm kind of excited about this uh information bringing to the board it's a proposed board resolution and land transfer from the Ford uh Harris reuse Authority and tonight we have some

011guests with us first of all I want to bring out Mr Jeff Quackenbush from Barnes and Thornburg and also with us tonight is board president Jeff vess from the fhra Fort Harrison reuse Authority as well as Jason Fenwick who is the Secretary of the ReUse Authority these gentlemen have been very instrumental in getting us to this uh position of obtaining this land so doctor or Jeff Quackenbush thank you Mr Smith Madam president members of the board Dr Smith it's a pleasure to be with you this evening these two items go together uh the resolution approves the transfer agreement that is that has been described already this would locate the new LACC on the Fort Harrison facility area um and is the essential terms of the contract are that it's an exchange of property for no

012cost associated with that so you're getting all the land for no cost to you all uh in exchange for which you're agreeing to build your new lecc building on that site and use it for the purposes of the administration like you're using the facility here currently um there are some additional action items that have to be take place for example you'll have to get a survey and go through title work and things like that that are in the agreement as well but the key component I would just like to highlight is that this is a win-win for both situations because it's allowing a nice government facility to be on that property but also it's lowering your cost of your construction because you're not having to go out there and purchase new property so I would

013be happy to go through any of the terms and conditions in the agreement if you have any questions regarding that we discussed this and negotiated it with uh the recent Authority and their attorney and this is a very similar document to what they've used with other governmental entities when they've exchanged property for no value so it's not any bit different from their standpoint than what they've seen from others so I would just like to say how grateful I am for our Community Partnerships this is outstanding outstanding and thank you to the Fort Bend reuse Authority for um seeing the value and having our our school Center there on the site any other comments questions just thank you thank you thank you I was just going to add I think this is going to be an

014awesome and incredible opportunity for our community to have our school district there and part of all of the great work that's happening in the Fort Harrison area I know Amy and I both sat on the the reviews of the different Architects for the facility and I I'm just so impressed by what we have in store for us the lecc also what we're going to be able to then do with this building to repurpose it for for other usage uh the the fact that we're not paying for the land is really critical to that so thank you thank you yes thank you it's exciting and exciting time in downtown Lawrence so thank you all foreign with the board we'll move on to um the proposed agreement of the transfer of the property correct and so the

015document is is just the agreement that's that you'll be approving as a part of the resolution under 4.1 as I stated this agreement is very similar to what they've used with other governmental entities in the past um and what two things I also want to point out here is that you need to start construction no later than July 1 2024 it's currently contemplated that we'd actually start construction uh much sooner than that especially now that we have the property under our possession shortly Hereafter we will be able to then start really doing the design work on that on that property and get that all ready to go it's currently anticipated that we'll start construction either at the end of this year the beginning of 2024 so that gives us a six month cushion there and

016in addition then it's required that we be completed with construction by July of 2026 it's currently contemplated that we'd be done by December of 24 or January of 25 because we need to vacate this building to be able to do the transformation that is needed to bring this second phase of project here so so it gives us enough cushion there on time time to be able to get those accomplished there are the store the standard outs if there's any sort of delay as a result of material supply disruption anything of that sort that would not trigger a default into that but that is if everything is going smoothly then you have to be completed by those dates but great any questions any clarifications thank you for being with us you're very welcome thank you all

017right okay now this is going to be a nice exciting conversation the proposed 5 8 Academy Dr Brown and Mr kuznick Smith members of the board as with as was referenced now that we've talked about uh important for us to talk about what will now take place in this building once that move occurs tonight our team brings to you a presentation of the proposed 5 8 Academy and future programs here at Lawrence education and Community Center currently here at lecc we house our diagnost diagnostic day treatment which is facilitated by our exceptional Learners division Lawrence Advanced Academy Lawrence educational Alternative Program also known as leap we'll be proposing adding a Home Access Center adult education and Craig prep which will be a 5 8 Academy with the exception of Craig prep all of these programs

018would be known as the supportive tiers at Craig otherwise known as stack you know how we love our acronyms in education so we hang up with one more of them so the support of tiers at Craig stac all these programs except for Craig which we separate from that we would still have Community Partnerships here at lecc and Ms Sean Bush will talk about that and Dr Smith president Mustin and members of the board the Community Partners you see listed here are all currently housed at lecc and would remain we have the sharing place the offices for communities and schools the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and the Lawrence Township Schools Foundation would maintain storage here at LACC Miss Bush so this plan will reintroduce Craig to the Lawrence Township community as a school proposed legislation makes

019school buildings vulnerable right now at this time and reestablishing Craig primarily as a school will not only offer options and alternatives for our students and families you know serve them better but it will also protect our building asset so the additions that we're proposing to add here at lecc Edition number one would be a Home Access Center this is actually a program that we looked at before covid but for obvious reasons had to shelves so we bring that back today so when appropriate the Home Access Center would provide after-school programming including face-to-face instruction to support students that are currently placed on home access program would be available Monday through Thursday after school from four to six with different days reserved for different grades so for example Middle School could go on Monday and Wednesday in

020high school would be on Tuesday Thursday Staffing would involve four High School teachers and four Middle School teachers those could be in the form of stipends given to a teachers to have this as an additional duty outside their contract and would need four classrooms to provide this since this would be after school those four classrooms could be shared with LA addition number two would be adult education you'll see this slide does not have a whole lot on it yet we wanted to inform you that we're exploring the um the potential to offer adult education programming in the evening here at this building as we explore that we'll learn a little bit more about what we needed for Staffing and classroom needs right now the cost can be difficult for an adult education you don't get

021ADM dollars for adult education therefore we would explore some other possible grant funding that is out there to support adult education and the final Edition Craig Prep Academy I know we're all excited to hear about that and Craig prep would be a new school within our Township that would serve ultimately a total of 400 students but 100 students in fifth grade and 106th grade the first year and so we would build that program starting with Fifth and 6th and 7th and 8th for a total enrollment of 400. the next slide you'll see a proposed timeline you can see our planning team a reconvened recently to prepare for the board presentation to you tonight and we know Renovations will be happening as you heard from Mr Smith and should this plan be approved we have a

022timeline to Market to families in 2026 and also begin the application process which means we would work on Staffing in the spring of 27 for an opening day of August 2027 with an ultimate all four grades in August of 2029 so some long-range planning for you why Craig Pratt we have a need within our community we have many families who seek a smaller environment particularly in that age group five through eight and our this programming would have an emphasis on African-American culture and these are points the smaller environment the African-American culture are often points used by private schools and Charter Schools who compete for our students and when you think about the the specialization of this program and the focus I want you to also think about what we do for our immersion students immersion

023students of all ethnicities come to learn about Hispanic culture within our emotion immersion programming and so this is another need and request we've had from our families how's it different it would be by choice just like immersion is by choice it would be a smaller School environment it would be an emphasis on African-American culture just like immersion is an emphasis on bilingualism and Hispanic culture there would be self-directed evidence of student learning Rhythm rhyme student performance and of course leadership development and now I'll ask Mr noder to go over the curriculum good evening Madam president members of the board Dr Smith Craig prep would be similar to our other schools in terms of having a rigorous curriculum and integrated curriculum however the focus would be primarily on African-American culture through the humanities so in in

024the humanities would be integrating our English language arts social studies culture language into one discipline and then the integration of steam so math science engineering art design integrated into one curriculum with elective offerings also primarily in music and physical education in addition to the Core Curriculum there would be other co-curricular or extracurricular opportunities available to students at Craig prep including Athletics particularly for sixth seventh and 8th graders academic competition teams robotics coding all of the um co-curricular stem activities that are available at our other schools also with the focus on philanthropy student government and student leadership so how would these 400 students be selected very similar to our immersion process we would host a window where we would advertise to our families and accept applications just like we do now for immersion at Forest Glen

025Skiles test and Sunnyside at the end of the window as long as we have spaces allotted for all the students who apply they'd be accepted and if not we would use the same process that we used for cap generating a wait list and then filling spots as we have them available so the exact same process that our community is familiar with and what would it take to staff a program such as correct prep year one with 200 students you can see in grades five through six we would be looking for staff members with Elementary licenses to staff the curriculum that Mr noderer just shared we'd also have related arts and supportive special education enl and other support services and some of those would be shared with LA so they might already be in place year

026two you can see in yellow we would look to add um not just five and six but also seventh grade and once you get to seventh grade the licensure for secondary teachers does differ from that of Elementary so it would be looking at Ela math science and social studies and also the addition of a counselor and year three when we would be up to our proposed goal of 400 students then we would be looking to add as you can see in yellow 8th grade and to address the building usage that would be needed for this proposal is Mr Smith [Music] thank you madam president members board Dr Smith in order to accommodate these programs we would move into a phase two renovation for Craig Academy and identifying Craig prep ten classroom diagnostic day treatment Three

027classroom plus offices laa leap adult education of course that would be to be determined and shared spaces the gym running track of course was being renovated this summer again some office nurses office cafeteria and kitchen would have to be added as well to the building so we present this proposal to you and we're happy to take any questions you might have start your engines thank you so I just want to clarify when you um I have a couple of clarifying questions and a couple of others when you're talking about home access is that um the same as homebound students no it is not so could you clarify what that is home access is an alternative that we have for students that uh for for disciplinary reasons maybe the traditional for our students you know 34

028years 30 or 40 years ago some of those students would have been expelled and we are trying to find creative ways and alternative ways to work with our students to keep them attached to their school keep them earning their credits earning their diploma so the home access right now typically or for the most part is virtual and communication through canvas and communication through email to back and forth between teacher and students so a Home Access Center would allow us when appropriate to bring some students in or some face-to-face time from face-to-face instruction so how many total students would that be approximately at any one time okay and then would Transportation be provided we work on what we could do there it would be a little tricky with the time because four o'clock is during dismissal

029of secondary but we would work to provide what we can absolutely and then I know um it's exciting to think about adult education that is uh something that I am very passionate about and so and also thinking about um Craig prep what Community Partners have been identified to potentially support us in this work so for adult education we're doing our research right now learning from others that do this in other areas to see what what we can bring here and provide here Craig prep I don't know if you want to talk about those Partnerships that we discussed sure um Ms Don and with the adult Aid we have we're in communication with the state uh right now the adult ed programs on the north side of Indianapolis go through jail for light right so there

030is a major major void on the north side of Indianapolis we hope to provide that for Lawrence Township and I know it's completely aligned to our Equity goals that are in those in those providing Spanish speaking families the opportunity to learn English and so just if Indy Reads has not been an organization that has been um just approached they might be a really good asset for us to look into because I know that we have programming where I work with Indie reads and they've been a wonderful wonderful Community partner sure you want to go ahead and share what we currently have coming this fall we want to go ahead and share that so related to adult education and we actually this is our second go around with this program where we have a program where

031our teachers and faculty have the opportunity to learn Spanish or yes to learn Spanish and our families have the opportunity to learn English by having them work together and so we did this back in 2018-19 obviously through covid we weren't able to meet face to face but it was really really popular and many requests from both parents as well as faculty members to learn each other's languages have an opportunity to interact with each other and besides the language development the relationship development and the understanding that comes when you spend time in the evening with those from a different culture so we're really looking forward to that in the 23-24 school year as far as any other other Community Partners for Craig prep we already have a number of Community Partnerships that would have the capacity

032to be able to also help us in that regard with Craig prep so Center for leadership development for example we have mentoring programs that are already serving our students in other schools so I think that remains to be seen but we're certainly open to many possibilities and many of those would include Partnerships that we've already established and the curriculum do we know what curriculum you would be using if it's Afrocentric that curriculum process would go through a process just like we do for all of our other curricular adoptions but it certainly would be Afrocentric and then um possible to get a day in the life of what a student would look like from the time they arrive until the end of the day what that looks like as well as the costs so how is

033this going to impact what's the overall costs potentially associated with this and then how might that Impact Staffing especially at our elementary schools if we're going to be pulling fifth and sixth graders from elementary buildings from a scheduling point of view for the academic day we certainly will be able to outline what that would look like from a rival through dismissal and and possible extracurricular activities as well Miss Dunn from a budgetary standpoint we would look at this program if we're shifting students to move teachers initially we've done that before very very cryptically and very precise but if there are any additional budgetary issues we'd obviously have to come back to the board so that would be the goal is the shift staff if possible that's why you notice very carefully we we're going to

034phase the 5 8 Academy so we make sure we've got the Staffing piece precise process of Staffing would be very similar to what we do now when we look at projected numbers and immersion applications so we're very familiar with that process all right okay um we'll kind of touched on a little bit but um do we have any best practice models concerning because it's very rare that you hear of a I don't want to say a charter setup but that culturally inclusive environment and a Township is there a Best practice model for this that we have kind of looked at or is this something that we're being outliers in from an academic point of view both um there are models across the country for academies such as this and when we research this the first

035time that we brought it to the board there were site visits around the country in preparation one being in Louisville Kentucky but I also think we're an outlier in this work as well just like we're a leader with our Spanish Immersion program we would be a leader certainly in Indiana for a traditional public school to offer this type of opportunity to the community this makes my heart smile so much I I before I was on the board I remember going to this bush going to Dr Smith on my concerns as a parent and it's just certain things that I remember sending my son to class and having to inform the teacher on nonverbal cues and just certain things on how to best educate him because it was just differences and so I'm excited to see

036this that this is feeling something I think that this will help with discipline um because I don't go on a tangent Crystal I'm excited I'll just say that I'm excited to also see that um am I am I jumping the gun when I say that this would be a tool that would also be utilized to help lessen our achievement Gap when it comes to black and brown students that tends to be a nice little Gap there yeah and I think that any time that we're able to meet students where they are culturally linguistically there's always better achievement so those two are really tightly coupled thank you I could go on for on forever about all the benefits but if parent on the other side listening in I would want to know details well why just

037this school that's catered to um so I'm excited that we're doing the work to I'm just excited let me just leave that there thank you we'll miss Dunn asked um two of my questions so thank you and then um the one question I had was more of a historical question since I have younger kids who didn't get to experience the joy of Craig Middle School what what is the building what was the original building capacity how many students did this building have at one time we have a subject matter expert in the room the last principal is still alive and well he's sitting over there I am still alive I am Roger Smith can help out okay Troy Tell them so uh Craig Middle School at when it closed served sixth seventh and 8th graders

038and the total School population was around 1200 the building capacity is over 1500 um but sixth seventh and eighth graders 1200 students when it closed in 2010. okay thank you I feel like I need to go on a board tour of the basement I have never even seen the cafeteria I didn't realize all of that was down there wrestling room Roger there's a layer below the cafeteria I I think Roger before you say something we do need the board to understand regardless of the programs you see here we must put money back into this building because the last major Renovations of the building were BC Mr noderer when he was here so there are places in the building that are really ancient as the other two middle schools that need Renovations that correct Mr Smith

039that is correct yeah I'm all four covering up Mr nooder's initials that he carved in the wall of the bathroom somewhere and I I agree that's it's a great it's a great use of funds I'll show you his old office it is which is Roger's off is that correct where Roger Smith is uh well a couple of quick questions one do we have opportunity for expansion of this program or are we at capacity at 400 students I would say it's just like our immersion programming in that if we find we have significant wait list as we did previously with immersion we came up with a plan and brought it to you to increase access and Roger this building once we get it done we will have capacity we'll have room to add to this building

040without a without a doubt is that correct yep so an additional question how are we supporting those students who maybe have a desire to learn about African-American history and knowledge but maybe aren't part of this program but still have desire and influence sure so African-American history and culture is part of our Core Curriculum that all students would have access to but our Core Curriculum includes pieces of African-American culture white culture Hispanic culture where this would be more of an immersive type of program just like our Spanish Immersion program is but with the focus on African-American culture I'm thinking specifically about black history offerings things like things like that okay um questions um adult education as we're planning for adult education will that include child care do we expect that we consider that right now since

041we're in the exploratory stage we can consider anything board would you like we will do our best most of your adult ad programs do look at that Miss Mustard yeah yeah um but we we've got a lot of work sure and to put this together as well as state and federal grants are going to be out there Mr kuzak and I have been approached and I just want the board to know this by a community partner out there who wants to come into this area and do this and I think it's a great opportunity for us to be ahead of the game before someone else will try to come into Lawrence Township and put this program in place that we are offering child care for our English Spanish programs that we're offering in the fall

042we have lots of ELC teachers who may also benefit from being able to work after hours as well absolutely and we have we have um we have students in our Pathways that could be qualified as well um okay um another question um and this I think I think Dr Brown you basically answered this um I know we want to keep it small because that's the model but I was also hoping that this program could start to help to alleviate some of the overcrowding at our middle schools and I don't see this having any impact on that much so we would have students who would apply a form across the district and of course fifth and sixth grade would be at our elementaries and then seventh and eighth grade from our middle schools and then you

043know as we do right now we would look at how enrollment shifts and how can we best serve the needs of our community where do we need to put resources so that that's part of our normal process that's just at this time of year seeing after cap and the transfer process where our families want to be okay and then you already answered the questions about about staff funding now um can we go to slide 11. perhaps and I think Mr noder you know where I'm going to go with this um we have we have an Afrocentric curriculum and we have steam so we have stem for all we have that embedded in all of our classes music is an elective music is integral if I'm not mistaken and if I am please somebody correct me

044but music is integral to the African-American experience the United States would not be the home of jazz would not be the home of so much of our music if we did not have that influence and I can see a curriculum that would incorporate music throughout our humanities throughout literature throughout history um and there are models for that will we be looking at incorporating music as part of steam incorporating music throughout all of our classes and in addition with one music teacher we have opportunities for vocal music and instrumental music at our middle schools I want to make sure we have those same opportunities um at this school so what are we thinking about about the music curriculum at this point so Rhythm and rhyme are Central cores to Afrocentric curriculum and so even learning how

045to read not that we would be doing that in this Academy but learning how to read has a rhythm and rhyme to it in an Afrocentric curriculum and so that certainly would be woven throughout all of the humanities and this team the music piece would be more of what you're talking about more of a concert type of of uh group that would come together around what the interests were of the students and the the specialty of the teacher so it would be Rhythm and rhyme and music and Cadence that is part of all the curriculum plus the opportunity for traditional performance groups like we have in our middle schools I'm thinking also about um music through the history of the United States absolutely and I'm thinking about you know how we incorporate do do we

046incorporate um you know Scott Joplin and others brought us syncopation you know there was there was no sin and sick of patient before that right and um that's really important in that time of History um Jazz through the you know through the through the um early part of the 20th century and into the into the 21st century uh so many important um I see that as just as important as the literature they'll be studying and integrated if there's a curriculum that incorporates that so that's something I will be looking for in the curriculum and and we will be too and that's why I answered before that this is a committee approach um and we'll need to look at models that are out there but some of it we may have to develop ourselves as well

047thank you so much for um let's see I think that I think that we've Among Us have asked all the questions that I have one more tiny one um good point about the music that's how we discover my daughter's learning style and was able to tap in to help her learn so yes ditto to that um do we know prospectively like how many of our I don't say Lawrence students but um prospective Lawrence students um attend Charters so that just to give a better visual need for this program can you answer that top of our head board members but we um Matt and Dan we'll get it out of our demographic study for you guys I I mean off top of our head maybe 500 kids total that we may have that within our boundaries

048we'll find out we'll give you exact numbers yeah we'll give it to you we'll find out yep thank you I do have another question yeah me too okay um the one thing that I am concerned about is when you have a smaller School environment um it looks like our students would not be able to take advantage of a world language which I think is extremely critical as well when we're talking about access so I would really like to explore the opportunity to be able to offer that and the other thing that and going back to music I think another piece of music that my daughter really was able to connect with so many of her peers and I was actually in Palm Springs last month partaking in a world drumming specifically African drumming um so

049I want us to think about music from all aspects especially coming from um just the I mean that is an ancient form of music and I think is so critical and then the other piece that I want to make sure we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about is I don't see anything about access to um High ability courses and things like making sure that we offer Algebra 1 to our students in the middle level so that they are prepared for high school so just want to make sure that I name that good question good points good points sure you can touch on that and really even with Lawrence Advanced with our high school kids yeah and the the vision would be that we would offer the same curricular opportunities um there may be some

050electives we're not able to offer um just because of the type of specialty teachers that it requires but in terms of advanced math that would definitely be a theme that would run through the entire curriculum beginning fifth grade through eighth grade that would culminate in algebra opportunities for both seventh and 8th graders one last question you probably don't have very many elementary students on home access I wouldn't imagine but don't have any don't have it okay all right all right okay okay very good um aboard our I I just I'm just thrilled I'm thrilled that this is coming to fruition this came to us before and we tabled it for a couple of reasons and um I think finding out that the Fort Bend reuse Authority will give us the land is uh turns out

051to be a great thing and the timing is great the timing is great now and when we talked about this before we felt that our popular student population was largely um Brown children brown and black children African-American children and that creating an Afrocentric School negated the benefit for the rest of the school population subsequently we've we've had our Equity work done and are following that very closely so I think that the timing is right now to make sure that all of our students have access and comfort um being who they are in their culture in this school system so thank you for all that work I have one other thing as you were talking about that it made me think about our Equity goals and in D4 of our Equity goals or Equity work talks

052about tracking data inclusive of racial identification for students referred to leap and so as we're thinking about this beautiful program that we want to add to this building we also know that we have leap and I would really love to find out what type of data we have as far as the racial identification of students that are being referred to that program um so that we hopefully can make some informed decisions about that as well thank you to the board Sean Bush we can provide that again thank you okay I'm writing I'm writing okay thank you very much for that excellent excellent report we look forward to all that's to come there um Matt miles I don't know if this is quite as exciting I'm sorry to say but very important so can you tell

053us about our proposed lunch fees for next year thank you madam president members of the board Dr Smith I would like to introduce and call Miss Rolanda Brown our director of Food Services to the podium and Roe would probably argue with that she probably thinks food service is extremely exciting it is important and um certainly Dr Smith and and I will say um you know it does bring me great pleasure to present you tonight uh the fact that our proposed lunch fees and food costs for next year the 23-24 school year would be maintained at the same price as they are currently and so that's very good news to present to you tonight due to Rose hard work and her team's hard work um these these costs and proposed fees are sort of a function

054of what the state will allow us to charge based on our food costs and our labor costs so later tonight we'll bring to you an opportunity to approve this but tonight it's just information at this time thank you and I will note that I know that our district is rejoining the community is it cies there's a few initials there but joining with other schools in the area for better prices and that would include some better prices for food Etc so thank you for for all of you do for our kids and how you feed them every single day lots and lots and lots and lots of food thank you and pizza okay all right so um Dr Brown and Mr kuznick the proposed adjustment to the count school year calendar this is kind of really

055exciting exciting yeah Lord's night Dr housebran and I bring to you a calendar recommendation for the solar eclipse of 2024. buckle up for your science lesson for the evening on April 8th 2024 Lawrence Township will be in the path of totality for a total solar eclipse so if you look at the time frame for when that will be that'll be from 150 to 423 in the afternoon with the total eclipse occurring from approximately 306 to 309 we had one several years ago but Indianapolis Lawrence Township was not in the path of totality so that's the difference here we're going to cross right over us so obviously that is right in the middle of our dismissal times our elementary school is dismissed at approximately 235 and our secondary school is dismissed at approximately 3 45 so

056that was a concern that was brought to us so Dr Hoss Brown and I called back the District academic calendar committee as well as feedback and input from our Lea as you look at our neighbors our some of our neighbors have moved already we wanted to bring that information to you as well our neighbors to the no North have chosen to extend their Spring Break by one day to accommodate for the eclipse that's not really an option for us because we'll have already been back from spring break a whole week before the eclipse occurs our neighbors to the east have changed to a two-hour early release day that that day that was one option that was discussed but for logistical reasons as well as it wouldn't completely move us out of that window that was

057an option that was not looked at our neighbors to the South have already chosen an asynchronous e-learning day for that day in several other districts and townships are probably listening tonight maybe to see what Lawrence Township might be doing so the recommendations that we bring to you this evening are to move the already scheduled no school day that's currently scheduled for Tuesday February 20th 2024 to move that to Monday April 8th 2024 and make it a no school day on the day of the eclipse early that school day is on a four day weekend for presents Day weekend so it would still have Monday off for the holiday but we then would have school on Tuesday and then we would not have school on Monday April 8th and make that a three-day weekend as well

058we also recommend that working with the curriculum instruction division that we provide education leading up to that day prepare our students and staff to safely view the total solar eclipse present this to you as information at this time and happy to answer any questions thank you for that and I would like to thank the moon for managing this on a Monday yeah right yeah questions so I do have a question uh for the curriculum for um Mr noder have you been in contact at all with the Indiana historical or the Indiana State Museum I know that Bethany Thomas is doing some great work with schools and so I wasn't sure if you'd had a chance to connect with her I have not yet okay because they have got some great things planned so they could

059be a great resource for us absolutely mm-hmm good good good okay um that item having passed will move again to Mr miles and the results of the bids for the lease of the one-to-one devices thank you madam president members of the board Dr Smith it's my pleasure tonight to bring to you as an informational item a review uh going back to our April 24th board meeting when I came to you and asked for permission to advertise for leases to finance our one-to-one devices you will find uh on the slide the results of those those rfps that went out we had four bids that came back and got some competitive offers there that said since uh our time together on April 24th much has happened downtown at our state house which causes us to take pause

060in this area and we really want to wait um to find out more what's going to happen with our curricular resource fees our textbook rental fees and what we are going to be able to do and what the state is going to fund us for so we wanted to do this to be proactive and and do what we've done in years past as far as getting this out but we feel it's a prudent decision at this time to table this so I will bring that to you later tonight for a recommendation but this is for information at this time thank you and you're still you're still up with our financial update thank you madam president happy to still uh be up and share this information with you the board and Dr Smith uh it's again

061my pleasure to uh to share our month-end reports from April 30th for both our general fund and for the transportation fund starting first with the general fund um very encouraging numbers at the end of the month here um and and really on Pace and and kind of outpacing where we expected that we may be at this time so that's that's a good thing from the general fund standpoint and once again likewise from the Transportation fund um we have seen a little bit of an increase in costs as we've been kind of tracking those through the last few months keep noting our salary expenses are just a little high and also um our materials and supplies primarily because of fuel costs that we're still battling from from um as we compared to last year not of

062anything of concern but where you do see those uh the the lovely red x's and the green checks that's kind of giving giving you uh bringing your attention to that but nothing to be concerned at at this point and but happy to answer any questions that the board might have I did notice year to date our general fund we're down about two million dollars from the state funding the state support seems to be down to about two million dollars is that correct um Top Line the Top Line about um actually it's our projected was a 43 million just over 43 million and our actual year to date is is 42.7 almost so about a half million but that does happen from you know um on the revenue mine is not oh I'm sorry I'm looking

063at the the total there uh when you're just looking at the state support it is a little you're you're correct it is about two million dollars are they just behind on payments a little bit um no we probably just missed our projection on that a little bit some of as you can see the miscellaneous is far exceeding um what we thought there so there may have just been some funds shifted um you know from from our projections versus State support versus other other funding sources okay thank you questions I just had a quick one Mr miles and this relates to your old position too um but I've had questions from a couple constituents about how the cost of fuel has affected the district um can you explain in more detail about how they lock in

064we lock in prices so it doesn't fluctuate yeah absolutely so um we're a little bit of both hats on that one um we we are constantly looking at uh how we buy Fuel and when we buy Fuel and certainly we don't have a crystal ball to predict that and and moving some of the fleet over to propane has changed some of how how we purchase fuel as well but we do look to to lock in a percentage of our fuel in advance it does a couple things for us uh primarily what it is it fixes a piece of our budget so that it's not going to go out of control high granted if fuel were to drop we're not going to get that savings either but it at least allows us to to know what

065we've got we don't lock in or pre-purchase um all of our fuel because we do want to allow some flexibility and certainly um you know we have to kind of we have to determine a set amount of fuel that we're going to buy so we want to make sure we're going to use that as well so um that's kind of how we look at it sometimes we'll go a few months at a time sometimes we may go three or three to six months at a time it just depends on what the market looks like and and how we're working with our Consultants you're welcome Smith okay well we'll go on to our committee chair reports um Dr Smith you wanna uh we're going to go to our foundation report okay Ms Norman's ready thank you

066madam president this is from Miss Gibbs um just four points to cover tonight again stealing from the principals uh the first one is that I guess this year more than seventy one thousand dollars in scholarships were awarded to LT graduating seniors through the foundation that's exciting the next big event is for the kids golf outing it'll be June 1st at Old Oakland golf course thank you a big thank you to our corporate sponsors um and also there are a few spots left so you can go to the msdltf.org site to register finally LT mom's care has raised 8 000 of the 10 000 goal and then finally Lawrence Township School Foundation enjoyed having over 500 students coaches and family Runners from Lawrence Township this past Saturday so thank you to our community and Miss Puckett

067Parks and Recreation please don't have a whole lot to share as this month's meeting um was canceled so we are keeping with the flow of pickleball courts are still moving forward and we still have wonderful rental facilities that are available if you would like to check them out go to cityoflaurence.org here we go policy you may have an update I do Dr harshberger and I were able to connect and we are very excited this is an exciting season for policy we um are actually we Dr harshburger is going to be meeting with our noela rep on May the 31st then that follows a meeting that we will have on June the 5th so that he and I can sit together and he can share the revisions we have about 40 policies that need some type

068of revisions as he shared some of them are just very small revisions others might be rather lengthy one in particular that he named and please feel free to chime in um this is this is us not me um is about bullying so the idea is that we will come to you on June the 12th with the first reading for as many policies as we can and then be able to get that over the hump at the second reading on June 26th however some of those may take a little bit more time because we don't want to rush them across the Finish Line we want to be really thoughtful to make sure that they have the impact that they're intended to for our students staff families and community members thank you do you have an update

069for the Indiana School Board Association or are we all good we're all good we're all good okay thank you Miss Lawrence thank you okay so now we get to move on to our action items and I just want to let everyone know that some of our action items will include some discussion so uh Mr Mr Smith the approval of the purpose proposed board resolution in agreement approving the land transfer Madam president members aboard Dr Smith I recommend the board approved the resolution and agreement approving the transfer of land from the Fort Harrison reuse authority to MSD LT as presented so moved second properly moved and seconded is there any discussion about that Lancaster okay all in favor aye aye any opposed you guys have it we have approved the the agreement um so now um

070that Mr Maya Mr miles the approval of lunch fees thank you once again Madam president members of the board Dr Smith at this time I recommend that the board approved the lunch fees for the 23-24 school year as submitted so moved second properly moved and seconded is there any discussion all in favor aye aye are you opposed the eyes have it we have approved lunch fees which in a time of major food inflation are staying even for our students and we also must mention that though they are staying um on an even Keel for students which is we're very grateful for we have several schools that are eligible for all the children to get free lunches which is a gift as well okay um Mr miles again the approvals on the bids for the lease

071of the one-to-one devices thank you madam president members of the board Dr Smith as we discussed earlier um we did receive those bids for the lease for our one-to-one devices and due to the um actions of the state house we are working with the Department of Ed to finalize exactly how this will impact our budget and what we will and will not be able to do from a textbook rental standpoint for the upcoming school year noting that we don't have all those answers just yet we think it's prudent that the board would table this recommendation at this time are there any objections to tabling okay we'll table that um uh Mr acoustic and Dr Brown approval of the proposed adjustment to the schoolwood calendar Madam president Dr Smith members of the board as the school

072year calendars obviously a time sensitive issue we tonight recommend that the board approved the adjustments of the 23 24 school year calendar as submitted so moved second discussion properly moved and seconded all in favor hi hi any opposed okay that we have that approved we will have discussion on item 4.6 I'm sure but at this point um I will ask Mr kuznick and Dr Brown to present the um the the proposal for the school board goals and we'll go through as I know there are some updates that you would like to discuss Mr kuznick would you like to start tonight we bring to you the 23-24 proposed School Board goals and we'll start off with Mr notarer on equity and anti-racism so um we can ask I can ask for a motion to approve and

073a second and after that we can have a discussion and after the discussion we can choose a path forward so do I have a motion to approve so moved we have a second second okay properly moved and seconded I know that the board does have discussion points so um I'll start at this end this time uh Miss Puckett questions about the board goals I can pass you miss Norman same uh Miss Lawrence well I was hoping I'd have a little I was hoping I'd have a little time to grab my uh notes so I just passed right on right I'll pass to miss Don and but I do have some issues well we'll all have a chance to discuss to speak to these so um thank you very much for opening this up for discussion

074as I shared with members of the board I do have a number of questions um about the board goals and um first and foremost I want to Express gratitude uh to the superintendent in the cabinet for bringing these to us however I stand firm in my belief that these are board goals and that these are goals that we as a board should be setting based on the data that we have received one of the major platforms that I ran on was closing the achievement Gap and when I spent time over the last several days looking again at the data of our students it is extremely alarming to see the trends that we are seeing for our black and brown students everything from the strength of diploma where we know that we have 38.4 percent plus

07510.8 percent of our white students who are getting academic as well as academic and Technical Honors um whereas that number dwindles drastically for our students of color with only 15.2 percent of black students receiving an academic honors diploma and so when I look at this it is over and over again um very evident that as a system we have work to do um while I appreciate the goals and understand that they need to be rigorous I think that we have got to take a very critical stance at looking specifically at the outcomes for our brown and black students when we look at I read data we are seeing similar outcomes when we look at iLearn data the lat the I learned data that I pulled shows that we have fewer than I believe it's 10

076percent of our students who are students black students who are passing both Ela and math and if we are only incrementally incrementally improving that by a small percentage over a course of a year then we are going to continually be behind in failing our most vulnerable students I respectfully ask that we look at the data we specifically look at the outcomes for our brown and black students so that we can specifically target areas where we are seeing what is working in our district and we can potentially work to model and replicate that work that is happening because we do know that there are pockets in this District where brown and black children are performing close or near to their wet counterparts but that is not happening in all of our buildings I also would respectfully

077ask that there is alignment between the Strategic plan and our Equity one glaring area that I saw in our um our board goals is in that both our Equity goals as well as our strategic plan there are eight different indicators on students on the culture in climate and SEL after leaving a global pandemic I believe it is imperative that we have a goal that is centered around mental health that is centered around SEL and specifically centered around culture and climate we have far too many students who are black and brown that are being removed from classes and I would like to see that we have a goal surrounding how we are supporting those students share Ms Dunn's concerns that she raised but my expertise is not in education my expertise is in business which is

078one of the pieces that I ran on and so moving the academic achievement piece aside I do have one question that make make couch some of my additional questions related specifically to the Strategic plan goal that was um that was introduced in our board goals is the intention that the goals from the Strategic plan this strategic plan that those be specifically outlined in the that those are then what the board will achieve throughout the year it was a little bit of confusion on my part and this is just as a novice board member whether or not the equity work the Strategic plan work the board goals how all of those align because in my purview I would my preference would be to take all of the goals that we have for a specific given Academic

079Year and use that as our as an outline for our Board of goals with some additional things added as the board sees fit so that's the first question that I have how how are these different right and I would say 100 percent what's your strategic plan is for three years there are some obviously you're going to change those with industry Jesus point because your board goal is going to change or they should but can I give an example um Miss Lawrence of what I think that you're talking about and so when we look at for example in our strategic plan um it is stating that by June 2024 an average of 80 of all third grade students will have uh will be proficient on the I read three assessment however in our board goals it

080has been included to put been enrolled in LT for three years however that's not in the Strategic plan and so I think that that is a prime example of what Ms Lawrence is talking about that there is some misalignment between what we're seeing in our strategic plan and what are in our board goals because that language is not in our strategic plan but it's in the board goals that we're only looking at students for three years that have been enrolled so there seems to be some misalignment there in addition there are some things that are included in the Strategic plan but aren't specifically called out in the board goals for example culture as Ms Dunn referenced previously there was also technology um as as part of that um so those those two things were of

081concern I also wanted to call out the importance of attracting and retaining teachers um you know when I in this is very fresh in my mind because we just completed it at my company um we do every year uh twice annually uh an upward feedback mechanism similar to what the Panorama survey is for our students as well as our um as well as our community members I did note that the Panorama company also offers a teacher and classified staff survey through the exact same administrator for our our community surveys my preference would be that we also allow for our teachers to take part in those surveys so that we can have a keen understanding and a data-driven understanding for the um for the culture in each individual building in addition the Strategic plan also calls

082out exit interviews it's a lagging indicator for problems that's why I'd like to see the Panorama data so that we have a leading indicator the lagging indicator though I would still like to see codified and forward goals because exit interviews can create a real key learning point for any company who is seeking to make changes um and then as it relates to um the culture piece mental health and SEL and I don't mean to get ahead of you Crystal because I know this is something you're very passionate about as well but um but we did not specifically call out in our board goals anything around mental health specifically uh um around uh um encouraging our um our mental health to be part of the curriculum in addition attendance was also called out in the Strategic

083plan we have no mention of it in our board goals the Strategic plan calls for us by next year to have our attendance back to pre-pandemic levels these are all things that I would like to see in the plan moving forward great points thank you for bringing those up to see the the SEO components because that's like the foundation to anything like it's gonna I see within my household I see it in other areas so I think that's important to a lot of yeah no I I agree on the mental health seems to be the theme across the board but just contemplating what's measurable for us or what indicators to look at in this that's what it must in may I ask another um question because one of the other things that was of concern

084are some of these are not smart goals so when we're talking about people in particular um it doesn't look like we have Baseline data and one of the things that really Drew my attention in looking again at our Equity work is not just the retention um but B 0.2 speaks specifically to it is one matter to recruit diverse candidates it is another matter entirely to ensure the environment is conducive to retaining them and so I would really like to dive into the retention data and so what is that retention data how many bilingual staff do we have in each department how have they increased what is the retention too much to Marta's question what are the exit interviews telling us potentially if people are leaving why they're leaving are there Trends um because I think

085that'll tell us a lot about what we need to do as a district to make sure that we are not only recruiting but retaining the best and brightest because our students our staff our community deserves that I would also add the classified staff I feel very passionately about that they should also be included because unlike our teachers our classified staff do not have representation in the Lea for example and for us to be able to understand what um you know what their uh what their feelings are is critically important not just to make sure that we're doing right by them but also to understand what key differentiators our district can offer them to keep them and retain them in order to create stability within our district greater stability within our District one other thing that

086I wanted to mention is are operations in finance in our strategic plan we talk about how these goals they seem again to be misaligned because our strategic plan talks about meet or exceed board Finance goals but our board Finance goal is all taxing funds will maintain a positive balance what are we talking about with a positive balance especially as we're getting ready to negotiate what type of positive balance are we talking about are we talking about a dollar are we talking about a hundred thousand dollars I think it is very important again that our goals are very clear in their smart goals that we have a deadline that they're measurable that they're timely that we know exactly what we are talking about because just maintaining a positive balance is not really giving us a lot

087of information again one of the other things that I talked to you about this President Mustin is that I would really like us to see how we are aligning our board goals with how we are spending our money so that we can directly speak to our constituent that these are the goals that we hold true and dear to our hearts student performance being of the utmost importance and this is the money that we're putting towards this these are the areas in which we're putting towards student outcomes and student performance so that our constituents can very clearly see the alignment between our priorities and how we spend our money I thank you all for your great comments um I I think that it would be helpful if we want to amend the goals to be able

088to have an amendment in mind to amend the goals and I would say about the positive balance I think a positive balance means anything that keeps us in the black um that that's my understanding of a positive balance and forgive me if I'm mistaken but the positive balance is just not being in the red right is that how it reads okay and how would you like it to read I highly recommend I I hear our board members our new board members are bringing some really critical points to the table that I think are going to require a little bit of time that we talk uh with the various Division and well as well as the superintendent because I hear what Miss Dunn is saying I think it's just a matter of understanding how that works

089because we don't really have a lot of flexibility in the taxing funds that's what you see with the overall budget that Matt is presenting so I think it's more of a conversation to better understand that um so I think we need to have some time to talk about that okay I don't think it's uncommon board members in particular new board members to see that districts strategic plan board goals matter of fact some of my colleagues don't even after the pennies they're not going to do a strategic plan we have always been driven by a plan uh this will be our second major strategic plan in the last decade uh so it's not uncommon to see that they do do some overlapping okay so I think we need a little bit of time to talk about

090those and what that really means uh Miss Dunn brought up you have a lot of you you data today you are data data and I see my academic team over there really have not had a chance to talk we need to be able to sit down and talk with you okay um if I'm hearing all that in the back of my mind I'm thinking run like when you like as as far as a leadership lens is like it's a lot I think we need time I thank you for being for putting that out there and I think our team also for like that has to be processed and really chewed on so so that needs to be processed so I think for the record I don't think there's ever been a time since I've been

091here for 10 years that we've not talked about student achievement as it relates to all students that we serve and I think Miss Dunn is coming and sharing a passion that I think is a passion of everybody in this room I think we're all in agreement that it's a passion for all of us so I've Madam president I'm not um you're the boss here you run it you run it you run your agenda and this is on the agenda it does not have to be point of clarification voted on tonight correct but again if emphasizing to the community this is our board goals for next school year so just so for the record we all know that we want to have these by July 1st right so we'll need to pass these in our June

092meeting um if at all possible so what I would like to do is just outline some of the changes that we're hoping for and if I so let forgive me but let me try to see if I got got some of these correct we want to make sure that what is stated in the Strategic plan matches what's stated in the board goals yes um so if it's about achievement and about um you know I I hear what you're saying about um about 80 percent for our three-year students but if the Strategic plan is looking at three years they might be saying 80 percent of all students in three years so just clarify this so so it has specifically states by 2024 but it does not have three years there's the exact same wording in the

093Strategic plan but in our board goals it says only inclusive of students who have been in the township for three years right I'm just saying that the I'm just saying that the Strategic plan I'm not talking about having been in the township for three years but the Strategic plan looks out to the end of to the end of the three-year period of time so at the end of the three-year period of time we may be looking at 80 of all students maybe I don't know so we need to clarify it no it States in the Strategic plan it very clearly goes over um the section on improved K-12 literacy achievement it says it has certain metrics and the uh uh third from the bottom states by June 2024 80 percent of third grade students will

094pass the I read assessments with accelerated growth okay so that's next year but in our in our board goals right it says those that have been with us and enrolled in LT schools for okay years okay so we need to make sure that there's alignment of what our strategic or whatever our strategic plan says and what our board goals okay can I have two do we have time is it possible like for our next session because I want to sit down and like really chew and dig into like can't we have like an extended session to where we're sitting down and actually biting through when chewing through this I would feel more comfortable because I hear everything that you're saying I'm a processor it's a lot I want to see it I want to chew

095on it I want to and take it all in I think it may be better and we can't do this in an executive session that's not possible because that would um be against the open door law so because it's an action item that we'll be taking the only thing we can do in executive session are Personnel matters that are we can't discuss in public and those times when we need training and so it's not we need to have this discussion in public so far so let's continue this discussion for a little while tonight until we know what we want to change or I think is there a way there because this is the first time it's being introduced to the cabinet members and the superintendent that we can take in Miss Dunn's points all of

096your points yes yes work on it and then we can come back for further discussion because we we need to we need to be able to absorb all that I don't know if we could schedule a work session in June well we've got work sessions already scheduled in June we do June 12th is a work session okay but I think from the perspective it's done bringing some very specific and then come back again episode of the month to pass to pass the board I'm happy to share in more of a detailed fashion literally yes yes because again I just touched on a little bit graduation rate is another when we look at our graduation rate while I appreciate the increase at least five percent of every racial subgroup we still have students um especially students

097of color who are graduating on waivers who are graduating on a general diploma um increasing five percent we are we are going to still have a ginormous achievement Gap if we do not increase what we are expecting of our students and I do believe that they can achieve yeah I agree I think just to give them time to process so that way we can see what's actually I think we can name those things that um two years of work we did on the equity work addresses those things um addresses them pretty specifically so we just have to make sure that our Equity work our strategic work and our board goals are in perfect alignment I think and and that everything is um attainable and everything is relevant yeah yeah and right yeah they need to

098have time to process they're on the front lines so to be able to hear this process it and so we're taking a little bit different approach because the cabinet members need to absorb so Marta brings questions about surveys which involve our teachers we have processes to go through with that so I think the people that are key at board if you would give me your specific areas that we can do a little bit of massaging of it and bring it back before the 12th so that we can have more open discuss because there's a lot of questions everyone's got it I think that would help us out because we need to gather all that so we are in agreement we will table this discussion and I do want just historically just that um we didn't

099even we didn't have a strategic plan when I came on the board we did not have board goals when I came on this board and we worked diligently to come up with this template of board goals to make sure they reflected um our hopes and dreams for our students and what we could do for them and that they were they would be smart goals they have evolved over time and maybe not with a careful enough alignment and maybe with not enough Focus um for for instance on waivers Etc and how how that works throughout our different populations our different demographic populations for instance and so I think that we can I think we can make our board goals a little more specific I do want you all to know as well historically speaking um I

100was uncomfortable with this in the beginning in those sitting here will remember I was a bit uncomfortable with this when we started this work because we asked the the administration to help us understand because this information comes up from our teachers our teachers know our students they do and Lawrence Township our teachers know our students and this information comes to our our building leaders and that information comes to our Administration so we know our students we know some of the capabilities we know some of the issues we certainly know the the problems and the issues with achievement and with retention Etc um but we asked that the administration create goals that were attainable and rigorous and that's a fine line rigorous and attainable yeah absolutely um and in relying on the administration to do this

101the process has seemed to me at the time and can I know seem to all of you to be Administration driven as opposed to board driven but I wanted you to know historically how we came to this process um and um I think that this is time a good time to just to just re-establish um how specific we want these board goals to be and to remember that we sit we sit at thirty thousand feet we and we're not trying to manage the district we're just trying to give Vision to the district so if we get too specific in our board goals that puts us in the chair of the manager and Dr Smith and his administration will manage the district um and our board goals will be what our board goals are regardless of

102budget and it is up to Dr Smith and the administration Mr Moz I'm looking right at you to find a way to fund our board goals to make our board goals a reality and in terms of budget we do know from the state that will our our budget will increase by about five percent next year and will increase an additional two percent the following year so we do have an idea and we expect our population our ADM to remain pretty stable so there are things we do know but we won't do our actual budgeting until the fall and I just want to clarify that I wasn't saying that we would not have the funds to be able to implement what I would like to see is what a lot of districts are moving to even

103the district that I serve is that our strategic priorities are aligned to we align every strategic priority with a budget item so that we can see and we can track return on investment so we as a district can show our fiscal responsibility to our constituents if we are spending X number of dollars on a program we can say that that's aligned to board goals that this these are the outcomes that we're that we're getting because especially as property taxes begin to increase I think it's incumbent upon us um as cons as we are elected by our constituents to be very very transparent about how our board goals are aligned with the monies that we are spending in our district so it's not that we don't have the money it's aligning budget items to our goals

104to our priorities to be able to say to our constituents we are spending 500 million dollars on X Y or Z and this is why can I ask really quick it's the bookmarks and I'll go to Dr Smith So based off of what Mrs Dunn is saying um can just for public knowledge do we have something that mirrors that now that just may look differently than what she's saying just so that we're all yeah I I was done I'd have to look at what others are doing um this is a culture issue we are deeply entrenched in you know how we do our budget uh that would be something new for my cabinet member should I that's what I want to that's so we we would have to spend some time with that okay we

105I currently don't we look at the bottom line the budget as a whole okay and so whatever you ask of me I have the responsibility of making it happen with our overall budget okay so we don't at this level allocate here how many dollars are being spent by each division that's done internally by myself and along with Mr miles and then we allocate that to each of the division so that we can function so it's a little bit different approach is what you're bringing to the table culture it's nothing we can talk about it I think it's just more of a really a behind the scenes conversation from the individual board members about that because that is a change and I would like to and I've been around for a while I've worked in a

106few other districts and so you know all districts are a little bit different yeah I want to ask too like is that something that is it something that's an issue to where people are complaining about because here's the thing if we are looking at all of the things that are mentioned um is this something that is an issue right now concerning how our budget is presented publicly is it NFS out of the board I mean Miss muscle was correct we didn't have this when I came on we didn't have a a goal setting our budget and how much money we want to maintain we were coming out of a very difficult time in which we were making budget reductions and close to school so if there is a change then the board you guys need

107to decide on if how you want to do that and let me be clear too like it's not like mine isn't like I'm not opposing what you're saying but like my Lane my thing is social justice and so cultures are big to me and so it's from that lens on is this something that is is it a culture just of how we are doing this or is this something so that's kind of My Lens too just just kind of bouncing back and forth because if it's not broken don't fix it or is it something that is of immediate urgency especially as we're talking about social emotional and different things is this something that we can kind of is it affecting the functions of our Township and if not is that something that we can possibly

108move to the side a little so that we are allowing for yep I'm gonna drop the mic so I think one of the reasons that I'm asking for that is having um first of all having the opportunity to engage with a number of school board members over the course of the last um several months from across the country and seeing what other folks do and also how it has helped one of the things that I just want to applaud you um superintendent Smith as well as members of the board is how you are consistently advocating for our students as especially as we just ended this budget season we know that we did not get the dollars that we really hoped for and so the reason that I'm asking this is I think it tells more

109of a story to not only our constituents but also to those individuals that are making decisions for us to be able to very clearly state that our district is spending X number of dollars on social emotional learning that we're spending X number of dollars so we can tell a story and tell them that it may not be sufficient enough right because we know that um that there are real needs and um and so that's where it's coming from not as a place of distrusting yeah I just want to make sure that's very clear is it's more of being able to really tell a tale of how we are just really because without a doubt we are doing amazing work in terms of our balanced budget but I also think that there's a lot of stories

110to be told um that maybe folks just need um a more direct like us connecting the dots for them so that was that's one of the reasons behind that let us spend some time talking about that and we've been very blessed was done and board board of board members because there are only three districts in Marion County that don't have operating referendums in rule one so we we've done something right over the years we just I think what Miss Dunn is talking is very much more detailed so we gotta we got to figure out if that's the direction you want to go how to do that okay uh because we've been very blessed and so I don't see it this year Mr miles and I come into the boarding requesting that we seek an operating

111referendum at least we could say that for this upcoming 23 and then for the 24 budget I don't think that's going to be on our agenda task for operating referendum and so that in itself will give you guys a gold star because that is not the case in our state right now we are very blessed financially in Lawrence Township very blessed a lot of discussion let me add that um I appreciate uh Miss Lawrence's request for some leading indicators or teacher surveys and I want to make clear that with any surveys for teachers and classified I don't want any specific knowledge of what building they're in I do not want to call out any building leader that's not what this is about it would be strictly a General survey of all of our teachers anonymize

112data completely anonymized data nonetheless yes yes so absolutely I don't want it building to building I don't want to know you know how how the teachers feel at this school compared to the I don't want to know any of that but some leading indicators for retention would be I think helpful um and I I would say that as for very specific I'm putting a monetary number on our goals um her dad's so much work to the administration that it would cost us more to do that and may cost us a couple teacher salaries because it may cost us um I may not it may not let's find out but it could cost us a couple teacher salaries in additional business office Personnel that was my concern that that that that would be the only thing

113that I would be concerned on not even just for that but with the list that we're giving somebody has to do it with us concerned about social emotional learning everything else somebody has to do it it's a Manpower absolutely I don't take that away but just those parallels it's a just a juxtaposition of the need for both of these on being cognizant too of what does this really look like in like Manpower what does it look like in time because time is a form of time is equity um so what does it look like with time what does it look like with money I'm not against it but I'm also I will always be that opposite side to what does this look like right so we would want to know what that's going to look

114like if we were going to implement it right okay yeah and um the other thing I would say is that if we have a board goal and we're not meeting that board goal um we need to tell the administration um we're not meeting that goal and we're serious about this goal and they will have to figure out how to allocate the funds to make it happen you know these are our board goals and we're not kidding um and so um the Administration has to make it happen and you know I we have been so fortunate in this Township to have a magnificent level of trust between the administration and the board both ways and trust that the administration will reallocate those funds as necessary to move these board goals so um I I'm not saying

115we can't do that but again let's find out what it would cost to do that um what's the cost of doing that and is as you said time is equity yeah I don't I don't want to lose leadership for so just make sure that's doable that it's in a like what does this look out all the questions asked what does it look like with time meant like actual attainable help yeah and we've had trouble with attaining all of our our board goals um in the last couple of years we've everybody has the pandemic kind of stepped in but I think we're on on our path to achieve those again so we'll connect Madam president I'll connect with each of the board members that have their points as well as other cabinet members to help me

116fully understand thank you guys everyone present um open your eyes get the toothpicks we um it was important for us to get through that I appreciate the time it took you know and and what it's going to cost in in manpower to work through this um okay so we'll agree board to table that till next meeting we'll have a discussion another discussion in our next work session and then we'll plan to approve them in our um June meeting does that sound acceptable just some time okay and you know my I know you we all we all have very strong goals and one of my goals is to make sure that those board goals get out before July 1st so thank you for that we're on to certain approvals of the board minutes the Personnel reports

117Etc Madam president I move that we treat action items 4.7 through 4.13 as consent agenda second okay um all in favor of treating Moses as a consent agenda I I any opposed okay we can treat them as a consent agenda we have a motion to pass the consent agenda I move approval of the consent agenda I mean Lord second so properly moved and seconded um all in favor of passing the consent agenda hi our past the consent agenda is passed so that takes us board and we have had a great meeting that takes us to comments so all right uh I will start in the middle Miss Norman all right I just wanted to wish everyone a a happy summer and for those who are serving in jumpstart thank you uh for making that happen

118and then Miss Brown is with us I wanted to remind the public about the summer servings I believe that information is on our website ltschools.org I just want to similarly wish everyone a Happy uh a happy summer vacation break however you plan to choose it or to use it may it be in a way that is restorative and uh ready for the new year at hand I think we're all ready to go home so I will just uh echo my fellow board members comments about the Summers Miss bucket and in Mental Health Awareness Month Devin crumpton our graduate from Lawrence Central 2019 has a brand called Mind Over Matter his quote is that he started this brand in January of 2022 as a reminder that he needed himself that it's not about the obstacles before

119you but the willpower to overcome them so as this month I just want to celebrate that as we celebrate academic Excellence I also want to acknowledge those kids that getting out of bed and making it to school admin that get up and go into the into the buildings um for those that are dealing with trauma um thank you we see you and I held space for you so during the summer I'm just prayers for just a peaceful mental awareness of Wellness awareness summer so there we go I'll just leave that there but Devin crumpton Mind Over Matter nice I would like to say that it was a joy to be with our retirees and um I think uh it was it was not a large room full of people but it represented years of service

120in that room outstanding um outstanding some of our you know our most beloved teachers are of the age to retire and we had to say goodbye to a few as we said said farewell for now to coach Gooden tonight so thank you for all of our retirees again Echo what our board has said about the summer and um just a personal point the Mustin family um um I will not be at our end of year celebration which saddens me greatly because it's such an important day and I hope all of you can attend because it's a lovely celebration um counting on you Amy you got this because our daughter is being married at the end of the at the end of the week and I will be attending wedding festivities and I would like to

121say that um both of our daughters um have or will be marrying outside of their culture and I think that speaks volumes to what they have learned and how they live in Lawrence Township and I want to thank Lawrence Township for making our family so open so thank you um Dr Smith very quickly Madam president members of the board reminding you Friday is our end of year celebration we will meet promptly at nine o'clock the program will start promptly at nine o'clock at Lawrence Central High School is that correct Carla Johnson will be there for that so big announcements will take place including our top uh leaders in each of our areas from administrator to teach of the Year classified all of that and the big celebration seventh and 8th graduation Command Performance for the

122board cabinet you know when I tell you that I'll tell the board that it is a Command Performance for the Board of Education as you will be issuing diplomas to all of our graduates Mr kuznick where we inch and close to 1200 diplomas pretty close so it will be a full performance from all of us to make that happen so seventh and 8th graduation Fairgrounds thank you madam president thank you wonderful do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second second we are adjourned great conversation yeah she