001importance on this Monday evening for a very special and I mean very special meeting today we have a short but powerful impactful agenda today that will take some time to go through it and make sure we fully understand what's taking place and it's good to be here today on this topic at this time congratulations liberty and justice through our 2022-2023 classified scenario there's no mic down there so move back well good afternoon um president McGregor Dr Smith and members of the board tonight we are proud to present information on the administrator and classified raises our administrator raises this year will mirror the teacher raises and as well as insurance and it's a 4.75 percent increase our classified staff will receive a increase of 4.75 percent their insurance Remains the Same which mirrors the teacher's plan
002and they are getting a potential stipend of 750 dollars are there any questions I had one question Miss Johnson on the classified stipend um when would that be distributed so if the cash balance is to 14 million on December 31st staff that is hired by November 1st will receive a 750 snipe thank you Lord just for the record our classified raises are always on a calendar year budget cycle so they always receive their raises in January of the new budget cycle your administrators are similar to the teachers or the same as the teachers they're contracted employees okay so just to clarify that with the teacher raises be retroactive to the beginning of the year okay the beginning of the school year yeah yeah yeah thank you July 1st we propose that the board accepts collective
003bargaining agreement that was presented on October 3rd so moved second um before we vote let me make a few comments I think we should on the record special meeting but let's talk about what's up let's talk about what's taking place in our nation let's talk about what's taking place in our state and most important let's talk about what's taking place in our school district we know as a teacher shortage across this country and we've been fortunate to be able to cover if not all most in our school district we know it's a very competitive landscape in Marion County when we stand before our parents and students we want to be to say that we have the best teachers that we can find whether they be influenced outside of launch we are proud of the work
004that our teachers do in this District over and Beyond sometimes we hear about it sometimes we don't to be able to give our teachers this raise given the economy I think speaks volume of the administration in Lawrence Township I know there's a lot of work goes behind the scene when we talk about salaries benefits and let's not take for granted yeah we talking about an increase in stipend but let's just think about our health care in this country and to be able to have another a year with no increase to health care even makes it even more special of an increase that we can give our teachers so our commend them again the staff administrators Administration for those efforts on behalf of the school board of Lawrence Township I think the Lea for working with
005us and making sure that we have the right representation the right discussion to have what is the right thing to do while teachers in Lawrence Township we thank you for that we know that every teacher in this school district regards seniority work their butt off to get it done we know that we know there's some things our teachers sometimes don't get to talk about and I'm saying this because we're in a place in this country where we have to raise this profession or I will teach you every student in this school district should automatically like because of my teacher I want to be a teacher every student even when you don't have a good teacher is made up somewhere else when you get a great teacher why am I saying all this before we vote
006on this because we cannot take this moment for granted given what's taking place just here in Marion County and sometimes we just things go well for us here so we don't really have a whole lot of discussion about when things go well we fortunate in that regard but as a school board we don't take for granted what's taking place today we've had a lot of discussion as school board members is this the best we can do are we sure we can get the best Dr Smith how do we make sure we can get the best is this the best we can do for our teachers and with this 4.75 increase on average for everybody no Health Care no insurance raises being able to get what we call a loyalty stipend we thank you for all
007your efforts and we hope to continue to raise the importance of our teaching profession let us be the North Star let us be the example of Marion County Indiana and these United States of America that Lawrence Township be the North Star how do you treat individuals that stand before our students and our families now that I have a motion in a second I call the vote and for the record I'm gonna call the voter individually Mr freesia have other commitments couldn't be here since his regrets there's no one how do you vote yes Mr Mustin how do you vote Yes Miss Puckett how do you vote you vote no on the collective oh I'm sorry yes yes Lord yes I vote yes thank you I vote Yes on our approval of our Collective bargain agreement
008thank you job well done second item approval of the 2022-2023 classified and administrative salaries president McGregor Dr Smith and members of the board we bring to you our proposal for the classified and the administrator salaries that were just recently presented do I have a motion I moved to um accept that recommendation to vote on that recommendation do I have a second as chair our second emotion move by Ms Wendy Mustin second by Reginald McGregor questions comments I do have comments but questions or comments from the board questions or comments foreign again pre-pandemic host pandemic during pandemic let's think about leadership in our buildings leadership at the highest level leadership to the lowest level pre-pandemic post-pandemic well let's go back to Darwin pandemic again in order for a unit to succeed it has to be good
009leadership good leadership is rewarded throughout most importantly at the beginning and doing the year for jobs well done again the questions asked are we doing the best for our administrators let's talk about our Equity work as we talk about administrators and board is I just want you to hear my leadership on this and yes me and Dr Smith been in meetings not just today other days yes I've had conversations with board members where we are in terms of rewarding administrators classified and let me and I want us to be transparent about what's being discussed because a lot of times communities think we just up here like okay yes discussion let's start with classify landscape economy inflation let's think about the different levels of salaries for our classified and then I want all of you to
010think about impact inflation has on that classified group inflation affects all of us but it's not quite the same for all of us let's think about that so the question becomes are we doing the best we can do to make sure that we are maintaining the quality of life that we as Lawrence Township expect for anybody that works for this school district are we maintaining the quality of life how people are able to live the people we see at the grocery store that has on a large Township cert that they are able to survive with the new money and we're grateful for our new students being able to hold again Lawrence Township we've been a good we we're in a good position talking to Dr Smith there are some districts who don't have there's no
011increase losing students don't know where the students are we fortunate there are some things were put in place before I got on the board most of us got on the board to ensure that we maintain a cash balance and rate of day fund so we grateful to be able to do that we don't do operations and referendums Roger we maintain and do what we supposed to do to do to take care of our operating business so we don't have to go out to the public and ask for certain things teachers look for guidance in their buildings families look for principles a system principles leaders look for leaders to help in tough times things are going well it's easy to get to him when things are not going so well that's When leaders have to step
012up every board member up here is grateful for our leadership stepping up during tough times it caused us to have tough times but they stepped up again the question Dr Smith are we doing everything we can for this classified group throughout yes are we able to give a stipend to this group yes we understand the differences and experiences the difference in education levels the difference in job skills but yes we're able to give a stipend as well as a 4.75 increase that's good news for us again I think Administration and all others that was involved that we can make that happen so we good there board we good there okay we good there we're gonna have to have some more discussions but board we good there from the administration side board again 4.75 increase Insurance
013zero able to give stipends for a group of people who you know when you're at a football game at eight o'clock nine o'clock at night you look around you see Administration if you go to any building weekends you see those individuals doing what they supposed to do and some not because of what they get paid man but because of their dedication to our students so we're gonna we gotta reward that Lord we gotta reward that just listen to me given I want you to be thinking about as board members freed pandemic post-pandemic more importantly during the pandemic how our classified and administrative Administration stepped up and made sure that we were still able to do what we need to do made it look easy wasn't easy but made it look easy so we're grateful for
014the increase and the stipend were both classified and administration and board we're going to send a message loud and clear on tonight that we are proud of the work that everybody in the school district has done we know there's a lot of work to do there's a lot more conversation you've got to have around ensuring that people are being taken care of but where we are tonight though board we are in good shape bucket we're in good shape you got questions but we we're in good shape okay there's no way in good shape there's mustard we're in good shape yeah we're in good shape so Ward motion Miss Wendy mustard second original McGregor any questions or comments additional questions are coming and last but not least we trust the recommendation of our superintendent that's reason
015why he sits in the chair he sits in with the support staff that's behind him we trust that I'ma call a vote individually knowing that we are doing the right thing for our classified Administration any questions or comments before I call for the vote it's Norman yes Miss muster yes Miss Puckett so yes yes Rachel McGregor is a yes motion carries for both recommendations on tonight Miss Johnson thank you any other questions or comments I would just like to Echo what you have said uh Mr President so proud of our Administration for carrying us through rough times and for bringing us home after the pandemic with more students than we've ever had it's outstanding work and speaks to the care we give to our students and I'm very grateful to the to the teachers that
016the Lea for coming to this agreement in record time and um for making Lawrence Township truly a district of destination and as you said a lighthouse for what we can do for the people that have done the most for us and we will continue to have discussions um particularly and especially for teacher salaries and classified salaries we will continue to have those discussions over the next year to to make sure that our employees are not suffering through this economy thank you everyone who is involved in this process it's um something that really weighs heavily on me because it is such a big decision as a community member a parent a daughter a mother um just making sure that we offer the best for all of our employees across the board and we're so grateful you
017know for their work and what they can do and this is um a good experience to learn to ask the right questions to um weigh in on all the experts in the area I think one thing I can speak to and I don't mean to speak for the other board members is we have a huge amount of emotional empathy you know and I think that's why we want to very carefully take our time as we vote on these important matters to make sure our whole district is compensated and taken care of so thank you to everyone who's worked on this just it I just second everything that everyone said like you said I think that's the difficult part it's just like I've been in this Community for oh gosh my mom's here 50 plus years
018and so knowing teachers knowing parents knowing um some of the behind the scenes stories knowing different things it does tug on your heart but it's our job as leadership to do just that to move our Township forward and so we literally couldn't do this without you and so um that darn empathy all right so that's it thank you Dr Smith you have any comments thank you board and start we'll start all over again get ready for next year no other questions come is I'll take a motion to adjourn second mood probably second by consent we are adjourn thank you for being here with us this evening thank you