001Mhm. >> Good evening. Good evening. On behalf of the school board, we thank you for being here in person or virtually. I'm Luke Jackson, president of the school board, and to my left is Dan Conway, vice president, Matt Hanlon, secretary, Jackie Decker, member, and Heather Stags, member. To my right is Superintendent Eric Bolin and Assistant Superintendent Susie Lips. If you would please join me and stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Mrs. Lips, I'll hand it over to you. Thank you very much, Mr. Jackson. Tonight, we have special guests here from Green Township.
002We have fourth grade Green Township teacher, Mrs. Kathy Hall, and she has some students in a special presentation for us this evening. >> Good evening, Mr. Bolin, Ms. Gibbs, and members of the Board of Education. The fourth grade class at Green Township School would like to invite you to our four seasons of Morgan Pioneer Life Day on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. We will be showing what life was like for pioneers between 1800 and 1850. You can start by visiting a log cabin to see how pioneer families lived long ago. In the spring area, you can watch or try fun activities like rope making, churning butter, and writing in cursive with quill pens. In the summer section, we will share songs and dances. You can also see how pioneers made
003soap and washed their clothes. In the fall area, you will see corn grinding, doll making, and games that pioneer children used to play. We will also have the three sisters on display, which are corn, squash, and pole beans pioneer that pioneer families grew and ate. In the winter section, you can see candle making, quilting, stringing popcorn, and making Christmas decorations. This project was made possible by the J. H. Holliday Award from the Society of Indiana Pioneers. Our class was one of only two classes in Indiana to receive this award. We hope you can come visit Green Township Elementary and see all the hard work we have done. We have special invitations for you all. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Mrs. Hall, is there anything else you want to add about the students, their
004work, their projects? Thank you for being here this evening. Thank you. I just wanted to to thank Cole, Blakeley, and Avery for and their families for bringing them out here to share Pioneer Day with you. We look forward to having you. Well, thank you very much and thank you families. That's exciting. I was on I was on the Society of Indiana Pioneers Education Committee for a couple years, so I'm glad you guys took advantage of that. That's awesome. Congratulations. Okay. Courtney, do we have anyone signed up to speak on any agenda item? No. Okay. All right, then. Moving on to our consent agenda. This, of course, contains all of the minutes from this last month's meetings as well as payroll claims, payroll report, check claims, budgetary claims, personnel report, and and items inclusive of that.
005Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Okay. So, we will go ahead. We will pull out the R&D production claims and we'll vote on that separately after the rest of the consent agenda. So, removing the R&D production claim request, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda minus that? I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda minus one item. Do I have a second? >> I'll second that. Okay. Having a motion and a second, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda minus R&D production, please say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Now, on the removed item, R and D production, do I have a motion to approve the R and D production claim? I'll make a motion we approve it. I'll second that, Luke. I have a motion
006and a second. Is there any discussion? Yeah, I'm going to I am going to vote against this. Due to our funding changes and ongoing budgets considerations, I just I just feel that we should focus more on the education needs and staff compensation. So, I'm going to vote no. Nothing against R and D production. I think it's wonderful and we attend Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. All those in favor of R and D production, approving that claim, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed? I. Are you ready? Yes. Okay. I will and I I should vote also, shouldn't I? That would help, wouldn't it? Especially with the tied vote. >> [laughter] >> Sorry. I got caught up in it there for a little bit. Um I I'm going to vote no. So, motion does not
007pass. Okay. Student field trips. We have no uh student field trips for this uh board meeting. Okay. All right. I will hand it back over to Mrs. Lips for the curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Well, thank you so much and good evening, everyone. Thank you again for being here this evening. Tonight, I want to highlight two of the MSD of Martinsville's curricular achievements from this past month. One was the Read to the Final Four Literacy Program. This year, Paragon's third grade students, with encouragement and support from Principal Ryan Cox, Reading Specialist Jennifer Goodwin, teachers Jackie Champlin and Shyla Cruz, and many other supporting Paragon staff members and parents, competed with over 200 schools, over 400 classes, and 20,000 students those that participated in this Read to the Final Four Program across Indiana for this challenge. Staff
008and parents would encourage students to read more at home and during school and log their minutes on Beanstack each week, so the students could advance to the next bracket of the Final Four. Paragon students kept advancing each week until they made it to the Final Four. At the end of the Final Four contest, Paragon's third grade students logged over 2,200 minutes of reading time. Some students even volunteered to give up their recess to spend time reading. Paragon Elementary School finished third and brought home a $1,000 check last Monday. Paragon Elementary finished third in the state. This is an impressive accomplishment for our students. Paragon has led the effort moving the district to the CKLA curriculum for all other elementary schools. We feel this is a big reason for the jump in Paragon's reading scores in
009I Read and I Learn. Total staff buy-in with intentional support. During the Final Four program, Jackie Champlin was recognized as a literacy champion and received a $1,000 for classroom items. Each week, as the students progressed throughout the brackets, students would earn swag or prizes. They received colored pencils, pencil pouches, stickers, bookmarks, sunglasses, books, drawstring bags, water bottles, and some students earned mini NCAA basketballs. During the celebration, the top three readers won new bikes and new bike helmets. As part of the Final Four program, the Paragon Library was awarded a $10,000 grant and all of Paragon's K through 4 students earned t-shirts. At the final event, it's said over 25 million min- minutes had been read by third graders throughout the state of Indiana. One of the Paragon teachers, Shyla Cruz, said, "Seeing my students excel
010in the Final Four was truly one of the most memorable moments in my teaching career. Seeing the reactions to progressing throughout the competition was heartwarming. I could tell how proud they felt. Not only were they reading more, but they encouraged their peers to read more, celebrated together as a team, and got to experience something that they have never experienced before. It was truly an unfor- forgettable experience for everyone. So, congratulations to Paragon Elementary and their third graders. The second curricular success this month that I want to share was the 2025 I Learn celebration at the Indiana State House last week. Four MSD of Martinsville elementary schools, Brooklyn, Centerton, Paragon, and Smith, were recognized. Dr. Katie Jenner, along with Indiana state representatives and senators, hosted school representatives from all elementary schools in the state of Indiana
011that earned 95% or higher on the 2025 I Read test. Martinsville principals, Jennifer Tier from Brooklyn, Stephanie Manley from Centerton, Ryan Cox from Paragon, and Ray Floyd from Smith, along with the district representatives of Jenny Oakley, Jennifer Goodwin, and Susie Lips participated in the celebration at the State House. We are very proud of the top scores and the efforts of students and families with this wonderful achievement. Additional shout-outs this month include a shout-out to all the district arts teachers and students for their participation in last week's art showcase. Community members were able to enjoy many outstanding student art pieces while enjoying student performances. Other shout-outs, Ryan Cox, the district high ability coordinator, who organizes the district math bowl competition, finished up that role this week. All of the district's math bowl coaches deserve a shout-out
012and the proctors for for facilitating another great math bowl event. It is a great experience to offer our students and the chance to participate on a academic team at the elementary intermediate level and our high school academic coaches appreciate the development our district academic teams. Bell Intermediate Academy staff deserves a shout-out for setting up the math bowl event. And a shout-out to the elementary principals for assisting as judges, scorekeepers, and crowd control. Kindergarten enrollment is still on the docket. Our district continues to welcome all kindergarten students to enroll in all seven elementary schools. If you want to enroll your 5-year-old in kindergarten, please reach out to the district at 765-341-6641 or call any one of the elementary schools. Also, pre-K enrollment continues this month. We started pre-K enrollment for those students who will turn 4
013years old by August 1 of 2026. Pre-K is available at all seven of the elementary schools in Martinsville and all families have the opportunity to apply for a free tuition scholarship. Pre-K involvement is a wonderful opportunity to give your 4-year-old a strong start in a fun, caring, and play-based educational environment geared at kindergarten readiness. Thank you, everyone, for attending this evening. Thank you, Mrs. Lips. I'll hand it over to Mr. Bolin for old business. Old business, if you go out to the Anderson Ford interchange, the building's coming along wonderfully. Uh the design on the natatorium is coming along very well. We'll hopefully have something out to you all next month on what that looks like. And building C, which is by the football field and the track, is progressing. Uh the inside most of the
014walls are up. They had one more wall to finish, so it is progressing. It'll be on track to be open in the fall. So, those projects are coming along really well. So, we appreciate all the efforts by the construction teams on each one of those. Thank you. And we will move on to action items as our next next part of the agenda. Okay, the first action item is for permission to advertise the RFPQ for the BOT process. So, it's permission to advertise only. So, I recommend approval. Do I have a a motion to grant permission to advertise the RFPQ for the BOT process? I'll make a motion to approve the advertisement for the BOT process. I'll second it. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.
015I. Motion passes. The next one is a change on the 2026-27 district calendar. We're making a change on the the time whenever we have our parent-teacher conferences so that we don't use an asynchronous learning day. Uh we want to go back to the half day. So, I recommend approval uh of this change on the calendar. Do I have a motion to approve the change to the 2026-2027 district calendar? I'll make a motion to accept the change for the 2026-27 district calendar. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? I have a question. Are we having any uh asynchronous learning e-learning days or we just waiting those as snow days? They have been used as snow days except for uh the for the parent-teacher conferences last year and that's what we're going away from cuz
016you only get three of those per year. Okay. I I just like that idea getting away from it as much as possible. Any other discussion? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I. >> I. Opposed? Motion passes. Okay, the next one is the teacher appreciation grant, also known as TAG, that we had before. I recommend approval. Do I have a motion to approve the teacher appreciation grant? I'll second that. Is there any discussion? I do have a question on that and I I mentioned it to Mr. Bowen. Just do we know how many nominees we had and how many were recipients or if we can get a copy of that just to kind of recognize the folks that didn't get it cuz I'm sure there's a certain percentage that didn't get
017it. And I'm sure that disappointment is, you know, everyone wants to be nominated recognized and you can only recognize so many people with the amount of money we have, but I would like to see if we can as a board the names that were on there, at least who was nominated and maybe didn't get You have to vote. >> the ones who got it. 64 people applied. 64 applied. How many was awarded? 26. Well, for those who didn't get it, that's sad. >> were not validated. So, 61 of the 64 were validated as being to meet expectations, and then it was a random selection of names on a spinning wheel for of those that were validated, cuz the state mandated it that it be random selection. Is there different levels on that, or is it
018more of a Yes, depending upon their school and what they taught, there's tier one, tier two, tier three. >> And it's done randomly. randomly >> the state, not because of any results or any No. I can share all of that information from the state and what we distributed to teachers and the the final data, so that you know the numbers of where everyone falls. And just so the public understands, we didn't as a district limit the number. The state limits the number. The state percent of certified people that can receive that. Right. And there's a lot of teachers that even they're like I know when I was teaching my area, you can't apply for because we don't do anything. So, the state does all that. Which people need to complain to the state. I'll just
019put it out there for everybody to say. Yeah, I think it really if anyone qualifies, they should get it, you know, that if there's 61 that do, 61 should get it. If If we could make that decision, I wish we could. Well, the higher performers should get it, too. It shouldn't be random. Right. >> roll of the wheel. Right. >> just my two And in the past, um the state, anyone who was ranked or scored, assessed on their evaluation the year prior as highly effective received a certain stipend from the state, and then those that were ranked or assessed as effective received a different stipend. This That was for every teacher who was highly effective or effective across the state of Indiana. Well, obviously, those funds didn't spread far enough, so then the state allotted
020this year allotted a certain amount to every school in the state of Indiana. And that and gave guidelines on how those funds were to be distributed, but the number one priority was once validated or once they met the expectation, it was a random selection. Not based on the school name or the years experience or how many students passed the AP or what grade level you taught. You know, and of all the schools um, in our district, we had uh, applicants, people that submitted an application from all those schools, and there was somebody from every school that was randomly it just happened to be um, that from every school somebody received the TAG funding, so they were all, you know, on one from one school or another, but it was it was random and um, I
021can send that information to you. I know, I don't like it because, you know, there's obviously different levels of pay to that people are going to receive, and when we could have just split it out, you know, and let everybody who had an effective or highly effective rating. Now, we did redact all the names. So, when those were submitted, uh someone that was not on the the assessment team redacted all of the names and um so, those those applications were just um in a particular order and not with a teacher name on them. So, that's how That's how we selected them randomly. We didn't even know what teachers' names were attached until after those were selected and then we had to go through and figure out which ones met up with which names. So. That
022was a lot of work. Yeah. It was. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Is there any other discussion? And we have a motion and a second. All those in favor of approving the teacher appreciation grant, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Okay, the next agenda item is Project Aware 2026 Health and Wellness mini grant $4,840 uh for supplies for wellness and speaker for the professional development. I recommend approval. Do I have a motion to approve the Project Aware 2026 Health and Wellness mini grant? I'll make a motion to approve the Project Aware 2026 Health and Wellness mini grant. I'll second that, Luke. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please signify by stating I. I. Motion passes. The next one is uh the donation for the $1,000
023to Paragon for their Read to the Final Four. Um I recommend approval. Do I have a motion to approve the donation from the NCAA Read to the Final Four to Paragon Elementary in the amount of $1,000? I'll make that motion. I'll I'll second it. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please signify by stating I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. The next is a donation from Sandra and Timothy Fish to the high school academic team, $1,000. And I'll go ahead and follow up on number seven, donation from Brooklyn Christian Church to MHS DECA in the amount of $800. Recommend approval on those two. Do I have a motion to approve the donation from Sandra and Timothy Fish to MHS academic team and also the donation from Brooklyn Christian Church to
024MHS DECA? I'll make the motion, Lou, to approve the donations as placed before us. All right. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify by stating I. I. Those opposed? Motions pass. It wasn't on the I'll put it on the agenda for the next one. Courtney, do we have anyone signed up to speak? Okay. All right. So, a visitor that wishes to speak regularly in regarding any district topic may do so according to policy 0167.3. The visitor will be required to state his or her full name and address and will be given a 3-minute allotment of time. Feedback or answers to questions will be provided before the next board meeting and or during the old business section of the next board meeting. It shall not be permissible to orally present
025or discuss complaints against individual employees. Such charges or complaints shall be presented to all board members in writing and shall be signed by the person making the charge or complaint. We appreciate everyone's cooperation and look forward to working together for the betterment of the district. Hello, my name is Daniel Pond, 8280 McQuorter Road. I am an educator. I heard people say that Martinsville is too unsophisticated to understand, too unsophisticated to support educational pursuits and endeavors. I take offense to that. I firmly take offense to that. Said Superintendent Eric Bowlen in a school board meeting almost 2 years ago to the day. He was lamenting that previous MSD school boards had kicked the can down the road in regards to maintaining our school buildings due to insufficient funds. He shared pictures of clogged and rotting pipes,
026also. He further stated, "Quote, we have a great community here that supports our students. Now, the challenge is we have to get a vision out there for the community to support." End quote. I agree with you, sir. And we will not harbor the offense, but we will do something about it. Here's a vision for you. I was relaxing in my recliner not realizing that mice were stealthily removing the cushion from underneath my seat. By the time they I By the time I woke up, most of the stuffing was gone. Moral rot has been a problem for mankind since Adam and Eve. By the grace of God, good people have maintained good governance, honor, truth, and justice. We have to be diligent in keeping the sludge of immorality from building up and creating an environment for
027rot. Love is at the core of this cleansing and maintenance by self-control, self-governance. Founding fathers, John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. And Governor Morris said, "For avoiding extremes of despotism or anarchy, the only ground of hope must be on the morals of the people. I believe that religion is the only solid base for morals, and the morals are the only possible support of free governments." Therefore, education should teach the precepts of religion and other duties of man towards God. Having the moral guidelines of the Ten Commandments erected on our school property and in our classrooms will significantly help our local community. Please wake up and remember who you are as a Christian, as an American, as a parent, and
028as an educator. And please don't kick the can on this one. Thank you and be blessed. Thank you, Mr. Pond. Courtney, do we have any Well, okay. Mr. Bolen, I'll hand it over to you for superintendent comments. >> Sure. Uh we have the MHS prom on May 9th. We uh hope and pray the kids are safe in their endeavors that evening. Uh I hope it's a a successful night for them. Um get to celebrate a year, and for the juniors, it's uh a big event for the parents who put this on, the post prom that goes with it. So, we appreciate all their efforts. And then obviously the seniors, it's their swan song. So, we uh definitely applaud them as they finish out their um careers here in the MSD of Martinsville. Uh they will
029be having a mock crash on April 30th at the high school. Um that's an important event to try to uh drive home the importance of making wise choices, good choices. Um that's something that we all pray that they do so that they're not subject to some uh crashes. I've had friends and uh family members who have been impacted by drunk drivers and death in that vein. So, that's not an easy thing to deal with. So, we hope that it's a good safe uh evening for the kids. Guys and uh Guys and Dolls musical at G. W. Carver Middle School on May 1st and 2nd. May 1st and 2nd. Uh I think it's 7:00 start time on both of those. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Any board comments? I got one thing on this.
030The sound quality, I know we're we're struggling with this and I've heard complaints from people at home. You can't hear very well. Obviously tonight we're getting a bunch of background. I hope we can figure this out because it is frustrating. It's frustrating for I've heard it from folks that one of two men at home can't make it to the meeting. And when you listen to it on YouTube, it's terrible. Everyone's talking today, it's terrible. I don't know what we can do to fix it, but this has been It's been ongoing. >> that. So, we got to figure something out. So, hopefully soon. Please. Thank you. I'd like to congratulate Mr. Hankins. NPSBA spring conference this week and he was awarded the exemplary board member award. So, good job, Matt. It was. See what retirement has
031done for you, Matt? Yeah, I can see that. >> Actually, he he got that last year, too. He So, he uh he he's very great steward for us and and he attends a lot of meetings and we appreciate it. Yeah. Glad you brought that up, Ms. Diggs. And Mr. Ponder wanted to say congratulations to your son for his promotion to sergeant the Marshall Police Department. Great job. And there's not that many more weeks left of school. We're on the downhill stretch right now, so so enjoy it kids, because I know you think that this is, you know, you can't wait to get out, but I promise you these are the best years of your life. I'd like to make a comment. I thought it was really neat that the donations we had with the you
032know, Paragon winning the grant for a thousand. And I know Sandy and Tim Fish, their son was in the academic team several years ago. I had their daughter in um Business Professionals of America. So it's great to see that people see the importance of these things and give back DECA also. So and those are all academic, nothing against athletics, but it's just neat to see that we do both, academics and athletics. They collide. All right. Do I have a motion to adjourn? I'll make a motion to adjourn, Luke. Okay. All right. Motion to adjourn and a second. All those in favor, please signify by stating I. I. I. Meeting is closed. Thank you everyone for joining us either here or virtually.